After 300 years, the Templars have captured Masyaf Castle, home of original Hashashin, including the legendary Altair Ibn-La’Ahad.
What does that leave for Ezio, searching for the legacy of one of history’s greatest Assassins?
Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud
I am willing to concede that my judgement may have been hasty, and that it might be a good thing that the use the set-piece before this bringing us to the brink of death to narratively justify why Ezio can’t use his parkour skills for the segment that follows.
However, I do think it’s also fair to have that feeling in the moment since that is, to some degree, what the designers intentions are. Yes, the segment is bullshit, but that’s largely because Ezio isn’t as young as he used to be and that kind of damage doesn’t heal as quickly as it used to. If anything, it might have been cool to see Ezio adapt his skills and fighting style for an older body that’s not quite as capable as it used to be.
Unfortunately, that’s just not the kind of advancement we see in video games. By their nature, they tend to skew towards power fantasies. And by the iterative nature of a sequel, players tend to want new abilities and tools grafted onto the existing framework. Even if the team at Ubisoft wanted to explore how age affected the character (which, in fairness, they probably didn’t), they probably wouldn’t have had support from either the publisher or the player base.
And in fairness, early-50s still in the realm of middle mage, even if its the upper boundary of it. Even back then, people could be relatively healthy at that age bracket. Admittedly, it’s unlikely for a man who lives as dangerous a life as Ezio’s, but it’s not impossible either.
It just might’ve been more interesting to play with that for more than this short segment.
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