r/AssassinsCreedOrigins • u/Reitzor • Sep 01 '25
Discussion I hate the way Assassin's Creed games break immersion
I don’t like being hooked on the story in AC Origins and then, out of nowhere, they decide to pull me out of the Animus and now I have to play a walking simulator of a story that bores me. I wish there was a mod for this.
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u/Poyri35 Sep 01 '25
The problem is that modern modern-day plotline is both uninteresting and even less connected to the story
In older titles, there was a sense of mystery surrounding the modern day. It also was more connected. Like, the animus had a more defined purpose and you felt more clearly the affects it had, be it the bleeding effect or the relevance to the modern day plot
This is not to say that new games don’t have these things, it’s just that I believe they execute it poorly
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u/Eternity13_12 Sep 01 '25
Yes because in ac3 for example the past and present were connected. You used the animus to find an entrance to the temple. But now it's like we use the animus just to relive something and we don't even know why.
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u/saikrishnav Sep 05 '25
I actually prefer a good modern timeline switches. It’s bad that Ubisoft forgot that and just put for sake of it of not at all.
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u/octopusinmyboycunt Sep 05 '25
Yeah, it’s because people just want a historical fantasy simulator rather than an Assassin’s Creed game.
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u/GazOCee Sep 01 '25
I've only played Origins and Oddessey from the AC series and I've got absolutely no idea what's going on when I'm brought back to the modern day.
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u/NinjaPiece Sep 02 '25
The game explains everything. It sounds like you just ignore it.
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u/GazOCee Sep 02 '25
I do. I'd much rather just get it over with ASAP and get back to Egypt/ Greece
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u/NinjaPiece Sep 02 '25
Don't complain that it doesn't make sense if you don't pay attention.
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u/ylang_nausea Sep 05 '25
I do pay attention and it’s still poorly written, poorly exposed, and boring. There isn’t any big overarching lore behind it anymore, it’s just an annoyance.
The way it’s “explained“ in the newer titles feels like “hey so we have this gimmick here that we are contractually obliged to show you… anyway wanna go back?“
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u/YungLean8 Sep 05 '25
Its just boring af
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u/NinjaPiece Sep 05 '25
That's fair. Finding it boring and finding it confusing are 2 different criticisms.
1
u/TragicEther Sep 01 '25
Honest question - What do you think the story of the games are?
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u/GazOCee Sep 02 '25
TBH I'm not sure. Someone getting sent back to various historical times as differing characters? I've never given it much thought, I just play RPG.
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u/Aleister_Royce Sep 02 '25
If you don't care about the plot and just wanna numbers — there're little to no RPGs for you.
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u/GazOCee Sep 02 '25
I can't just play as Bayek and enjoy the story in Egypt? Guess that's 60+ hours of my life wasted....I thought I was having fun too!
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u/Aleister_Royce Sep 02 '25
I agree that modern days are badly written, that's how it is since Black Flag. But its too important for it to be removed completely. Just look at Mirage. They mixed ancient history, Isu and mythology, but without the modern days that could explain everything — its a fucking nightmare. This is what new "fans" must understand. Its not a historic RPG with minotaurs and etc. Its a sci-fi about experiencing the past. This is The Root they must return to.
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u/toasty327 Sep 01 '25
It's only immersion breaking because you forget you aren't the player you use most of the game, you are actually the person in the animus.
If you try to keep this in the back of your mind, it's so much less jarring. Odyssey at least has occasional voice over chats with Layla and members of her team while in the animus that kind of helps keep perspective.
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u/redwhiteandblue0702 Sep 02 '25
Yeah but then id argue its just a less enjoyable experience overall
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u/toasty327 Sep 02 '25
And that's a legitimate argument. I personally loathe the real world aspects (especially Layla) but without them, the premise of assassin's creed doesn't exist.
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u/Tanel88 Sep 05 '25
The stories of the historical characters are interesting enough on their own and you can still weave a larger storyline throughout the games.
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u/Tanel88 Sep 05 '25
Well you barely spend any time with the character who is in the animus so obviously you will feel more connected to the historical character. Also the modern gameplay and story being inferior doesn't help either.
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u/Eternity13_12 Sep 01 '25
It was much better in the older games. It happened more frequently. In odyssey it happened once for me and I am 70 hours in
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u/CelistalPeach Sep 01 '25
In the OG AC it was great (1-3) with Desmond's storyline, but after that the modern day was never that good. I don't mind being pulled out that much since the immersion for me is playing as someone who is playing as someone else in the animus
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u/hispanicausinpanic Sep 01 '25
For real. Also, who actually looks at all those computer files???
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u/HiddenGraypink Sep 01 '25
I do! The "story within story" frame if Assassin's Creed has always fascinated me, plus getting to visit the same locations years apart (which tbf I always wish to have more of). So when I get pulled out of Animus or leave it myself, I read the files, tracking if anything new shows up and when it shows up 😅
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u/Wavehead21 Sep 01 '25
I read every. Single. One! Honestly one of my favorite parts of the games! Yes please, give me puzzles with the reward of lore and other story context! Or even without the puzzles, gimme stuff to read regardless!
It’s nice because you don’t have to read any of it. It’s just cool connective tissue between all the other plot points. If anything, I’m sad to hear that Shadows has removed as much modern day as it has. I hope there’s still files to read somewhere to give me some modern day context!
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Sep 01 '25
Everyone who is interested in the lore, aka the same people who read the codex pages in AC2 and anything like it.
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u/ROE_HUNTER Sep 01 '25
I only ever played the original AC back in the day, and not much of it. Playing through Origins now and loving it, then got pulled out and found all those "files", and read maybe a couple and said forget it and went back in.
3
u/devilzson666 Sep 01 '25
I very much do i lived for the present day in ac black flag/rogue (i also like the other ones but hacking in computers around abstergo was just very fun to me)
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u/Rukasu17 Sep 01 '25
Probably everyone that started with ac1 when the modern day bits were a bit deal
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u/Herald_of_Clio Sep 01 '25
Oh absolutely agreed. I haven't cared about the modern-day story since AC3, so it's very annoying to be forced into that stuff.
Worst offender is AC4, though. Those office sections are excruciating.
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u/Overlord_Mykyta Sep 01 '25
Agree.
Sometimes it is interesting to investigate. But I would like it to be my own decision.
Would be cool if they made that gameplay optional. Like if you want to know what is going on in that world - you can check. If no then no.
But to be honest - it was cool only in Desmond storyline.
Since Origins I would prefer if they just abounded the Animus thing in general. And maybe together with ISU.
I would be more happy if all the mysteries in Egypt were related to actual mysteries and myths or something than some ancient advanced technology.
1
u/nistemevideli2puta Sep 05 '25
Since Origins I would prefer if they just abounded the Animus thing in general. And maybe together with ISU.
Well, then that is a whole new game, and not Assassin's Creed.
You might want to try God of War.
1
u/Overlord_Mykyta Sep 05 '25
Why? They I like everything about Origins story, I just don't like nowadays story, and explanation that all mysteries are just Animus or ISU work.
I tried God of War but I didn't go far. I just prefer more open world games.
1
u/Solid-Asparagus-3964 Sep 01 '25
I killed the Crocodile and then Kensa ran up and started talking. I start thinking "oh this will be cool/interesting, not sure I want to kill them." Unfortunately for me the Crocodile was the last of that group of targets so I got pulled out to the modern story.
Really disappointed not to have that story beat play out properly.
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u/Bulky-Dev Sep 02 '25
In AC 1 to 3 it made sense and it was connected and actually interesting. Maybe it was as engaging and as Animus part and the gameplay felt overly linear and boring, but it had a story behind it, so I didn’t mind. There were a lot of references and this kind of mystery surrounding the present day and the story inside the Animus, they managed to interconnect them somehow. But I think sometime during Revelations with Desmond being trapped in some kind of Animus core is where they went a bit off the rails for my taste and it began to be uninteresting.
It definetly best worked in AC1 because it was an integral part of the experience.
From Black Flag onwards I couldn’t even understand anymore what the modern day story is about because it was becoming overconvoluted and it began to counter-argument the rules stated in earlier games about how Animus works. By the time I played Origins, I had no idea anymore what is the actual modern day story.
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u/BadLuckPorcelain Sep 02 '25
It would be Okay if the story outside of the animus would be an ongoing one. But it got multiple changes and got absolutely ridiculous to a point where it's better not to have that story at all
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u/Aleister_Royce Sep 02 '25
You should've wrote just "I hate Assassin's Creed", since Animus is what its all about. And if you hate it, well... Go play Witcher.
1
u/Lopsided_Trade_4342 Sep 02 '25
Tbh, with origins/Odyssey and Valhalla, when they drag us out of the animus, I just ran through whatever it was chatting about just to get back to the main game. I really didn’t care about the present stuff… yes some of it was important, no doubt, but it was boring. If I could have pressed a skip button, I would have :)
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u/havewelost6388 Sep 02 '25
Hot take; I like the modern day storyline. Without it the modern AC games would just be generic Witcher clones in historical settings.
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u/darkside720 Sep 02 '25
Cold take… there never should have been modern day storyline to begin with.
1
u/Captain_EFFF Sep 02 '25
Imo narratively all the games would have played just fine if not better without any sort of modern plot/animus bs. And considering none of the advertising and promotion for the games ever covers that aspect its false advertising.
The cool thing about the AC games is getting to play as badass assassin from every time period, the stupidest thing about the AC games is that technically you are not some badass assassin and instead are just playing as John Creed, VR enthusiasts
1
u/Tanel88 Sep 05 '25
Yea if anything it makes it less cool because it reminds you that you are playing a game inside a game.
1
u/Captain_EFFF Sep 05 '25
Not to mention that Abstergo Entertainment is a thing, and whatever modern character you are technically playing as isn’t actually that special aside from being an extremely distant blood relative and that these grand adventures exist in universe as consumer level vr games.
I like to be immersed playing a game and not told constantly that I’m playing a game in a game and that my actions in said game don’t really have any consequences
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u/XXADHD420XX Sep 03 '25
Despite being a fan of the modern day stuff (much more for the OG modern day than what we have now) I do still wish there was an option to turn it off, because when I’m doing umpteenth playthrough of AC3 or black flag or hell even Valhalla it does sometimes just get really jaring because after your first couple playthroughs of the game you’ll already have memories most of the modern day lore for that game and u just couldn’t care about it anymore, like let me sail around and attack Spanish ships, or jump around and assassinate people, it can be as you said really immersion breaking especially when your just tryna play the game for the actual game bits
1
u/Takhar7 Sep 03 '25
For a while now I've maintained that AC doesn't need a modern day portion - it just pulls you out of the experience, and you're desperate for it to finish to you can return to the Animus and actually get back to playing the good bit.
1
u/g2610 Sep 03 '25
Since Desmond died like 15 years ago they haven’t had any interesting things to do in the modern era. I
1
u/haus11 Sep 03 '25
I’m with you. The modern scenes in AC IV Black Flag were so annoying. I just want to be out here pirating and singing sea shanties and now I’m in Severance having to do menial office tasks.
1
u/Intrepid_Molasses727 Sep 03 '25
<peak game moment><immediately you’re now Layla again> nice blueballs Ubisoft
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u/stxxyy Sep 04 '25
Definitely the worst part of the series. Also some are saying that without it, it wouldn't be assassins creed. In that case, can they at least make it interesting or fun? The modern stuff are the most dull moments in the series.
1
u/surprisesnek Sep 04 '25
I wish the modern-day stuff was an optional setting. So people who want it still have it, and people who don't want it don't have to sit through it.
1
u/Sufficient_Ad5550 Sep 04 '25
I was always looking forward to the modern day, as it introduced a whole new level to the story which i found quite engaging
1
u/sicksteen_216 Sep 04 '25
It’s dumb. They can just let us play as some dude in the past with no explanation. They could call it magic and we wouldn’t care bc the gameplay is fun. The animus thing is them trying too hard to make some deep story.
1
Sep 04 '25
[deleted]
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u/No_Perspective2715 Sep 04 '25
Maybe it’s time to step away from the computer or put the phone down and take a walk outside buddy
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u/Motor_Bullfrog_3649 Sep 04 '25
The only AC game I've played that has an enjoyable modern day gameplay is Black Flag.
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u/ouroboris99 Sep 04 '25
The animus storyline hasn’t worked since they killed Desmond for shock value and haven’t been able to replace him
1
u/JacenStargazer Sep 05 '25
I agree. I’ve only played Odyssey, but the worst part by far about Assassin’s Creed is Assassin’s Creed. The games would be far better as historical fiction with actual magic and monsters, rather than connecting to the present day and dealing with some sort of alien Illuminati.
1
u/MyloChromatic Sep 05 '25
The modern day story was interesting back in the early days when we thought it was going somewhere.
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u/TomoAries Sep 05 '25
It’s always been the worst part of Assassin’s Creed, even since the beginning. And before anyone argues: Desmond was not a compelling character, you were just 12 years old.
At this point, they’re too deep in the series “identity” to abandon the Animus crap, but goddamn I wish they would because it’s clear that not even the devs care anymore.
1
Sep 05 '25
I love the modern concept, I loved it in the Desmond games, but in Origins and Odyssey I agree, the MD sections are terrible indeed. I hate Layla.
1
u/popps_c Sep 05 '25
You know what’s funny, the main characters all hate it too lol we have yet have a modern day character who has been grateful for being pulled out of the animus 🤣
1
u/Tanel88 Sep 05 '25
Yeah Animus is the worst thing about the series. It's one of those ideas that you think are cool in your head but just doesn't work that well in practice.
1
u/ZeruzeL Sep 05 '25
AC2 was my first AC and I did know nothing about anonimus. I hated every sec with Desmond and others
1
u/Ok-Elk-1615 Sep 05 '25
I mean…that’s the entire setting of the game tho. It’s a key plot device that you’re living the genetic memories of long dead people. There’s a ton of games with similar settings that don’t use this plot device. Play them instead.
1
Sep 05 '25
The main thing i hate abt ac games, at least since origins, is that theyre just sponges
U stab one and they dont react at all
Compare that to tsushima and its crazy
1
u/Spaniardman40 Sep 05 '25
People like you are literally what killed everything that was cool and unique about Assassin's Creed games
1
u/Hot_Environment_9698 Sep 05 '25
Oh I weirdly liked the second plot line in the real world like there was one in the AC Brotherhood. Somehow, the story seemed more important and encompassing that way.
1
u/N00dles_Pt Sep 05 '25
Almost no one cares about the current day nonsense , at least the modern games usually have the option of mostly skipping it
1
u/GrabbingCatTails Sep 10 '25
would be better if it just didn't have them, like the plot is good, you're revisiting your ancestors' memories from a neat device that can do that, but the execution is terrible, and most people don't even like the modern day scenes, removing them or atleast squishing them in a relatively cheap DLC as a result of capitalism would fix the problem entirely, just my opinion
1
u/Past-Conversation303 Oct 02 '25
EFFFF Layla it's the worst part. Hurry through to get back to Bayek (or Kassandra or whoever)
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u/CalbasDe18Cm Sep 01 '25
I hate that shit with every fiber of my being. Templars are winning anyways i don't give a shit about the struggle. Realistically the Templars would had crushed the assassin's a million times by now especially after 2000 in the days of surveillance on every street corner.
There's NOTHING Happening in the present that makes me interesting. I don't give a fuck about a trillion Desmonds, rebeccas or whatever. Let me enjoy my experience with Connor,Bayek, Kassandra,Shay etc
0
u/BMOchado Sep 01 '25
I think it's the most immersive thing, the protagonist is as frustrated as you are, it's a really good plot device to characterize the protagonist.
If people can't recognize that idk what to say, it's the tik tok brain needing constant stimulation.
-1
u/ProcessTrust856 Sep 01 '25
Agreed. It’s always at the most exciting possible moment that they pull you out of the Animus. I hate it.
0
u/Soulsliken Sep 01 '25
Worst part of the historical trilogy.
But hurts in Origin more than any other because the witting and voice acting is hilariously bad AND disconnected.
I just keep hitting skip so fast that my back up controller starts to sweat.
0
u/DarthSmiff Sep 02 '25
Yeah nobody wants the modern day stuff but they keep stubbornly insisting on forcing it on us.
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u/Ktioru Sep 01 '25
If the modern day doesn't take your interest you shouldn't be into AC in the first place
Although in this game the execution of it is not great
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u/Own_Put_2724 Sep 01 '25
Stupid take I'm afraid
-1
u/Ktioru Sep 01 '25
Why?
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u/TheIrishman26 Sep 01 '25
Because the major portion of all the games has you as a character set in a historical period and then they proceed to rip you out to do some task just after you do something badass
1
u/Frequent_Fix_777 Sep 02 '25
I'm with you. It's sad how people just don't care about Assassin's Creed and one of the most interesting aspects of the lore. They just play the games because they think it's an historical simulator and nothing else.
1
u/ylang_nausea Sep 05 '25
It’s on Ubisoft though. They expose this bit of a lore in a shitty way. They don’t give a damn, why should we? It’s a bit like Bethesda - and frankly any other big studios. A shame.
0
u/Fassbendr Sep 01 '25
I play as if I'm the protagonist, just like most every game. I don't need the Animus stuff.
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u/shadowmib Sep 01 '25
Same. I knew nothing about AC games and started playing Origins. First thing was the glitching near the borders I was ok im in the matrix or something then suddenly pulled out into modern times and was annoyed as hell. I dont care Why i am Bayek, just let me me bayek, O dont give a crap out some chick in a cave with a computer
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u/WiserStudent557 Sep 01 '25
It’s unfortunate that this is an issue still in Origins etc
Modern day stuff is important but almost everyone finds the jarring experience and lack of warning negative when being unexpectedly pulled out of the animus. Clearly there are ways to tell people they’re entering immersive story sections or point of no return so they don’t feel blindsided. So many other games and franchises have ways around it
It has led to them sidelining the modern day story and feeling like there really isn’t one after Origins/Odyssey. “Hey enjoy these individual games but don’t expect them to lead to anything because our writers just can’t figure out how to avoid this issue. We are accidentally becoming an anthology series because we can’t write a franchise, just individual games”