So, i stopped Assassin’s Creed III and, uhhhh, it was a little a struggle wasn’t it. Not a nasty game by any stretch, but despite the amazing naval battles and an expectedly gorgeous game world, all of it just felt slightly flat. Issues with familiarity and its largely disappointing lead aside (more Haytham please), my disappointment rested primarily with the truth that, despite being so densely populated, the cities managed to once more feel so strangely with out actual life.

I think the matter lies with challenge overload – everything is aimed towards consistent busy work. It’s usually an identical; start a riot, deliver some goods etc etc. Everything is similar; there are simply no surprises. What the following Assassin’s Creed needs is a more organic game world; one less controlled by the handful of side quests so wanting to eat up it slow and a spotlight. Ubisoft needn’t throw everything in our faces. It doesn’t should be signposted – let gamers find the extra challenges……have faith.

A large portion of this problem comes from the undeniable fact that you’ll only speak to the folks the sport wants you too; aside from the handful of characters ACIII wants you to deal with, the remainder of the inhabitants are essentially mindless, characterless drones. I appreciate that a factor of this is inevitable given the scale of the sport, but when it’s good to take successful to the size on the way to create a denser, more believable game world, then so be it.

Despite being utterly gorgeous, the total experience felt more like a 3D postcard than a genuinely tangible, real place. Sure, i’ll climb the buildings and run across their rooftops, but despite the shiny, HD exterior, i used to be always under the impression that behind these beautiful facades, lay little greater than a blank, empty space. Like a gorgeous but ultimately vacant ghost town at the wrong side of the Korean border, Assassin’s Creed world looks the part, but never quite appears like a living, breathing entity. An identical goes for the folks – yes, the core cast are mostly great, but again, get past the handful of primary characters and there’s simply no life behind the eyes of the world’s other inhabitants.

For this reason that, come 4 months from now, chances are high, i’m able to have forgotten nearly all of Assassin’s Creed III with its problems likely to remain fresh within the memory than its positives. Shenmue though? Well, 13 years on and I’ll still regale very nearly anybody willing to list listen at the games’ many, many virtues…………and if there may be nobody to listen, I’ll often find the closest rooftop. Why? Notably else, it’d be the believability of its game world and its host of memorable charaters. They weren’t all their to push the tale forward, a few of them, some o fthe best basically, were simply there because, well, that’s where they lived. They went about their business and would chat if spoken too, but these characters did not want you to deliver anything, they’d no real interest in starting a riot; they simply were.

Yes, neither Shenmue or its superior sequel can touch Assassin’s Creed for scale, but everything in them, from the incidental details at a native grocery stand to the wrinkles on an old ladies face are full of the type of unique character and a focus that Assassin’s Creed is so often lacking. Shenmue doesn’t feel like a game world, it looks like a global, an international that arguably, despite being created over a decade ago, has yet to be bested. For better or for worse (counting on your perspective), Shenmue, in my humble opinion, continues to be probably the most immersive game world ever created.

It could have invisible walls and is unquestionably not expansive by modern standards, but whereas Assassin’s Creed III is rife with locations that I forget the instant I run past them, i locate myself capable of recall virtually every nook and cranny of Shenmue’s smaller but infinitely more interesting world.

With a higher-gen just round the corner, i’m hoping that developers heed this warning; bigger will not be necessarily better. It isn’t how much one can fit right into a game, it is the quality of what’s there.

Shenmue 3 or simply Cause 3?……..Yeah, that is what i presumed.

1. Looking back on the Line – Potential game of the year? Not quite.
2. Assassin’s Creed III – Preview
3. PS3 version of Assassin’s Creed 3 may have exclusive content
4. Psychonauts 2 = Shenmue III? The Manchester City solution to videogame financing.
5. Things I hate about videogames part 1: Making videogames longer than they must be.
6. Best videogame ending ever? Call of Duty: Black Ops you are saying? Bollocks I say.
7. Great Games on the cheap – The Club (Xbox 360/PS3)
8. Resonance of Fate – a steep learning curve or a vertical one?
9. Games to play before you die – Part 1: Shenmue
10. Alpha Protocol – terribly good?