Why I Decided To Give Assassins Creed IV a Try

Confession: Last year I was so stoked to play AC3 that I had taken 2 days off of work and prepared ALLLL year. All I can say is that the game itself was phenomenal, but the plot was really weak. After I finished the game, I experienced my first WTF ending of all time. The ending was so terrible that I spent days pondering and pondering what to do now that I'm finished with the game, and that's how I came to the realization that video games aren't real and my life was devoid of purpose thus throwing me into a deep depression which led to my infamous suicide attempt and 2 day stay at a mental health clinic. There I said it. I was scared to mention this before because I didn't want any lawsuits or nothin', but I have fully recovered and now have filled my life with other things.

My Borderlands 2 Review and Guilt.

First things first, I am not a FPS type of gal. I doln't care about COD and all its avengers, I really don't understand Halo, and I'm just not too fond of anything else that resembles a scenario of which "this is what it would be like if you were drafted into the military!"

In some cases, I am willing to put my motives aside and try one of these FPS games, because they have a sort of significant back-story behind them. One example would be Fallout 3, which has a plot so engrossing that it should be made into a feature-length film.

Borderlands 2 is also one of these games. At first, I wasn't too sure about trying this game. Even though the cover art is what made me interested in the first place, the whole idea of playing a FPS made me hesitate, but when I read the plotline on wikipedia,  I figured, ehh what the hell. Here is the plot copypasta'd from wiki:

Five years have passed since the events of Borderlands, when vault hunters exposed the secrets of the Eridian Vault. A man called Handsome Jack has taken credit for the vault hunters' actions and claimed the wealth of the Vault, allowing him to take over the Hyperion Corporation and effectively gain dominion over Pandora. Promising to clean the lawless planet up, Handsome Jack embarks on a campaign to exterminate Pandora's existing colonist population and industrialize the planet. The main symbol of Handsome Jack's rule is a massive supply base built in the shape of an "H" on Pandora's moon. The base is always visible, and can deploy Hyperion forces to any point on Pandora. Borderlands 2 begins with the player fighting to the death to win a priceless cache of loot in a gladiatorial tournament run by Handsome Jack for his personal amusement. The player succeeds and gains notoriety, but Handsome Jack sees this as a threat to his popularity with the people. At the tournament's end he denies the reward and leaves the player for dead in a tundra. The mysterious Guardian Angel from the first game then contacts the player and explains that Handsome Jack must be killed, directing the player to rescue the four original vault hunters from Hyperion's clutches to accomplish this. Although Jack's full intentions are unknown, part of his plan involves finding an ancient evil named "The Warrior" that is located somewhere on Pandora.

 
See? interesting, huh? In the beginning, I wasn't really looking forward to playing this game (since I had already bought it, I felt obligated to play it), but I figured, hey, if it doesn't work out, I can always return it, right?


Wrong. This game isn't going anywhere. People claim that this game is addictive, and I'll tell you why: When I first began the game, I breezed through the first few parts so fast that I became confident in my abilities to conquer any enemy at any cost. At one point I became so engrossed in the game that I started yelling "come at me, bro!" to my television screen. Now here is where you realize that the game has got you. At one point I died, and instead of re-spawning near where I left off, somehow I re-spawned all the way on the other side of the town. For at least 3 minutes I felt like I was being jadded, and wondering why I was transported into a vast wasteland instead of where my save point was, only to find out that I WAS near my save point, but the camera was angled to make me think that I was supposed to go in the opposite direction. HAHA funny, ok, I see what you did there. Even though I WAS mad, I had realized that if I weren't so damn into this game at the moment, I would have just shut off my Xbox and went to bed.
This game isn't without its faults, though; the boss fights are too much for tv. Borderlands 2 is clearly not a game welcoming to newcomers. The boss fights are really difficult and are time consuming, please be expected to die at lease 10 times during this round. I find that cowering in a corner and waiting until the enemy comes to you easier than running into combat head-on. The enemies in this game are brutal, and they level up every time you level up. The amount of violence and hostility in this game is so epic it makes the wasteland in the Fallout series look like the fucking garden of Eden.

Overall, I really, really like this game, a little more than I should, because like I said before, I don't play FPS, they SUCK, and normally they lack plotline, but this game is better than most FPS in my opinion. Yeah there's enemies, and there's parts where you wont know what the hell is going on, but the game wont let you down, there are marker points on your map, a cute little robot named claptrap whom I will defend at all costs, and GUNNNSSS, loads and loads of guns.

Now here is the guilt. I kinda gave up on Borderlands 1. I did. As I played through several days of Skyrim, Borderlands just sat there collecting dust, because I had played through it and found myself frustrated at the fact that it just seemed to throw you into the game, whereas Borderlands 2 eases you into it. I recommend this game for anyone

Skyrim.

One word: Dragons.

Muthafuckin' Dragons.

This game is amazing. Ok, so I actually had gotten this game from the redbox a long time ago, just to try it out, and I was so frustrated that I was about to rant about it on this blog. However, when I actually gave the game a chance, I kept it for so long that my overdue fee was at least 20 bucks. 

First of all, the plot is awesome:

Tamriel, a continent on the planet of Nirn, is in the midst of a civil war. The Imperial army, lead by General Tullius, are kind of like the Romans in a way, and they hail from Cyrodil, the central province of Tamriel. The Imperial army is in a feud with The Stormcloaks, who want skyrim to be independent from the superior Imperials and from the region. It turns out that the Stormcloaks are incredibly racist, because they are basically a group of Nords, tall, fair skinned people from Skyrim, the northernmost province in Tamriel, and they can withstand the cold. You can either side with the Stormcloaks or the Imperials.

But the main plotline of Skyrim is dragons. You start out as a prisoner about to be executed for crossing the border into Skyrim, when a dragon comes out of nowhere and kills everyone, except for you and whomever you side with. Turns out, the dragons and the civil war were a part of the prophecy by the elder scrolls, that said that Alduin, the dragon-god, is supposed to somehow consume the world..?However, you are a dragon-born, a person born with the soul of a dragon (LOL) or Dovahkiin, and every time a dragon is killed, you absorb their soul and a dragon-born's purpose is to fend off any threat Alduin poses to Tamriel.

I gotta say, if that isn't the most epic stuff, then IDK what is. The plotline is really good, and the fact that theres at least 200 quests, theres no excuse to be bored. The gameplay is very good, I have used maybe 2 weapons throughout the game thus far, and they're two handed weapons, but they are very reliable, I even call my character Thor and my weapon Mjolnir HAHAHA Nord Mythology joke..no really my character is a female I named Loo because this playthrough was originally supposed to be practice.

But what actually GOT me was the scenery..

While wandering to High Hrothgar, I was walking along a path and noticed how ALIVE this game is. I will retell my experience in my best essay writing:

 The weather started out nice as I stayed the path to the highest tip of the tallest mountain in Skyrim. As I wandered, I passed several imperial soldiers, a group of elk, even some traders by the river asked me if I would join them for a drink. As I continued on, the sky got darker and it started to rain. I passed by an old nordic building which is now a bandit hideout, my traveling companion, Lydia, and I, were forced to defend ourselves from the bandits while afterwards looting their bodies for gold. The sky got darker and night started to fall as we finally made it to Ivarstead, which is known for being a small rest stop for people on their way to high Hrothgar. Here is where I heard the tales of the mountains, filled with steep cliffs and frost trolls, and 7,000 steps to get there. One man told me about the greybeards; the inhabitants of High Hrothgar who do not speak, because their voices are so loud that it shakes the mountains. After a good night's sleep, I began my quest to High Hrothgar while climbing the 7,000 steps. I trudged through the snow with all my might and without any encounter of frost trolls, I finally made it to High Hrothgar.

This game has kept my time. Bethesda really did it with this one, I mean, I didn't really like Oblivion, I heard that New Vegas sucked, but I haven't seen a masterpiece like this since Fallout 3. Sadly, I had to return the game today, I had gotten it again for my day off Friday, but I almost cried....jK, no really, I haven't been this attached to a game since AC. I will be getting this game for my birthday next week.

Assassins Creed.

I'm surprised I haven't done my ode to Assassins Creed yet.

I wasn't even AWARE of Assassin's Creeds' existence until people compared it to Tomb Raider and one of my other favorites Mirror's Edge, but I didn't actually acknowledge it until I saw a commercial for the Assassins Creed Brotherhood multiplayer, and I mistaked it for Assassins Creed 2. From then on, I did my research and watched people play it on youtube, to actually buying ALL the games and playing them several times, and also buying game merchandise.

 

In 2007 the original Assassins Creed came out. The story is basically about this bartender named Desmond miles who gets kidnapped by Abstergo, a pharmacutical company. They strap him in the machine called "The Animus", which is a machine that lets you access your ancestor's memories. 2 or the Abstergo workers, Lucy Stillman and Dr. Warren Vidic, want to access Desmond's memories back to the Third Crusade. His ancestor is Altair Ibn-La-Ahad, an Assassin (which are like, ninjas who wear white) who lives in the holy land in 1191 and battles Templars. The ending was a cliffhanger: Altair had found a powerful artifact known as the apple of eden which grants infinite power to it's holder. After the people at abstergo had located it within Desmond's memories, they decided to kill him, but Lucy spared his life.

Since I did not play this series in chronological order, I played this game after I played AC2, and this game does seem a lot darker than the others, mainly because I think the developers were not sure that this was going to work. The game is extremely repetitive, there are no subtitles so you can't follow what's going on, Altair is the only one with an American accent and the graphics suck. But it was really groundbreaking, and the open-endedness of the game is really what got me hooked.

In 2009 Assassins Creed 2 was released. This one picks up where Assassins Creed 2 left off. Lucy, proving herself to be an ally, helps Desmond escape Abstergo, which turns out is run by modern day templars! dun dun duuuun! Together, they escape and meet up with two modern day Assassins (white ninjasuit non included) to put Desmond in another animus, called the animus 2.0, to relive the memories of Ezio Auditore, another ancestor of Desmond who lived during the Italian renaissance. Unlike Altair, Ezio didn't start off as an Assassin until a conspiracy causes his dad and 2 brothers to be innocently executed in front of a crowd. Taking on vengence, Ezio becomes an Assassin through the help of other Assassins and uncovers the truth to everything around him. In the end, Lucy, Desmond, and the gang are all caught by Vidic, but they escape to a safehouse.

This game was like, a total redux to the whole series. AC1 was dark and ominous in nature and in gameplay, but AC2 was beautifully done: gondolas in Venice, rooftops of florence, even a changing night and day system. Plus a little humor. Ezio was also less of a bland character made by some awesome-o character development. We saw him grow from a baby to a master assassin. This game improved on gameplay and graphics.

In 2010, Assassins Creed Brotherhood came out, and while it was the next game in the series, it was more like a Assassins Creed 2.5. In this one, the gang went to a safehouse in Italy to live more of Ezio's memories. In this one, he travels to Rome and.....I guess he just tries to get the apple of eden away from the Borgias, a real life family who lived in Rome during the time and participated in all sorts of debauchery despite Rodrigo Borgia being Pope. Well, they are bringing tyranny to the streets of Rome, and Ezio needs help liberating Rome, so he goes around trying to recruit more people to be Assassins and rebuild the brotherhood, hence the name, Assassins Creed Brotherhood! The ending was a real hoot, too: the modern day crew of Desmond, Lucy, and the rest travel below the colusseum to retrieve the apple of eden, but Desmond ends up killing Lucy and falling into a coma.

Overall, this game was not like AC2 for me. This game didn't really have any character development since we knew everyone, and where AC2 was more of coming-of-age, this was more of KILL KILL KILL DRAMATIC MUSIC KILL KILL...FAIL. This game was probably the hardest in the series for me because if you didn't do the missions a certain way, such as performed a stealth attack instead of just running in murking everyone, or not completing the mission in like, 3 seconds, you fail. This game was awesome indeed, but a bit scarier. However, it is probably the most epic game of the series.

In 2011 I pre-ordered Assassins Creed Revelations. I had been looking forward to it ALLLL year, because it was supposed to wrap up the storylines of both Ezio AND Altair. In this game, Ezio is really old, and he travels to masyaf in search of clues left behind by altair, but the clues aren't in Masyaf, they're in Istan Constantinople. So we have to play as now SSI eligible Ezio and Altair and watch Ezio get his mack on to Sofia, his future wife, but she helps him find the clues. Also, Desmond's mind is trapped in the Animus, so we have to do these first person puzzles to help him fix his memories. Plus Lucy is a templar and that is why she was killed. I had to go on Wiki to figure that out. In the end, Desmond wakes up from his coma and says "I know what we have to do" and the game ends.

When the game first came out, I paid 55 dollars for it. Last weekend I went to gamestop and it's 9 bucks. For starters the game is good, but it is short and unnecessary. I feel like the elements that were placed into the game should've just been placed into a book or something. I felt guilty playing as old Ezio and even WORSE as 90 something year old Altair. The game didn't really answer my questions at all, and it didn't really feel like I was playing Assassins Creed, it felt like I was playing Quest for the apple or something.

And that's the thing about the Assassins Creed series. It's like a spouse; there are things you love and things you hate, and one of the things I hate is how I felt it has deviated off the path of the original game. Desmond was kidnapped, then trained, then almost killed by a machine. Plus it just seems like 2 different game genres in one. For an example, first you are Assassins Assassinating people and being cool and ninja, then the ending of the game turns into final fantasy or something with glowing floaty people and ancient artifacts and magic...WTF? That would be like Red Dead Redemption, the whole purpose of red dead redeeming yourself would be so that the reapers of Mass Effect wont take over the world. It just shifts from one gaming genre to another.

But I have a very complicated marriage to Assassins Creed. The storyline got me, the characters got me, the fact that I can achieve more in a game than I can in real life got me, the graphics, and the fact that I'm a real history buff...it all got me. Plus I can pick up on Italian really fast now, and you'll get me again on October 30th when AC3 comes out!

Assassins Creed...you got me.

Fashion Inspiration: Nerdworld

I got a little carried away on this one because most of my interests are on here.

Nerdworld: The world of the Nerd

Songs 

• Pretty much any song by Nero, especially Innocence
• Saga by Santigold
• Black Mags by The Cool Kids
• Mirror Kissers by The Cribs
• Back To The Future by Ultraviolet Sound

PS: editing this is a bitch because the size is much smaller than expected.