Assassins
Creed – the series
1 ) The Tetrad
1.1 Mechanics
The
mechanics of Assassins creed are very different from other games. The series is
famous for using stealth and strategy with parkour. So, basically you can climb
any building in the game, and you can use it to make surprising attacks or to
run from enemies. Also, stealth is very important in this game. If you are
detected by your enemies, it is harder to accomplish your goals and in some
missions you can fail if you were detected. Finally, strategy is another
important point. The player has several options to accomplish a mission and it
is up to the player decide which one he wants to use. You can adopt a more
stealthy or aggressive style of play. Each player can choose the style of
playing that fits to him. However, in some missions the player is obligated to
fulfill the mission in a particular way.
1.2 Story
The Assassin's
Creed games primarily revolves
around the rivalry between two ancient secret societies: the Assassins and the Knights Templar. The game is settle in our
period of time, the 21 century, but, you spend most time of the game playing in
historical periods of time. This is possible because the megacorporation
Abstergo industries, the modern-day face of the knights Templar, created a
machine called “animus” that can make the main character relive the memories of
his ancestors. The main character of the game is called Desmond and he is
descent of the assassin’s society. He was kidnapped by Abstergo industries, so
they can make him use the machine to relive memories from his ancestors.
1.3 Aesthetics
The
aesthetics of this game are so well build that sometimes you can believe that
the two secret societies existed. The way that this series mixed real facts of
the history with the fiction of the game, created a very powerful aesthetics,
and you can confirm it by the success of this series in the game market. Also,
the details that the historical periods were represented, like the buildings,
the cloths, the weapons, were very concise with the story of the game and the
real history.
1.4 Technology
The
technology of the game is another point that support the aesthetics. The game
floats in two periods of time. Our time and a historical time, when you are
using the animus machine. Each period of time are very different from each
other, and the technology helps to make the distinction between the ages. For
example, if you are playing in the historical period you will have to use
knifes, swords, very primitive guns, and stuff like that, because these were
the technology of the period. So, all the Tetrad is very concise and well-built
with the story of the game.
2) Balance
The game is
very well balanced. As I mentioned in the mechanics, there is several ways of
doing a mission, and each way causes a different reaction in the game. For
example, for some missions, it will be better to use the stealth instead of
being discovered and try to kill all the enemies. You can use either way, but
if you choose to be discovered and kill all the enemies, the mission will be
much harder, than if you tried to do it using stealth.
3) Emergent
Properties
There are a
bunch of emergent properties in this game. Each action that you choose will
have influence in the playability and this covers since each weapon to use, or
each way to choose. Also, this actions have influence in the balance of the
game too, because depending of your choice, your experience could be harder or
easier, and this is something that you learn while you are playing the game.
Moreover, I think that it makes the game adaptable to each different player,
and this is something good because you can expand your game to more different
styles of players.
4) Interest
curves
I will talk
about my experience playing this series. I started to play the third game of
the series called Brotherhood, so I didn’t know the story from the first games.
But when I finished the game, I became a fan. They finished with an epic
climax, and also letting in the air clues about the next game. I remember being
very excited to play the next game. Also, some moments after finishing the game
I went to Google to search more about this series and discover more about the
story. So, I am pretty sure that this game follow the concept of the interest
curves, and I think that my experience is a real proof of it.
5) Why I liked this game
Assassin’s creed – Brotherhood was the first game of this series that I
played and I loved it. I remember that I was fascinated with the story of the
game and how UbiSoft mixed fantasy with real history. The fact that I really
enjoy studying history helped to get in love with this series. Also, I enjoy
the mechanics of the game. The fact that you can accomplish the same mission in
different ways is another point that I admire in this kind of game. Moreover, I am a huge fan of open world games
and adventure too. So this series have a lot of components together that I
enjoy in games and that is why I really like this whole series.
Mass Effect – The series
1) The Tetrad
1.1 Mechanics
Mass effect is a shooter game. You have the basics mechanics of a
shooter game, but they also implemented a system of progression of the
characters. So it is a mixed between shooter and RPG game. As you advance in
the game, characters will gain experience points which can be used to increase
the damage of weapons or the life of the characters. It is up to the player
define which attributes are better to increase according to his strategy of
playing. Also, you play with a team. You control the main character and the PC control
the order two members of your team, but you, as the leader of the group, could
give instructions to your team, like where to stay in combat, or which enemies
to attack. As you can see, you have strategy as part of the mechanics too.
1.2 Story
This series is a science fiction series. So the game is set in the
future in which the galaxy is populated by several different species throughout
its vastness. The galactic community partitioned
the Milky Way into 5 different sectors, known as the Terminus Systems, the
Attican Traverse, Inner and Outer Council Space, and Alliance Space. Earth is a significant setting
particularly in the third installment, and another highly culminating setting
is the space station known as the Citadel. The game focuses on the
protagonist, Commander Shepard, and his or her quest to stop the rogue Spectre
Saren Arterius from leading an army of sentient machines, called the Geth, to
conquer the galaxy. During pursuit of Saren, Shepard learns of a far greater
threat in the form of the Reapers. Saren has been mentally enslaved by the
Reaper vanguard Sovereign, and sent into
Citadel Space to initiate the purge of all advanced sentient life in the
galaxy, a cycle repeated by the Reapers every 50,000 years.
1.3 Aesthetics
This is another game that have a well-built aesthetics
to support the story. Because this game is set in the future, the
player has access to future guns, spaceships (to travel around the universe),
special powers (each specie has a special power), etc. BioWare, which is the
company that developed this series, created a bunch of species to dwell the
galaxy and to support the story. When I played this game, I was very impressed
with the quality of the details that it has.
1.4 Technology
As mentioned before, this series is set in the future
of our history. So, the technology chose to this game was based in science
fiction. You live in an era where travel to a planet to other is quickly as
travelling to a city to another in earth. Also, you have the interaction
between humans and a bunch of other species that dwell our galaxy. Because it
is a science fiction series, the developers had a lot of freedom to create the
universe of the game. The species are one example of this freedom. You have the
Asari, Drell, Elcor, Hanar, Humans, Keepers, Salarians, Turians and Volus. All them
are different and have special abilities. Also, you have a lot of weapons too
and you can increase the damage that your character do with each type of weapon
when you earn experience points.
2) Balance
The game is well balanced and you can noticed this in
the weapons and the characters too. Each weapon does a different percent of damage.
Weapons that does more damage has less bullets. Another example are the races.
Each race has a special power or ability in the game, and this helps to give
balance when you play and also forces the player to construct a strategy while
his is playing the game, because some weapons can do more or less damage in
specific races.
3) Emergent properties
I think that
this series does not have so many emergent properties such as Assassins Creed.
However, the player still have a lot of options to choose, and this choices
have a direct impact in the story of the game. You have control of the
dialogues of the game, so you can influence the story directly when you choose
one answer or another. Thus, you have a lot of options regarding weapons and
this game use a system of cooperation, with one main character and two other
helping him. So, the way that you equip and choose your team can make it
stronger or weaker depending on the situation.
4) Interest
curves
I think that
this series approach well this concept. I played the three games that were
launched for this series and each of them had an epic final. Moreover, there was a lot of events that happened during the three games that are unexpected, like
an important character dying. Thus, I really think that this kind of events
helps the game to be more realistic, like the real life, because in real life,
a lot of things that you don’t like happens and you have to deal with it, such
as in this game.
5) Why I liked this game or like less
I am not a
huge fan of shooter games, but Mass Effect really catch my attention. The mixed
between shooter game with RPG elements, strategy and also a very good story
make me a huge fan of this series. Now, analyzing it in the view of game
design, I can appreciate even more this games, because now, I know a little bit
about the concepts of creating a game and the challenges that it involves.
Contributions to team's game
Last week I finished the animation attack for our character and now it is already implemented in our game. This week I started to work in the sounds that we will use in our game in the different environments that we have, like beach, jungle and lava level. So I just downloaded a lot of sounds and started to merge them in Audacity to make it useful to our game.