User blog comment:The Grand Llama/Losing Luster/@comment-423262-20131113151955

I feel the same. I enjoyed ACR, to an extent, I would've preferred the Byzantines not having to be the bad guys, not being cooped up in one city (Constantinople was pretty to look at, granted, but a bit claustrophobic and lacking in activity compared to Rome) but hey-ho.

AC3 was, to me, a waste of money. Oftentimes I wonder why I bought in the first place. Possibly out of the misguided hope that Ubisoft would wow me and prove me wrong that we'd go from the beautifully diverse and exotic streets of Constantinople, to a bland, endless expanse of brick, whitewash, a black-and-white vision of "good v.s. evil" (i.e. it did bother me that despite being unaffiliated, the British are treated as worse than the Templars. It just seemed ridiculously unfeesible to me) and excessive flag-waving. (Spoiler - they didn't prove me wrong)

AC4 was good, though. I don't remember being so excited waiting for an AC game since ACBH. Unlike AC3, it did deliver on the hype. And yet, IDK. I finished the story a few days after official release and have scarcely returned to it since. I guess there were a few minor, but biting flaws, e.g. overabudance of restricted areas, Kingston being just as terribly boring to look at as New York and Boston, being attacked on sight when you're within half the map of a fort, pirate camp or plantation, metal and wood always being a scarcity with no way of acquiring it in suitable quantities besides continuously finding and raiding ships that have what you need (I still haven't got the last of the Jackdaw's upgrades, and I doubt ever will since I don't have the patience to seek out the right ship). That sort of thing.

I guess the series has just moved too far forward in history to truly interest me anymore. This is more or less the point in history when real-life became a FPS, every single European culture blurred together into one big, boringly familiar one. Part of the reason ACR - which I gather wasn't particularly popular due to it mostly being considered just filler in terms of story - was such a big hit for me was because it introduced me to Byzantine culture, which I fell in love with. That was part of the allure to the series, to me at least - introducing you to obscure, but alluringly exotic cultures you'd probably never heard much, if anything about before.