Last year was a disappointing year in the video game industry. Many games that fans were excited for, myself including, didn't do well with reviews. Video games such as: Watch Dogs, Destiny, Elder Scrolls Online, Halo Master Chief Collection (Online), Thief, EA Sports UFC, and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, all didn't live up to our expectations. One game that bummed me out completely was Assassin's Creed Unity. I'm a huge fan of the Assassin's Creed series. When I originally saw Unity, I was blown away from it's visuals, and I love that Ubisoft Montreal decided to make every mission open ended. Once November 11 of last year finally arrived, I was depressed from Assassin's Creed Unity's poor launch. It was distressing as a fan to watch videos online of the ridiculous amount of glitches, and technical issues found in the game. This influenced my decision to not purchase the game.
To be honest, it felt odd not playing an Assassin's Creed game last November. Luckily, I was still able to get my Assassin's Creed gaming on (and not talking about Rogue). Ubisoft Quebec's Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry was on sale during Sony's Holiday Sale last month. I never played this stand alone DLC before, but I heard a lot of positive things about it. After completing Freedom Cry, I must say, I love the powerful tone this game sets up, and the story telling throughout. Other than Assassin's Creed 2, I believe that Freedom Cry has the best story telling out of the series. You play as Adewale, who was once a slave, and is now a member of the Assassins Brotherhood. His personal agenda is to rescue and free his brothers from slavery. Rescuing salves is what makes Freedom Cry stands out. For example, in the game there will be a scenario where a captor is chasing a runaway slave, and the player can get involve and stop the chase. Another scenario, the player will see slaves being sold at an auction, once again the player can get involve, buy the slaves and free them. The more you get involve and free the slaves, the more upgrades will become available for Adewale.
Besides rescuing slaves, Ubisoft Quebec didn't do anything new as far as gameplay. However, they definitely did a impressive job utilizing the Assassin's Creed template, but still providing a refreshing experience. This is mainly due to the game's setting, main character, and as I mentioned earlier, it's powerful tone. Ubisoft's upcoming Assassin's Creed Victory is expecting to come out later this year. Despite the fact that Unity wasn't a good game, Victory has a higher chance of being a better game. For this reason, Ubisoft Quebec, the same developers who created Freedom Cry, is currently working on it. This is a wise choice on Ubisoft's part to give Ubisoft Montreal a break.
At the moment, I really want to stay away from the Assassin's Creed franchise for a while, but apart of me still hopes that Victory will be victorious later this year. We will see!
