Saturday, October 27, 2012

Assassin's Creed Liberations Touch Controls Seem Cool


Touch controls, from what I can tell, are still a point of contention for anyone, in that they can be used to do a single thing, or even be optional, but someone will still find a way to complain about them.  I say this with fully knowledge and in fact -because of- AssLib's touch controls that are clearly labelled 'optional', so that I can say, after watching the above video, I just don't get it.  I don't get the hate sometimes.  In the worst case, where I can understand it, touch controls replace a button press for absolutely no reason whatsoever and it is your only option.  Ham-fisting touch controls is clearly not the method we want to use, but even then, there can be a way about it that makes it alright in not inherently terrible.  The okay case is when it's simply another option to do something you could do with a button press and you can decide between the two things.  And of course the best case scenario is when you truly embrace it and use it to do something that you really cannot replicate with buttons alone.  There have been examples of all three usages so far with everything from DS games to mobile games and Vita games, giving us reason to believe that there -is- a way to use Touch controls in a sensible way.

So long as you use the Okay method at least, then you're golden.  AssLib uses the Okay method.  At least, that's what I'm assured, as the touch controls are labeled as Optional, so I'm completely fine with that, especially since they seem to have some neat implementations.  Of course, there's likely going to be some folks who whinge over it, which is completely their prerogative. I only bring it up because I haven't watched a single AssLib video that's come out for reasons that....aren't completely known to me since I really don't care enough to media blackout and even though I am getting the game next week, I'm not really worried about 'spoilers' or such.  Not that I want to know what happens at the end of the game or anything, of course, it's just that I don't have that feel, where I need to just have everything about the game happen and be shown whilst I play it.  Still, touch controls are a thing as I said, so I wanted to get a heads-up as to what I was to expect.

By far, the biggest thing that seems to be touch-controlled is the game's own version of what seems to be the Mark and Execute system from Splinter Cell:  Conviction.  Obviously not the exact same thing, but, well, it kind of -is- and since Splinter Cell is a Ubisoft thing, I'm going to go ahead and draw the parallel because I can.  Basically at seemingly any moment, you can pause time and tap a target to mark him, up to a certain amount of marks and when you un-pause, Aveline will shank them with great fury.  It's not like there's not precedence as, with both AssBro and AssRev, Killstreaks were a thing which this can be used as, pausing mid-battle and assigning targets to insta-shank is just saving you a couple presses of square, really, and that's just if you -choose- to do it.  And I'm assuming you can do it out of fights as well, meaning you can use it to mark guys walking the roads and whatnot if you so choose.  It's really just an alternative to hitting Square next to a guy and probably makes you feel more 'tactical' or something if you do it.

The other uses, the rowing and the pickpocketing are, you know, whatever they are, and I certainly hope they are optional as well because I like being able to just hold down X and walk by dudes, yanking their cash like a jerk.  Even though it's...no, I don't think it was ever useful in Revelations.  I did have to use it that one time to get a key, but it was the once and it wasn't mandatory.  Just nice to be able to do, I guess and with any luck, AssLib will be a little more balanced with the money you get, need and spend.  Because it was a real shame just having a whole bunch of money pile up in the bank, but also needing that money to buy -anything- because it was the only source of real income you could count on.  Whatever the case, I'm sure I'll find out when I get it, though I suspect it might be a day or so before I put it in, since I do have an urge to try out Ragnarok Odyssey first.  Still, that I'm buying AssLib on day one should tell enough of my interest for the game.

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