Rate the default outfits

[Steffan]

Here's something I thought I'd do for fun. As not only an action game but a period piece with light sci-fi elements, one of the most important things to the financial success of this series is its looks, and one of the most important elements of the look of an AC game, among things like the setting and flashy combat animations is the main character's outfit, whether it be plain and somewhat believable for the setting (Altair) or utterly absurd yet still wicked cool (Connor...). It warrants some discussion as to which of these characters had the best default look. Here's my analysis of the best in assassin fashion:

Altair Ibn La-Ahad – 8/10
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/2/23287/1715465-altair.jpg

Can’t go wrong here. The first game in the series established the kind of stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb style that we would come to expect from each subsequent entry without really making us think twice about whether or not it belonged in the setting. It actually sort of made sense that Altair would be able to blend in with a pack of priests clad in white as he was, since most people on the street might assume he’s a religious figure of some kind anyway [bear with me here, I don’t feel like seriously researching this stuff]. He is one of the few assassins to not be guilty of carrying a war chest into a garden party expecting to not be noticed (Connor…): The most overt thing about Altair is his sword, but I’m pretty sure it would not have been an uncommon sight in the Holy Land during the Crusades. It’s a very simple outfit by comparison to the more recent games and given the style-over-substance nature of this series I find that it’s a big part of why AC1 can’t hold my interest nowadays, but this is nonetheless a very good and interesting piece of character design from a new IP that already had an exciting art direction.

Ezio Auditore Da Firenze (II) – 10/10
http://www.fightersgeneration.com/np9/characters/ezio/ezio-assassinscreed2.jpg

Dat cape tho. THIS is character design. Many agree that ACII was the best in the series in a number of categories, but I’m just going to mention that the change in setting and the setting itself is what amazed me the most. I don’t think many expected an AC sequel to go to a locale as colorful as Renaissance Italy, and I think that design philosophy is one of the things that keeps me from (viciously) accusing Ubisoft of Activ-ism. It takes work to conceptualize and build the settings of these games, and it certainly must have taken work to design Ezio’s look. It’s basically perfect- Ezio resembles Altair enough for us to identify the brand, and it’s cool to see the iconic look translated so flawlessly some 300 years into the future. The ruffled sleeves and flamboyant colors, cape(s), collar(s) and assymetricality makes the character look distinctively Renaissance, Italian, Aristocrat, and video game fantasy all at once. Finally and very importantly, the outfit’s complexity more or less hides the arsenal underneath from the inattentive eye. Ezio looks so fly that I fairly often people try to mimic him in real life with modern clothes. [not gonna lie folks, I’ve tried it too]

Ezio Auditore Da Firenze (Brotherhood) – 6/10
http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo346/Jemi-Lover/assassins-creed-brotherhood.jpg

This is basically halfway between Altair and Ezio mk. 1. I like how the man clearly has the same taste, only now it’s a little more grown up. Along with that however, the whiter whites, redder reds, and general lack of dark accents make things decidedly less impressive this time around. Still good for the setting, and that weird hood bulge on the back of his neck is interesting.

Ezio Auditore Da Firenze (Revelations) – 5/10
http://www.ffmages.com/ffxiii-2/images/ezio-assassins-creed-revelations-costume.jpg

Oh my it’s… blue. And we have traded ruffles for fur. This is the heaviest and most layered outfit in the series and it seems Ezio put this together with an epic pilgrimage in mind (see the announcement trailer): that’s the situation where I feel it works the best. It’s also pretty good relative to the setting: it’s definitely got an Arabic thing going on reflecting the game’s emphasis on the events and places from AC1, and looks sort of like something you’d expect to see in a city as economically and culturally diverse as Constantinople during the 1400s. It’s basically good, but lacks wow factor. Kind of like the game.


Connor Kenway – 10/10
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121031233914/assassinscreed/images/archive/4/4b/20140427172449!AC3_Connor_Render.png

You know what? I don’t hate this game. I don’t hate Connor. I don’t hate the setting, or the pacing, or even the technical problems enough to make ACIII any less than my favorite game of the previous generation (not counting the Wii- that had some gems). There’s my flame bait for the thread, so I’m just going to get back on topic and talk about the outfit. I gave Ezio Mk. I a 10 as well, so I must acknowledge that Connor has nothing on him in the authenticity department. No sir, this getup is ridiculous and it alone would probably have freaked out the average citizen long before the bow, the very poorly concealed steel, and the hue of his skin did. But I don’t care. It’s like everything else in this game that I ignore for one reason, and one only: the coolness of it all. Look at me, I’m a 6-4” hooded Native American tomahawk-wielding, sword-fighting, musket-shooting, bear hunting, horse-riding, free-running, TREE-running killing machine who is also the captain of a naval fleet. All this while wearing a continental general uniform, tribal beads, elk hide gauntlets, eight thousand platypus skin chest straps, fringed moccassins, 3 feet of beaver tail leggings (per leg) and a longbow. At the same time.

Edward Kenway – 2/10
http://assets.vg247.com/current/2013/03/Assassins-creed-4-black-flag-131.jpg

That Connor entry is going to cause continuity problems from here on, but this is my list and this is a public forum. Come at me bros, we are here to discuss. That said, I hate *everything* about this outfit, and obviously neither the threads themselves nor this character is cool enough to get back some points. I’m bored by the colors especially, since we’d already seen a lot of white, brown, and blue, Edward has a hard time distinguishing himself from the rest of the brotherhood. Nothing here really says “pirate” to me, and he perhaps should have gone altogether without the hood since 1) he has an Assassin logo on THE JACKDAW’S FLAG 2) Ubisoft hadn’t had a problem with forgoing it for Aveline and 3) he has an Assassin logo on THE JACKDAW’S FLAG. Great game tho.

Arno Dorian – 9/10
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140615222335/theassassinscreed/es/images/c/c3/Arno_Dorian_Full.png

Arno doesn’t really impress all that much at first glance but his look is very commendable on merits of both historical accuracy and video game protagonist objectification [is that the wrong word?]. Again, I typed this continually and did no research at all- I don’t know how common hoods were throughout history so I’m going to ignore it because Assassin’s Creed. Point is, I am quite sure that this outfit would have caused no alarm whatsoever in Revolutionary Paris. The thing Arno does have to worry about, however, is getting mobbed by hordes of angry peasants for appearing just a wee bit too rich. Note to Ubisoft: it might be time to try something besides blue.

Shay Patrick Cormack – 7/10
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140901183927/assassinscreed/images/1/18/ACRG_Shay_Unhooded.png

It’s not so clear what the default outfit actually is in Rogue: the one on the cover does not technically appear in the game because there isn’t a hood, you don’t get out of those horrid Edward Kenway robes until sequence 3, and you don’t get the closest thing until sequence 4. We’ll go with that one: We can say at this point that Ubisoft won’t ever again be blowing us away with their choice of character design, but care is still being taken and that is evidenced here. Replacing the hood with a high collar for Shay to pull up was a cool way to keep the spirit of the series inside the new Templar theme, and the costume has a really sharp, “gentlemanly” look to it that feeds the same idea. The Templar cross on the chest straps is the coolest touch IMO. I’m not sure how well a black and red overcoat would have gone over in New York City (not to mention the rather conspicuous air rifle) but it does work very well as a privateer captain outfit. It would even make a good pirate getup (Edward…). The worst thing about Shay is that he just looks kind of wrong running on trees and stabbing wild cats like Connor (Edward…).

Phew, that took a while. I’m going to go to bed now. Maybe there are some opinions on the alternate costumes? People wanting to hang me with a rope dart?