Assassin's Creed 4 has five hours of modern day play, most of it optional

[Snare]

That sounds way to complicated, not to mention how it will stuff up the continuation of the series.

Wouldn't be too hard. Are you telling me in the entirety of the war that's spanned centuries there hasn't been a single double agent? You can have it as add-on content, featuring characters NOT necessarily involving the Desmond line. That way the choices you make in game don't mess up continuity. Besides, it would be good to be able to make up your mind yourself as to which side you personally believe in

[Ike_009]

I never said there has never been a double agent but to have main character choose a side at the end means that the following game would not be consistent depending on the users previous choice.

Now when we also need to consider that you would be playing the character and so he would likely be fairly large to the end story. But let's say you do play as a character who is insignificant then what's the point really. Are telling me you would be happy to invest your time into an character so that his final choice is actually a significant choice on your part that it means something and then see it was all meaningless?

The problem here is in order for the choice to be the interesting choice you want it will require you as a player to invest time in the character. However for the story it will have to be essentially pointless in order to ensure the continuation of the series as a whole, meaning you as a gamer have achieved nothing.

[Grievous]

I'm really glad its optional, hated the modern day stuff in the other Assassins creeds. If its cool I will play it, but in general I just want to play the more historic stuff.

[matt]

Hopfully it's not 5 hours of reading people's emails to fill in plot.

[Snare]

I never said there has never been a double agent but to have main character choose a side at the end means that the following game would not be consistent depending on the users previous choice.

Now when we also need to consider that you would be playing the character and so he would likely be fairly large to the end story. But let's say you do play as a character who is insignificant then what's the point really. Are telling me you would be happy to invest your time into an character so that his final choice is actually a significant choice on your part that it means something and then see it was all meaningless?

The problem here is in order for the choice to be the interesting choice you want it will require you as a player to invest time in the character. However for the story it will have to be essentially pointless in order to ensure the continuation of the series as a whole, meaning you as a gamer have achieved nothing.

Yes actually. That would be the kind of player punch that truly makes you understand the reality and nature of war. That not every soldier is important. Hell even Desmond is only important because of his genetics and nothing more. Playing through a game where you understand from the get go that your decisions might not change anything at all in the long term would make me more invested in the short term. It's why games like Crisis Core were so fantastic; where you know your end fate and you cannot change it but you play on because NOW is all that is important.

it doesn't have to be a full game, but DLC even ala ME2 style. Sometimes we play games not to progress the story but to better understand ourselves.

Besides in the grand scheme of the series you as a player achieve nothing anyway. The story is being told in a linear fashion, nothing you do in the duration of the games affects the endgame in any fashion so it wouldn't be too jarring to experience this again.