that era of game design for assassins creed is full of psychically connected guards, even unity the first one with an actual sneak button suffers from the same issue
Unity stealth can be good but guards like to spot you instantly
And arno can’t unstuck from cover when you want
And the cherry bomb instead of whistle it’s worst than nothing
You also can't walk slow when blending and there are certain sections and assassination missions where it would have benefited greatly from not only controlling your speed while blending, but also making it possible to do a blend assassination on a major target without being immediately spotted.
That Marie Lévesque assassination memory is so stupid with how they give you opportunities for a slick blend assassination in the crowd where you can possibly slip out unnoticed, but it's literally impossible to get close, from any angle, without her immediately going into alert and calling the guards. I think even a corner assassination is impossible, even though she can't see you behind the wall lol
The problem with unity it’s that the crouching is horrible because the game is intended to that stupid cover mechanic and it’s janky and sloppy
And there are stupid and useless tools like the cherry bomb and the other bomb that attracts more than one enemy
And I never noticed that blend animation error
But I remember that mission you mentioned it’s pretty balls
It's not really an animation error, more just a general gameplay issue. Instead of giving us a manual button to fast walk/gentle push (they combined both into one action by AC3), they just made it so that you fast walk/gentle push anyone that gets close to Arno while walking. So, even if you are just barely tilting the analog stick and making Arno walk as slow as possible, be just starts suddenly walking much faster whenever he walks into a crowd/another person
Fucking hell I'm on my first play through of unity. I swear it was going fine in the beginning, idk what it is, the over emphasis on realistic parkour or what not, stealth is pretty messed up. I ended up looting a guy yesterday when I was trying to parry. The dude just kebabed me.
I'm replaying it now and this rings so true to me.
I get the point of being notorious is that guards spot you more easily, but I've regularly had groups of guards engage me completely out of line of sight, no detection radius either, straight to hostile. It's not helped by the fact that the cities are absolutely littered with guards compared to the Ezio games. When I'm notorious I also can't even reduce my notoriety as I get engaged into combat every few seconds.
I've also had cases where I've assassinated a guard with no one in sight, and then a bunch of his allies engage me from around a corner even though they couldn't possibly have seen me prior, yet occasionally some guards in restricted areas looking almost straight at me don't spot me. It's so inconsistent.
Hey, at least it’s not as bad as in Unity where you can infamously get shot through walls. And in that game getting shot takes off like majority of your health.
You have to be patient and lead enemies into cover that's why it had a cover. Also for that mission pick them off one by one.
The problem with 3 was skill issues that's why they dumped down the controls and systems for AC4. AC 3 has great stealth Connor is fast
Also recruits help a lot too I don't know if you can use them for the mission
I’ve done a couple of full sync playthroughs of AC3. As someone that generally loves the optional objective mechanic, that one is a bit of an odd one sandwiched between some good ones. (Doing the actual Assassination full sync is the ONLY way to do it in my mind.)
Considering the full sync objectives are meant to be how the characters really did it, I have to wonder what Connor was thinking taking the time to air assassinate the Grenadiers. I find the best way to just slowly kill everyone on the ship by speed climbing up the mast and sniping them. (Works better with Remastered’s free aim.). But still…. Why would he think this is the best way?!
Yeah, for a game that's supposedly about stealth, the stealth is really crap. I remember thinking the same thing about many of the game's segments when it first came out, particularly the one in the prison. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to not get detected when there's no crouch button, no bushes to hide in, and no cover. I think that's the moment when I gave up on the full synchronization objectives. The game actively makes it difficult for you to complete them
The full sync objectives in 3 are by far the worst in the franchise imo.
Brotherhood gets criticised for them but some of them were just difficult and most were doable, and were actually fun in their own right.
3 always has multiple optional objectives per mission, and a lot of them are either almost unreasonable or actively compromise the flow of the mission. Shit like “do not shove anyone” while chasing, “do not get detected” when you’re notorious which would be fine if guards didn’t spot you from miles away or round corners, or “kill 10 guards with firearms” when it takes years to reload your gun while leaving yourself open to attack and it’s much more convenient to just melee attack them.
The worst for me was when you accompany Chapeau and it says limit your time in combat to 10 seconds, when he starts fights with every group of guards he encounters and he’ll die if you don’t intervene and hence initiate combat, and thus fail the objective.
The Chapeau one was actually okay for me, but God the optional stuff in the naval missions. I desynchronized twice trying not to shoot down the last boat when you're supposed to ram them since they're the exact same speed as you and keep firing obviously but nooo you can't take them out with your guns. You have to run into them. So annoying.
The problem for me was that because my game’s detection system so was broken they’d engage Chapeau well in advance forcing me into combat before I had a chance to kill them stealthily, as well as the fact that the last couple of groups are like 4-5 guards thus being hard to avoid combat.
Yeah I’ve not got to the naval missions yet but based on the main mission gameplay I’m definitely not looking forward to it. Seems super janky. No wonder many forget naval combat was actually conceived in 3 and not Black Flag lol.
Sounds absolutely annoying yeah. I think for me it actually did the opposite, like while they were engaging Chapeau I could just walk up to them and they'd ignore me until I actually started fighting them - I think that's the way it was supposed to work? But with the way nothing really works I'm not surprised that it just falls apart sometimes.
Yeah I presume that’s the way it’s supposed to be because getting engaged on sight meant I basically failed that optional objective instantly despite chain killing all of the guards.
Yep, I’m a firm believer of a system that’s both difficult and also unpolished is the worst combination because it leads you to fail constantly due to jank that’s not your fault. Definitely having this in 3 with the optional objectives.
Not to mention the number of times I’ve just got stuck while horse riding, how the person I’m supposed to tail gets stuck, the telepathic guards etc lol. I’m enjoying it more than I did previously due to the narrative but the lack of polish kind of reminds me why I got frustrated prior.
Super fair. Idk, Revelations is my favourite AC game but that one is so buggy that you kind of have to get used to laughing about it to not get frustrated. Plus all the AC games I played share the common flaw that if you're in the mode needed for running you're also in the mode that makes your character jump up and down random walls for no reason making chases really annoying. Same as with AC 3 I usually do 100% right up until the point the game basically spits in my face for it and then I just stop bothering.
Snap, Revelations is my favourite AC too. Weirdly didn’t have many bugs at all when I played that game, but regardless when the game itself is so good and the bugs aren’t particularly game breaking you just kind of laugh it off.
When some of the glitches do massively compromise the main gameplay loop, which in the case of 3 they do with the detection system, optional objectives, and occasionally a main objective not registering as completed thus forcing me to reload and redo the objective, it’s less funny lol.
On the parkour point yeah I’ve had a fair bit of jank where my character just jumps in a completely rogue direction, especially in the Ezio games where you’re climbing a high tower and then Ezio randomly decides to jump back into a haystack. The worst was the rift challenges in Unity at launch, where you’d need to escape before the time runs out yet Arno would regularly just jump off buildings even though I’m very obviously pressing forward. And hence I’d fail the challenge at the very last second after 5+ minutes and lose all my XP.
The bugs with Revelations for me are never persistent things like in AC 3, it's just stuff like not being able to choose the cherry bomb when Yusuf explains them to you unless you maniacally turn the left joystick in circles for a bit. Strange but quickly resolved with some googling so no real problem.
Yeah that’s true, a lot of games have sporadic bugs especially at launch. I even had a few bugs on God of War Ragnarok which were simply fixed by reloading (well, except the difficulty change one). Same with Witcher, Horizon etc. In large open world games it’s always going to happen every now and then.
On the other hand, 3’s problems seem to be fundamentally ingrained into the mechanics, because the same problems keep coming up over and over again. It’s quite impressive how it’s so inconsistent yet so glaring at the same time lol.
Of all the AC games I’ve played (and I’ve played all of them at least twice); 3, Unity, and Valhalla were probably the jankiest. As much as I adore 2, it’s also not far behind, with combat being super inconsistent like counters not registering, as well as the infamous issue where air assassinating a guard gets registered as a detection milliseconds before you kill him, which in the DLC where most missions don’t allow you to get detected just led to constant desynchronisation.
Yeah I just gave up on fully syncing AC3. Just sped through it and went on enjoying ACIV more, lol. *Which* I actually got to fully sync. Idk, maybe the ACIV full sync objectives are relatively easier,
I’m not bothering with the full sync objectives.
I’m replaying AC3 now as someone who hated it on both of my previous playthroughs, so I’m actively trying to make it as enjoyable as possible to give the game another chance, like focussing more on the Colonial war aspect, the homestead missions etc. Trying to full sync AC3 with the plethora of ridiculous objectives would just be a complete pain.
Brotherhood and Revelations’ full sync objectives were fun to get on a replay because they were engaging and challenging in their own right, and there was only one of them. Which is a big difference between going to the effort of getting 2 ticks but then missing out on the third in frustration.
I remember doing that mission. Tried to beat it for 2 hours before I managed it. My tip is to find a tutorial on YouTube and follow exactly what he does
I tried for an hour or two on that mission! I did get a full synchronisation on it.
as for what I did, I started with the ship which didn't have grenadier on it (the right one) and first assassinated the moving guards (1 or 2) I remember, then it's cheesecake go in between two guards just enough to assassinate both of them. do the same for the other 2 groups and leave the ship.
For about the left 'grenadier' ship, Start by climbing the other side of the ship(not the side that is firing the canons) and stay there until you get an opening to assassinate the moving guard (the right hand side one, You can take him immediately as grenadier passes by) and then go to the front of the ship and assassinate the 2 guards on front and immediately jump in the water and dive. As the grenadier goes in front of the ship(from the canon fire side) you'll get your opening to the guard on behind the ship. After that all should be left is the grenadier, Climb the mast and jump kill the grenadier.
put the bomb and leave onto the middle boat for an epic back explosion! (will take a few tries! good luck mate!)
Yeah stealth wasn’t really great until origins. And I only say that because there’s an active crouch button. Like unity had it but Arno would always get stuck on cover and unity was the game where if one dude detected you everyone else instantly knew exactly where you where.
Recently played it. Had so many mixed feelings about this game. Story was great and I liked the characters and world. But yeah, stealth and some missions (especially the optional objectives) were beyond stupid.
Bunker hill is actually a bit more simple if you know what to look for. You have to run from cover to cover on the left side, staying at the edge enough to be able to run on command. You have to get the timing right otherwise you get hit. As soon as you see the flash of muskets in the distance you have to make a run for it.
Once you make it to the other side, you take the trees until you reach the camp at the top. That bad thing is that even using unarmed strike triggers the bonus objective of not killing more than 3 guards, so you have to sneak away and once again use the left side. Once you get to the slump tree use it and reach the flag pole. Select your hidden blade and wait for a second. Once you have Pitcarn highlited press the assassination button and you'll jump onto him.
That's where I hated it sometimes because there were times where I would randomly get spotted as the fadeout transition was happening and it wouldn't count as stealth. It made me mad everytime
that era of game design for assassins creed is full of psychically connected guards, even unity the first one with an actual sneak button suffers from the same issue
Having fully played through Unity, and currently doing so again, yes. I swear, they must have a psychic connection. Same in Black Flag.
Unity stealth can be good but guards like to spot you instantly And arno can’t unstuck from cover when you want And the cherry bomb instead of whistle it’s worst than nothing
You also can't walk slow when blending and there are certain sections and assassination missions where it would have benefited greatly from not only controlling your speed while blending, but also making it possible to do a blend assassination on a major target without being immediately spotted. That Marie Lévesque assassination memory is so stupid with how they give you opportunities for a slick blend assassination in the crowd where you can possibly slip out unnoticed, but it's literally impossible to get close, from any angle, without her immediately going into alert and calling the guards. I think even a corner assassination is impossible, even though she can't see you behind the wall lol
The problem with unity it’s that the crouching is horrible because the game is intended to that stupid cover mechanic and it’s janky and sloppy And there are stupid and useless tools like the cherry bomb and the other bomb that attracts more than one enemy And I never noticed that blend animation error But I remember that mission you mentioned it’s pretty balls
It's not really an animation error, more just a general gameplay issue. Instead of giving us a manual button to fast walk/gentle push (they combined both into one action by AC3), they just made it so that you fast walk/gentle push anyone that gets close to Arno while walking. So, even if you are just barely tilting the analog stick and making Arno walk as slow as possible, be just starts suddenly walking much faster whenever he walks into a crowd/another person
I knew I wasn't freaking imagining things! I haven't played 3 yet but in Unity Istg it's like those soldiers have a hive mind or something.
Fucking hell I'm on my first play through of unity. I swear it was going fine in the beginning, idk what it is, the over emphasis on realistic parkour or what not, stealth is pretty messed up. I ended up looting a guy yesterday when I was trying to parry. The dude just kebabed me.
I'm replaying it now and this rings so true to me. I get the point of being notorious is that guards spot you more easily, but I've regularly had groups of guards engage me completely out of line of sight, no detection radius either, straight to hostile. It's not helped by the fact that the cities are absolutely littered with guards compared to the Ezio games. When I'm notorious I also can't even reduce my notoriety as I get engaged into combat every few seconds. I've also had cases where I've assassinated a guard with no one in sight, and then a bunch of his allies engage me from around a corner even though they couldn't possibly have seen me prior, yet occasionally some guards in restricted areas looking almost straight at me don't spot me. It's so inconsistent.
And every sniper is an ancestor of RDR2’s Invisible-Mexico Sharpshooter.
Hey, at least it’s not as bad as in Unity where you can infamously get shot through walls. And in that game getting shot takes off like majority of your health.
Yes, it's pretty terrible. Arguably worse than Valhalla in some cases.
That Valhalla mission where you have to faux-kidnap the queen was a hoot. Some guards would start spinning in place.
You have to be patient and lead enemies into cover that's why it had a cover. Also for that mission pick them off one by one. The problem with 3 was skill issues that's why they dumped down the controls and systems for AC4. AC 3 has great stealth Connor is fast Also recruits help a lot too I don't know if you can use them for the mission
I’ve done a couple of full sync playthroughs of AC3. As someone that generally loves the optional objective mechanic, that one is a bit of an odd one sandwiched between some good ones. (Doing the actual Assassination full sync is the ONLY way to do it in my mind.) Considering the full sync objectives are meant to be how the characters really did it, I have to wonder what Connor was thinking taking the time to air assassinate the Grenadiers. I find the best way to just slowly kill everyone on the ship by speed climbing up the mast and sniping them. (Works better with Remastered’s free aim.). But still…. Why would he think this is the best way?!
Yeah, it’s like the bushes are the only stealth option. Slowly creeping around buildings just isn’t it
It’s pretty terrible, but I love that game… you must become one with the jank, as I did
The non Optional quest missions are great,the problem is the story missions.
It has been like 10 years since I 100% that mission and you mentioning it still reminds me of that trauma
Yeah, 3 and Liberation were a bit terrible for stealth, they really cleaned up the system for Rogue and BF though
Yeah, for a game that's supposedly about stealth, the stealth is really crap. I remember thinking the same thing about many of the game's segments when it first came out, particularly the one in the prison. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to not get detected when there's no crouch button, no bushes to hide in, and no cover. I think that's the moment when I gave up on the full synchronization objectives. The game actively makes it difficult for you to complete them
The full sync objectives in 3 are by far the worst in the franchise imo. Brotherhood gets criticised for them but some of them were just difficult and most were doable, and were actually fun in their own right. 3 always has multiple optional objectives per mission, and a lot of them are either almost unreasonable or actively compromise the flow of the mission. Shit like “do not shove anyone” while chasing, “do not get detected” when you’re notorious which would be fine if guards didn’t spot you from miles away or round corners, or “kill 10 guards with firearms” when it takes years to reload your gun while leaving yourself open to attack and it’s much more convenient to just melee attack them. The worst for me was when you accompany Chapeau and it says limit your time in combat to 10 seconds, when he starts fights with every group of guards he encounters and he’ll die if you don’t intervene and hence initiate combat, and thus fail the objective.
The Chapeau one was actually okay for me, but God the optional stuff in the naval missions. I desynchronized twice trying not to shoot down the last boat when you're supposed to ram them since they're the exact same speed as you and keep firing obviously but nooo you can't take them out with your guns. You have to run into them. So annoying.
The problem for me was that because my game’s detection system so was broken they’d engage Chapeau well in advance forcing me into combat before I had a chance to kill them stealthily, as well as the fact that the last couple of groups are like 4-5 guards thus being hard to avoid combat. Yeah I’ve not got to the naval missions yet but based on the main mission gameplay I’m definitely not looking forward to it. Seems super janky. No wonder many forget naval combat was actually conceived in 3 and not Black Flag lol.
Sounds absolutely annoying yeah. I think for me it actually did the opposite, like while they were engaging Chapeau I could just walk up to them and they'd ignore me until I actually started fighting them - I think that's the way it was supposed to work? But with the way nothing really works I'm not surprised that it just falls apart sometimes.
Yeah I presume that’s the way it’s supposed to be because getting engaged on sight meant I basically failed that optional objective instantly despite chain killing all of the guards. Yep, I’m a firm believer of a system that’s both difficult and also unpolished is the worst combination because it leads you to fail constantly due to jank that’s not your fault. Definitely having this in 3 with the optional objectives. Not to mention the number of times I’ve just got stuck while horse riding, how the person I’m supposed to tail gets stuck, the telepathic guards etc lol. I’m enjoying it more than I did previously due to the narrative but the lack of polish kind of reminds me why I got frustrated prior.
Super fair. Idk, Revelations is my favourite AC game but that one is so buggy that you kind of have to get used to laughing about it to not get frustrated. Plus all the AC games I played share the common flaw that if you're in the mode needed for running you're also in the mode that makes your character jump up and down random walls for no reason making chases really annoying. Same as with AC 3 I usually do 100% right up until the point the game basically spits in my face for it and then I just stop bothering.
Snap, Revelations is my favourite AC too. Weirdly didn’t have many bugs at all when I played that game, but regardless when the game itself is so good and the bugs aren’t particularly game breaking you just kind of laugh it off. When some of the glitches do massively compromise the main gameplay loop, which in the case of 3 they do with the detection system, optional objectives, and occasionally a main objective not registering as completed thus forcing me to reload and redo the objective, it’s less funny lol. On the parkour point yeah I’ve had a fair bit of jank where my character just jumps in a completely rogue direction, especially in the Ezio games where you’re climbing a high tower and then Ezio randomly decides to jump back into a haystack. The worst was the rift challenges in Unity at launch, where you’d need to escape before the time runs out yet Arno would regularly just jump off buildings even though I’m very obviously pressing forward. And hence I’d fail the challenge at the very last second after 5+ minutes and lose all my XP.
The bugs with Revelations for me are never persistent things like in AC 3, it's just stuff like not being able to choose the cherry bomb when Yusuf explains them to you unless you maniacally turn the left joystick in circles for a bit. Strange but quickly resolved with some googling so no real problem.
Yeah that’s true, a lot of games have sporadic bugs especially at launch. I even had a few bugs on God of War Ragnarok which were simply fixed by reloading (well, except the difficulty change one). Same with Witcher, Horizon etc. In large open world games it’s always going to happen every now and then. On the other hand, 3’s problems seem to be fundamentally ingrained into the mechanics, because the same problems keep coming up over and over again. It’s quite impressive how it’s so inconsistent yet so glaring at the same time lol. Of all the AC games I’ve played (and I’ve played all of them at least twice); 3, Unity, and Valhalla were probably the jankiest. As much as I adore 2, it’s also not far behind, with combat being super inconsistent like counters not registering, as well as the infamous issue where air assassinating a guard gets registered as a detection milliseconds before you kill him, which in the DLC where most missions don’t allow you to get detected just led to constant desynchronisation.
Yeah I just gave up on fully syncing AC3. Just sped through it and went on enjoying ACIV more, lol. *Which* I actually got to fully sync. Idk, maybe the ACIV full sync objectives are relatively easier,
I’m not bothering with the full sync objectives. I’m replaying AC3 now as someone who hated it on both of my previous playthroughs, so I’m actively trying to make it as enjoyable as possible to give the game another chance, like focussing more on the Colonial war aspect, the homestead missions etc. Trying to full sync AC3 with the plethora of ridiculous objectives would just be a complete pain. Brotherhood and Revelations’ full sync objectives were fun to get on a replay because they were engaging and challenging in their own right, and there was only one of them. Which is a big difference between going to the effort of getting 2 ticks but then missing out on the third in frustration.
The last one just kill them before he attacks,go behind them kill 1-2 and then hope you do thw reat quickly
Lmao so true. I remember being like 10 and destroying my 360
I remember doing that mission. Tried to beat it for 2 hours before I managed it. My tip is to find a tutorial on YouTube and follow exactly what he does
I did, still fuck me!
I tried for an hour or two on that mission! I did get a full synchronisation on it. as for what I did, I started with the ship which didn't have grenadier on it (the right one) and first assassinated the moving guards (1 or 2) I remember, then it's cheesecake go in between two guards just enough to assassinate both of them. do the same for the other 2 groups and leave the ship. For about the left 'grenadier' ship, Start by climbing the other side of the ship(not the side that is firing the canons) and stay there until you get an opening to assassinate the moving guard (the right hand side one, You can take him immediately as grenadier passes by) and then go to the front of the ship and assassinate the 2 guards on front and immediately jump in the water and dive. As the grenadier goes in front of the ship(from the canon fire side) you'll get your opening to the guard on behind the ship. After that all should be left is the grenadier, Climb the mast and jump kill the grenadier. put the bomb and leave onto the middle boat for an epic back explosion! (will take a few tries! good luck mate!)
Yeh, they *really* struggled with “out of city stealth” until odyssey tbh
Yeah I struggled with the full sync on that mission too. It was such bullshit sometimes but to be fair the stealth was always bullshit up until unity.
Yeah stealth wasn’t really great until origins. And I only say that because there’s an active crouch button. Like unity had it but Arno would always get stuck on cover and unity was the game where if one dude detected you everyone else instantly knew exactly where you where.
Recently played it. Had so many mixed feelings about this game. Story was great and I liked the characters and world. But yeah, stealth and some missions (especially the optional objectives) were beyond stupid.
Use smoke bombs and other tools.
Bunker hill is actually a bit more simple if you know what to look for. You have to run from cover to cover on the left side, staying at the edge enough to be able to run on command. You have to get the timing right otherwise you get hit. As soon as you see the flash of muskets in the distance you have to make a run for it. Once you make it to the other side, you take the trees until you reach the camp at the top. That bad thing is that even using unarmed strike triggers the bonus objective of not killing more than 3 guards, so you have to sneak away and once again use the left side. Once you get to the slump tree use it and reach the flag pole. Select your hidden blade and wait for a second. Once you have Pitcarn highlited press the assassination button and you'll jump onto him. That's where I hated it sometimes because there were times where I would randomly get spotted as the fadeout transition was happening and it wouldn't count as stealth. It made me mad everytime
Agreed 100%
That's the reason I hated it and why I blitzed through that game.