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teecupangel · 5 months

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Hello! first time asker! I've only just recently got back into AC and you're pretty much the only AC blog I've followed so far (after reading your fantastic Eagle of Alamut fic) but the thing that happened to me seems very much something you'd enjoy.

Which is the Altair Jumpscare I got

to preface, I'm an ad blocker extraordinaire and put that on pretty much everything - except my mobile games. But even so, with how much i adblock the ads i DO get are very generic with very generic characters.

EXCEPT FOR ONE BIZARRE AD

A Tap-Away ad that for some inexplicable reason had Altair in it where he waved his arms like a wacky inflatable tube man and was then promptly sucked into the tapaway cube.

I was so caught off guard that i didn't nab a screenshot and I have been trying and failing to get him to show up again after 3 weeks of doing so much more Wordscape than I've ever had before to no avail😭

But it did spawn the idea of Desmond, with a burner/stolen phone, playing a mobile game and getting that Altair Jumpscare like i did which, with some digging by Rebecca because why the hell is he in an ad??? find a breach in Abstergo's database which they can exploit.

Welcome to the fandom! I hope you enjoy your stay (don’t mind the missing exit).

Aaahhh, Wordscape. I used to play you but then you keep interrupting my time with ads so I deleted you… like all the others who dared to give me ads that takes majority of the screen.

Ngl, I would have tried that game because it dared to show Altaïr to me. Then promptly delete it after a few hours XD

Alright, for this one, we’ll set it during AC2. He’s not that close to anybody yet so he sorta kinda stole Lucy’s burner phone while she was looking.

He always had a knack for stealing, probably the only thing that didn’t make William Miles say ‘again’ more than five times.

It only became so much easier when he started reliving Ezio’s memories.

The Bleeding Effect, right?

That’s what Lucy called it.

Regardless, Desmond figured it would be alright to play it anyway. It had a cell service and he always returned it to Lucy’s bag before she notices anyway.

It was during one of his free time (Rebecca said the Animus was acting fussy for some reason), he figured he can play one more level before they tell him to go back in.

The level wasn’t anything new, kinda funny that one of the words was ‘imprison’ and he got a bonus for trying out ‘prim’ (primo was a no go though and it took a moment before Desmond realized it was because it wasn’t English, fuck, was this the Bleeding Effect as well?. Just when he cleared it, the phone let out a loud static sound.

Which was weird because (1) the game’s audio was set to mute and (2) the phone itself was set to full silent with 0 volume on any kind of media.

They all turned to stare at him and he would have apologized, had he not heard someone shout his name coming from the phone.

“Desmond!”

It was Altaïr.

It could only be Altaïr.

The voice was the same voice he heard back in the Animus.

And he shouting at Desmond, staring at the screen as he slammed one hand against…

The screen?

Golden wisps wrapped around him, dragging him to the darkness behind him as he shouted, “Desmond! Find us! We’re-”

The ‘ad’ disappeared.

And Desmond was now staring at the next level.

He could clearly see one of the words was already filled out for some reason.

‘Breach’.

“Desmond…”

“Sorry, Lucy.” He handed the phone to Lucy as he said, “I was just playing ‘cause I was bored.”

Before Lucy could grab it, he pulled it back and pressed it over his chest as he asked, “Did you guys hear Altaïr too?”

“We heard him but, more importantly, Desmond…” Rebecca glanced at Lucy before she said, “None of us should have any phones at all. Abstergo could track us.”

“It’s not mine!” Lucy immediately said, taking a step back as she said, “I don’t know why you think that’s my phone, Desmond.”

“What?” Desmond blinked, “But… I took this from your bag…”

“Shit.” Rebecca’s eyes widened as she realized, “Did… Did Abstergo plant that in your bag, Lucy?”

“What?” Lucy turned to stare at Rebecca.

“That’s not possible. We’re the ones who brought that bag here, remember?” Shaun reminded Rebecca, “And we’re absolutely sure we didn’t put that phone there.”

“Then… who did?” Rebecca frowned as she mumbled.

“We need to get out of here.” Shaun said, “Desmond, turn that phone off and give it to Rebecca. She’ll check it.”

“Wait-”

“We don’t have to tell Bill about this.” Shaun said, “That phone could have easily given Abstergo our location. We need to move.”

Lucy’s eyes widened when Desmond gave the phone to Rebecca and she said, “We need to destroy it then. To keep us safe!”

“What? No!” Desmond stepped forward to cover Rebecca.

No.

To cover the phone.

“Altaïr just used it to contact me. We need to know how it was able to do that.”

“It’s a risk but he’s right, that Altaïr could have just as easily been a trap but we need to be sure.” Shaun was already taking down the papers on his corkboard as he said, “Come on, Lucy, let’s pack as quickly as we can. We can contact Bill on the move.”

Desmond frowned.

Lucy looked pale.

Was she afraid that Abstergo already knew their connection.

“Hey.” Desmond placed a hand on her shoulder, feeling her freeze. He smiled at her as he said, “We’ll be fine.”

His smile grew as he said, “I’ll kill any Templar coming our way, okay?”

#was the phone something that appeared due to the change of calculations?#was it lucy’s actual secret phone?#shrug #it is connected to abstergo’s network though #what is altaïr though?#shrugs again #he did say ‘we’#so you know he’s not the only one trying to contact desmond XD #assassin's creed #desmond miles #altaïr ibn la'ahad #ask and answer #teecup writes/has a plot #fic idea: assassin's creed #lucy stillman #rebecca crane #shaun hastings

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catofadifferentcolor · 3 months

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Assassin’s Creed II

To say that everything is permitted is to understand that we are the architects of our actions.

As I’ve been reading a lot about the Crusades recently, it seemed a natural progression to try playing Assassin’s Creed for the first time since the franchise began a decade and a half ago.

And my immediate thought on starting the first sequel (beyond the weird front loading of achievements - just following Lucy's instructions gets you 3 in like 10 minutes) is that time travel must exist, as they've heard all my complaints and fixed them for this game.

This game is not only beautiful, but it takes the time to teach you how to play in a fun, intuitive way. Whereas it took me roughly 5 hours of gameplay and an online guide to figure out AC1, I had most of that figured out within 15 minutes in AC2.

Even if picking up a box/body in the game is next to impossible.

Moreover, AC2 is immersive in a way AC1 never quite managed. About half of this is probably the incredible detail that the Ubisoft went into with Renaissance Italy - which, in addition to being visually stunning, tickles all my nerd buttons, even if I've read far less about the Renaissance than I have the Crusades.

But more than that, Ezio's story is compelling. It's visceral and real and if I didn't have RL commitments I'd probably have sat down and finished this game in two days. Which is probably for the best, as five hours is about as far as I can go before the nausea starts getting overwhelming, but even then it's a fight to stop playing when all I want is to know what happens next.

I honestly don't think I've felt this way about a game since Dragon Age 2. Or maybe Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

And while, yes, sequences 12 & 13 seemed weirdly out-of-tune and less thought out compared to everything else before I realized they were included DLCs, nearly everything about the actual game itself is pitch perfect. Revenge is a common motive, yet Ezio's entire arc of knowing when not to take revenge offers a delightful twist on a common narrative.

Whereas Altair felt like a god temporarily made mortal for Desmond to learn from, Ezio feels human - all too human. He makes friends and makes mistakes. He learns from the past but remains fallible. (Beating up the Pope and then letting him live seems like a mistake he'll live to regret, even if it is excellent personal growth.) He builds a home for his family, but is always away. He...

Well. If one walks away from AC1 wanting to be Altair, I think its fair to say I walked away from AC2 wanting to be with Ezio just a little bit.

There are some game mechanics I didn't like - the picking up of boxes and having to return to base to change weapon loadouts, primarily. The business with Leonardo's flying machine was almost too over the top and some of the smaller missions far too frustrating for the payout - but for the most part AC2 was a fun, enjoyable ride. I'd actually prefer it more if the DLC sequences weren't included in the version I downloaded, and if I can find a way to skip those in replays I will - because there will be replays. (There would be one immediately if I didn't already have ACB already installed.)

...I suppose I should say something about the Ancient Aliens arc as well, but frankly it wasn't as big a shock as it must have been originally, as I've watched my brother play parts of these games before so I have a general idea of what is to come. That, and as soon as I realized it was a naked man and woman running somewhere in The Truth vids, the idea of Adam and Eve having escaped from Eden kinda became self-evident. Still wicked cool though.

(Also, still tapping Lucy for Templar plant, because she's far too much follow me with only vague promises for explanations later and weirdly keen on turning Desmond into a fighter. The whole arrival at the hideout felt like an act two Bond woman right before the inevitable betrayal.)

Otherwise 5 out of 5 stars. I can definitely see why people recommend this as the place to start with the Assassin's Creed series. I'm not sure I'm one of them, but I definitely recommend playing this this one.

#aadarshinah plays #game reviews #assassin's creed 2 #assassin's creed #ezio trilogy #ezio auditore #desmond miles #ubisoft #video games #ac #ac2

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foxstens · 2 years

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turns out video game protagonists are kind of important

yes of course they’re important the game wouldn’t exist without them. but i mean that they’re important to me and they very much influence my opinion of the game. like this is very much a thing with vns and a reason i have such a hard time enjoying many of them is because i can’t vibe with the protagonist. but i didn’t realize it extended to non-vn games as well.

there’s games that have quite an... unremarkable protagonist but one that fits into the world and that you can’t name or customize. so for example hk or gris or slime rancher even. these games are kind of in the middle and i don’t have a strong opinion on their protagonist design specifically

then there’s the two extremes. namely rpgs i guess where you can be anyone and everyone, you decide, and the opposite of that where you just play as a person with a name and a face and a backstory and everything. guess which one i don’t like.

obviously the first one because when you can be anyone you’re technically no one. the game isn’t designed around you, the world doesn’t react to who you are and what you do, it’s not /about you/. this isn’t a bad thing per se and there’s definitely a lot of people out there who like it or don’t see it this way, but it is a bad thing for me since i consume stuff specifically for the characters

and i guess that’s part of why i fell so in love with ac2. i mean the biggest reason i even started it is bc i heard through this and the following two games we get to see ezio’s life from start to end, which isn’t something i’ve really seen in a game before.

i can say it’s probably because of that that i’m having so much fun and i feel so invested in the story, like i even cried at one point. but one thing that stood out to me specifically was when i hit the wrong button and the game outright told me ‘ezio didn’t kill civilians’. which, yes, makes sense bc i’m supposed to be laying low and /reliving/ his life not changing history and his personality. BUT STILL. IT’S SUCH A THING. AND IT MADE ME FEEL SO GUILTY

and that’s why i even started thinking about this. and i realized that as much as i’d like to play non-vn games for the movement for the music for the graphics for the experience etc, i still end up playing them for the same reason that i consume any media (apart from standalone music probably). aka the characters

WHICH IS WHY IM SO FUCKING EXCITED FOR SILKSONG OH MY FUCKING GOD HORNET SPEAKS AND MAKES SOUNDS AND HAS A STORY AND A PERSONALITY AND THERE’S GONNA BE NEW NPCS THAT IM GONNA LOVE AND NEW LORE AND NEW STUFF TO GET ATTACHED TO AND AAAAAAAAAA

#my posts #gameblogging #read more #long post #my rambles #liveblogging ac

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ilikedetectives · 3 years

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Hi, did you play every AC game? If yes, in term of game plays which are the easiest? For someone without much experience in games, ty!

Not every AC game, because I can handle only so much of cookie cutter games at a time. Before I say more, lemme get this out of the way first: I played the Ezio trilogy back in 2018 because Da Vinci’s Demons was cancelled and I wanted more Da Vinci content and the white and red hoodie looks cool. In other words, I didn’t play the game because it’s called Assassin’s Creed.

The AC games I played so far, by the order of which one I play first. I’ll rate gameplay by my personal preferences (because it’s the only way I know how).

Ezio’s trilogy (AC2, AC Brotherhood, AC Revelations, played in 2018): decent parkour, minimal grind (just invest in the villa and you’re a millionaire in a day or two), very story focused (perfect balance of historical and modern plots). Decent combat. The golden years of AC and I agree.

Unity (played a few months after Ezio): good parkour, medium grind (bigger map and more items to upgrade, you still get to invest in properties so it helps). Time-saver items are on sale for real money aka MTX (ew). Combat is ok, not much difference since Ezio. Historical story is meh (I don’t care for Arnold because Elise’s story is more interesting) and they completely ditched the modern plot (you think Odyssey has little modern day plot, try Unity). Buggiest AC game I encountered and I played this game 4+ yrs after launch (hold on to that thought, keep reading). Ubi spent all of their time and budget doing the interior design (which is gorgeous btw) that they have none left to fix the bugs.

Black Flag (a few months after): chasing flying papers is my favorite activity to NOT do. Grindy af (no property investment). I can’t tolerate the controls for the ship so I hate everything that involves ship in this pirate game, except for sea shanties. You’ll have more fun playing this game as a pirate than an assassin. Combat feels the same since Ezio. Other mechanics are like Unity (understandable). Modern plot is minimal, but it makes bloodline irrelevant and there’s a....soul inside a computer server that wants to possess a human body, meanwhile said soul’s husband is a maniac who has unlimited reincarnations (realism, I know). Black Flag is the gateway game that convinces me that I should stop wasting my brain cells in “what kinda bs realism is dis?”

Odyssey (a month after launch, bought solely because of Kassandra also when I heard Odyssey is set before the creed, oh fuck yea I don’t need to sit through another rehash of Creed crap or at least minimal anyway): oh gods a breath of fresh air from the old controls where you have to hold R2 whenever you want to run and my fingers hurt sfm. Climbing is the best because the protag actually moves where you want them to move. MTX (ew). Grindy but because the combat and movements are smooth, best combat so far; I don’t see Odyssey as grindy because I enjoy my time playing (also Kassandra); I platinum the game on PS4 at around 130 hrs I think, could’ve been earlier but photomode. Fun quests that I giggle whenever thinking about them (I don’t remember shit about any quests in any other AC game, but then again Kassandra). People bitch about no parkour but who parkour in the 450BCE?!?!? Full disclosure: I never cared for parkour and never will. I stop caring for modern plot after how Unity and Black Flag handled it. Playing Odyssey makes me realize that I enjoy AC games more if idgaf for the AC aspect, rather, I play for the fictional historical tourism aspect. Just ditch the AC and voila, blue sky and fresh air. Playing Odyssey also makes me realize that I want a spin-off IP that focus on the Isu so we can go full fantasy. Do I need to say how pretty Odyssey is? lol

Origins (planned to play Origins first, but Kassandra. Also, I remember Amunet from AC2, but somehow we play as a dude in Ancient Egypt, I’m not too eager to find out, despite I prefer Egyptian mythology over Greek and I’d like to thank Yu-gi-oh for that): combat is clunky, heavy, and slow, though no need to hold R2 to run so phew. Grindy af. The bow mechanics is a decade outdated (Horizon Zero Dawn came out the same year and oh boi the difference is night and day, oh yea I played HZD before Origins. I get it the bow isn’t the focus but does it have to feel like Skyrim in 2017?). I’m glad I play this game for the Ancient Egypt (which is beautifully designed *chef kiss*) aspect and no more.

Syndicate (I play this along side of Origins, still haven’t finished it though. Literally bought the game for Evie and I nut over Victorian fashion): combat is no different from Unity. Grindy like Black Flag and Unity. Story is meh in both historical and modern plot so far. Evie is the only reason I’m still trying to play this game. At least the Helix outfits are included in the Gold edition of the game. Victorian London is gorgeous tho.

Valhalla (only care for this game because Eivor. Tbh after God of War and Hellblade, idc for another Viking game): game is buggy af, buggiest AC game I’ve played. Combat is like Origins but worse: the only saving grace is the finishing move & the bow mechanic hasn’t been improved since Origin; I honestly would rather have combat from the Ezio games over whatever-this-is. You have to toggle a button to run now, which is dumb af because I miss Origins and Odyssey automatic run. They bring parkour back (because Vikings totally dig parkour back in the Dark Ages) as well as the-character-doesn’t-move-where-you want-them-to from the older games. Chasing flying papers from black flag is back, no thx. Looting enemies is useless, but hey you get to run around to look for a key or two or THREE to get some minimal amount of materials; so imagine if 2/3 of every chest in Origins and Odyssey are locked. Oh! You have manually pick berries/food to heal, no healing potion, wtf is this half-ass RPG shit? Side quests, oh sorry World Events, aren’t tracked in an open-world game (guess who hasn’t been doing these bitches?). Grindy af. I’m wasting my time looking at the skill points interface (you have 99 lv in Odyssey, 55 in Origins, 403 power in Valhalla. A game doesn’t feel like grindy if you level up every 2 quests for 403 times, does it? lololol). The useless SP tree is so massive that I just don’t use the skills I acquire because it takes too much time to find out which buttons to push to locate the 10 skills in this 403-dot clusterfuck, but the astronomy design is beautiful (gotta give credit when it’s due). Scummy practice from Ubi: releasing “time-saver” pack AFTER reviews are published. Also, who wanna bet there will be more mtx outfits than in-game outfits? Don’t worry, Ubi makes inventory management cLEaNeR for you *hands over 8 outfits for an RPG game*. The free event bugs tf out of your already buggy event, but hey, you’ll get a free outfit that’s a reskin of what you already have, teeheee be grateful. Eivor is amazing but by the gods playing this game is a chore. Tbh I only play Valhalla if I don’t feel like playing Ghost of Tsushima that day. Lastly, why is England so yellow like it’s Ancient Egypt?!?!? And why the sunlight moves faster than Eivor’s running at full speed? Which parts of this game does realism count?!?!?!?

Unsolicited opinion: GoT is an example of how an AC game should be and how DLCs should be handled, but with Ubisoft it will never be and I’m so fucking glad that it is Sucker Punch Prod which handles feudal Japan with utmost respect and realism. See how “honor” is handled in both games and compare the writing. Ubisoft should have announced ding dong AC is dead and create a new IP, but AC is their most financially successful franchise so expect more of this MTX, I mean, grindy RPG approach with minimal narrative.

#every time I talk about AC I need to go play ghost of tsushima to cleanse myself #ask #anon #Assassin's Creed #ac2 #ac brotherhood #ac revelations #ac unity #ac black flag #ac4 #ac syndicate #ac odyssey #ac origins #ac valhalla

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reflectionsofacreator · 4 years

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youtube

So like. I kinda sat down to write about this one, and I feel like I don’t know what to write about. There’s a lot to write about, but like... [scrubs face] it’s like, there’s a lot of emotional (sledge)hammers with this one, and it’s hard to pick apart so I can actually talk about it. Paralyzed by there being so much, you know?

God writing this one was like pulling teeth, tbh.

Buckle up lads, this one clocks in at over 2k. Mobile users I’m so sorry.

I think the first thing I’m gonna tackle is the name of this one. It’s called The Truth, but in the context of Clay, that previously had an incredibly specific meaning. “The Truth” wasn’t so much a phrase as it was referring to the real truth of the Precursors and the nature of Eve and Adam, and the truth of humanity as a whole. Historically, every mention of “The Truth” around Clay refers to that specific idea, and now we have a new thing that uses the same name. It’s kind of interesting too, because the Truth that Clay shared was very explicitly something he was giving to other people, after learning about it for himself. And in this case, this is Truth that he’s being given, either about his situation, or the situation of his successor.

This memory opens up with a doctor and Warren Vidic talking, after the episode that Clay had with the Bleeding Effect, and the doctor makes mention of Clay having been here a year already. He administers a medicine that’s actually an anti-psychotic, as a way of trying to stabilize Clay’s deteriorating mental state. There’s no guarantee that it’ll actually work, is the issue, mostly because the Bleeding Effect isn’t exactly a well known mental condition, and what everyone knows about it is simply what they’ve found out via the Subjects. Which is a very small group of people. I do wonder, though, about the Bleeding Effect as a .. hmm, genetic thing? It’s seeing the memories of your ancestors superimposed over your own perception of the world, and it’s implied that it’s because of the Precursor DNA that you can even have that happen, because it’s linked to Eagle Vision. Or at least, that’s what I’ve gotten so far, I could be completely wrong.

The conversation with the doctor gets shooed away in favor of a conversation between Clay and his father, and like. I really wonder at the timing of it, if it’s supposed to be a conversation that Clay had while he was in Abstergo. It’s possible that it was a conversation that happened before Clay got sent in, but he sounds too resigned and weary I feel like, to have it happen outside of his imprisonment. Another reason why I feel like it’s after is because the last conversation we heard with Clay and his father was during the Bleeding Effect, when Clay was telling him about the Assassins, and things dissolved into a fight when Harold made it about money. This conversation feels like it’s a while after that, after Clay’s resigned himself to not being able to really convince his father of anything.

Before Clay dives into the mainframe, there’s another glitch, which causes your controller to rumble. The screen goes noisy, and what shows is an exit at the end of a long walkway. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen glitches or hallucinations, but it’s freaky literally every time.

We watch as Clay starts to hack through Abstergo’s systems after that, and the actual design of “going into” the mainframe is covered in a dozen different firewalls. It’s a neat sort of visual way to show just how hard Clay’s hacking is, as well as how many firewalls there are, because if he gets caught, he can get killed.

Right before he goes in, on the right side of the “mainframe” is a code cipher.

This is a Caesar cipher with an alphabetical shift of 3, and it reads "Lucy, she Is aLways behind You." The capital letters spell out LILY -- traditionally lilies were associated with death. Now, you could interpret this as “Lucy’s got his back, she’s his teammate.” Which like, maybe. But with the addition of the word lily, and knowing that Lucy betrays him... nah. It’s more like she’s a threatening presence that needs to be watched.

Clay snoops through Vidic’s mainframe and learns that Vidic is specifically after Desmond. Now, we know that this is at least over a year of Clay’s being here, and that Desmond was captured September 1st. What I’m really saying is just how long did Abstergo know about Desmond, and what lengths did they go to research him before they took him? Another question I have is like -- I know ac1 said that Abstergo found him via his fingerprints for his motorcycle license, but just how would that give them access to his genetic profile. Granted, that’s probably some early installment weirdness of ac1, but. (That being said, I remember reading a fic where they made mention of Desmond donating plasma for cash, and that’s how Abstergo found him, which is more believable than fingerprints....)

I also can’t help but wonder like -- what’s going through Clay’s mind as he realizes that the Desmond Miles that Juno spoke of during his Bleed is the next Subject, and his successor? Or is it that he was completely unsurprised because Juno gave him a look into the possible future with the Calculations?

Anyways, Clay finds out what Vidic wants, and excitedly says that they can leave, and we follow the path to see what looks like a broken stone circle at the base of two beams of light.

(The wireframe is just the gameplay mechanic) I have... no earthly idea what this is, or what it could possibly mean. I think this is the only broken structure you see in all the memories, Desmond or Clay’s. It’s vaguely reminiscent of a broken film wheel, but I’m not sure if that’s what it’s supposed to be. But like, it’s so goddamn conspicuous because it’s the only broken structure we find. ls it supposed to symbolize a broken trust, a loss of faith after witnessing the “play” unfold?? .

Speaking of the “play”-- what the fuck. What the actual fuck. Is it supposed to make me uncomfortable? Because by god it did that. The sharp departure from how the rest of the narrative has been told is jarring as fuck, especially because it’s so like, proper. I swear, all that’s missing is like, a slightly off-key oldtimey music track and you’ll have a full blown horror segment. Maybe I’m just being dramatic, but like -- finding the broken wheel when that’s already something weird, having the camera forcibly taken away from you so you can watch this performance. And like, just listening to Warren monologue at Lucy is disturbing as well, for reasons that are hard to articulate.

It’s like -- Meta wise, I know why she’s not talking. Her voice actress, Kristen Bell, had left and didn’t renew her contract (as her contract was only for 3 games), thus not being able to voice Lucy for any further appearances. IIRC, this is actually why Lucy was written to die, instead of simply recasting her, and then they had to scramble to make the “She’s a Templar!” twist work. Jury’s still out if it did or not, but like -- I do appreciate them trying to explain why she defected during her undercover years, but like... Ugh. It still leaves such a sour taste in my mouth, because it’s obviously a writing scramble and not a cohesive narrative that was plotted from the beginning.

For a comparison, Clay’s story and ultimate fate feels complete, it feels alright. Yeah, it’s arguably a worse fate than Lucy, he died twice over, but like. We knew he was dead from the first moment we saw him, we knew that there was only one way that this could really go, a tragedy. There was a clear progression of his story, and the fact that you know how it ends. That being said, I do wonder about Clay’s death as a Subject in ac2, before the plotbeats of Lucy being a Templar were set in stone for Brotherhood. I know that the 20 glyphs in ac2 did talk about how Lucy was there when Clay killed himself, but I kinda doubt that it was in the same context of “she was supposed to save him but deliberately betrayed him due to her loyalties”. I guess what I’m getting at is that Lucy’s story feels terrible due to the writing surrounding it, while Clay’s feels deliberately terrible because that was the point.

Back to my original point of “Lucy not talking”-- while there is a meta reason for it, I kinda want to ascribe a narrative reason, despite the meta outweighing the narrative.

Lucy is characterized by almost never showing the full extent of her feelings or motivations, leaving you to wonder what’s actually going on in her head constantly. Sure, she leaned on Desmond a lot, but there’s also an undercurrent of a power imbalance there, and we always got the sense that she kept more to herself than she revealed. By having Warren talk at her, we’re further kept from knowing just what she felt about all of this, and instead we’re given another glimpse of the strange relationship that Warren and Lucy had.

Warren was her boss, but also her superior in the Templar order, and the man who saved her life from his own company. Back in ac1, Lucy recounts to Desmond how she was attacked in the middle of the night, going to be silenced by Abstergo so she couldn’t talk about the Animus, only for Warren to save her life by telling the men to stand down. The assailants were people that she interacted with every day, even ate lunch with. This is after she’d been with Abstergo for a while, and finally feeling like she was being taken seriously with her work (as well as her undergrad thesis/work) she was going to be killed to keep quiet. We don’t actually know why Warren saved her, but it’s my firm belief that that’s when Lucy changed alliances to the Templars.

However, I do wonder about the confrontation between Lucy and Warren at the end of ac2, during the credits. I know, I know, her being a Templar wasn’t really a thing in ac2 (I think), so therefore you have to take it all with a grain of salt, but like. The conversation here brings attention to it, where Warren tells her “Make sure you look very upset. You need to be convincing.” And I can’t help but wonder if Warren and Lucy ended up trading insults that hit way too close to home in order to further the deception... It wouldn’t be hard to pretend to be hurt if she actually was hurt by what he said, y’know?

I think the last thing about Warren’s speech that really bugs me is like -- he tacks on the whole “Oh, yes. Once inside their hideout, perhaps you might ask the Assassins why they left you alone for so many years.” And like. That just gets under my skin in a lot of ways because like-- he’s got a point, the Assassin’s methods are Rather Horrible™ with how they completely cut her off for a deep cover mission at seventeen (no I will not ever be over that), but the way he says it just. He’s clearly manipulating her to entrench her further onto his own side, and I just. Ngh. I kinda wonder if the delivery of the line was intended for the audience rather than Lucy herself, because she already knows all this, and for him to bring it up feels like an insult to her intelligence. It feels kinda slimy in a way that I can’t really describe. Or maybe it’s just because I just do NOT like Vidic.

There’s also the question of like, how did Clay see this -- this is all dramatized for the sake of us, the audience, but did he watch this via video feeds or something??? The thought of him watching Lucy and Warren talk about his successor is kinda jarring tbh. Also this throws a wrench into the ending of ac1 (though tbh what DOESN’T throw a wrench into ac1) where they were going to dispose of Desmond only for Lucy to intervene. Is it because Warren and Lucy were operating on their own project that wasn’t exactly approved by the Templar higher ups?? Or something??

This whole memory says that Desmond was their goldmine for the amount of genetic information he held, so why would the higher ups -- wait. Unless the whole thing was a ploy by having Lucy speak up in “defense” of Desmond in order to get him to trust her some more.... Hrm.... Granted that fits, it’s just a sort of way of re-contextualizing the ending of ac1...

Waves hand anyways Clay finds out about this plan for Lucy to gain Desmond’s trust and give them the data, and then we finally have control again. There’s this sort of distorted error noise, and the red blocks start to fill up the room, threatening you as they force you closer and closer to the screen, which only shows a picture of a door with a strange symbol on top of it.

This is the symbol for 3 Juno, an asteroid in our solar system that’s the 11th largest, and contains 1% of total mass of the asteroid belt. It was discovered September 1st, 1804, by Karl Ludwig Harding, and initially considered to be a planet, along with a few other asteroid/dwarf planets at the time. It was given this symbol, ⚵, like how Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter all have their own symbols.

Aside from the obvious “hey that’s Juno, she’s the big bad of this shit”, there’s a couple things that stood out to me. The date of discovery, September 1st -- that’s the same date that Desmond got captured by Abstergo, gives me pause. I’m not sure if it’s something that was intentional on the dev’s part, or if they were just looking for a symbol that would represent Juno. Either way, that’s enough of a coincidence that it makes me feel unsettled, the same way that Lucy was bothered by the date of the satellite launch being 72 days away. It might just be an honest coincidence, but considering that this is Clay we’re dealing with... nah.

Another thing that the AC wiki told me is that this is also the symbol for the Instruments of the First Will, an in-universe religious organization that worships the Precursors, and specifically Juno. Now, this organization doesn’t actually appear until at least ac4 Black Flag, and continues on all the way through Syndicate. This is more like an early bird cameo than a full blown reference, as we still have to get through ac3, But it’s still interesting to point out and look at, and wonder what’s going on with it all.

Anyways, the door itself is actually part of the screen, and impassible, and it stays that way as the bricks come closing in, chasing you. It’s really tense tbh, with this feeling of claustrophobia on top of the revelations you were forced to watch. It also doesn’t help that like. You had control wrenched away from you so you could watch the conversation, and the speech was long enough to lull you into maybe putting your controller down to watch, and then with a rumble you suddenly have control again and are being chased towards a door that doesn’t open.

The picture of a door becomes an actual door after the blocks get closer and closer, and we break through into the light, and onto memory 7.

If you like what I do, or want to see any other sort of analysis, consider buying me a ko-fi!

#Lucy Stillman #Clay Kaczmarek #Assassin's Creed #fuck it this goes in the main tag cause i'm proud of it #i'm so fucking sorry mobile users #motherfucker unlimited #creator plays ac rev #creator plays ac lost archive

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illusivesoul · 6 years

Text

Was tagged by @starsandskies and @briarfox13 Thank you :D

I’ll tag @comefeedtherainn @forlornmelody @carolyntheclockworkangel90 @legionofpotatoes and @garrus. Only if you feel like doing this , of course.

favorite game from the last 5 years? ‒

most nostalgic game? ‒

game that deserves a sequel? ‒

game that deserves a remaster? ‒

favorite game series? ‒

favorite genre? ‒

least favorite genre? ‒

favorite song from a game? ‒

favorite character from a game? ‒

favorite ship from a game? ‒

favorite voice actor from a game? ‒

favorite cutscene? ‒

favorite boss? ‒

first console? ‒

current console or consoles? ‒

console you want? ‒

place from a game that you’d like to visit? ‒

place from a game that you’d like to live in? ‒

ridiculous crossover that would never happen but would be super fun? ‒

book that would make a good game? ‒

show/movie that would make a good game? ‒

games you want to play? ‒

have you gotten 100% completion in a game? ‒

have you cried over a game? ‒

what power-up or ability would you want in real life?

My answers under the cut.

favorite game from the last 5 years? ‒ Mass Effect 3.

most nostalgic game? ‒ Donkey Kong Country.

game that deserves a sequel? ‒ World in Conflict, Dead Space, The Punisher.

game that deserves a remaster? ‒ The sames I mentioned above, ME1 and DAO, Warcraft 3.

favorite game series? ‒ Mass Effect, Dragon Age, God of War, Uncharted, Resident Evil.

favorite genre? ‒ RPGs, Strategy (even tough I suck at them), Shooters.

least favorite genre? ‒ Sports games, MMORPGs.

favorite song from a game? ‒ So many. Vigil, the Suicide Mission, Betrayal, I'm Sorry and the Illusive Man theme from Mass Effect.

Romance theme, Leliana's song, Battle for Ostafar, Mage Pride and the Hanged Man Theme from Dragon Age. The entire ME and DA soundtrack to keep it short lol.

Invincible and "Arthas, My Son" from Warcraft.

"Extermination", the main theme and "Decisions, Decisions" from Re Outbreak.

And many, many more.

favorite character from a game? ‒ Too many lol. Shepard, Liara, Anderson, Kaidan, Ashley, Leliana, Alistair, Zevran, Merril, Hawke, Varric, Albert Wesker, Nathan Hale, among others.

favorite ship from a game? ‒ Shepard x Liara, Shepard x Cortez, Warden x Leliana, Hawke x Merril, among many, many others.

favorite voice actor from a game? ‒ Jennifer Hale, Brian Bloom, Ali Hillis, Claudia Black, Simon Templeman, Raphale Sbarge, DC Douglas, and many more.

favorite cutscene? ‒ Oh, wow. There’s a lot. The final battle and the ending scene of ME3. When Arthas becomes the Lich King in Warcraft 3 (I got gooesebumps when I heard ”Now we...are one!”), the final battle in Dragon Age Origins, the first cutscene of ME2 with TIM and Miranda, when Soviet forces launch their assault on West Berlin in World in Conflict, the ending scene with Wesker in RE Umbrella Chronicles, and too many more.

favorite boss? ‒ Flemeth in DAO, Coeryphus in DA2 Legacy and the Organic Moon in Dead Space 3 mopped the floor with me.

first console? ‒ Gameboy Advance.

current console or consoles? ‒ Until 4 months, I used to have a PS3, 2 PSP and a Nintendo DS. I’ve sold them all since.

console you want? ‒ A better laptop and a PS4.

place from a game that you’d like to visit? ‒ The Citadel, Illium, Orlais, Thessia.

place from a game that you’d like to live in? ‒ Ferelden before the Blight, Elysium.

ridiculous crossover that would never happen but would be super fun? ‒ Dead Space x Mass Effect. It’d be as fun as it would be terrifying.

book that would make a good game? ‒ I’d love to see “Red Storm Rising” or “The Bear and the Dragon” by Tom Clancy made into a shooter or strategy game.

show/movie that would make a good game? ‒ Not sure about this.

games you want to play? ‒ Uncharted 4, ME Andromeda, Anthem, God of War.

have you gotten 100% completion in a game? ‒ AC2 on the PS3. The only game I fully completed.

have you cried over a game? ‒ ME3 left me crying for several days lol. Valiant Hearts also made me cry.

what power-up or ability would you want in real life?

#tag meme

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jillinabox · 7 years

Text

Assassin’s Creed

from a Film student’s perspective

a.k.a. Things I liked about the AC movie

I held off on watching it b/c of the bad reviews I’d heard, but (as an AC fan, not a newcomer,) I actually find little flaw in the movie! The issues I had while watching resolved themselves while I was watching.

The eagle sequence that always precedes a change of scene with the sluggish pace of a Disneyland tour? That is the Animus mapping out the setting of the ancestral memory. In the present day, it signals the start of a Leap of Faith.

The billion-dollar fog machine (bleeding and animus) effect? It allows for the moment when Cal looks down at Ojeda who he is cruelly butchering and the two men are indistinguishable between real or a projection. The heavy use of back light also cuts a silhouette out of Cal, further erasing his identity and highlighting Aguilar. This is the moment for the audience to slowly realise that Cal has fallen to his ancestor’s pace and is breathing the role. The fog serves as both a visual and a metaphorical reminder to not take things at face value, or that “nothing is true,” and its heavy presence in the scene marks the moment when Cal prioritises anarchy over morality and is confused on every facet of his life except that he wants his father and mother to pay for his loneliness (allowing the destruction of the Creed would reduce his parents’ sacrifices to moot). The fog’s “draggy” effect also mimics that of the AC2 bleeding effect, where Desmond can trace the movement of the ghostly projections.

Another significant fog scene is when Cal is still in the Animus and he sees Aguilar walking towards him, when after an hour of watching Animus projections move around Cal as if he’s Aguilar, we know this isn’t a work of the animus. Cal is having a bleeding effect within the Animus. And he’s accessing all of his Assassin ancestors. This counts for Fridge Horror and Awesome.

Mama Lynch’s message to Cal beyond death is like Minerva calling to Desmond from Ezio’s time. Hair-raising and awesome.

Replacing the artefact in Alan’s hand with a fruit. Assassin, indeed. While I understand that the movie couldn’t resolve the Assassin-Templar war, the ending still would have left much to be desired if not for the BAMF Cal assassinating Alan in true Assassin style.

Speaking of Aguilar’s assassination of Ojeda, it’s like watching your player avatar while spamming the attack button. Aguilar catches Ojeda with a unique attack combo, following another combo, and another –– and not only are his movements familiar and awesome, but dramatised (smoke, slow-mo, avenge your beloved, bass-boosted music). Unlike in the games, you can also see Aguilar’s face while he shifts between anger and hurt throughout his punishing. You can see Sophia’s (movie-counterpart to Lucy) face as well while she witnesses Cal’s rapid descent to insanity as he perfectly synchronises with Aguilar. Here, I appreciate the casting of Marion Cotillard, because motionless acting requires skill; Cotillard and Fassbender remind me why AC has to go hard or go home when it comes to the casting and production of a film about the franchise.

The Abstergo security standard arms include crossbows. Awesome.

Moussa. The best side of the Assassins, a peacemaker who can still kick butt. He shines in Michael K. William’s delivery of, “Will you let us free?” and in the scene where he drops a basketball –– signalling that his hands are free to the security guards –– then drops some bombs. Moussa has a heart of gold and crazy sleights of hand.

Cal’s “What the hell is going on?” closely mirrors Desmond’s WTF moment in AC2 and my sentiments exactly after world domination dreamers and conspiracy murderers meddle with Cal’s lunchtime. Even after 7+ games of the creed, the movie manages to not only surprise me with the old idea of the Illuminati, but make the conspiracy and history believable.

Kurzel always manages to direct diegetic light so that the Apple looks like it’s glowing. As a film student, I love it; the temple window, the Animus projectors, etc.

The non-combative staff in all white wear what I thought were simple dress shirts and white slacks, but on a second look I noticed that their collars close with a significant gap between flaps so that it looks like they have a white band under their collars, like a Catholic priest. Seeing as they’re Templars, this detail is cool.

Throwing knives while leaping rooftops. Very assassin-like. Don’t even get me started on Le Parkour, it’s the game mechanics exactly –– along with, good or bad, the delayed changes of camera perspective as the system catches up with player movement. If you merge the cut-crazy camera from AC death scenes with AC rooftop chase scenes, you get the movie.

I just can’t stop gushing over the detailled replication of character movement between the film and the games. If a movie-based game came out that allowed my avatar to creep, fly, and attack exactly like characters from the movie, I’d be all over it. With AC, we have the opposite, but newcomers who watch the movie before playing the game will be pleasantly surprised, imho. The visuals in the movie also closely follow those found in the games, from Abstergo’s halls lined with plasma light fixtures that turn red during security breaches, to the (what I felt) random gardens in an Abstergo facility (esp in AC3), to the (what I strongly felt) futuristic but aesthetically horrifying Abstergo architecture (like a Japanese product, I swear. Good at hardware but not at interface). The reenactment of a Rizi painting (La Inquisición Española) via Aguilar’s memories is also enough to make this history nut gush.

Papa Lynch isn’t a burly assassin thirty years after his capture, but a prisoner who has been as disarmed by Abstergo as possible; he’s gained weight and been used by the Animus to the point of mental destabilisation. Kurzel breaks the cliché of the protagonist’s handsome dad biding for escape.

An apple-sized Apple, as opposed to a volleyball-sized one, allows the audience to immediately draw lines between the prototype model Cal first picks up and the round fruit Nathan tries to steal from Cal’s place at the lunch table. While a red and green fruit bears no resemblance with the golden artefact besides a spherical shape, their matching size makes it easier for Kurzel to prod the Apple into our subconscious awareness as we go deeper into the movie. I do appreciate that Kurzel made Cal’s apple a Granny Smith aka a Golden Apple (heh).

Consider that –– since the dawn of Hollywood –– we’ve been force-fed white casts, exaggerated “foreign” accents, or no foreign languages at all in movies that deserve better (The Last Samurai, starring Tom Cruise? Exodus, starring Christian Bale?? I love all these actors, but the casting directors should think twice). Then look at AC the movie: unashamed of speaking Spanish for half the film (with the local accent, too, I dig it) or of learning the Creed in Arabic, not afraid to cast POC for extras and main roles, and not censoring anything the game franchise doesn’t censor.

Let’s face it, AC has been breaking boundaries since game one, and it’s only proper the movie follows suit.

#assassin's creed #assassin's creed movie #meta #justin kurzel #callum lynch

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