August 18, 2008
Days of Future Past
Michael wrote this at 2:18 pm:
I approach the crest of a hill, possibly even a mountain, to see a city slowly emerge before me; I’ve seen this sight a thousand times and have never failed to be impressed by it… but there is work to be done and time won’t wait. I start down at a gallop.
Assassin’s Creed. Not quite the great white hope for Ubisoft’s fortunes on the Xbox 360 but eventually something of a white elephant… one which is concealing a knife. Now I bet you’re wondering why I’m talking about a game that’s been out for donkey’s years; by donkey’s years, I mean a gaming donkey, not an ordinary one. I’m talking about it because I am currently playing that game (after about a six month break) and y’know what? I like it.
Now I know from here, there and yonder that many people disliked the game once they got it; I was one of those people. Granted, it was impressive for graphics whores - and, if you own an Xbox 360, you probably fit that description - but it was just so repetitive, samey, monotonous. It was a letdown after nearly two years of hype. I wonder why that is the consensus though. Because there is another game fitting that description which was almost universally lauded; Gears of War. “What’s the difference between those two AAA games?”, I imagine I hear you ask. One was produced by a woman.
So I wonder if that was a factor in the poor reception the game received. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think all gamers are so… shallow; I don’t even know if the backlash against such a promising game is down to that fact at all. I merely wonder. Does the success or failure of a career depend on such a thing? Is it, in fact, still difficult for women to work at such a high level in the industry because it’s so male-dominated? As interesting as that issue is, I digress.
I grew to dislike the game for two reasons; firstly, the repetitive nature it had, something I believe was made more apparent as a result of the scale of the in-game environments - so much space to play in, so little to do in that space. I also thought the present day portion of the story wasn’t really needed; it was almost as if there was so little confidence in the historical setting that a sci-fi twist was thought up, tacked on. No, not dislike, that’s too strong a word; I grew… indifferent to it. Six months ago, I was also itching to play Mass Effect so Altaïr went up on the shelf! And now I’ve returned to the 12th century after half a year in space; it’s taken some getting used to, not least in terms of remembering combat moves (a thing I noted was not well listed in the game’s manual or menus, perhaps due to the contextual simplicity of controls), but I’ve managed. I have grown to like it, to not mind the repetition and master the twin skills of haring over rooftops for quick stealth kills and changing direction swiftly when surrounded by enemies; all things which have let me become more engrossed in this world that Jade has made.
I still can’t counter-attack worth a damn though!
August 18th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Nice blog title there.
August 18th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Ah, Assassin’s Creed. A game that I enjoyed playing, even though it just became infuriatingly annoying the further I got into it. The idea that it was going to give you the freedom to tackle assassinations how you wanted them, with planning, location scouting, etc disappeared as soon as it became apparent that you can only assassinate your target in one location, at a pre-determined time and in such a way that you can’t really call it an assassination anymore. Just murder in broad daylight.
The non-stop shouts of “Stop. Thief. I will have your hand for this”.
The fact that every guard looks at me suspiciously and as soon as I bump into anybody, they want to kill me. Or even worse, if I am on a horse and really gallop, that makes me public enemy number one.
Altair taking a nap before and after every assassination is a little strange, but I can cope. Rest is important.
But what I can’t understand is why Altair has a mortal allergy to water. Have you seen him move? He can jump as well as Sebastian Foucan, has as much stamina as Paula Radcliffe (minus her fragile injury-prone bones) but can swim even worse than me? Hopefully he will have gone on some sort of Phelps Programme of Perfection in time for the next game.
But I still had loads of fun with this game. Worth the purchase.
Van-Fu
August 18th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I havn’t played Assassins Creed, but what interests me most is your paragraph touching on females in the industry.
To be honest, I think it’s easier for women because they’re in a minority. As with most businesses people tend to need to fill a quota of ethnic minorities and such, and I think women have the advantage of being a minority (I think according to Game Careers women are filling around 7-8% of the industry).
August 18th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I think if Jade Raymond was involved in more games, I’d probably buy them.
August 18th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
“Jade Redmond’s Strip Poker”, you mean, Nick?
August 18th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I stopped reading Games TM for a while after they gave the game something like 4/10 or 6/10 (wasn’t it something like that?) One of the reasons they gave wasthat at every PR event for game, Jade Raymond was ‘wheeled out’ to the slavering male journalists in a bit to make the game more appealing.
What utter crap…really pissed me off that review. The game is a technical marvel and sure, maybe some even regard it as a shallow tech demo for the new Prince of Persia engine, but for all the negative feedback it got, there’s no denying its technical clout.
Some forum posts and articles I’ve read online say that it’s a great thing to have a female game designer reach such high levels of exposure and I am inclined to concur. Maybe it’ll even spur more females on to seek employment in the industry too? Wouldn’t that be a positive thing? (well of course it would!)
August 18th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
Dan - thanks! :D
Emily - I just considered that as I was writing (which is why I didn’t go into much detail) but I would guess that to reach that level ie essentially be in charge of such a, well, blockbuster game is really hard to do. Maybe. And to link that to what Dave said, perhaps that’s why there was that quite negative review in GamesTM - in a way, it wasn’t so much the fact that it had a female in that role on that game, more that her being in that role on that game was used as a part of the hype, an attempt to shift units. It was 4/10 by the way.
So, yes, by all means she is a good role model but, hmm, does the prospect of being a figurehead offset that? Particularly because of the scarcity, percentage-wise?
August 18th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I’ve just bought Assassins Creed actually, giving in to peer pressure and the promise of more gamer points. It sounds fantastic, despite hints of repetative assassinations. If they’d developed it into a sand-box environment like GTA4, and send you off on a myriad of missions, then ‘the circle would be complete’, as our favouite Sith Lord says.
As for Gears of War, well that surpasses everything I’ve ever dreamed of in a game - explaining why I cant put it down, and Gears 2 promises to be even better…
August 18th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Cheers for confirming the score for me Michael and you raise some blinding points there. If Raymond is now a role-model to many aspiring bedroom/would-be coders out there and a she gets a lot of bad or unfair press, could this have the opposite effect, that this example could actually be seen as how not to break into the industry?
I’m going to say no, but I dunno what everyone else thinks?
Chris, I didn’t get that with Gears :( Am I a freak? Tell me straight dude, don’t hold back :’(
:)
August 18th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I swapped my copy of Rainbow Six Vegas for AC a couple of months ago. I also keep meaning to return to it but ironically enough I just bought Mass Effect…
August 19th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Mass Effect > Assassin’s Creed
Girls in games development > No girls in games development.
Also, AC mede a killing (cough, sorry), 2.5 million copies in first 4 weeks, so it (and Jade) will be back, to inspire/underwhelm all over again.