A few days ago I was filled with yearning for Assassin's Creed. I loved Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood in my high school years. Loved it dearly. I loved parkouring. I loved exploring Florence and Venice and Rome and learning their history. I was attached to Ezio and Desmond. The combat was forgettable, but who cares about that when the final boss had you fistfighting a pope in the Vatican.
I stopped playing the series after AC IV Black Flag... for some reason. Must be because they're expensive and my machine can no longer run the modern games. Yeah, must be it. Besides, open worlds like Odyssey don't really appeal to me; it's the parkour, the exploration of one lovingly crafted city that I wanted, and Ubisoft didn't make games like that anymore.
Well, I have a pretty good rig now, it can play just about anything released this year and maybe for the next three years too. Assassin's Creed Mirage is just out and is on sale and it claims to take the series back to the good old exploring one lovingly crafted city roots, so I was very tempted to revisit a game series I used to love.
The game isn't on Steam, so I needed to install Ubisoft's launcher to buy and download it. Sure, I don't mind, but I'll need some assurance that it's reliable enough. Hmm, didn't I have an Assassin's Creed or other for free ages ago but I haven't touched it? Ah yes, Assassin's Creed Unity. The one about the French revolution. What if I try this one instead? Maybe I'll like it enough I won't have to spend money for Mirage after all to satisfy my parkour-history yearning.
I installed it. I played it. It was. Hahaha, oh it was bad. An hour in and I was barely interested with anything that happens in it. The combat especially made me question why they even have a combat sequence anywhere within that first hour at all. It wasn't so bad that I didn't think they'd have improved by the time they made Mirage, and I would have brushed it off if it doesn't also gave me terrible motion sickness.
Just, horrid. My head was throbbing the whole time. I remember now why I never finish Black Flag, or Prey, or any of the AAA I ever had the chance of trying over the years. I can't play 3D games with realistic graphic, especially if they don't allow me to adjust the camera speed or the distance to the player.
This isn't a hard and fast rule. I enjoyed Control up to a point; it was interesting enough to keep me going and I was completely enraptured by the brutalist aesthetic, so I could push pass the discomfort, even though I never ended up finishing the game. I managed to play Elden Ring and Tomb Raider, provided I'm playing from a good distance with some proper cushioning. I enjoyed most of my time with NieR Automata, though it was less comfortable to play than the original NieR (well aside from the fact that I like the story and characters in the original NieR more).
And of course I have absolutely no problem with more stylized art style. I have next to no discomfort with Breath of the Wild and Genshin Impact, and I love Splatoon despite the high speed cameraplay, the sort of stuffs you'd think motion sickness are made of.
But Assassin's Creed... I dunno. I tried fiddling with the control and camera but couldn't find something that fits. It's just not worth the trouble for a game this mediocre, and I doubt Mirage will make it worth the trouble, despite me really wanting to explore Baghdad.
Ah. Well. I'm sure if I look hard enough, someone out there already made an indie 2D platformer set in the same time period that can satisfy my craving. There are already so many good games to choose from, why should I settle for something that gives me pain? If AAA game studios want to spend thousands of man-hours just to make games even more unplayable for me, well whatever. I'm just not their target audience. World's big enough.
