Gaming Altair You a New One: The Assassin's Creed Series

So I finished the story and saw the ending properly. Holy mind****, Batman. What the hell is going on?! I'm not so disturbed by Desmond stabbing Lucy, because right from the start the games have given hints that though she pretends to be on his side, in reality she's still a Templar and that's why he was prompted by Juno to "get rid of her". But what disturbs me the most are the lines spoken while the credits are rolling. What if Desmond is still in Abstergo, still strapped to an Animus there, and his escape in AC2 was nothing more than an Animus-induced mindjob while reliving the memories of Ezio via Subject 16, for that matter? And who is the other woman Desmond is supposed to meet? The main character of AC3? Whatever "the truth" is, AC3 can't come fast enough!

 

JESUS EFFING CHRIST. I accidentally/foolishly highlighted the first part of your blacked out sentence!

Goddammit...

 

To quote our favorite nerf herder, "it's not my fault!"

Besides, if you had focused more on the story than on the MP you probably would've found out by now.

 

But the MP is amazing fun!

 

Tsk, tsk. You should know better by now

It is pretty wild though, isn't it?

My opinion is that Desmond is still in the animus at the end of AC:B. That's why we saw the animus lines during the sequence where Desmond stabs Lucy. It would also make sense of what Desmond, Lucy, Shaun, and Rebecca were talking about when they first get to the Auditore villa, about a memory within a memory. Only, it was Desmond reliving the memory within a memory, not Ezio.

But what I really want to know is who exactly is William M.? The guy who was in contact with Lucy via email.

You know, Desmond's last name is Miles... Desmond M.......William M.......maybe they're related. Maybe William M. is Desmond's father, uncle, or whatever. Maybe that voice at the end of the game saying to put him back into the animus was William M. After all, he did seem to be in charge in his emails with Lucy.

 

So, I'm a bit lost. I went back to the single player game yesterday and I have no idea what to do. I think I just stopped the courier from running away from the Colosseum. That's where I am in the main plot. I have three Memory Start points on the map but I'm hesitant to go to them because I'm wondering if I should destroy all the Borgia towers and rebuild all shops/tunnel entrances/etc first.

What do you guys think?

 

Go after the Towers.
The game will guide you from there.

 

As you complete the core memory markers (the black !'s) you progress through each part of that particular Memory Sequence. But the amount of markers on your map can make things overwhelming. Think of it this way, the core memory markers are the mandatory part of each story memory sequence; everything else is "optional". And by optional I mean that you should do as many of those optional markers (towers, subject 18 code locations) within each memory sequence. As you destroy towers you eliminate potentially heavier opposition in the area when playing core memories and unlock special citizen markers that, when rescued, they turn into Assassin apprentices. This in turn makes playthroughs of the core memories easier. So yeah, destroy towers, son. Do some collecting and Romulus crypts on the side and then tackle the core memories.

 

Definitely start with the Borgia towers. It makes everything easier, especially if a main memory happens to be close to one.

What I did was take out all of the Borgia towers that I could, getting the viewpoints along the way. Then I went back and bought up all of the shops I could. That really raises your income. Much later in the game I bought all of the landmarks.

 

Landmarks are so expensive

 

You'll be able to buy 'em by the end of the game or if you've managed to rebuild Rome enough (i.e. renovate all businesses, banks and aqueducts) so you'll have enough money flowing every 20 minutes into your banks' vaults.

 

Made it to the end!

Sequence 8: Infiltrating the castelo was very, very good indeed - the race to the apple wasn't anything of the kind. Similarly limiting you to the apple only felt like one of the Leonardo missions when you used the weapons - should have been stunning and epic, but wasn't. Despite that though, the battle at the end with the assassins was indeed epic and satisfying.

Sequence 9: This was excellent! I'm told you can stealth it, but having seen what Cesare's soldiers were doing to the people, stuff that! They're all dying. Having killed everyone, I then got to ramparts. What followed was a very good boss fight. Some may say it was too easy if you go all-out offence, but after the amount of crap Cesare's done, he's earnt it. I thought it was better he had no magical super-boss abilities, just a lot of help and some more men, all of whom got offed - all the better to screw over Cesare, he thinks he's safe then 4 corpses later I'm hitting him again. And then you get him - it all worked very well indeed.

The Rome sequence was OK, but somehow the historical settings have far more vibrancy to them than the present ones. Similarly the puzzle in the crypt felt quite transparent as a final obstacle. As for the final revelations, yep, it's a mindfrell, but it does set things up for AC3. Overall, Brotherhood had some missions where it was not that clear what you had to do so frustration resulted, but in the end, these are minor flaws. It took what AC2 did and developed it further, it finished Ezio's story off in grand fashion and left you wanting more - job done.

 

I have to admit, sequence 9 is probably my least favorite. I didn't really like the fact that it took away the open world-ness that pretty much had defined the entire game. It just frustrated me that I couldn't decline the final missions and accomplish them at my leisure.

 

Yeah, that was a tad odd, AC2 simply had the mission marker and let you do it whenever.

 

What's the point of buying them at the end of the game?

 

I've really dropped the ball on this game. Need to get back on it.

 

*sighs* I guess you don't play too many sandbox games, eh? But yeah, I see your point: there's very litle obvious motivation to continue with the game after you're done with the story except to keep collecting stuff, achievements and levelling up your troops to the Assasin rank (lvl. 10). And if you're intrigued by the Cristina memories and you don't have 75% overall synch at the end of the game, you'll need to get that in order to unlock the final fifth memory.

 

Yeah, don't see the point of continuing meaningless objectives after the game's done.

That's one of the things I didn't like about Mass Effect 2's DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker. What was the point of lending money to politicians, assassinating others, giving money to charities, etc, if you've already finished the entire game?

 

Fully rebuilding Rome gets you the Auditore cape, which works like the Medici and Venezia capes in AC2.

 

*Shakes head*

Casual gamers, ya gotta love 'em.

 

So, out of curiousity, has anyone been to the Network and created a clan? Not that I'm planning on joining one anytime soon, I'm rather rubbish at the moment.

 

This game was one of the greatest games I've played recently. I love the Assassin's creed games. Can't wait for AC3

 

I just started playing AC2 last week for the first time, and even though I'm only about 1/2-2/3 of the way thru it, I'm completely hooked. I have a couple other games on deck already, but I may have to get AC:B ahead of them.

 

The two form a very satisfying game for Ezio's story but for Desmond's - you'll want AC3!

 

New The Da Vinci Disappearance DLC ($10) announced for early March. Trailer Stuff for single & mutli player...looks pretty cool.