I won't beat around the bush. I love 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Assassin's Creed. Or at least, I used to.
Assassin's Creed II, in particular, holds a very special place in my heart. It provided my first foray into what video games actually were outside of my early childhood. And fꦛor so long, I wasn't actually allowed to play it because of its M rating. So before I could convince my parents otherwise, I borrowed my friend's copy and woke up around 3am every morning just so I could get an hour or so of the game in. Looking back on it, I know how ridiculous that sounds. But I loved the game so much and would continue to do so for the years to come.
Assassin's Creed II introduced me to a beautiful open world with fun action and interesting storytelling. I had never seen anything like it and Ezio remains one of my favorite video game characters to this day. He was charming and fun, but still exhibited true suffering. I felt for him, cared for him, and did the same during Brotherhood and Revelations.
But my love for the series didn't dwindle as Ezio's story came to a close. I continued to enjoy the next entries in the franchise because they still supported a for𒉰mat I loved. And while I can totally agree that the formula got repetitive and the combat wasn't overly difficult, I didn't care. The art of exploring new sections of history and places aroun💫d the world was enough to keep me going. Plus, I really did enjoy the gameplay.
But as I continued through the series, I couldn't get one thought out of my head: I really wanted to play as 🐎a female assassin.
After my playthrough of Assassin's Creed III, I heard about the release of Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, the first entry to feature a woman. I was ecstatic about it. From the promotional images, I saw the famous game style I knew and loved and Aveline, the new protagonist, looked so cool. Soon after, however, I realized the game would be exclusive to PlayStation Vita, which I didn't have. And while I'll admit to thinking about getting one specifically for this game, I ultimately passed and moved on. It wasn't until much later that I realized how Liberation as a game had been treated. It💦 had been confined to a system without a huge audience and Aveline as a character was never advertised as heavily as her male counterparts. It wasn't fair, and yet, nobody seemedꩵ to be talking about it.
Over the next couple years, I made my way through the next entries in the franchise. I still enjoyed what they were, bu𝄹t never felt that same love I'd experienced with Ezio's story. That is, until I met the wonderful and w🐼itty Evie Frye.
Assassin's Creed: Syndicate was a turning point for me and it was all because of one half of the magnificent Frye twins. Evie was the character I had been waiting for. She was strong in her beliefs, a keen fighter, extremely clever, and even her outfits were spectacular. It bummed me out that she didn't play a huge part in the main story, leaving most its emotional beats to Jacob, but because of that, Evie and I spent hours together exploring the world and taking on side quests. It was the most fun I'd had with an Assassin's Creed game in years and it reignited my love 𒁃for the fr🌊anchise.
But as luck would have it, Syndicate was the last Assassin's Creed game I would ever finish. Once Origins rolled around, the formula had changed and I wasn't keen on its differences. The series' new RPG elements definitely gave the franchise a much needed change, but it wasn't the change I wanted to see. The gameplay no longer hooked me, and while the world in Origins was no doubt beautiful, the main character, Bayek, failed to dra🍷w me in. I wasn't interested in his story and thus, had no motivation to continue.
When 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Assassin's Creed Odyssey was announced about a year or so later, I won't deny that I was interested. My fascination with the Greek setting w🅰as helpful and when I found out you c🍷ould choose either a male or female protagonist, I was intrigued. But as more came out about the treatment of Kassandra in the game, especially recently, I found myself distancing even more from the franchise.
The fact that Ubisoft reversed the decision of having Kassandra as the only playable character within Odyssey boiled my blood. The concept that "women don't sell" was common at Ubisoft and the idea was frankly ridiculous to me. They couldn't even put her on the ♕box art without feeling fear of poor sales.
And yet, some developers wanted the exact opposite. Originally, Bayek was supposed to be killed off near the middle of Origins to make room for Aya, and my dear Evie Frye was supposed to have a much larger role in Syndicate. All o♚f these ideas𒉰 were shot down and it leaves me to think what would've happened if they weren't?
I abandoned the Assassin's Creed franchise because of the gameplay as it no longer matched my tastes, but I stayed away because it lacked the representation I was looking for. If Kassandra had been Odyssey's sole protagonist, I probably would've picked the game up, but even now Ubisoft is still pulling their same old tricks. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, whi🍰ch is coming out later this year, also gives players the choice on whether to play as a male or female protagonist. But howꦗ was I supposed to tell based on the promotional footage and images?
It depresses me because I used to love Assassin's Creed and might have given it a second chance if their female characters were highlighted and more fleshed out. But I guess Ubisoft has proved time and time again that they're not ready for that. And honestly, it's a real shame.