Assassin's Creed 4's modern era revealed

The first images of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag's slightly futuristic era have been revealed.

[ShugaCane]

Am I the only one who thinks that the modern part in this series is pointless ? The revelation was cool in the first episode, then it just got boring and didn't add anything really interesting to the games.

[slimeybrainboy]

I think you actually have the more popular opinion. However, I always thought the modern day stuff grounded the entire narrative of the game. I always wanted to know what was going to happen outside the animus I mean after all isnt that the whole point of going into the animus in the first place?

Obviously inside the animus is more fun but in terms of story I really wanted to know what was going on outside the animus. They've really milked the Ac free of all story. It's hard to care about any of it anymore because there hasnt been a payoff in 5 or so games. That's why I think it's common for people to prefer the story in the animus as it's own game, players have stopped following the overall story long ago.

[ShugaCane]

Well I see what you mean, but they really could've simply developed the whole Assassins/Templars storylines without the concept of the Animus, etc. Desmond's story got weaker and weaker with each episode. Now I would like a AC game with no useless sequences in modern times.

[fragnificent]

Yes exactly.
I was always looking at it as maybe they might make the last game set now, i mean eventually they will run out of the past right?

[Mystogan]

I always looked forward to another present-day mission.

[Hydrolex]

So I'm guessing another GTA clone ???

[theaceh]

I always wanted to know more about the "people from before". Learning about templars and asassins in different points of history was the main reason I played every game in the series. Heck, I even wish they bring back the glyph puzzles.

[DragonKnight]

The worst part about AC4 and the animus is that, as I understand it, you will be an Abstergo employee simply watching historical events unfold in the Animus. This essentially completely reduces Desmond and his family line to a meaningless status or retcon's the whole theme of why the Animus was used and who was needed for it.

In AC1 to 3 Desmond was the only person that could relive the memories of his ancestors (they never explained why his father can't, but I digress) and his ancestors were crucial to the entire operation of both Assassin's and Templars. Edward Conway is obviously one of Desmond's ancestors and yet none of Desmond's family is needed to relive his life?

With each new iteration of Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft moves the game into ridiculously implausible realms of story and will eventually taint the whole series because of it.

[blennerville]

there's an over all story ?? ... well ill be.

The whole connection to modern times hurts the game imo. I reckon the only reason it is even in the game is that what allowes them to produce more milk.

[soniqstylz]

@DragonKnight:

Two easy explanations for why his father wasn't in the Animus -- 1) Desmond was outside The Farm, and easier to get to, 2) Who says that the Auditore or Connor genetic lines don't run through his mother?

Besides, you're worried about the implausibility of a story that let's people relive genetic memories through DNA?

[Fez]

How good and highly regarded would the AC franchise be if they had produced AC1, followed up with the *full* Ezio story in one game, AC2, and then replaced the title Watch_Dogs with AC3 with Desmond in the lead role...over the space of about 6/7 years i.e a new title once every 2/2.5 years?

That's what the whole story was building up to, and was one of the reasons the game stood out from just being an open world adventure game, and got me hooked.

But alas, the games were too successful and now the franchise is doomed to release yearly rehashes with the same gameplay mechanics over and over until noone buys it any more.

Brotherhood was great, I had my suspicions about Revelations, and now I know what Ubisoft has planned for the AC franchise.

[DragonKnight]

@soniqstylz: "Two easy explanations for why his father wasn't in the Animus -- 1) Desmond was outside The Farm, and easier to get to, 2) Who says that the Auditore or Connor genetic lines don't run through his mother?"

1) Means nothing in AC3 or afterward.
2) True, but if that were the case his mother would probably feature more prominently than a passing mention.

"Besides, you're worried about the implausibility of a story that let's people relive genetic memories through DNA?"

The theory of genetic memory is very real and I'm sticking to the plot device of the game world. It isn't plausible that for 5 console Assassin's Creed games, Desmond (or for the sake of argument someone related to him) was absolutely necessary to view genetic memories of everyone from Altair up to Connor and then suddenly all is needed is some random lab technician to relive Edward Conway's life without any need for a genetic match.

If that were the case, it renders the Animus story of literally every previous Assassin's Creed game completely meaningless as Abstergo could have just as easily used one of their own staff to locate the Apple of Eden from the very first game. Sticking within the context of the game's universe, AC4's modern day segments are utter B.S. and completely destroy the story of the previous games.

[titletownrelo]

I always wondered why they didn't just hop around epic historical eras and tell the different stories of just THAT character who follows the same creed as the others before him/her, instead of making a relevant story to tie it to the present. I really wanted to see a Westernization/Samurai setting and storyline.

[ZodTheRipper]

lol I wanted to ask the same when reading that headline! :D
I really couldn't care less about this whole Animus stuff and some of the most boring characters modern video games have seen (Desmond and his crew)
Good thing that only a small part of the AC games is featuring them.

[N8]

I agree after the first game its been pretty much a waste of time

[blennerville]

and just when i was getting interested in AC4 Pirates.

this crap is so immersion breaking it hurts the game - remove it now.

[3-4-5]

The modern era is decent, it's the stuff they make you do in it that sucks.

If the modern era was just story or cutscenes it would actually be cool. The fact you have to do useless, obviously forced in, tasks that don't add anything to the experience, shows they ran out of good ideas.

[SnakeCQC]

i like them

[360ICE]

I think of it the other way around. I have absolutely no interest in the personal story of the characters in the past. They're unbelievably cliché. For instane, how insanely many parallells could you draw between Star Wars and AC3? They're pretty much exactly the same thing!

The storyline in the present is what keeps me back. Not for ACIV now, because in ACIII it ended up sucking.

[claud3]

The whole modern era of an assassins creed game is pointless and should never have happened in any of the games

Keep it out for crying out loud

[CrossingEden]

no, without the modern day section there'd be no context -_-

[blennerville]

thats exactly what they want you to think - you have been fooled. imo its only purpose is so that they dont have to create any back story - it so called links the storys together - here look you are in modern times, now go back in time then back to modern times again - see they are linked :P.

[Eamon]

Actually, the whole concept from the beginning was a modern day conspiracy between secret organisations with a huge history between each other that stretches back hundreds of years.

People think the writers are retconing every game. That isn't true.

Watch the first scene of AC1. The dude mentions 'those who came before.' You don't even understand what that phrase means until the ending of AC2.

[Williamson]

Sounds really lame to be honest, might as well not include modern gameplay. The Ac3 ending really did screw up the story.

[GenericNameHere]

How is Desmond fitting in to all this? Now that 2012 is over, the Apple of Eden means nothing. Can we just get rid of Desmond, and just get Assassins of different eras?

[Koneesha]

Never finished 3 huh?

[GenericNameHere]

I did. Decided to just watch the ending on Youtube. Got bored of the game, stopped playing. Care to fill me in? I didn't bother watching the events leading up to the (imo) horrible ending, just went straight to it.

[The_Devil_Hunter]

Thats a load of BS and you know it.

[iBlackyi]

I Won't buy it this time probably. AC3 was really disppointing for me and Revelations was like copy and paste from Brotherhood.

AC+AC2+Brotherhood all the way!

[Murad]

Same. AC2 was phenomenal in every way. Brotherhood was a tad bit better only because the glitches and other annoying problems were fixed, but AC2 is where Ubisoft should have understood was where the story portion was, the portion gamers loved.

[rigbybot127]

I liked it (Brotherhood) more simply for the vast amount of side-quests, all of which were unique, cinematic, and amazing, and weren't just thrown in. Definitely my favorite of the series.

[Murad]

@rigbybot127
I definitely did like AC: Brotherhood, especially the assassins and all the new implementations. Personally, if I had played Brotherhood before AC2, and didn't listen to AC2's soundtrack, I would have downright stated AC: Brotherhood is by far the best in the franchise.

[titletownrelo]

lol so true. AC2/Brotherhood > Revelations.

I was so disappointed with the absence of horses in towns, quick-escape pulley systems, Brotherhood's assassins recruiting system, and how slow Ezio's movement was.

However, I did enjoy ziplining from rooftop to rooftop :]

[claud3]

Just milking the series, there is no sense of actual direction this series is going anymore.

[stuntman_mike]

I was always thought that the end game was set in the modern era with desmond using all the skills he got from his ancestors.

I like the modern day stuff but they messed around with it too much and made it convoluted.

[cellur111]

Ubisoft should have just made revelations into one of the best games of the series and ended with that but for whatever reason they decided to make it into a ac:bh rehash with a dissappointing ending. Now they are just trying to make as much money with the series as they can, ac3 wasn't good and I doubt ac 4 will be any better.

[Der_Kommandant]

I'm excited because the team who made AC2 and Brotherhood are developing this.

[MrTrololo]

AC2 & Brotherhood is the only good AC game. The rest is just garbage

[aLiEnViSiToR]

Without present day there is no AC and that is a fact and without past there is no AC also so yeah one cant go without the other, otherwise they would have ended the series at AC3 (wtf was that UBI for ending >_>, you got high on money or something... oh wait.) and no moar cashcow xD

"Nothing is true, Everything is permitted"

[MEsoJD]

I always thought the sci-fi aspect was stupid in these games.

[CuddlyREDRUM]

I think this game was announced before they even fixed the major bugs on the last one. It is about on par with Madden and COD in terms of value as a single game.

[AceBlazer13]

This franchise had so much potential sad to see it take the cod route but hey at least we have watch dogs to play unless they make that follow the same route as well.

[Coke-a-Cola]

I am so disappointed to see a very smart swashbuckling adventure game watered down with this back and forth nonsense . It will not be a day one purchase as I had dreamed .

[spiderfishheadz]

this game is sucking whack !!!! yall need to play bf4 all day every day .. ps4 on deck .. brooklyn

[magus]

I hope the next game is in the future or during the shogun period of japan.

[JumpingJames88]

If this series could live up to the potential the premise of the original established...here's hoping they do something unique and capitalize on the futuristic setting.