AC Evolution: The Forgotten Point

Hello my awesome readers!

It's Sunday, and I'm keeping my promise and writing this post and hopefully another one :D

So, I was looking though my AC Evolution post, and I realized I forgot to talk about the Parkour system.

So let's start with the button layout. In the beginning of the series, AC used the combination of holding R1 and X. Holding these two buttons would make Altair and Ezio free run, and they would begin climbing a wall once they got close enough. You could also choose to only hold R1, which changed your movements from low profile, to high profile, aka running. While only holding R1, you would not climb walls, however, in AC III it all changed. Instead of the usual two button combo for free running, the player now only has to hold R1. In my opinion, this was a huge mistake! My reason for saying this is because when chasing down a target on the ground, there would be times when the target would perhaps run through a corridor, and if you were to close to the side of it, or some object got in the way, Conner would decide it was a good idea to start climbing. This would have been avoidable had the game creators kept this extra bit of control in the game. Another ability that has been taken out in AC III is the leap grab. This ability was introduced in AC II and made climbing both faster and more efficient. If used correctly, a player could scale a building almost twice as fast as normal, and this personally made climbing even more fun for me. The removal of this ability did not actually make the game significantly harder, so it only detracts from the score in the sense of enjoyment. There is however a great improvement in movement control as well in AC III, and this may even redeem the fact that some abilities have been reduced. In AC II, Brotherhood, and Revelations, Ezio had the ability to pick pocket NPCs by holding X in low profile mode. This made him walk more quickly, which was useful for sneaking up on guards more quickly, but without alerting them as with running. The problem with this system is that if you are hidden among civilians, and trying to move more quickly to kill a target, or some other situation where stealth is key, you will pick pocket the civilians. Civilians hate being pick pocketed, and this will cause them to start brawling with you. This will cause you to lose your hiding place, and possibly alert your target to your presence. In AC III, this problem has been addressed quite nicely as X still makes your character walk quickly, but pick pocket has been changed to O. You can now safely walk through crowds of people, and you now automatically push civilians out of the way while walking quickly (In previous games, you held O to push civilians out to the way). Pick pocketing has also been changed. Instead of walking through a group and stealing the money of everyone you come in contact with, you now have to follow close to a person and hold O until a meter fills up. This does limit the amount of people you can pick pocket at a time, but it is much more realistic, and I feel that it was a good change. Though to be honest, it was pretty entertaining to pick pocket a group of ten or more people in two to three seconds.

I give the high and low profile movements of the Ezio Trilogy of AC a 8.5 out of 10 The parkour system was great, and it had some cool abilities tied into it, but some of the low profile movements were badly paired.
I give AC III a 8 out of 10 Though it took out some good good mechanics, it also changed some flawed ones, and I should mention that some climbing is actually smoother. The main problem is before you get to the climbing.

Hope you enjoyed the extra bit of review :)
Keep being awesome!
I'm That Dude.