We apparently have to save an actor from Cesare’s incestuous relationship with his sister, and to be honest I’ve started losing the plot on why.
Oh well. It doesn’t matter. Let’s just dress up in our costume and solve the problem.
Streamed at https://www.twitch.tv/newdarkcloud
I don’t have much to say about the reveal about Machiavelli aside from the fact that I don’t think it adds anything to the story. In fact it makes both him and La Volpe look inept despite being some of the best in their respective fields. Adults who are part of the same secret society should have the ability to use their words and talk, instead of being so secretive they raise suspicion with their own allies.
What I want to focus on more is the mission design that I’ve notice, particularly with the scenario involving the play. One of the reason I dislike Grand Theft Auto games is their mission design. Rather than take advantage of the open world that it is known for, its mission structure is often very tightly scripted, to the point where even slight deviations end in failure. While this was occasionally true about missions in Assassin’s Creed 2, it feels as though either it’s happening more often or more severely here in Brotherhood.
I reflect on the first Assassin’s Creed game, and what draws me back to that game, and compare that with the mission with the play in the Colosseum, and I can’t help but be disappointed. We could have had more open mission structures that allowed us to flex our tools. On the other hand, I suppose they have to limit us because what we have access to it extraordinarily powerful. It’s strange that we have to go through and enact this play when we literally have a gun mounted to our wrist, and when the target could have been assassinated before he ever made an attempt on Pietro’s life.
Ultimately, those are superfluous critiques that could be easily hand-waved away with a different setup. The problem is that I’m noticing them at all. If I was truly invested in this mission, I wouldn’t have the attention span left in my mind to start asking those questions, still adhering to the willing suspension of disbelief. If I was engrossed in the mission, I wouldn’t be wondering why Ezio doesn’t just shoot him.
In other words, the mission itself isn’t interesting enough to carry the weight it needs to bear for this scenario to work. That’s a problem unique to video games, but it is a problem nonetheless.
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