The Point - What happened to Assassin's Creed?

2006: Hitman and Splinter Cell series put on hold

2007-12: Five Assassin's Creed games

2012: Diluted Hitman

2013: Diluted Splinter Cell

Honestly, the last one I played was Assassins Creed II, and while it was without a doubt brilliantly designed in many areas, I found myself getting bored during the second half and didn't' fell compelled to finish it. I got ACIII for free with my video card six months ago and I haven't even bothered to install it.

Danny's right about the loss of wonder that I felt in the first game. Games like this are about immersing yourself in the world, the excitement driven by the prospect of exploration and discovery. I really like Ubisoft's work on the whole, so I hope they put more thought and care into future sequels, regardless of the IP (e.g. Far Cry, Watch Dogs). And I hope people stop BUYING derivative games when they first come out, as this encourages their future development. If Ubisoft can continue to make money producing derivative sequels, they will. Nature of the corporate beast, I'm afraid.

It is a different game now, and they are targetting a different audience. Disappointing, but it's pure business now.

I think I agree with Danny although I feel like perhaps his explanation is missing a little bit. One of the most disappointing things was how shallow the game felt. Some of the side quests for example had no narrative to go with them at all. Maybe that fits in with his point that the game was about mechanics and not so much a game. I guess just saying the game was more wrapped around you instead of being immersive doesn't go far enough.

Danny nailed it on the head. I pre-ordered AC, AC2, brotherhood, revelations, and AC3. I'll be waiting for the reviews an AC4.

That lighting... Danny totally looks like the Next-Gen rendered graphics

I enjoyed Assassin's Creed I&II. The next 3...meh.

Worst story ever gets worse every game. Gameplay has evolved less than FIFA since 2007. Combat is boring as hell. Press forward to parkour. Stealth is still none existent, despite having "assassin" in the title. All that is copied and pasted yearly.
Cities are good.
That is what happened to Assassin's Creed

Assassins Creed is fantastic, I love the hell out of it. But a yearly outing is quite un-cool.

Rockstar = develop, cultivate & deliver amazing IP.

Ubisoft = takes great IP & rapes it till it delivers nothing but a $5 hand job

I am hopeful Black Flag will be much better than III. I agree that 3 was the worst in the series (since 2). The civil war era is bland, depressing, and ugly. The characters were thin and boring. The protagonist wasn't very interesting and lacked character. Those things combined dragged down 3 to a soul-less experience. I also didn't like the checkpoint things to do -- crafting and upgrading was tedious, but upgrading your homestead was pretty awesome.

I did love the naval battles that were introduced in III -- they were a lot of fun and it looks like they will really capitalize on that and hopefully make a little more complex. The Caribbean and piracy is much more interesting and diverse and bright era. More factions, more everything.

Assasin's creed evolved to assasin's greed.

I want a new PoP Game 2008 was fun but too easy I want a Reboot

all the money I spent on ac3 I better had beat it (I wasn't gonna look for everything though)

What happened is the same thing that happened to Tomb Raider. Greed destroying once great franchise. They made 1 great game then starting pumping out endless sequels every year or so with the intent of milking it for the last penny it was worth, neglecting game quality in the process.

I really loved the animus and the story behind it. It's what really one of the selling points that brought me into the game. Loved the story about Desmund and past beings as well. It was really exciting at first , but was brought down quickly and ended really bland and abruptly. It's truly sad what the did to it when it could have been so much more.

I don't really care if AC maintains the same gameplay with some adds. BUT, what's annoying is that AC abandonned its cool mixed of history with fiction, that was supposed to lead to a 3d game where the main character was Desmond. When AC3 was revealed as being basedo on north american history I thought "may be this works only if the 4th game finally has Desmond as an assassin".... That's why I waited until AC4 was annonunce to buy AC3, but because of this stupid idea of pirates, I didn't. AC died for me at AC2.

The whole pirate thing is just a new "hook". Everybody is getting tired of the same gameplay year on year. And Ubi needs a gimmicky myth-based period of history to get people interested in a stale franchise.

We already know the next game will be ninjas in Japan and will have all the very exaggerated history about them. Just to get the anime kids all hot and bothered.

Bang on.

They could have made a good thing with the Animus, but they ruined the game so much with the conspiracy crap and the futurist things, it didn't make sense, it's so ahistorical compared to a game that is completely based in history.

Assassins creed 3 was very good with all it´s ships battles and it´s pirate simulations... but I think that was ok for that game, but having that in AC4 too it´s too much. We players like to play different games not the same game with only minor changes.

Who'd guess that 13 games in 6 years would ruin an ip.

This is a smart commentary. I think with games like AC it's sort of like with movie sequels though. They start off rocking and little by little start to lose that mojo and become hit or miss. Example is Diehard. Classic original... 2nd one sucked... 3rd one rocked... 4th one was so so and you get the drift. AC seems to be in that rut where they are trying to do something different... but in the process are they starting to lose that vibe that hooked everyone to it in the first place? With all that said... this AC: Black Flag for some reason has really peaked my interest after watching some gameplay clips. I'm kinda pumped to play it actually. One thing is safe to assume... it won't be as bad as the sequel Jaws 4... or whatever one with Dennis Quad and Lou Gossit with Jaws in a tank. ugh

I think AC3 is a wonderful game. However, i guess you right about "a living world around you". I didn't realize it until you say so. It often feels lonely.

I couldn't even make it through AC3. The game became bloated with crap I didn't want and drifted away from the game play I loved.

The animus ruins the AC franchise for me. It is something that is so incredibly stupid that even alone in my room playing it I would feel embarrassed.

Really great and relatively profound commentary here Danny. Thanks

Yesterday I made a comment about how I disagreed with Danny on his view of the animus and Desmond. I can't edit that one, but I wanted to add that I do agree with everything else.

AC 3 is the Grand Master at breaking immersion. Dat Charles Lee chase.

I'm super jazzed about AC IV because I like pirates. That said, it might be better off without the AC baggage at this point...

I agree on behalf of AC3. I think the soul of the game was stripped and it felt like a hassle to travel and complete missions. I finished the main story because once I start something I like to finish it but I couldn't wait to end it. Correct me if im wrong, but I am pretty sure they changed the control mechanisms and whenever I tried to use the pistol it was very frustrating. Despite me disliking AC3, I am excited for black flag it actually looks refreshing

Great video with good points. I totally agree. I just came over from ign, and Danny just made me a fan :)

Love your show Danny. Best show about games I've ever watched. I wish all game journalists would treat us as intelligent adults.

Gamer's get bored too easily so devs are forced to think up new ideas to entertain. A shame really. I'm working my way through Revelations, the it's Ass III. It's a hard slog but still worth the effort.

Awesome opinion. Genuine and to the point. i love this guy

ac1 chase music

It happens to a lot of games, the trick is don't milk the series on one generation of consoles, people get bored.

In my opinion, that's why games like metal gear always hit the top with every release, you can see that time was taken to create this awesome game. I also think that's the reason for GTA's huge success, no rush to release it.

R.I.P AC