So, I downloaded Assassin's Creed 4 for the PS4 today. I have never played Assassin's Creed before in my life. I've seen my brother play a little bit, and mostly I only know about it from listening to the Bombcast over the years. (which, honestly, shows just how darned much Brad, Ryan and Vinny have talked about the game at seperate times in the past.)

I get that there are assassins and templars. I get that the game takes place in the present/future and that people get in a machine that takes them back to the past through virtual reality connected to peoples.. blood? Or something? I get that there was supposed to be some big war in the future that the assassins are trying to prevent. There are aliens involved or something?

I started playing the game, but I hate tutorials, so I decided to play the Playstation exclusive content with the cool looking african american lady. I started playing the game and figuring out the controls. It took me about 15-20 deaths to get past the firs tpart, but finally I got a handle on the way the game played. Or so I thought. When If irst entered the combat scenario, the grounds are swarming with enemies. I started playing the game like I would play something like Techu: Stealth Assassins. Afterall, this is supposed to be an assassination game, right? I kept making progress and dying. Making more progress and dying again. I was having fun, but I wasn't overcoming the scenario. THEN, I basically started playing like a lunatic, holding down the run button, dashing headlong into groups of people machete first and completely dessimating the bad guys.

My question is, is that the way the game is supposed to play? I thought it was supposed to be a stealth game, but with the sheer number of enemies and the success I was having just brawling them to death makes me think maybe I had the whole thing wrong. It was comical the way the badguys just kind of stand there as my character just disembowls man after man.

Anyways, seems fun so far...

No, it's not really a stealth game but you should probably just play the tutorials...

Stealth isn't really a focus in the AC games. Abuse that parkour and shank some fools.

I don't know how AC4 plays. I'll be playing it on PC whenever that happens.

Assassin's creed used to be about stealth, and finding vantage points and setting up assassinations and what not. AC2 was the best at that.

It was still kind of that in AC3; AC 3 was just broken.

I suspect it is stealthy but maybe you're not taking advantage of all your tools. Or maybe there's something specific it wants you to do (that's something most recent AC games have been really bad about [mainly I mean AC3]).

It's hard to say since I haven't played what you're currently playing. It can be about stealth, though, yes. Sometimes, though, it expects you to do something specific.

Yeah, it's not a stealth game at all. There are some missions where it tries to be, but generally you're expected to air assassinate one dude, then counter-kill the twenty that are left. Just do that.

I honestly don't understand when people say that Assassin's Creed games used to be more about stealth. I don't remember them that way at all.

Sure you were sneaking around and all, but I wouldn't have called the assassinations stealthy and there wasn't really any set up. They all felt somewhat scripted or led to a chase or brawl.

It was supposed to include some stealth aspects but it was much easier to just run in there and kill everyone. You could sneak around without getting spotted and assassinate the duder by hiding in the crowd and such, but the stealth aspect breaks when you kill him and it turns into cat and mouse. Stealth is just a loose term applied to the mechanics of getting an assassination, it's really about using distractions to get the kill in, then running away. Again, it's really MUCH MUCH easier to just go in and kill the guy, then kill everyone else, which is why no one bothers. And yes, AC has become a lot more focused on combat rather than assassinations.

that sounds about right..... or at least AC1 and 2 were. AC3 was less of that, more hand holding into almost never assassinating anything but instead this whole homestead missions where your making this cute little sim family that you can eves drop into their lives. Actually there's nothing wrong with just dicking around with controls, there's a simple joy in running around, falling then climbing up to do it again, that's how I'd sum up the entire series. Personally I find it fascinating reading the logs on the real world buildings and studying how accurate they got these games to be.

It's better then going through google maps.

It is not a stealth game. If you are going one on one or one on a couple dudes you can do the whole sneak up behind em assassinate thing. Or aerial assassination ... whatever. If it is like 5+ dudes you just want to run in, kill one with a "assassination" on the way in, then counter kill the rest.

This series has always been play it the way you want to play it, kill everyone with whatever tools you like, let most of them live, only kill the target; do whatever you want; and for the most part it works. AC3 had some bad railroading in this regard but apart from tailing missions (which you can now do through walls) that's not really an issue in ACIV. AC1 had the worst of it in terms of forcing you into combat for endless periods of time, but AC1 was by miles and miles and miles the worst game in the series; look at the ending on youtube and never ever play it.

AC1 is the only one I played through to the end, and the only one I thought was worth playing through to the end. Of course its the first so it's not as polished, but it was much more focused. The sequels I just felt were all over the place with lots of ideas thrown in but not fully realized.

That said AC1 is NOT about stealth, its about the whole "hiding in plain sight" thing. You just need to get close enough to your target to stab him, then run or kill all the guards. Altair is supposed to be really skilled in combat, not just a sneaky rogue type.

The stealth parts of the AC games has always been the worst parts. Thankfully most of the time they don't require you to be stealthy. The problem is that they have never actually implemented any good stealth mechanics. The visibility mechanics are completely bare bone, there's a complete lack of sound mechanics and the general AI is most of the time hardwired to perform simple patrol routines. Just play the games as if you're a bad-ass hitman and you'll have a much better time, and just try to be patient the few times it actually enforces its poor stealth mechanics.