Assassin`s Creed: The Road to Damascus

[TomChick]

Assassin's Creed could have been an experience as memorable as BioShock or Portal. (http://www.quartertothree.com/inhouse/news/375/)

[Equis]

That's a lot of anger for the story.

[Naeblis]

So good graphics, good immersion in the city, but the narrative isn't very good. A waste, oh, well. :/

And the gameplay? Exactly:
How good is the exploration/platforming?
How good is the combat?
How good is the stealth in the game?

[Wheelkick]

Is there an estimate on how long this game will take to finish? ike 8-10 hours..

ike = Like, and the beginning of that sentence should read something like "I'm hoping for something like [..]"

[Brian Rucker]

Yup. But correct me if I'm wrong, Tom wouldn't care nearly so much if the rest of the game up to that point didn't draw him in so effectively. I'm also going to probably be disappointed with the story but, heck, I usually am.

A story in a computer game is most often like a pair of sneakers slung over an electric line. It might get you to take a second look or even chuckle. But ultimately the question is whether the line carries power or not.

Maybe, just maybe, given this rich setting Tom's finally seeing a glimpse of an unlikely scenario - one he takes much pride in publically scoffing but I suspect secretly has a great hope might take shape. This game almost could have been art? But Assassin's Creed, infuriatingly, missed delivering thought provoking questions or challenging assumptions about the world that the players are faced with, both in the game and outside of it, despite every obvious opportunity.

Or not. As cool as BioShock is I'm not certain I could call it art at least in the terms Tom describes it. (Not to revive a terribly beaten horse but I tend to see the art of computer games along the same lines as architecture rather than in terms of paintings or novels or films).

[KieronGillen]

Worth noting that Tom's said that a "proper" review is appearing elsewhere in the future, where I suspect the more mechanistic stuff will be examined with greater rigour. This sort of rant is a bit outside the context of a proper review.

I thought it was good stuff.

KG

[McCrank]

Wow, I had this on pre-order and was excited. Im still getting it, but here's hoping that Mass Effect is drop dead awesome, or this is gonna turn out to be one disappointing holiday season :(

-Chris

[UncleSmoothie]

I'm bummed to hear that Mass Effect suffers from the same KOTOR problem of chronic galaxy underpopulation.

I'm starting to think that maybe I'll ride out the rest of the year doing the unthinkable: contenting myself with the underplayed games I already have.

[madkevin]

Quick spell check for Tom - first sentence of the fourth paragraph, last word should be "loose", not "lose".

Sorry. It's one of those things that really bugs me. Carry on.

[Midnight Son]

Mr. Tom done saved me some more money! Sweet.

[shang]

Mr. Tom done saved me some more money! Sweet.

I don't get why are so many people saying this, as I thought Tom's piece was mostly very positive. Were people really going to play AC for its story or what?

[Cossix]

Tom's story coupled with the reviews that have come out for it don't exactly paint the rosiest of pictures. This game got moved to a rental for me.

[Midnight Son]

I'm not ready to spend $60 on any new 360 game that doesn't have Classic Rock or Heavy Metal in it. That's why I have a 360: Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

The loud-ass DVD drive going WHOOOSH takes away my enjoyment of games but isn't an issue when I'm blasting 1000 watts of surround sound Rock.

[Lizard_King]

I'm not ready to spend $60 on any new 360 game that doesn't have Classic Rock or Heavy Metal in it.
So you weren't aware that AC wasn't going to have those elements beforehand? Spoiler: Mass Effect won't be about that either.

[Midnight Son]

So you weren't aware that AC wasn't going to have those elements beforehand? Spoiler: Mass Effect won't be about that either.

Ok, you caught me: I'm not buying any 360 games that don't have plastic guitars or drums.

[Wheelkick]

OMG SPIOLERTAGS PLZTXBUE

[calvin940]

Another spell-check for Tom:

Assassin's Creed is not, in fact, carefully build mountains fortresses...

[Rob Beschizza]

Great review, just how I like them. Screw the "proper" review.

[Jonathan Crane]

Use of "Pauline" as an adjective - beautiful.

[Rock8man]

Use of "Pauline" as an adjective - beautiful.

Yeah, was that a reference to something that I missed? Just curious.

[BDGE]

I don't get why are so many people saying this, as I thought Tom's piece was mostly very positive. Were people really going to play AC for its story or what?

The setting and era isn't explored too often in videogaming. Given the oversaturation of 'realism' and detail put into the cities of Jerusalem et al. It's not far off base to expect that narrative structure got as much attention as the game engine. After all, why even bother otherwise? This could be fakeytown 12th century with a feudal Sam Fisher climbing rooftops to clean out generic medieval terrorism(Tom Clancy's Crusade Warrior!), but the game was never billed as such, it reached for loftier goals. Not too mention Ubi kept the plot details under such heavy duress, evading even the most basic questions, that piecemealing together nuggets became the most intriguing prospect.

Shame, the end resul sounds as if the past two years of rising curiosity turns out to be a wash.

[Troy S Goodfellow]

Yeah, was that a reference to something that I missed? Just curious.

St. Paul was converted on the road to Damascus and was the most traveled apostle, going from city to city throughout the Mediterranean.

Mind you, he was blind when he actually got to Damascus, but I suppose when he looked out the window once he was cured, he might have been impressed.

It's an interesting essay because it posits that the best parts of a game can work to undermine it. By building a convincing city, expectations are raised for a convincing narrative. It's like Kingdom of Heaven, I guess. Nice armor and a nice Jerusalem and pretty battles, but the sensibility is so modern, so anachronistic, so afraid to offend that it isn't as immersive an experience as it could be.

I've heard enough about the game to put it on my rental queue. I don't buy this type of thing in general, so that's actually praise.

Troy

[TomChick]

Rats, I guess it's not clear, but these comments aren't a traditional review (that will be on Variety's website later this week). They're more like leftovers from my notes.

For the record, I liked Assassin's Creed a lot. Really, really liked it. I'm pretty sure it's going to end up on my list of favorites for the year.

-Tom

[Elton]

Yep, Tom's description of the city has gotten me more excited than I was before.
Pity about the story, but the living city sounds awesome.

[Rorschach]

Considering the bar set a few short months ago by Bioshock and Portal, and the attention being paid to the WGA strike, I'm not surprised story is playing a bigger role in reviews and essays. It seems to be a natural progression for the industry as a whole. Gameplay to graphics to story. I'll be picking it up today because it sounds like a game I'll enjoy quite a bit even if it's not the second coming of gaming.

[Rock8man]

Thank you Troy.

[spiffy]

I'm more surprised that you're surprised they didn't tackle the weighted issues. Does any game company really want to be hit on all sides by every special interest group who of course all feel like they've been the most unfairly depicted? Especially set in a time period that makes everyone more than a little sensitive? I can see why the marketing department doesn't want or need the controversy.

I'm taking heart from your rant. It sounds like they succeeded in immersing the player in the setting, creating a believable, breathing world, and that the gameplay within that is a good time. Considering most stories in games tend to get carried away, overblow their importance and are for the most part forgettable in the end, I'm not overly concerned it'll impact my experience the way it did yours.

[BDGE]

I'm more surprised that you're surprised they didn't tackle the weighted issues. Does any game company really want to be hit on all sides by every special interest group who of course all feel like they've been the most unfairly depicted? Especially set in a time period that makes everyone more than a little sensitive? I can see why the marketing department doesn't want or need the controversy.



Ubi can take it. Plus, the controversy would only stir up more free press, while actual true 'mature' gamers can gain so much more from the experience than merely knifing dudes in the throat.

[Gendal]

I'm bummed to hear that Mass Effect suffers from the same KOTOR problem of chronic galaxy underpopulation.
I didn't think of the KOTOR problem as being underpopulated, I thought of it as an unfortunate series of connected rooms. While Assassin's Creed seems to solve both problems I would happily give up the masses for a less compartmentalized design. I keep hoping Bioware will transcend this but they keep trodding down the same path. Doesn't mean I won't like ME but it does mean I won't fall madly in love with it.

[Major Icehole]

I've been on the fence about this one myself. I still may get it. It's just the last two games I've played through are Bioshock and Call of Duty 4. I'm starting to, dare I say, *expect* quality story telling from an adventure game.

I wonder how much pressure was put on the writers by the "power's that be" about sensitivity? Not making excuses, just wondering.

I think Brian may be right here Tom, your greivences seem mostly about the *vision* of the story telling. That sounds like an art critique.

I'm sad to hear particulary about the boring endgame.
I was secretly hoping this was gonna be the best game ever.

[unbongwah]

I'm disappointed that they shied away from the more provocative elements of the Crusades, but hardly surprised. Guess I'll need to file it next to Kingdom of Heaven: looks great, less filling.

But if they actually f**ked up the gameplay, especially the endgame portion? Heresy. Burn `em all!

[Oh, Tom actually liked it? But...but now I'm all worked up about burning people at the stake!]

[Xemu]

Yeah, I'd really appreciate it if front page articles didn't contain spoilers. :(

[stusser]

You know, I kinda figured that the timecop stuff wouldn't work. And given the well-publicized controversy from the "real" hashashim, I kinda assumed that they'd play it politically correct. As long as the game mechanics are compelling, and it sounds like they very much are, I'll pick it up for my shiny new 360.

[Lizard_King]

Yeah, I'd really appreciate it if front page articles didn't contain spoilers. :(
Nothing in that article is a spoiler. It's the opening scene in Assassin's Creed. It's impossible to overstate how easily Ubi's bizarre attempts at misdirection could lead you to believe it's a spoiler, but I'm confident that within fifteen minutes of the game starting you'll agree.

[John E. Motion]

Why is the main character a heretic? Denying the Ark? Tut, tut.

The Qur'an clearly states:

And (further) their Prophet said to them: "A Sign of his authority is that there shall come to you the Ark of the covenant, with (an assurance) therein of security (Sakina) from your Lord, and the relics left by the family of Moses and the family of Aaron, carried by angels. In this is a symbol for you if ye indeed have faith. (Qur'an 2:248)

Tut, tut, indeed.

[Xemu]

You mean the part where Tom sums up the ending of the game is not a spoiler? I guess we have different definitions. I wasn't talking about the his discussion of the opening few minutes.

[unbongwah]

Nothing in that article is a spoiler.
You might want to re-read the last couple of paragraphs.

[Lizard_King]

I guess, I forgot about that part. That sort of reveal of mechanics of endings, especially when someone whose opinion I trust doesn't think too highly of them, doesn't bother me. I regard it as a useful warning rather than a problem (for instance, I would have just as soon known about Bioshock's in the same vague way and been forewarned rather than get clobbered with its suck as a "surprise"). But my threshold for spoilers is a lot higher than most people's, so I can see where you're going with that.

[Drastic]

I pretty much take it for granted that a majority of games sort of fall apart in the end, through some combination of tedium and violating playstyle that they've encouraged up to that point.

I don't know why this happens, but it's got to be some kind of design standard, sort of like including sewer levels or randomly scattering crates around to add atmosphere.

[Charles]

Sorry about the Mega Man boss battle, Tom. For what it's worth, I was red-hot angry when I discovered it, and was unable to convince anyone to change it. The game wasn't supposed to have any "boss battles" at all.

I blame focus groups. No, really, I do.

[Mark Asher]

I am curious to know why a full-fledged Damascus is such a great thing? It does sound cool, but I hate wandering around aimlessly. Is there any point to it being big other than to impress me?

[Charles]

I am curious to know why a full-fledged Damascus is such a great thing? It does sound cool, but I hate wandering around aimlessly. Is there any point to it being big other than to impress me?

There's the fact that you can go everywhere, and the rooftops are your friend.

It's one of those things that is hard to really explain. If you are unsure, rent or borrow a copy and give it a whirl. Once you are in the city, you'll understand.

[bloo]

I'm curious to know if Damascus was built with all those conveniently placed horizontal posts for swinging and running above crowds on and if the AI is allowed to use them as competently as the player.

[Charles]

I'm curious to know if Damascus was built with all those conveniently placed horizontal posts for swinging and running above crowds on and if the AI is allowed to use them as competently as the player.


The AI does everything but free climbing.

[Libra]

For the record, I liked Assassin's Creed a lot. Really, really liked it. I'm pretty sure it's going to end up on my list of favorites for the year.

-Tom

I think that's a pretty ringing endorsement right there. With all of the stuff you said about the story, for the game to still be one of your favorites says volumes about the gameplay. I've heard that the two other cities are hard to tell apart; they are all setup nearly the same way and look identical? If that's true, that would be a bummer. I still may pick this one up, though.

[GyRo567]

So for those of you about to play Assassin's Creed, which is a marvelous game aside from the disappointing lack of meaningful narrative, consider this: stop playing after you've assassinated your 9th target and don't look for answers to any of the deeper questions raised over the course of the game. Your experience with Assassin's Creed will be better for it.

I think a lot of media would benefit from an editor slicing off the last 30 minutes/3 hours/3 chapters.


My only real question with Assassin's Creed remains "Is the movement system more satisfying than the Prince of Persia games were?" If it's not, I can always replay Sands of Time or the latter half of The Two Thrones.

[unbongwah]

I blame focus groups. No, really, I do.
Are focus groups the ones who complained that PoP:SoT was too short and too easy (especially the combat) and the soundtrack was "kinda gay" and Farah wasn't tawdry enough while the Prince wasn't butch enough; and so we got PoP:WW (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/12/03) next?

Because if so, I would like to punch every one of them in the nose.

</threadjack>

[Charles]

I think a lot of media would benefit from an editor slicing off the last 30 minutes/3 hours/3 chapters.


My only real question with Assassin's Creed remains "Is the movement system more satisfying than the Prince of Persia games were?" If it's not, I can always replay Sands of Time or the latter half of The Two Thrones.

It is not prince of persia. The control systems are not related. AC is not a platformer.

[Lizard_King]

The AI does everything but free climbing.
Including nailing you with rocks and knocking you down. I was outraged the first time that happened.

I think a (useless) analogy that might help here is less Prince of Persia than the Spiderman games with the awesome webslinging. Except one has to picture that instead of everything else besides that being awful, it's actually pretty fun. Sure, some of the stuff is repetitive and grindy, but a lot of that is left entirely to the player. I could've done the first assassination an hour ago, but instead I opted to continue checking stuff out in Damascus, and just generally messing with guards.

So far, I'm loving everything the gameplay brings to the picture. I will never be a fan of weirdo interactive cutscenes (Hey! I can walk around aimlessly while he talks to me) but so far nothing egregiously annoying has happened.

I can definitely see how previewers got destroyed by the controls. At first, it feels like you need four hands to operate them.

[Charles]

Are focus groups the ones who complained that PoP:SoT was too short and too easy (especially the combat) and the soundtrack was "kinda gay" and Farah wasn't tawdry enough while the Prince wasn't butch enough; and so we got PoP:WW (http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/12/03) next?

Because if so, I would like to punch every one of them in the nose.

</threadjack>


Focus groups are random tards, yeah. In order to get "market representative feedback."

Basically, it's the dumbing down phase.

Also, LK, just think of it like a driving game! You have your trigger for gas (running), and then you have your A button for Turbo (free running).

I am the master of all comparisons!

[TomChick]

LK's Spiderman comparison is a good one. Except that instead of webslinging, your Prince of Persia'ing. And the city look so much better that it's looked in any Spiderman or Crackdown game.

Mark, the size of the city is meaningful and you're never wandering around aimlessly. There are always a multiple destinations and tasks.

Libra, the cities aren't themed per se, but the do have distinct elements. I looked forward to going a new district in each city.

-Tom

[TomChick]

Xemu, fair point about spoilers. Sorry about that. I avoided anything too specific about reveals, but I did intend this as a sort of warning. In a way -- and I realize this shouldn't necessary be my call -- I don't think Assassin's Creed is worth worrying about spoilers.

-Tom

[Rorschach]

I played through the tutorial and the first assassination this afternoon and I have to agree with Tom. The scale combined with the detail of the city is amazing. Much like Crackdown I've been having a blast free running, baiting guards and doing the side missions. It helped me to understand the layout to make my approach and escape for the big kill. I figured the first one would be easy, but I still planned it out like Vlad Taltos. Made the kill and ran like hell out the route I planned, parkouring my ass off and running the guard into vigilantes. Then I had to lay low because the alarm bell was still going off even though I was back to not being actively pursued. Snuck back into the bureau and mission over.

Lots of fun, I'm looking forward to the other eight.

[Rock8man]

Penny Arcade's Gabe has a really interesting theory (http://www.penny-arcade.com/2007/11/14/#1195073220) about why this is being reviewed so highly from some sites, but getting poor scores from other sites.

[TomChick]

Penny Arcade's Gabe has a really interesting theory about why this is being reviewed so highly from some sights, but getting poor scores from other sites.

Interesting comments, but I'm guessing it's getting "poor scores" because some reviews don't like it as much as Gabe. It's a bit presumptuous of him to second guess their motives, particularly after a long lead-in where he excuses the fact that he's making money from the game.

Also, as someone who got the "Visions of the Future" achievement Gabe was talking about, that right there is about 80% of my problem with the story. No one told me I was signing up for the first chapter of some sort of ongoing storyline.

-Tom

[MattKeil]

I pretty much agree with Tom's article except on the story. I think the story is just fine, and I found the lack of answers acceptable for a game which is clearly the first part of a planned trilogy. The only issue I have with the story is that I'm worried they won't end up making more games and we'll be stuck the way we were with Beyond Good & Evil's narrative, hanging into empty space.

If I have one gameplay-related complaint about Assassin's Creed, it's that I think it's a bit too easy. The guards really should be much more dangerous earlier on in the game. There were only a handful of times I felt it was better to run and escape rather than slaughter all comers.

Overall, though, I love the game to death, and it's a frontrunner for my personal GotY choice. I have completed the review copy and am going out to buy it this evening to play it all over again on my home 360.

[TomChick]

If I have one gameplay-related complaint about Assassin's Creed, it's that I think it's a bit too easy.

Hey, weren't you the one telling people to play Call of Duty 4 on veteran difficulty? We're not all uber-733t gaming gods like you, Keil. Some of us are old, slow, and not too bright! :)

Like you, I'm also looking forward to replaying the retail version. Now that I know what's coming, it should be pretty cool to go back and try new things for some of the assassinations. Plus, I'm curious to unlock the rest of the story bits for each of the missions now that I know how they'll play out.

-Tom

[Shadarr]

The game wasn't supposed to have any "boss battles" at all.
You are my new hero.

[BDGE]

DEAR DEVELOPERS THAT MIX 3rd AND 1st PERSON ELEMENTS INTO THEIR PROJECTS:

Give us the option to invert for BOTH perspectives. I REPEAT. Let me PLEASE choose separate settings for both perspectives!!! Seriously, I need X-axis invert for 3rd person camera functionality, but when I go all Eagle Vision, my brain cannot handle the right and left reversal in first person and I have to switch it back for those moments. I need the separation!

Oh and bravo for making Y-axis inverted on default! We are god's chosen people afterall(and I hate always having to make that the first step in my gaming). ;)

PS: Really liking the game so far. Though the voice actor for Altair neither fits the character, or the production levels of the world surrounding him. It's kinda jarring given everything else seems to be falling into place nicely.

[Rock8man]

Oh and bravo for making Y-axis inverted on default! We are god's chosen people afterall(and I hate always having to make that the first step in my gaming). ;)


That's one of the things I really like about gaming on the Xbox 360. You can set defaults like the fact that you like your look inversion on under general default settings on your 360 profile, and most games look at that, and set the setting properly. So unlike PC games, I don't have to go invert the look on most 360 games because its done automatically.

I have no idea how you handle x-axis look inversion though. To me third person and 1st person are the same in that I want to look left by pressing to the left. That's one of the main reasons I couldn't handle the controls on Mario Sunshine no matter how hard I tried. I agree with your point on how it should all be left to the user to change as they please.

[MattKeil]

Hey, weren't you the one telling people to play Call of Duty 4 on veteran difficulty? We're not all uber-733t gaming gods like you, Keil. Some of us are old, slow, and not too bright! :)

I said Hardened. I would never suggest that anyone play it on Veteran, which is basically "We're going to cheat. Good luck." I went through most of COD4 on Veteran this past weekend, and it may have set a new record for obscenities hurled at the television.

Like you, I'm also looking forward to replaying the retail version. Now that I know what's coming, it should be pretty cool to go back and try new things for some of the assassinations. Plus, I'm curious to unlock the rest of the story bits for each of the missions now that I know how they'll play out.

Charles gave me the tip that you can "fight" with the hidden blade, but you can only counter (no block). Makes things way harder, and the counter kills with it are awesome.

[Charles]

Charles gave me the tip that you can "fight" with the hidden blade, but you can only counter (no block). Makes things way harder, and the counter kills with it are awesome.

My favorite is the one that reminds you of Timothy Dalton's demise in Hot Fuzz.

God Bless Kristjan Zadziuk and Mike Mennillo, two of the greatest animators I have ever had the pleasure of working with, as well as my buddy Dom Marier, who was my partner in crime for creating the combat system, and who got shafted in the credits for leaving Ubi a few weeks before the game was finished.

Also, Matt, with respect to difficulty, there was a point, a month or so before ship, where fights weren't particularly difficult... but escaping a fight when you started it was really hard. So if you weren't careful about the fights you picked, while you might be able to take out guards, you'd end up in a slogfest (which I personally thought was awesome), because every time you turned a corner, you'd run in to more guards who would add to the fight.

[Coca Cola Zero]

My favorite is the one that reminds you of Timothy Dalton's demise in Hot Fuzz.


IIRC he doesn't die, but I still know what you mean.

[tromik]

Jeez, I really don't know if I should drop the cash for this or not. It's getting great reviews, but I'm not a huge fan of action games. The last action games I enjoyed were Crackdown and God of War. And Crackdown was still 90% weapons combat.

[stusser]

My thoughts, in no particular order. I finished the first assassination and got about an hour past it, on my way to the second city, so keep in mind that these are initial impressions.

- The graphics are mediocre close-up, but fantastic when you see the enormous cities spread out before you. The "vantage point" mechanic emphasizes this strong point.
- The repeated little mini-quests are getting annoying, particularly where you rescue some chick from guards to spawn vigilantes. The pickpocketing and surveillance mini-quests still work well.
- It's REALLY annoying that all of the "blend" options make you walk or ride slowly. I suppose it makes sense, but as a gameplay mechanic it sucks.
- Templars are really tough! They're not pushovers like city guards.
- The "timecop" plot is... well, weird. As anticipated, I kinda wish they just played it straight and set the game during the crusades.
- Why couldn't they record more voice samples? Every time I defy physics and walk 20 feet up a building's wall, I hear one of maybe 3 voices saying "is he insane?"
- The game froze up on me twice so far, both when zoning into a city.
- Having just started playing, all of the riding back and forth and climbing up on towers and looking around and such is fresh and new, but I can't help but think that this stuff is going to get real old real fast if they don't mix it up a bit. I guess we'll see as the game progresses.

AC is definitely worth buying.

[Gaming-Module]

Yet another Ubisoft game that is completely and utterly politically correct. To a fault.

This is like the Mexican terrorists in the RB6/GR games or the enemies in Splinter Cell being "John Brown's Caucasian Army." I have a feeling that while Assassin's Creed was a good game from a technical standpoint, it will ultimately be held back from becoming a timeless classic by these glaring decor choices, just like RB6.

[stusser]

I didn't get very far but no, it's not a timeless classic or game of the year or anything like that. It is pretty damn fun, though. I played it for like 4 hours straight. Until it hard locked my 360.

[MattKeil]

Also, Matt, with respect to difficulty, there was a point, a month or so before ship, where fights weren't particularly difficult... but escaping a fight when you started it was really hard. So if you weren't careful about the fights you picked, while you might be able to take out guards, you'd end up in a slogfest (which I personally thought was awesome), because every time you turned a corner, you'd run in to more guards who would add to the fight.

I would seriously kill to play an "Expert Mode" in which all the higher difficulty stuff you've talked about is in there. I'd pay Microsoft Points for it. No joke. Sounds awesome.

[MattKeil]

Yet another Ubisoft game that is completely and utterly politically correct. To a fault.

Get to the end.

[Matthew Gallant]

Dom Marier, who was my partner in crime for creating the combat system, and who got shafted in the credits for leaving Ubi a few weeks before the game was finished.
They shouldn't be allowed to do that.

[Rob Beschizza]

Why is the main character a heretic? Denying the Ark? Tut, tut.

The Qur'an clearly states:

And (further) their Prophet said to them: "A Sign of his authority is that there shall come to you the Ark of the covenant, with (an assurance) therein of security (Sakina) from your Lord, and the relics left by the family of Moses and the family of Aaron, carried by angels. In this is a symbol for you if ye indeed have faith. (Qur'an 2:248)

Tut, tut, indeed.

It would be awesome if whenever the main character had a secular thought, the relevant passage from the Qur'an started flashing up in his field of vision and he writhed in paralysed agony.

"You see, when we trained you, we put in a failsafe. Any attempt to arrest a senior officer results in shutdown. What did you think… that you were an ordinary assassin?"

[Lizard_King]

I would seriously kill to play an "Expert Mode" in which all the higher difficulty stuff you've talked about is in there. I'd pay Microsoft Points for it. No joke. Sounds awesome.
I don't know if I could have dealt with that all that well, since the game sort of makes you start fights if you want to help local citizens, for instance. Sometimes those chases get a little out of hand, simply because I'm stubborn about taking all contenders. Although I guess if it lasered in on the assassinations only, it might work.

[Guido Jones]

So far I'm loving this game. The story has been a bit meh, and the same with some of the voice acting, but the gameplay and graphics are fucking amazing. I'm loving the fights so far Charles, so good job :)

Doing counters and stabbing them in the head with the short sword is so far my favorite.

[BDGE]

I'm really liking the story so far, or at least the way it's presented. The whole animus bent caters well to how health, death, blue-wall barriers, and other such videogame conventions are justified. I'm intrigued by what sort of grand mystery is trying to be uncovered, and man the interface is so slick that I can't help but not be absorbed.

Again the only downer is Altair himself. The initial tutorial made him an unlikeable, egotistic, tactless oaf that made me question how he can ever be considered a respected assassin. The choice of having him voiced as some American twenty-something hipster blends so poorly in the atmosphere(and makes me question if it follows the safety precautions Ubi held when pushing this game on us Westerners). It's more grating than awkward.

But good god the visuals are a delight. Altair himself is fascinating to gaze at just climbing around watching the light and shadows deform on his modelling. It's a technical marvel.

Oh and Diesel jeans and a hoodie...the preferred uniform for labrats of the future!

[Chris Nahr]

Um, is anyone here playing this game on a PS3? The dumbasses at Gameplay UK ignored my cancellation request and shipped the game the next day. Now I'm contemplating whether I should send it right back, due to the framerate issues on the PS3.

[Lizard_King]

I'm really liking the story so far, or at least the way it's presented. The whole animus bent caters well to how health, death, blue-wall barriers, and other such videogame conventions are justified. I'm intrigued by what sort of grand mystery is trying to be uncovered, and man the interface is so slick that I can't help but not be absorbed.
At first I found it a little forced, but I'm enjoying it more now.

Again the only downer is Altair himself. The initial tutorial made him an unlikeable, egotistic, tactless oaf that made me question how he can ever be considered a respected assassin. The choice of having him voiced as some American twenty-something hipster blends so poorly in the atmosphere(and makes me question if it follows the safety precautions Ubi held when pushing this game on us Westerners). It's more grating than awkward.
I, for one, really like Altair as a douche. I can completely buy that someone can succeed in his line of work despite not embracing the Zen of Murder, and I like the angle it brings to the story. For once, I didn't mind it when choices like the opening story are taken out of my hands, because at least he's a compelling kind of jerk. There's a lot of contemporary tie ins to rules of engagement and the like that really make me enjoy him as an antihero more than the usual fake antiheros games throw at you (look! he's just like a good guy but wears black and says mean things!).
I can see why his voice actor might bother you, but once I took it in the context of, say, everyone speaking English I prefer a stylistic choice like that over the more generic English speakers with forced accents favored in much of the game.

[Charles]

I think some of my favorite dialogue is the bureau leader in the first city. How he's so patient and vaguely insulting to Altair while trying to sound so helpful.

[BDGE]

At first I found it a little forced, but I'm enjoying it more now.

I, for one, really like Altair as a douche. I can completely buy that someone can succeed in his line of work despite not embracing the Zen of Murder, and I like the angle it brings to the story. For once, I didn't mind it when choices like the opening story are taken out of my hands, because at least he's a compelling kind of jerk. There's a lot of contemporary tie ins to rules of engagement and the like that really make me enjoy him as an antihero more than the usual fake antiheros games throw at you (look! he's just like a good guy but wears black and says mean things!).
I can see why his voice actor might bother you, but once I took it in the context of, say, everyone speaking English I prefer a stylistic choice like that over the more generic English speakers with forced accents favored in much of the game.

Yea, I'm kinda just taking the stance that his voice is just communicated by the future descendant and it's not actually Altair speaking. But some of those lines being spewed forth...particularly after Altair is stripped of rank for being a tactless buffoon. Can't really empathise with his headstrongedness.

It's also strange that everyone quips in English, but when guards chase you, they speak hebrew, arabic, farsi, whatever. It's actually pretty neat, and I imagine the hell of trying to subtitle everything said if they went total foreign speak. So the english doesn't really get to me, most of the NPC's deliver their lines pretty well.

[Lizard_King]

But some of those lines being spewed forth...particularly after Altair is stripped of rank for being a tactless buffoon. Can't really empathise with his headstrongedness.
His attitude may not help, but it was the least of his problems. He only made it an issue when he completely screwed the pooch on The World's Most Important Mission Evar. In short, he would have continued to get away with his shit had his walk matched his talk. The moment it didn't, he paid for it. I like the whole tragic flaw angle when they actually go out of their way to make it a flaw worth commenting on instead of a mere charming eccentricity in a landscape of flawlessly awesome hero stereotypes.

[Charles]

It's also strange that everyone quips in English, but when guards chase you, they speak hebrew, arabic, farsi, whatever. It's actually pretty neat, and I imagine the hell of trying to subtitle everything said if they went total foreign speak. So the english doesn't really get to me, most of the NPC's deliver their lines pretty well.


French, German, and English as well. Depends where you are and the faction of the guards.

[Andrew Mayer]

Got through the first assassination mission last night.

Loving this game overall.

I'm surprised that people are comparing it to Hitman. Sure sure, assassination missions, but it doesn't really "feel" the same to me. Call me crazy, but something about this game really reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus. Maybe it's the pacing, or the horses, the overworld, or the climbing, but I get a similar feel when I'm playing this.

It's technically awesome, and there's a liveliness to the city that's really fun. I like grabbing flags and climbing up to the observation points.

The controls are ridiculously complicated, but once you get used to them it feels right. There's definitely something unique going on here, and that's a nice surprise.

A few quibbles:
It's still pretty "gamey" at points, and that leads to repetition that breaks the immersion. I don't think there's any way around that, but the moments where you run up against the limits of the world make you realize both just how far we've come and how far we have to go.

The story is fairly lame. It's totally plot driven. Altair and the Bartender Assasin have no real motivating desires that we're made aware of. That's a shame, because other than the guys were told are bad and we must kill, the character isn't really in conflict with anything but his "'tude". If he had an agenda beyond "Screw the creed, man, it's cramping my style!" it would have made a big difference.

I'm winning most of my fights, but I just don't "get" combat yet. I played the tutorial, but it still hasn't quite come together for me. Right trigger to block I get, but basically it's a timing game, right? I also didn't know about the A=Dodge thing until I looked it up this morning.

[Charles]

I'm winning most of my fights, but I just don't "get" combat yet. I played the tutorial, but it still hasn't quite come together for me. Right trigger to block I get, but basically it's a timing game, right? I also didn't know about the A=Dodge thing until I looked it up this morning.

Combat is about the player. The AI is there, and they will attack, and they will counter you, but ultimately, the combat is meant to be driven by the player, rather than by the AI. Gamers are used to waiting for the enemies to come at them, and then deal with them as they are forced to. In AC, we decided that the enemy would, in essence, be perpetually afraid of the killing machine they are facing.

Make them afraid.

[MattKeil]

The story is fairly lame. It's totally plot driven. Altair and the Bartender Assasin have no real motivating desires that we're made aware of. That's a shame, because other than the guys were told are bad and we must kill, the character isn't really in conflict with anything but his "'tude". If he had an agenda beyond "Screw the creed, man, it's cramping my style!" it would have made a big difference.

Once again, get further. Yes, the story begins as "douchey super assassin gets busted down to Private and has to run errands for the beardy man," but all the concerns you're raising are eventually addressed.

Finally a developer delivers a game with a story that evolves naturally over time and breaks from the usual "guess the ending from our opening cutscene" routine, and everyone complains about it. I absolutely agree with the Shadow of the Colossus comparison, both in terms of the climbing/riding/isolation in a large world elements and the story itself. SotC and AC both require the player to do a little mental legwork to "get" what the big narrative picture is.

On one level, SotC is just a story about a boy and his obsession with a dead girl, but there's a lot more to it if you dig a bit. On one level, AC is just about a dick who gets called on his dickery, but again, there's more there as the game progresses.

[BDGE]

On one level, AC is just about a dick who gets called on his dickery, but again, there's more there as the game progresses.

Zombie robots...?

[skyride]

This game makes me feel good about the future of gaming. The graphics are hinting at some of the incredible stuff we should see in the near future. (I haven't played Crysis yet).

[Libra]

I believe Assassin's Creed is supposed to be $39.99 new at Fry's today. Going to go check it out.

[Andrew Mayer]

On one level, SotC is just a story about a boy and his obsession with a dead girl, but there's a lot more to it if you dig a bit. On one level, AC is just about a dick who gets called on his dickery, but again, there's more there as the game progresses.

But your first example is character motivated from the get go and the second one isn't .

That makes all the difference.

[MattKeil]

But your first example is character motivated from the get go and the second one isn't .

That makes all the difference.

Everything Altair has ever had or known has been stripped from him, and the only "family" he has in the world considers him a traitor and a failure.

Sounds like motivation to me.

[Andrew Mayer]

Everything Altair has ever had or known has been stripped from him, and the only "family" he has in the world considers him a traitor and a failure.

Sounds like motivation to me.

That's who he is, not what he wants. The problem is that doesn't drive conflict or story.

Imagine if, for instance, he's for gunning power in the Assasin's guild because he believes the Creed is wrong and wants to change it. Now that opening scene with his boss becomes much more dramatic for the audience, because we realize that he's only submitting to the will of his master to buy time to screw him over someday.

Or imagine if he's a douche because he desperately wants freedom, and having reached the top he's chafing at the guild because although it's lifted him out of the gutter it will only let him get so far and do so much.

There's a million ways you go with this, and any one of them does nothing but add tension and drama.

[Charles]

I kind of like not having character motivations forced on me.

[BDGE]

Altair should only have a single motivation...

FLAG COLLECTION! (Only three more to get in Masyaf!)

[MattKeil]

That's who he is, not what he wants. The problem is that doesn't drive conflict or story.

Er...he wants his rank, honor, and rep back. Altair has motivation, and the conflict in the story is pretty clear to me. Sounds more like it's not the motivation/conflict you'd have preferred, but that's not the same as it not being there.

[SorenJohnson]

Interesting interview "explaining" why the story goes so nuts:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1574280/20071114/index.jhtml

I thought the "justifications" worked pretty well in Sands of Time - which I loved, loved, loved - but it sounds like Desilets just went over the deep end with AC.

[Andrew Mayer]

Er...he wants his rank, honor, and rep back. Altair has motivation, and the conflict in the story is pretty clear to me. Sounds more like it's not the motivation/conflict you'd have preferred, but that's not the same as it not being there.

I'm not going to turn this into a writing seminar, but the story is completely plot driven, and it makes me sad.

I kind of like not having character motivations forced on me.

Give me an example where that's been a bad thing.

[MattKeil]

I'm not going to turn this into a writing seminar, but the story is completely plot driven, and it makes me sad.

Altair's motivation is clear. He is caught up in events that drive him forward, so his own agenda isn't really at the forefront until later in the game. This is not a flaw or a problem, at least in my view. I mean, listen to what the head of the assassins says to him when he sends him out. Half his problem with Altair is that Altair's primary motivation in his work is "I'm awesome, stand aside."

Also consider that this puts Altair in a position similar to the actual player character. He is essentially a prisoner, forced to take actions that are not of his own design, furthering the agenda of his keeper. This situation also continues to evolve on both sides of the VR screen as the game progresses.

It may be because I know the whole story and Altair's character arc's ultimate destination (at least in this game), but I really think you're shortchanging the story here.


Give me an example where that's been a bad thing.

95% of all JRPGs.

[Andrew Mayer]

Altair's motivation is clear. He is caught up in events that drive him forward, so his own agenda isn't really at the forefront until later in the game.

And it isn't communicated to the player or motivating the character. Hence: Plot driven.

This is not a flaw or a problem, at least in my view. I mean, listen to what the head of the assassins says to him when he sends him out. Half his problem with Altair is that Altair's primary motivation in his work is "I'm awesome, stand aside."


It just makes it dull, and sucks the life out of the scenes where everyone is yammering at him.

Also consider that this puts Altair in a position similar to the actual player character. He is essentially a prisoner, forced to take actions that are not of his own design, furthering the agenda of his keeper. This situation also continues to evolve on both sides of the VR screen as the game progresses.


Similar to what you had in BioShock. But in that case you had multiple characters with strong motivations all around you to pick up the slack from the get go.

It may be because I know the whole story and Altair's character arc's ultimate destination (at least in this game), but I really think you're shortchanging the story here.


Yeah. It's a first hour review. (Three hours, actually. But early.) I'm not sure why holding back is a good thing though. I want to be caught up in the story, but I'm not.

95% of all JRPGs.

I see what you're getting at with that. That may be a case of having motivated characters but ignoring them and chasing the plot anyway.

I do think it kind of worked in FFVII though...

[Lizard_King]

Altair should only have a single motivation...

FLAG COLLECTION! (Only three more to get in Masyaf!)
But but but...I thought assassins didn't approve of planting flags, as the thin explanation for them goes. Oh well. I can't resist them, as the fact that I completed the 1st assassination and have spent the last three hours killing templars, climbing towers, gathering flags, and murdering every guard (apart from the ones that run) in the Kingdom area. The rewards for levelling are meager compared to the ones for going on with the plot when you weigh the effort required (yay, one more point on the health bar/yay achievements), but I'm trapped anyhow.

And having stretched the AI to the breaking point, it's now broken for me. I can't imagine the game being too difficult apart from straight fighting now that I've mastered cheesing blend and shanking guards. I expect cities will be more challenging just because parkour gives you away instantly, but the guys on the street are screwed. Either way, I'm having a really good time with this.

[Jonathan Blow]

I have played up through the first assassination (about 3 hours) and I don't have a reason to keep playing. The game hasn't let me do anything interesting yet. All it's done is showed me that I can climb the same tower 15 times in a row, or fight groups of 5 guards where 4 of them don't attack me, so that I can kill the 5th guy. It's been very cumbersome and kind of unwilling to let me have any kind of real experience.

The graphics tech is really nice (though there are some animation errors that are kind of silly given the high production values of this game)... but the gameplay just isn't there. At all.

[Jonathan Blow]

I kind of like not having character motivations forced on me.

Wait, what?

Doesn't the game start out by saying, "Here are the rules of being an assassin. You should never break them." Then in the first scene, it turns out I am a total douchebag, and the game insists on me being a douchebag and violating the rules *it just taught me*, despite the insistence of all the other characters, and sets up a scripted scene that gives me no choice but to be a total douchebag, despite the fact that any competent designer must know that that's exactly what I don't want to do.

How is that not forcing character on the player? It's a terrible way to start a game, in any case, because it immediately torpedoes any chance of me identifying with the character.

[Munin]

IMHO the game works best as a fun sandbox romp. You can't take the story seriously, nor any of the main storyline quests. And especially not the stealth elements (why a game with such an excellent and polished presentation has to feature the worst AI of the past few years is beyond me).
But I love just riding or running around and doing random shit (even if there is not much to do at the end of the day). Part of this might be because I actually like the combat. It's not too frustrating, fluid and easy to handle. Not very deep, yes, but just kinda fun and satisfying.

I still kinda regret my purchase though because the game is obviously not worth its full price...and it's an even bigger shame that all this potential went to waste. And I don't think I'm interested in any possible sequel, because I suspect Ubisoft will not use the (awesome) crusade / medieval setting a second time in light of the crappy sci-fi story framework.

[Zep--]

I canceled my preorder. Sounds like I made the right move.

If I hear of a patch or a bargin price I may give it a chance.

Here's hoping Uncharted won't let me down.

Zep--

[BDGE]

Wait, what?

Doesn't the game start out by saying, "Here are the rules of being an assassin. You should never break them." Then in the first scene, it turns out I am a total douchebag, and the game insists on me being a douchebag and violating the rules *it just taught me*, despite the insistence of all the other characters, and sets up a scripted scene that gives me no choice but to be a total douchebag, despite the fact that any competent designer must know that that's exactly what I don't want to do.

How is that not forcing character on the player? It's a terrible way to start a game, in any case, because it immediately torpedoes any chance of me identifying with the character.

This was my problem with the scene as well. All that setup about the three tenants of being a skilled assassin and the game forces me to be a clumsy buffoon in the opening sequence. "Hey! Behind you guyz! I'm a secret assassin and I am about to kill you! En guarde!!!" The newbie assassins deserve to be the stars of this game based on that opening.

It was like the purpose was to get me to hate Altair from the start, rather than actually identify him as being a master of his craft(as the hype machine portrayed him as...eagle of the blade or whatever). Altair is no Garrett... Fortunately I am loving the game regardless of the asshattery of dimwitted Altair.

[Andrew Mayer]

But when he shuts his mouth he sure has perdy animations.

[TheTrunkDr]

They shouldn't be allowed to do that.
Unfortunately it doesn't seem so unusual for the credits to be a snapshot of who's employed at the time they're finalized regardless of how much work people have done or who might have left.

It happened to me at my old job, spent about 2.5 years, was on the project from the very beginning. It shipped maybe a year after I left and my name is nowhere to be seen.

We don't do that here, we put the name of every person that worked on a game in the credits, even if they're gone when it ships. Funny thing about that, one of the games I did had more Technical Directors in the credits than programmers. One quit during it's development, one of our more senior programmers was instated as a temporary director and then we hired a new one before it shipped. Yes the project had two programmers on it, well really more like 1.5 as the other guy came on midway through and was moved off before it finished.

[Andrew Mayer]

I spent tonight just screwing around in the overworld.

Man this game is fun when it's fun.

[Jonathan Blow]

What do you do when you're screwing around?

It just doesn't feel like a world to me, because nothing ever happens except explicit events triggered by you. So screwing around doesn't seem very fun because there's effectively nothing to do except the same 5 things. But I could be missing something...

[Lizard_King]

I generally find random flags, murder templars, and play the "how many guards in a row can I kill" game.

You're not missing anything, you just don't like it. Like you said in your initial post. You're also not the target audience for the main character, since you find him so fundamentally offensive. Clearly, this game is not a good match for you. You may be surprised to find out that there are people, myself included, who enjoy doing those same five or six things. Matter of fact, I just spent the last 4 hours in CoD doing two things (getting shot and shooting) in a world that was completely unrealistic and nothing happened except events triggered by me. Oddly enough, I also had a great time doing that.

Could it be that you are creating arbitrary "objective" criteria that AC fails when the fact is it's just not your kind of game? It has glaring flaws but I enjoy it nevertheless, making it only the second sandboxish game that I find playable in recent memory (other than Crackdown).

But I hope you'll continue in your quest to convince people enjoying the game that they also aren't having fun.

[BDGE]

I generally find random flags, murder templars, and play the "how many guards in a row can I kill" game.

You're not missing anything, you just don't like it. Like you said in your initial post. You're also not the target audience for the main character, since you find him so fundamentally offensive. Clearly, this game is not a good match for you. You may be surprised to find out that there are people, myself included, who enjoy doing those same five or six things. Matter of fact, I just spent the last 4 hours in CoD doing two things (getting shot and shooting) in a world that was completely unrealistic and nothing happened except events triggered by me. Oddly enough, I also had a great time doing that.

Could it be that you are creating arbitrary "objective" criteria that AC fails when the fact is it's just not your kind of game? It has glaring flaws but I enjoy it nevertheless, making it only the second sandboxish game that I find playable in recent memory (other than Crackdown).

But I hope you'll continue in your quest to convince people enjoying the game that they also aren't having fun.

I'm really enjoying this game for the same motivations. I've spent oodles of time scouring the overworld for flags, templars, and trying to wrestle as many guards as I can. It doesn't hurt that achievements tie into all that stuff too. Some of the hidden flags are well placed and promote some decent platforming challenges(most, sadly, are just tucked away in blind corners or on rooftops though).

I also tend to complete every subquest before going for the big kill. I like reading up on the target with all the little clues and backstory you unlock. I even try to follow the little escape route suggestions and tips the interrogations and whatnot provide.

I'm completely absorbed in this game.

[Andrew Mayer]

I really like this game, but there are some baffling design choices .

Why are so many of the core activities optional? I really don't understand why you would make the subquests unnecessary All it does is make the main game shorter and less interesting.

I also find myself missing the platform challenge set-ups from Prince of Persia. I know that the game is meant to be free form, but it would be nice if there were some more in-world puzzles for the fans of such things. Maybe they show up later...

I also think that the collection is a little broken. The meta-story is there to provide context for the gamey elements of the game, right? So hows about a little candy when I pop the piñatas?

There's lots to do, but not lots to get. Even the things I get for helping people seem kind of not that useful/cool.

I'm okay with that, because the game is often its own reward, but I can see where that may make the game less appealing to the average user, and definitely dampens my enthusiasm a little bit.

[BDGE]

I really like this game, but there are some baffling design choices .

Why are so many of the core activities optional? I really don't understand why you would make the subquests unnecessary All it does is make the main game shorter and less interesting.

I also find myself missing the platform challenge set-ups from Prince of Persia. I know that the game is meant to be free form, but it would be nice if there were some more in-world puzzles for the fans of such things. Maybe they show up later...

I also think that the collection is a little broken. The meta-story is there to provide context for the gamey elements of the game, right? So hows about a little candy when I pop the piñatas?

There's lots to do, but not lots to get. Even the things I get for helping people seem kind of not that useful/cool.

I'm okay with that, because the game is often it's own reward, but I can see where that may make the game less appealing to the average user, and definitely dampens my enthusiasm a little bit.

I'll also agree with most of this, but I'm less bothered by it as much.

Still, MoH: Airborne did something entirely unique from other big FPS games this year(Orange Box, Halo, CoD4) by implementing a similar sandboxy approach to the design to AC. It sidetracked just tossing the player into a large combat arena by having occasional objectives that thrust you into a very linear, but designed subset of the of the level at large to break up the freedom now and again with obvious scripted challenges. I thought it worked beautifully, and Assassin's Creed could definately benefit from a few of those PoP challenges as you mention. I got really intrigued by the second assassination, knowing I'd be infiltrating some hospital in the city...but all that meant was a small little building, which left me feeling a bit cold. I was imagining a PoP-esque descent into interior play(with a bit of indoor MGS-style evasion), but alas...

The collection is kinda just there to give the player reason to meander through the world beyond what the minimap points to. The rewards are lacking(collecting flags does nothing...unless something unlocks after getting every last one in the game, completing the entire DNA strand). Their placement as I said earlier is very precarious, some are nifty to reach, most just kinda plopped down.

I also think the whole investigation stuff could have been re-worked. Keep the 6-7 challenges and the minimum requirements, but make them possible to fail. As it stands you can sleepwalk through the lot of them, but if you mess up a pickpocket, then you'll be forced to do a rooftop race or whatever. 3rd target now and I'm merely going through the motions rather than feeling challenged as a master assassin/sleuth. Maybe they get more interesting and challenging later on, but they feel impossible to fail.

Regardless, the world is so exquisite and controlling Altair is such a rush that it deserves credit for being the game to keep me from playing Mario Galaxy this weekend despite all. That's the real praise.

Oh and combat is too easy that I altogether ignore running for hiding anymore. Another shame(maybe will change in the later levels?).

[DDB]

So here's my review of the game:

The great game that could have been is buried under baffling decisions and way-too-easily mastered mechanics. I'll not talk about the stuff that is in the other reviews, you all know about the twist and Altair and the mechanics. Let's move on.

The game makes the unfortunate decision to send you through The Kingdom, the outdoor section of the game, BEFORE you get to your first city. And The Kingdom is probably the worst place to introduce this game, as there is no crowd involvement and it shows off all of the shortcomings of the game's AI. Ignore it. Ride hard to Damascus, marvel at what the game has accomplished technically when you view the sweeping vista before you, and then enter the city. Walk through a crowded market or down a busy street. It IS a truly marvelous experience, as this city is more alive than any city in any other game. At least at first. But the artifice is palpable. The street prophets decrying King Richard and Saladin only have one speech. The merchants have only a handful of barks, the beggars have only a handful of whines. The sense of place will be destroyed, and I mean absolutely destroyed, by the "bullying guards" and their two voice clips endlessly repeated in different locations around the city. You will hear virtually every piece of dialog you are going to hear within the first 30 minutes of entering a city. And once you have, the game doesn't feel organic and the city feels less like a city and more like a game. But oh...that first 30 minutes!

You know something weird? The repeated voice clips are often the same lines...said by different actors. Ponder that for a moment. They went through the trouble of getting a different person to say the exact same line, word for word, as someone else. Why? Why would you do that? All it does is immediately remind the player that this world is not real, that they are playing a game, that their experience is canned and repetitive. It's a terrible and baffling decision.

In fact Assassin's Creed has vestiges of being a much harder and much deeper game. The HUD shows you when a guard has his eye on you and it's remarkably accurate and never cheats. The guards have a true line of sight and you can evade it by heading down alleys and walking behind them. However it doesn't really matter, since you can climb on a merchant stall and scale a building right in front of a guard, and as long as he is in "yellow" mode (i.e. not suspicious) he won't bat an eye. You would think a city guard would BECOME suspicious and follow you up to the roof to keep an eye on you (guards are very athletic, and they CAN do all these things when they want to...and that's when they are chasing you) but instead they continue to travel on their merry way. They do this a lot, because guards are in yellow mode 90 percent of the time, only going to "red" after they have seen a dead body or an assassination mission has been perfomed. And it's pretty ridiculous what you can get away with in this game and keep the guards in yellow mode. You can grab a beggar woman right in front of the guards and throw her into the wall. "Help!" she will scream. "He tried to kill me!" A patrol might stop and watch, and one of the guards may say, "Hey buddy knock that off!" but they won't come over and hassle you. And they could, because the "hassle" AI is in the game already (drunks and the mentally ill will ocassionally shove you as you walk past). Why don't the guards push you around (as they seem so fond of doing with citizens) and rough you up, maybe punch you a few times for good measure (there's a fist-fight AI and combat style in the game, too!) But no, the guards never do this. They go from inoffensive limpwrists who do nothing at all (even when you gently but literally push them into alleys for a stabbing) to drawing steel and screaming "ASSASSIN!" before trying to cut you down. For a game that prides itself on social stealth and social mechanics, you would think that escalation of force by your opponents would be a centerpiece. You would think that pushing a guard would earn you a shove and messing with a citizen would earn a beating. But instead, we get the same old binary system of on/off, with a few canned responses to your actions thrown in for good measure. Yet we've seen the game demonstrate that it is capable of so much more.

When you do actually piss of the guards, the chase mechanic in the game is extremely well done. The guards swarm over citizens, run up ladders, and some even form a makeshift roadblocks to try to take you down. Sadly, for the first half of the game the guards are unable to keep pace with the player sprinting and are too easily avoided to represent a challenge. As the game continues, however, the guards begin to keep pace with the player for longer and you find yourself actually challenged to escape. Or you would, anyway, if there weren't so many hiding spots all over the city. It's not an exaggeration to say that if you pick any square block of any of the cities in Assassin's Creed you will find at least 3 ways to "Vanish", the game's term for jumping into a bale of hay or sitting on a bench or entering a rooftop enclosure. And so the minute you break line of sight you can navigate to one of these nearby points and the chase, for all intents and purposes, is over. Why the developers would trivialize their own cool system and possibly the strongest part of the game is unknown to me. The guards really show their stuff off during the chases - running across rooftops shouting and even flanking the buildings you climb in order to cut off your escape. And yet the game is almost apologetic about it, offering an easy escape around every corner or on top of every roof.

And now onto the combat, which undermines every aspect of the game. I actually find the combat itself extremely fun. It's got a rhythm and flow to it that usually is reserved for top-tier brawlers like Ninja Gaiden and Devil May Cry. Well, top-tier brawlers if they had the laziest timing windows you could possibly imagine and one easy technique that could kill any opponent. You've all read the real reviews and you know how it works. The problem here is that it's too easy to do most of the "counters" that the game is built around and you have an almost-perfect defense. So a very decent combat technique is to stand around doing nothing and counter-killing any idiot guard who dares attack you. It's decent...but it's also an incredibly boring way to fight. You're going to have to force yourself to go on offense, to strike at the guards and get the aforementioned rhythm and flow going. And when you do, you're going to find that the combat is STILL too easy, that guards are dispatched too quickly and while losing too little of your mile-long health bar (which can regenerate during the fight provided you don't get hit...good thing you have an almost perfect defense!)

And once you've mastered this way-too-easy combat system that's it. You no longer fear the guards, and at that point most of the motivations in the game become laughable. There's no need for social stealth because you can just kill the guards. There's no need to run away because you can just kill your pursuers, and anyone else who gets in your way. And that is the beginning of the end for this game - when you don't take your opponents seriously. Oh sure, you can still play it, and enjoy it, but in the back of your mind you'll be thinking "I'm only running because it's fun and I want to, not because I need to. I am only blending in with the crowd because it's cool, not because I'm actually scared of guard attention. I am only doing silent assassinations because I will fail the mission I'm on if I don't." They blew this aspect of the game just as surely as they blew it in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

And yet, amazingly, the game still remains a fun ride. While combat becomes trivial, the platforming/parkour element was absolutely nailed. There are dozens of reviews out there about how great it is, and they are all correct. This is the best platforming game both in terms of scope and in terms of mechanics that I have ever played. You feel absolutely like Altair is capable of doing everything that he does, that the world is solid and real and you are existing in it. The sense of place while platforming above the crowds with their repetitive speeches and the guards with their weird passive-aggressive policing is phenomenal. It's the number-one ingredient that makes the chases so excellent. It's great, the best, and you should play the game just to experience it.

This game is not a masterpiece and does not live up to it's hype. In fact, in some ways it is a step back from previous sandbox titles. There is little mission variety even though you can see how easy it would be to vary the missions. The AI isn't a huge advancement over what we've already seen and in fact can be broken rather easily (I won't get into the nonsense you can pull with the "blend" button - a button you can push that, as described in another review, essentially makes you invisible). The game is in love with the sound of it's own voice and it talks, and talks, and talks - and you can't skip cutscenes, some of which are lengthy and must be listened to before attempting a difficult mission. Lastly is my own highly personal complaint: you can kill a dozen guards on a crowded street and the guard bodies simply disappear when you're not looking. They even fail to draw a crowd. I killed a dozen guards and waited on a nearby bench, hoping to see a "death cart" come by and collect the dead while scads of onlookers ringed the grisly scene. Instead I got jack squat.

Even GTA3 had an ambulance show up.

[DDB]

(continued)

This review has focused on the negatives of the game. However it's not a bad title. It's in fact extremely good, especially for the first half of the game. It's beautiful and very cinematic. The platforming is perfect. But it falls short. This title was supposed to be "next gen" in every way and it simply isn't. You can see the greatness in this title - it's there, lurking under the surface, spread out across a hundred different little aspects of gameplay. What it ultimately boils down to is that the game is too easy - even a difficulty slider that turned off half of the "vanish" locations and tightened up the combat would be a huge leap towards making this a gaming classic. As it stands, rent this game. Only buy it if you are a huge platforming and Prince of Persia fan who is hungering for more wall-climbing goodness.

[John E. Motion]

My that's long. So, how 'bout them JRPGs?

[Gary Whitta]

So should I buy this game or not?

[metta]

Nice audition tape.

[DDB]

I wrote it for another site and I enjoy writing reviews. I thought that you might enjoy it but I guess that's not the case. I don't know what an audition tape is but I'll just assume you're being snide. I'll just run along now...have fun!

[Adree]

It's a hard knock life on the mean streets of Qt3.

[Sebmojo]

I wrote it for another site and I enjoy writing reviews. I thought that you might enjoy it but I guess that's not the case. I don't know what an audition tape is but I'll just assume you're being snide. I'll just run along now...have fun!

Welcome to Q23! I liked the review, thanks.

[DoomMunky]

I liked it too. Ignore those other guys. They're jealous because you still have a will to live.

[Nathan Phoenix]

Thanks for the write up, DDB, and welcome.

[Andrew Mayer]

I feel that we need a LOLCat image of some sort now.

[McCrank]

Just played for a insanely long time... I'm on my 4th assassination, but doing all the optional quests along the way. Have to say though, damn fun game... It seems to scratch the same itch as Crackdown, however I thought Crackdown had a better living world, with more to do in it. Im going for total completion on this, minus the flag collecting. I found all 20 in Masyaf, however I dont see how anyone could have the patience to search the huge cities.

-Chris

[MattKeil]

When Jade came in for an interview, she said that, to her knowledge, not even anyone on the AC team had found all the flags yet.

I'm going for it, just because empty spaces on the DNA strand annoy me.

[Lizard_King]

When Jade came in for an interview, she said that, to her knowledge, not even anyone on the AC team had found all the flags yet.

I'm going for it, just because empty spaces on the DNA strand annoy me.
Two factors annoy me more than those gaps, though. One is having a collection system that doesn't differentiate between them (as in, oh, I'm still missing number 79 and number 28) and the fact that there are no apparent in game rewards for them. Crackdown had the good sense to give your stats a marginal boost for each orb, etc. I also found the Masyaf flags, but that was 20 in a proportionately tiny area. At this stage, I have 26 left in the Kingdom area alone, after far too much time spent in that relatively boring level breaking the game AI, and I get the feeling I'm not going to follow through on it.

Those Templars are going down, though, reward or not.

Also, the game AI is acting really strangely at times. I suppose the turn taking combat lends itself to it, but after the second assassination (for instance), after killing everyone on the way in, I killed everyone on the way out. And I just walked out. That's right, I strolled out of the main building, killing guards in ones and twos after the main groups in the castle (hospitaliers), and I pretty much had to intentionally provoke them by walking up to them with my dagger drawn. OTOH, after I stumbled across a Templar, I decided to expedite and head for the rooftops. That's when the panic went off and the guards came after me, but even then it was no big deal.

Now obviously it might have been a different story had I not done every miniquest available in the area beforehand; I imagine my groups of vigilantes were doing their damnedest, and that I had pretty much put the game in easy mode by doing them all beforehand. I expect for the next one I'll go right for the kill and do the sidequests afterwards, and see if it's a more engaging experience.

Also, two crashes so far. One was shortly after the hospitalier target cutscene (I think I moved too far away from the designated cutscene area before the cutscene was quite through), and another in the Kingdom in the process of creating another massive pile of bodies outside of Acre. Both required a hard reset of the xbox, and both set me back a bit in terms of checkpoints. Not a deal breaker, but definitely annoying.

Overall, still really enjoying myself. A lot of the elements I'm enjoying are profoundly gamey, like messing with the AI in the same manner that I enjoyed so much in the original Splinter cell. Every now and then the game surprises me pleasantly, like when the Saracen guards near Jerusalem suddenly start busting out feints, or the first time I (accidentally) jump shanked somebody in the back of the head with the sleeve dagger. I can see how the combat would bring down a lot of people, but it really feels great once you get going. If you just stand and wait to counterattack, it is pretty dull, though.

[BDGE]

Throwing knives totally alleviate the "save the village folk" quests by a large margin. You can take the little groups out from a safe distance and stroll in for the win conversation, never needing to draw your sword.

I'm actually sort of liking how nearly impervious I am to enemies in the game now, you really feel like a real killer dispatching anything and everything at lighting speeds. But yea, the challenge is long gone with only the main assassinations offering any real altered scripting to the theatrics. Clearing the DNA strands in each district is starting to feel like busywork, especially given how similar the cities and districts are(Rich sections are different from the poor ones how?). I was hoping for elite-type guards of sorts at least.

Been playing non-stop regardless, and have found a good deal of flags(Masyaf and Acre poor cleared), but I half-expected little things to unlock like a poison dagger or something. I've already got pretty much all the combat achievements just goofing around, all that is left are the flag collection and story ones really, and I'm only on assassination 4.

[metta]

I wrote it for another site and I enjoy writing reviews. I thought that you might enjoy it but I guess that's not the case. I don't know what an audition tape is but I'll just assume you're being snide. I'll just run along now...have fun!

I wasn't trying to be snide, but sometimes I stumble into it by accident :p It was an oblique expression of surprise.

On topic: I'm really loving this game, but I am pre-disposed too - it's set in one of my favourite time periods, utilizes two of my favourite game conventions (stealth and assassination, and stealth is implemented in a really new and interesting way) and has the sandbox/climbing-all-over-the- place stuff that makes my socks roll up and down. I don't care about the modern day stuff at all, I just like prowling around in this environment, exploring, running along rooftops, killing templars with my sleeve stabby and sucking down this amazing atmosphere.

I hope part two makes me remember an ancestor who was an assassin in medieval Europe.

[McCrank]

Going along with the above review about combat getting pretty easy; Im working on my 5th kill now, and Im pretty much running through the city streets freely... Guards just dont wanna see me.

[Lizard_King]

It's just the rooftops and beams that get them testy. I think unless other parts of the cities are significantly tougher I'll just keep running and jump shanking guards for no reason, like it's Legacy of Kain and I have a thirst. Occasionally I like to panic crowds by running with a drawn weapon, or simply trampling an entire row of pilgrims in the kingdom on a horse. I guess that's why GTA had the Star police alert scale, and that's probably why I'm playing this instead of any of those.

[Charles]

I really like this game, but there are some baffling design choices .

Why are so many of the core activities optional? I really don't understand why you would make the subquests unnecessary All it does is make the main game shorter and less interesting.


Honest answer? Because everyone knew they were the weakest part of the game, and forcing people to do 6-10 on every mission would have killed our reviews. Two or three is good. Doesn't get too painful, and it allows you to pick and choose which ones you'd prefer to do.


I also find myself missing the platform challenge set-ups from Prince of Persia. I know that the game is meant to be free form, but it would be nice if there were some more in-world puzzles for the fans of such things. Maybe they show up later...


I've said it before, and I'll say it again. AC is not PoP. You won't find platforming puzzles. You can, however, create your own by deciding where you want to go and then figuring out how to get there.


I also think that the collection is a little broken. The meta-story is there to provide context for the gamey elements of the game, right? So hows about a little candy when I pop the piñatas?

There's lots to do, but not lots to get. Even the things I get for helping people seem kind of not that useful/cool.


Do not underestimate the helping missions. If you get a bunch of vigilantes in an area of the game, and you get guards chasing you, they are absolutely *invaluable* for getting away clean. Doing all the helping missions in advance of an assassination can make getting away quick and easy, as opposed to a fighting slogfest.


I'm okay with that, because the game is often its own reward, but I can see where that may make the game less appealing to the average user, and definitely dampens my enthusiasm a little bit.

Ehhh. The name of the game is player choice.

[Charles]

I got really intrigued by the second assassination, knowing I'd be infiltrating some hospital in the city...but all that meant was a small little building, which left me feeling a bit cold. I was imagining a PoP-esque descent into interior play(with a bit of indoor MGS-style evasion), but alas...


Did you look up, though? Lots of beams in that room. That being said, the game was never meant to be MGS, and no one wanted to make 'evasion' gameplay. It's about social stealth, not classic stealth.


The collection is kinda just there to give the player reason to meander through the world beyond what the minimap points to. The rewards are lacking(collecting flags does nothing...unless something unlocks after getting every last one in the game, completing the entire DNA strand). Their placement as I said earlier is very precarious, some are nifty to reach, most just kinda plopped down.


There's achievements for it, but really, when you get right down to it, I didn't see the point either. But... people like it. So to each their own.


I also think the whole investigation stuff could have been re-worked. Keep the 6-7 challenges and the minimum requirements, but make them possible to fail. As it stands you can sleepwalk through the lot of them, but if you mess up a pickpocket, then you'll be forced to do a rooftop race or whatever. 3rd target now and I'm merely going through the motions rather than feeling challenged as a master assassin/sleuth. Maybe they get more interesting and challenging later on, but they feel impossible to fail.


Problem with that though is that it invariably leads to a 'game over', which is something that isn't there. And yes, some do get more challenging later on. But the game wasn't meant to be hard, it was meant to be interesting.

Oh and combat is too easy that I altogether ignore running for hiding anymore. Another shame(maybe will change in the later levels?).

You are a master assassin surrounded by redshirts. There are hard fights, but you have to go out of your way to find them.

[Charles]

Two factors annoy me more than those gaps, though. One is having a collection system that doesn't differentiate between them (as in, oh, I'm still missing number 79 and number 28) and the fact that there are no apparent in game rewards for them. Crackdown had the good sense to give your stats a marginal boost for each orb, etc. I also found the Masyaf flags, but that was 20 in a proportionately tiny area. At this stage, I have 26 left in the Kingdom area alone, after far too much time spent in that relatively boring level breaking the game AI, and I get the feeling I'm not going to follow through on it.

There's no stats in the game though. And as the game is entirely animation driven, it wasn't really possible to make tweaks to things like run speed or jump distance without making everything look completely broken.

Interesting bit of trivia, which I may have shared somewhere here already. In early versions of the game, there was no real intention to have you lose any abilities -- the plan was that you'd just start the game with everything.

[Skipper]

Picked up the game this evening and after my WoW raid I played up until now, quarter to 2 (yeah yeah I know, why not spend the extra hour to finish the quote.)

Great game so far the graphics are breathtaking. I like the story so far as well, and the design of the areas really fits the setting. Of course, I suck, but after just finishing my first assassination, I can tell I'm going to really like this. I stumbled upon a few flags, have several vistas, and I am enjoying the side missions as well.

A big thank you to you and your team Charles, this game is pretty damned good so far.

[Lizard_King]

There's no stats in the game though. And as the game is entirely animation driven, it wasn't really possible to make tweaks to things like run speed or jump distance without making everything look completely broken.

No, I understand that aspect. I'm just saying that's how Crackdown hooked me, and why the flags...don't. They're not even worth as much as trivial deeds like climbing the towers. I guess that's good so you don't have to find them to get a full sync bar, but what I was expecting when I saw the absurd rationale for why you were collecting flags was a little reveal saying they represented bits of your memory you were retrieving that would count for something. Especially with the digital flashing around them.

It feels a little tacked on, but that's probably because of the high level of polish in other parts of the game.
Did you look up, though? Lots of beams in that room. That being said, the game was never meant to be MGS, and no one wanted to make 'evasion' gameplay. It's about social stealth, not classic stealth.
I'd rescued the monks, so I used them to move about the room as per my lead from the informant. It was easy to pick a dark corner from there and get my true assassination achievement to boot, as opposed to the first one which I totally botched (I didn't understand how attacking enemies worked in terms of revealing yourself then). Using the beams seemed to draw a lot more attention than simply walking around with blend.

And yeah, I appreciate your point about interesting vs hard.

[Andrew Mayer]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. AC is not PoP. You won't find platforming puzzles. You can, however, create your own by deciding where you want to go and then figuring out how to get there.

I get it. But man, some of those puzzles in the first PoP were pieces of art. And I'm not looking for that same level, but I'm never going to be as good at stringing it together as they were.

Do not underestimate the helping missions. If you get a bunch of vigilantes in an area of the game, and you get guards chasing you, they are absolutely *invaluable* for getting away clean. Doing all the helping missions in advance of an assassination can make getting away quick and easy, as opposed to a fighting slogfest.


That's kind of weird though, isn't it? First, how do I know that unless I do it? And if I do it how do I know that I'm missing out on the slogfest? Lastly, is a slogfest a good condition for the game to get into?


Ehhh. The name of the game is player choice.

I guess. But a part of me thinks that you guys didn't either do enough user testing, or you didn't pay enough attention to the results.

Again, this game is a winner. It's great. I've probably spent about six hours in it so far and I've only finished two assassinations. As a bonus I will now spell Assassin correctly for the rest of my life! (Ass ass, heh heh). It scratches that itch that has remained unscratched since I finished Crackdown.

And the combat works. Maybe there are tuning problems fine, whatever. But it's a triumph, and I applaud you for it.

But it's not GOTY, and while you have a reason for everything, the issues remain. And honestly I think 80% of the problems fall under presentation, motivation, or Polish.

The pieces are amazing, but the synergy isn't quite there.

[Jonathan Blow]

Yeah, that's the thing: having a reason for why something is suboptimal or wrong, doesn't make that thing right. Even if it seems like a good reason.

[jim crawford]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. AC is not PoP. You won't find platforming puzzles. You can, however, create your own by deciding where you want to go and then figuring out how to get there.
But it could've been. And I don't mean it could've been a platformer instead of what it is; I mean it could've been a platformer too. Every flag placed in the world is a beacon, a challenge, asking the player to try to get to this spot. Every flag is an opportunity to set up a platforming puzzle.

I don't know, maybe it would've been hell on the decor.

[TomChick]

That's kind of weird though, isn't it? First, how do I know that unless I do it?

The game clearly tells you these things, Andrew.

If you're talking about the vigilantes, the people you rescue say things like 'Now my brothers will help you'. Plus, you know, the dudes actually walk up and hang out. And are marked on your maps.

If you're talking about the side missions, the game makes the benefits of those pretty clear as well. Maybe you're not checking your "memory banks" (or whatever stupid modern-day Animus-inspired thing they're called), in which case you're missing out on the significance of the side missions. Some of them just unlock backstory, but most of them unlock some practical clues for doing the assassination mission. Based on your comments, it sounds like you don't realize this.

-Tom

[Zep--]

So, I eneded up getting this for my birthday dispite my preorder cancel.

Why is it that noone has mentioned the Goatse.cx "Saving" icon?

Zep--

[Charles]

So, I eneded up getting this for my birthday dispite my preorder cancel.

Why is it that noone has mentioned the Goatse.cx "Saving" icon?

Zep--

Hahahhahaa... I mentioned that, but they said "Are you nuts, it looks like a SIM card."

I suppose they are right as well.

[Charles]

It feels a little tacked on, but that's probably because of the high level of polish in other parts of the game.


They were tacked on, when you get right down to it. Focus groups wanted something to do that led them around.


I get it. But man, some of those puzzles in the first PoP were pieces of art. And I'm not looking for that same level, but I'm never going to be as good at stringing it together as they were.


Yeah, but that kind of stuff takes a lot of time. And, despite the high level of world interactivity, platforming "puzzles" don't really work in our game because the player is designed to exist in the world, rather than the world existing for the player. Everything the player can do (jump, swing, hang, climb, etc) are all variable in terms of how far they can go. And on top of that, there *are* a lot of setups in the game which will allow you to go from the ground to the rooftops in a couple of seconds. You just really have to keep your eyes open because they are parts of the environment.


That's kind of weird though, isn't it? First, how do I know that unless I do it? And if I do it how do I know that I'm missing out on the slogfest? Lastly, is a slogfest a good condition for the game to get into?


Depends on what you want. I personally like fighting my way out as much as making a clean getaway. I never have so much fun as when I'm leaving a carpet of corpses.


I guess. But a part of me thinks that you guys didn't either do enough user testing, or you didn't pay enough attention to the results.


Actually, as far as I'm concerned, we did too much user testing and paid too much attention to the results. It will always have a kind of "blandening" effect.

But it's not GOTY, and while you have a reason for everything, the issues remain. And honestly I think 80% of the problems fall under presentation, motivation, or Polish.

The pieces are amazing, but the synergy isn't quite there.

This, I do agree with. We didn't really have any time for polish at all. The game pretty much came together a couple of weeks before ship, and after that, there was a lot of breath holding.

[Brian Rucker]

*laugh* I like this guy.

[BDGE]

The game clearly tells you these things, Andrew.

If you're talking about the vigilantes, the people you rescue say things like 'Now my brothers will help you'. Plus, you know, the dudes actually walk up and hang out. And are marked on your maps.

-Tom

So many interviews early on had Jade and Patrice at E3 and other trade events showing off AC and delivering a message about how involving the 'chase' mechanic is in this game. Assassination #3 or so finally delivers this(or at leats the first scripted one), but because I had saved all of the citizens and had friends at every street corner, the actual chase lasted 3 seconds. The moment the guy hit the streets it was all over for my target because a pack of civilians tackled and pinned him down for me to briskly walk up and stab.

Interesting from an immersion perspective, dissapointing from a game one.

[Jim Preston]

Having read through this entire thread I was a little surprised that I was the only one who thought the beginning was a mess. You start out in a dreaming coma (apparently, i could be wrong though) that serves as a sort of tutorial. You then wake up in a present-day setting, which serves as a sort of tutorial. You then go into some sort of virtual reality setting, which serves as a sort of tutorial. You then start recalling genetic memories...which serves as a sort of tutorial. It was around the second time that the game tried to teach me how to climb a wall that I got the feeling the beginning could have been a whole lot more coherent. There are two ways to do a tutorial: artfully blend it with the gameworld a la Halo, or simply acknowledge for what it is and call it training, a la Rainbow Six games. The beginning of AC just seems sort of confused to me.

But that's really a minor complaint (and apparently I'm the only one with it) to my major one: I find the world incredibly artificial. The animation, art direction and modeling in it are simply peerless; they are state-of-the-industry and we watched the beginning of the game at work and admired it. But just about everything after that breaks the illusion for me terribly. For example:

- Templar knights that stand like statues doing nothing in back corners, who only come to life when you approach (and they recognize you on sight for some reason). They are more like lethal easter eggs than flesh and blood human beings that occupy the same world that Altair does.

- Painfully contrived sequences of saving an "innocent" at the gates of a city to cause four scholar mushrooms to pop-up so you can blend in and walk into the city (are only scholars allowed in? Other citizens seem to be moving through the guards just fine, why can't I?)

- Playing the same five mission types over and over, hearing the same thank-you lines from the rescued innocents, going through the exact same pick pocket routine every time, with no variation except for the textures on the character

- And perhaps worst of all for me, there's is no point in doing any of the side missions other than the fact that the game forces you to do this busy work. It's not like you have to piece together clues to figure who your target is, or make any sort of decisions whatsoever on how to assassinate your target. It's all handed to you via contrived and repetitive skits.

I haven't finished the game, so I'll withhold judgment on where the story is going, but I think I would have enjoyed AC a lot more if I felt I could actually play like an assassin and not a sort a sort of 12th century swashbuckler. (Wouldn't an assassin try to kill by stealth at night rather than get in lots of sword fights in the market in broad daylight?)

It would have been cool to see if I could discover the right target based on information I gleaned, and the less information I had to, say, pay for, the more profit I would derive from the mission. For example, would I dare risk a mission when all I knew was "kill the man in the temple with the white robe"? Perhaps I should try to find more information than risk killing the wrong target? Just an idea, but I stopped doing anything more than the bare minimum side missions in AC about halfway through because they just felt so fake and repititive to me.

I hope it sells a boatload of copies for the simple reason that I hope Charles becomes stinkin rich and that publishers are rewarded for making big, epic, different games. I really want to love Assassin's Creed, and I hope it becomes a franchise, because my favorite stealth series of all time, Thief, had a shakey first game and a vastly superior second game. I hoping the same for AC, but with more variety and interesting choices for the player.

[RepoMan]

Being someone who loves getting the environment to help me, I now totally want this game :-) I crave setting up hordes of friendly turrets and secbots and buddy Big Daddies in Bioshock. So I'll definitely enjoy leveraging the friendly mobs every darn bit that I can.

...Well, maybe I'll take a mission or two and just chase the guy until he crumbles :-)

Still, the main thing I know is that when shooting for the moon you generally don't nail it the first time. I bet Assassin's Creed 2 will get the polish level way, way up.

[Wholly Schmidt]

Having read through this entire thread I was a little surprised that I was the only one who thought the beginning was a mess. You start out in a dreaming coma (apparently, i could be wrong though) that serves as a sort of tutorial. You then wake up in a present-day setting, which serves as a sort of tutorial. You then go into some sort of virtual reality setting, which serves as a sort of tutorial. You then start recalling genetic memories...which serves as a sort of tutorial. It was around the second time that the game tried to teach me how to climb a wall that I got the feeling the beginning could have been a whole lot more coherent. There are two ways to do a tutorial: artfully blend it with the gameworld a la Halo, or simply acknowledge for what it is and call it training, a la Rainbow Six games. The beginning of AC just seems sort of confused to me.
I'm with you, the begining was a mess of tutorials, now you're really playing, no, wait, learn this too!

[Drastic]

The other serious drawback of the whole beginning mess is this: it really interferes with, say, taking the game over to show off to someone else on a 360 not your own, because the true showoff parts don't come together until you at least hit Damascus. Way too much story frontloading, and it's made me respect Crackdown's sandbox-confidence all the more of having the balls to simply go "There's a bunch of guys out there to murder. Get to it!" and turning you loose.

The entire Kingdom area should have been axed in favor of, say, a fourth city.

I'm really enjoying it, which makes that kind of thing all the more aggravating.

[Drastic]

Interesting bit of trivia, which I may have shared somewhere here already. In early versions of the game, there was no real intention to have you lose any abilities -- the plan was that you'd just start the game with everything.
Pity that intent was lost. "You've been demoted to Private! Now you forget many of your skills!"

Which wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't counter-killed throughout the first battle. Punishing the character is fine by me (I certainly don't care that he's an unlikeable ass; people who project into main character roles are a different tribe than my people and their ways are mysterious and strange), but punishing the actual player seems a bit much.

[metta]

I'm with you, the begining was a mess of tutorials, now you're really playing, no, wait, learn this too!

I think the intent was to give the impression of logging in to somewhere and losing the connection; it reinforces that the tutorials are part of the Animus program. I think it works well.

[Andrew Mayer]

This, I do agree with. We didn't really have any time for polish at all. The game pretty much came together a couple of weeks before ship, and after that, there was a lot of breath holding.

Well, there you go... If you guys had six months after the game was complete to go in there and really take advantage of everything you had built....

The fact that you didn't get to do that and still managed to pull together what you did is pretty impressive actually...


If you're talking about the side missions, the game makes the benefits of those pretty clear as well. Maybe you're not checking your "memory banks" (or whatever stupid modern-day Animus-inspired thing they're called), in which case you're missing out on the significance of the side missions. Some of them just unlock backstory, but most of them unlock some practical clues for doing the assassination mission. Based on your comments, it sounds like you don't realize this.

Yeah. I have no idea what you're talking about. There's some kind of text I'm unlocking? I'll look for it next time I'm in there.

[Wholly Schmidt]

I think the intent was to give the impression of logging in to somewhere and losing the connection; it reinforces that the tutorials are part of the Animus program. I think it works well.
The very first thing that happens is the (intentionally) unplayable bit where you're fading in and out of the memory with tutorial bits flying past almost too fast to decipher. Ok, cool, I get it, what you're saying applies here metta.

So then they pull you out and drop you into the "loading" program and give you a tutorial proper. Here's how you walk, how you run, etc. Fine.

But then you're dropped into the game proper, all super high ranking, and get a few more pointers as you run around and do stuff. Ok. Stuff happens, you're demoted.

Now you get a combat tutorial. Weren't you just stabbing people left and right?

Then we get an investigation tutorial.

At this point it's maddening, and your defense of it doesn't hold much water here metta. It's just all very poorly structured. There are bits that overlap and make you wonder why you're being taught basically the same thing again, but the bigger problem is that there are so many false starts. Even when a tutorial is giving you new information, like when you get to the investigation section, you're still ready to bang your head against the wall because it's like the third time you've thought to yourself "Alright, now let's start the game for real!" only to be shunted back through some hand-holding section.

[metta]

Ah, well I wasn't really mounting a defense, counselor, but I do take issue with your pronouns. I'm usually referring only to my response to whatever it is I'm writing about, not trying to define anyone else's experience for them. But I can plainly see that your response to the game is different from mine. Who knew?

[Wholly Schmidt]

But I can plainly see that your response to the game is different from mine. Who knew?
Jeez, when will you people on the internet realize that makes me right and you wrong? If you'll just accept it, this will all go a lot smoother!

But seriously, I was just trying to flesh out my complaint in case we weren't quite talking about the same thing. When you talked about the tutorial showing how the animus (I can't stop thinking animagus!) was loading, I just wanted to make clear that what I took issue with in tutorials went long beyond that first section. I can live with you and I not agreeing as long as we agree we're disagreeing about the same thing.

[MattKeil]

When you talked about the tutorial showing how the animus (I can't stop thinking animagus!)

Coming in 2009: Harry Potter and the Ruined Latin Roots.

[mkozlows]

Just played for a insanely long time... I'm on my 4th assassination, but doing all the optional quests along the way. Have to say though, damn fun game... It seems to scratch the same itch as Crackdown

For me, it inflames the Crackdown itch, but doesn't satisfy.

Every time I'm climbing a tower in AC via the incredibly involved mechanic of "hold the analog stick pointed up for a while", I think about the tense and tactical climb of the Agency Tower.

Every time I'm sprinting along the rooftops making elaborate jumps and platforming up a storm by the incredibly involved mechanic of "hold RT and A", I'm thinking about the actual platforming activity of Crackdown and its superjumps.

Every time I collect one of those stupid meaningless flags, I'm remembering the almost palpable thrill of getting an agility orb.

Every time I'm in boring block-and-slash combat with a guard, I'm wishing I could be kicking them across the room and firing rockets at them.

Basically, it feels like someone decided to make medieval Crackdown, but took out all the fun parts.

[Wholly Schmidt]

This game keeps making me excited about Mirror's Edge, that game I read some preview for in EDGE.

[Charles]

Every time I'm in boring block-and-slash combat with a guard, I'm wishing I could be kicking them across the room and firing rockets at them.

Throw them off roofs.

As for the rocket launchers, I think maybe you picked the wrong game.

[DDB]

Charles,
Thanks for giving us the reasons behind many of the choices in the game. I really hope that the team considers a downloadable content patch that adds a difficulty slider for combat, and perhaps another that makes the guards able to chase you more doggedly. Since Assassin's Creed was nice enough to include the ability to turn off individual elements of the HUD (a feature that I am very grateful for) I hope that the AC team can give us the ability to individually make aspects of the game harder or easier. This would be a huge boon for those of us who have mastered the combat and can easily kill three dozen guards without a problem.
The fact that you pulled this game together only a few weeks before ship gives me a lot of hope for Assassin's Creed 2. Honestly this could be a great game, it just needs more polish and variety. It's amazing that it turned out as well as it did, judging from some of the stuff that I've heard (focus group testing changing things around right before ship, barely bringing it all together in time, etc. etc.) Kudos to you and the team, I hope that the game does well enough to give you a shot at the sequel.

[Wholly Schmidt]

Man, I can't stop stabbing people. It took me a few hours to realize I wasn't strictly some never-be-seen stealth assassin and realize that I can kill anyone I please, and it's turned me into some kind of monster.

Pro tip to the citizens of Jerusalem: Don't come asking me for money!

[metta]

But seriously, I was just trying to flesh out my complaint in case we weren't quite talking about the same thing. When you talked about the tutorial showing how the animus (I can't stop thinking animagus!) was loading, I just wanted to make clear that what I took issue with in tutorials went long beyond that first section. I can live with you and I not agreeing as long as we agree we're disagreeing about the same thing.

Ahh, gotcha. Yeah, I still don't mind it. Perhaps my old brain needs a bit more tutoring than most, but even now, into my second assassination and fourth hour, I still appreciate that tips are popping up. I'm not very good at fighting games, I could barely get 30 minutes into PoP: Warrior Within, and AC is probing some fresh control areas in my head - I appreciate the layers of help.

(It's testament to the learning curve and quality of the fighting model - thank you Charles et al - that I'm not only still playing a game with this much sworldplay, but loving it.)

edit for elaboration. while it occurs to me: the only things I really don't like are the modern day wrapping around the game, and the time compression - I quit while standing outside Damascus, and when I booted the game up again, I was standing in the Assassin's Bureau inside Damascus. It happened again after the first assassination: I was told to go back to see the big boss, and I planned to knock off some more templars on the way, maybe look for more flags, but I was zapped right back to head office :(

[HRose]

For some reason I always confused The Witcher with this one?

Could someone quickly comments about the two games compared and the one who comes out winning?

[Charles]

edit for elaboration. while it occurs to me: the only things I really don't like are the modern day wrapping around the game, and the time compression - I quit while standing outside Damascus, and when I booted the game up again, I was standing in the Assassin's Bureau inside Damascus. It happened again after the first assassination: I was told to go back to see the big boss, and I planned to knock off some more templars on the way, maybe look for more flags, but I was zapped right back to head office :(

Yeah, that was a known issue. For some reason, people making decisions decided it was okay. After you get a mission, if you die or reload after entering the target's city, you'll just pop up at the bureau, which is pretty lame, as when you get a mission, part of the fun for me was getting to the city for the first time and then finding the bureau.

But it's easy to avoid if you know it's going to happen. Still wish someone had fixed it though.

[Jonathan Blow]

The game has this really good graphics engine but doesn't really use it, because the game design doesn't allow it. Like, why does it just tell me where the bureau, and various targets, are as soon as I climb a tower? Wouldn't it be more fun for me to actually look for those things, using my eyes, interpreting what I am seeing in all the distantly-rendered city polygons. I think a bunch of changes like that would have made the game feel more substantial and less by-the-numbers-do-these-repetitive-and-simplisticthings.

[Charles]

The game has this really good graphics engine but doesn't really use it, because the game design doesn't allow it. Like, why does it just tell me where the bureau, and various targets, are as soon as I climb a tower? Wouldn't it be more fun for me to actually look for those things, using my eyes, interpreting what I am seeing in all the distantly-rendered city polygons. I think a bunch of changes like that would have made the game feel more substantial and less by-the-numbers-do-these-repetitive-and-simplisticthings.

Welcome to the hell of focus testing!

But really, there were a lot of mixed opinions about how to proceed on that. Short of making street names and building google maps in to the game, and putting tons of time and effort in to NPC banter that let you know where you were at all times, it would've been really difficult to enable that kind of thing. How are you supposed to pick out a particular NPC in a city where you see hundreds at a time?

I don't like the GPS mechanic either, and frankly, you can turn it off, so I'm not entirely sympathetic. Sometimes it is just fun to wander around and find things on your own.

It's funny though, because we take things like this for granted in many other games. But, on the flip side, those games have things that cause it to be a non-issue. Tight levels with obvious "I've never been there" areas. Or a marker on a compass that lets you know where to go at all times. Or a quest arrow over someone's head. Or, the standard "I can't talk to most of these people because they are just fake animating effects with legs."

It is, however, something that, if we do a sequel, I'll definitely try and push some ideas for. I tried to for this project, but it was a huge project already, and stuff I said before applied.

[mkozlows]

Yeah, that was a known issue. For some reason, people making decisions decided it was okay. After you get a mission, if you die or reload after entering the target's city, you'll just pop up at the bureau, which is pretty lame, as when you get a mission, part of the fun for me was getting to the city for the first time and then finding the bureau.

Okay, so what are the rules for saving? Every time I turn it off, I come back somewhere different than I expect. I'm almost afraid to quit the game at this point.

When are the times that I can turn off the game and come back and pick up where I left off?

[Charles]

Okay, so what are the rules for saving? Every time I turn it off, I come back somewhere different than I expect. I'm almost afraid to quit the game at this point.

When are the times that I can turn off the game and come back and pick up where I left off?

It's usually fairly accurate. It always saves your progress in terms of completion, but your position will sometimes be off, as in the case of the first save when you enter a city. I think that's pretty much it, but I didn't do any of the save system stuff.

[bago]

Position resets to guild, in general. A great way of fast travelling if you want to exploit it.

[Alex Dolce]

Brilliant game. I've already started my second playing, and I only have a few issues of very minor concern.

First and foremost, while I had the capability to revisit any memory via the Animus after I completed the game, I instead chose to start a new game because I did not want to be forced to watch the ending cutscene, followed by the the short interactive bit afterwards each time I started the game. I'm hoping that there's something I missed that caused this behavior, and if I just do that on this playing, I'll avoid having to start again and replay the lengthy tutorial again.

Second, and this is really my only gripe with the game itself, has to do with the interface. I'm not talking about the gameplay interface, though. What I take issue with is the menu system, the lack of a Restart At Checkpoint option (I can't tell you how many times, on some later assassinations, I had to just stand and let guards kill me so that I could try to do what I had planned before I messed it up. Sometimes that takes awhile and it's boring, and an option to just restart immediately would have been very nice. It's just little things like that. Nothing major, but stuff that seems like it should just be a given that they would be there.

Additionally, I really had no idea that I could go into the start menu, select the memory option, then use LT and RT to go through all of the investigation memories one by one, with additional details and things like attachments to view (map, guard placements, route suggestions, etc...) because the game never, ever told me I could. I really only found it by accident after my fourth or fifth assassination, and that bugged me.

Apart from these small things, the game is an instant classic in my book. In fact, it's made other games less impressive now that I've played AC. Even games like GTA or Crackdown now seem like their cities are hollow and filled (well, kind-of filled) with lifeless, meaningless citizens. It's funny, too, because the GTA games are so filled with citizen chatter that they should seem more believably "real" - but they're not. The three cities in AC feel more like real places than any city in any other game I've ever played. I love it.

Enough can't be said about the "flavor" content that's been packed into the cities, either. By this, I mean all of the little touches that don't really bring anything to the gameplay or narrative, but that do serve to really flesh out the idea of this being a real place that you're running around in. All of the flocks of birds, the way the clouds move and cast shadows, all the way down to there being periods of intense sunlight broken up by a brief bit where it's overcast, just add up to a terrific presentation.

As for the gameplay itself? I think it's perfection, for what I wanted from the game. I don't want all of my games to be filled with head-scratching puzzles or seizure-inducing action with crazy levels of difficulty. Some games, I just want to play...to be taken along for the ride, so to speak. Assassins Creed was like that for me. I got to experience this great, richly detailed world and I got to do so at a steady pace, always progressing, never being stumped or stuck by puzzle or action, though it was never so easy that it got boring. It was just right - for me, anyway.

To wrap up, I don't get Tom's dislike of the latter part of the game. Nothing really changed for me. It felt like the same game, and played like the same game, right up until the end. Yeah, having the final fight be what it was felt a little off, but it was nothing too wrenching that it pulled me out of the experience. From his comments, I was expecting the game to fall apart at the end, to jump the shark and head off in some crazy direction, but it just doesn't do that at all.

[metta]

Enough can't be said about the "flavor" content that's been packed into the cities, either. By this, I mean all of the little touches that don't really bring anything to the gameplay or narrative, but that do serve to really flesh out the idea of this being a real place that you're running around in. All of the flocks of birds, the way the clouds move and cast shadows, all the way down to there being periods of intense sunlight broken up by a brief bit where it's overcast, just add up to a terrific presentation.

As for the gameplay itself? I think it's perfection, for what I wanted from the game. I don't want all of my games to be filled with head-scratching puzzles or seizure-inducing action with crazy levels of difficulty. Some games, I just want to play...to be taken along for the ride, so to speak. Assassins Creed was like that for me. I got to experience this great, richly detailed world and I got to do so at a steady pace, always progressing, never being stumped or stuck by puzzle or action, though it was never so easy that it got boring. It was just right - for me, anyway.

Nice write-up, Alex Good. That's my experience, also.

[Desslock]

Those comments are enough to get me to buy this game. I love well-developed "worlds", and it sounds like that aspect really delivers in Assassin's Creed.

[Lunch of Kong]

I went to Fry's to pick up Assassin's Creed.

Fry's was sold out.

So was Target.

[bago]

It was moving to climb atop the al-asqa mosque.

[Jim Preston]

All of the flocks of birds, the way the clouds move and cast shadows, all the way down to there being periods of intense sunlight broken up by a brief bit where it's overcast, just add up to a terrific presentation.I'm glad you're enjoying the game, but it's funny how my impression was completely the opposite. I agree about the flocks of birds and and how some sections of the city definitely feel "poorer" than the rich sections. But as I was continuing to play today I kept thinking that these three cities just did not feel as alive to me as Crackdown, GTA, or Oblivion because the game lacks day/night and weather cycles. In fact, during my first assassination assignment I thought to myself "gotcha, I just wait until nightfall climb the wall and...oh, wait, it's perpetual 4 o'clock in the afternoon here."

I'm sure it was in the design phase at some point to have day/night, but the lack of it really detracts from the experience for me. I know it probably sounds like a semantic distinction to a lot of people, but one of my gripes with Assassin's Creed is the complete lack of assassins - or at least anything that looks like historical assassins. I was under the impression that if I'm going to run around 12th century Jerusalem and stab people, I would be a part of some militant religious sect who was thoughtfully escorting sinners to the next life. Instead, I'm a sort of ridiculously anachronistic Errol Flynn character who rescues damsels in distriss, gets into sword fights with dozens of guys in broad daylight, and lectures dying bookburners on the value of 20th century intellectual freedom and toleration. This probably doesn't both most players - fun is still fun, right? - I guess it just wasn't the stealth game that I was expecting.

Also, since I've never worked on a sandbox/open world game like this one, does anyone know what's up with the lack of children in these games? I can't think of a single GTA-style game that has kids in it. Does it have to do with the controversy around being able to kill children in the original Deus Ex? I have no idea on this one, just found it curious as I would expect these sorts of mideval cities to be filled with street urchins.

[DavidKaye]

I went to Fry's to pick up Assassin's Creed.

Fry's was sold out.

So was Target.

Was that some sort of haiku?

[Rorschach]

Instead, I'm a sort of ridiculously anachronistic Errol Flynn character who rescues damsels in distriss, gets into sword fights with dozens of guys in broad daylight, and lectures dying bookburners on the value of 20th century intellectual freedom and toleration. This probably doesn't both most players - fun is still fun, right? - I guess it just wasn't the stealth game that I was expecting.

I've played Thief, I've enjoyed Thief. I've played Splinter Cell and enjoyed all the versions. I'm glad this game is different instead of trying to be Splinter Cell: Jerusalem Gambit, or a Thief replacing the Hammerites with Sarcens.

[Charles]

Also, since I've never worked on a sandbox/open world game like this one, does anyone know what's up with the lack of children in these games? I can't think of a single GTA-style game that has kids in it. Does it have to do with the controversy around being able to kill children in the original Deus Ex? I have no idea on this one, just found it curious as I would expect these sorts of mideval cities to be filled with street urchins.

The ESRB pretty much forbids violence against children. And so, putting kids in a game like this, they'd be little moving cement cylinders, as you'd be unable to bump in to them, or interact with them in any meaningful fashion.

[Zep--]

uh..Bully?

Zep--

[McCrank]

Just finished it. Thought it was fantastic. Probably the best game I've played this year (on XBOX 360 at least).

[MattKeil]

First and foremost, while I had the capability to revisit any memory via the Animus after I completed the game, I instead chose to start a new game because I did not want to be forced to watch the ending cutscene, followed by the the short interactive bit afterwards each time I started the game. I'm hoping that there's something I missed that caused this behavior, and if I just do that on this playing, I'll avoid having to start again and replay the lengthy tutorial again.

It saves right before the ending, as you say. If you go through the ending, watch the credits, and go back into the Animus, as soon as it saves in the 1191 VR world, you never have to see the ending again.

[Wholly Schmidt]

I've played Thief, I've enjoyed Thief. I've played Splinter Cell and enjoyed all the versions. I'm glad this game is different instead of trying to be Splinter Cell: Jerusalem Gambit, or a Thief replacing the Hammerites with Sarcens.
Speaking of, it's hard to imagine the next Splinter Cell being recieved well if it doesn't do everything at least as well as Assassin's Creed where they overlap. The whole "crowded stealth!" thing was supposed to be a big deal, and I can't decide what's harder to imagine: enjoying the more conventional Splinter Cell gameplay in a post-AC world, or a series as entrenched as Splinter Cell getting the necessarily drastic overhaul this late in the franchise.

[Desslock]

I can't think of a single GTA-style game that has kids in it. Does it have to do with the controversy around being able to kill children in the original Deus Ex? I have no idea on this one, just found it curious as I would expect these sorts of mideval cities to be filled with street urchins.

Yes, although It goes back way further than Deus Ex. You can still include kids, but if they're killable you get an auto-M rating, and there's additional commercial pressure that basically makes them verboten. It's been an issue in a ton of RPGs, including most Temple of Elemental Evil and more recently Fallout 3. In the old Ultima games, Garriott deliberately required you to kill children in certain scenes in many of the games, in part because he was pissed at the controversy.

[mkozlows]

Yes, although It goes back way further than Deus Ex. You can still include kids, but if they're killable you get an auto-M rating, and there's additional commercial pressure that basically makes them verboten. It's been an issue in a ton of RPGs, including most Temple of Elemental Evil and more recently Fallout 3. In the old Ultima games, Garriott deliberately required you to kill children in certain scenes in many of the games, in part because he was pissed at the controversy.

And then there's that little-known game, Bioshock.

[Desslock]

Mutants (and crazy Japanese RING girls) are a-o.k.

[extarbags]

I thought it was that it was illegal to allow video game players to kill kids in some European countries (just Germany, maybe?), so they leave that part out of a lot of them so they don't have to go to the trouble of taking it out for that release.

[Chris Nahr]

The ToEE team went to the trouble of taking out existing children specifically for the American release, so I'd say you're wrong.

[Jim Preston]

YYou can still include kids, but if they're killable you get an auto-M rating, and there's additional commercial pressure that basically makes them verboten. I don't know, I just pushed my game through ESRB and there wasn't any mention about specific kinds of violence, images, language or anything in the documentation. Certainly nothing about violence against children. And since Assassin's Creed was going to be M anyway, why leave out children? And as mkozlows points out, there's all sorts of little girl killing in Bioshock. I don't necessarily want children in the game, or think less of AC because of it, but I was just sort of curious about their consistent exclusion. I also don't want to derail the thread, though.

[Charles]

I don't know, I just pushed my game through ESRB and there wasn't any mention about specific kinds of violence, images, language or anything in the documentation. Certainly nothing about violence against children. And since Assassin's Creed was going to be M anyway, why leave out children? And as mkozlows points out, there's all sorts of little girl killing in Bioshock. I don't necessarily want children in the game, or think less of AC because of it, but I was just sort of curious about their consistent exclusion. I also don't want to derail the thread, though.

"Little girls" in Bioshock are immune to all damage, and this isn't likely a coincidence.

Also, getting a rating is a balancing act. We stuff blades in to people's eyes. Kids on top? No way they'd let us get away with an M, especially when conceptually, our game is as violent as Manhunt, when you get down to it.

[Jason Cross]

I'm enjoying the crap out of Assassin's Creed so far. I know some people complain about the controls, but a few hours in I feel like I can pretty easily do whatever I want. In fact, I think it's pretty remarkable how they give Altair such a broad array of action with such simple inputs. It's all rather logical and makes sense to me. I sat through the training bits, fumbled around for 15 minutes, and now I'm carelessly leaping around rooftops and running on poles and climbing towers and all that. I'm taking out crowds of five or six guards and it's all super stylish and makes me feel like a total badass.

That's what I love in some of these games. Where you're supposed to be a total badass, and the game makes you feel like a total badass without struggling with it. That's where the newer Ninja Gaiden games just lost me. Failing over and over with a game full of precise and complex controls until I finally kick some ass isn't what I'm down for anymore. I don't want to feel proud that I have mastered some game. It's a game, it's there to serve my entertainment desires. I want to pick it up and be awesome because of what I choose to do right at that moment, not because I have mastered the X, A, B, B, A, half-circle, B, half-circle, A combo.

I would love a ninja game based on this engine. Can you imagine that? Running across japanese rooftops in the village, sneaking into the house, making the kill, and vanishing in a puff of smoke? Sword combat that isn't combo based, and lets you do awesome kill moves effortlessly? They'd have to change the gameplay somewhat, do away with the "bend into the crowd" mechanic in favor of a "stick to the shadows" one, but it could work.

My biggest complaint about AC so far is that it stuffed pointless collecting into the game. There's no context for it, and it's just a test of patience.

Still, I'm loving this enough that I'm going to go through it slowly, doing every investigation quest and saving every citizen in each district. Might even go for getting all the flags, if it doesn't get too tedious. I rarely play through games attempting to "do it all" but with AC I feel compelled to. We'll see how long that holds up.

[Chris Nahr]

So I don't suppose anyone has played the PS3 version yet? I found a gameplay movie on Gametrailers that looked no different than the 360 movies and didn't seem to stutter either... but who knows for sure? Did IGN lie to me, the bastards?

[Zep--]

I have the PS3 version, seems to run fine. I'm not an OMG my game needs to run at 128FPS, so someone elses mileage may vary.

I do hate how the camera will end up in an odd place sometimes after a counter-kill cut scene thing.

I did Damascus and Acre (poor) and I'm pretty much bored with the game. The only thing different was the assasination cut scene at the end. Everything else was exactly the same as the mission before.

Climb High Place
Save Citizen
Beat Informer
Pick a pocket
Eavesdrop
Assasinate

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

It's all engine and no game IMO.

It's not sand-boxy at all, because in this sandbox there is just...sand. There are no toys in the sand like there is in GTA.

I'm not seeing much fun here so I must be playing it wrong, someone enlighten me.

Zep--

[shang]

I did the first three assassinations during the weekend, and enjoyed the game greatly. However, I think the expression "flawed gem" describes AC pretty well. The "hide within a crowd" mechanic kind of breaks down since the "blend" option works even if there's nobody else nearby. Also, it's silly that using the hidden blade is always a stealthy skill, so you can blend + stab + blend + stab a group of soldiers without anyone suspecting anything. It would be a great improvement if the efficiency of "blending in" and the stealthiness of the hidden blade was actually tied to crowd density, so that you could easily do stealth kills when guards are surrounded by lots of civilians, but couldn't just walk behind a guard in blend mode when there's absolutely no crowd.

Nevertheless, I really hope that AC sells well, because I really want to see them develop these mechanics further with some additional time. The free-run mechanics and animations surpass anything seen so far, and I like the combat mechanics a lot too.

I've seen people complain that you can win all fights by just counter-instalkills, but the guards seem to get harder as the game goes on. I'm currently in the rich district of Damascus, and the guards attack a lot more often when in group fights (removing the first impression that they just attack one at a time), they use guard-break (which takes away the 100% defense) and they use attacks that are timed differently, making it harder to nail the counter. I'm doing a lot more combo-kills than counter-kills now, when in the first two missions I killed almost every guard with just counters.

[Chris Nahr]

I have the PS3 version, seems to run fine. I'm not an OMG my game needs to run at 128FPS, so someone elses mileage may vary.

Thanks, I guess I'll keep my uncancelled PS3 copy after all...

[Kevin Grey]

Yes, although It goes back way further than Deus Ex. You can still include kids, but if they're killable you get an auto-M rating, and there's additional commercial pressure that basically makes them verboten. It's been an issue in a ton of RPGs, including most Temple of Elemental Evil and more recently Fallout 3. In the old Ultima games, Garriott deliberately required you to kill children in certain scenes in many of the games, in part because he was pissed at the controversy.


Yeah, when I first started playing The Witcher I kept trying to talk to all of the kids since they were color-coded green and assumed that they must be important. Then it dawned on me that they did that just to keep you from being able to attack them.

[tim edwards]

I absolutely love this game. Adore it. But I'm going to nit-pick.

The opening two hours are ludicrously bad. Tutorial after tutorial after tutorial, each repeating the last.

The sci-fi front end stuff doesn't work. A number of times I've had a massive high from taking down a target and escaping, and all I want to do is get back out there and track down more targets, but I wake up from the machine, and get told to go to bed. Seriously silly stuff.

Altair's voice-actor is pretty wooden, and his dialogue worse. I really like the in-game cutscenes that feature the targets, but the monologues between Altair and his boss, and in the future are really bad. It's like the worst pretentious amateur dramatics.

I don't understand why the devs decided to city hop between targets. I'd have much rather started the game, and the tutorials in Damascus, and killed three targets in that city, before finally entering the kingdom and moving on to the next city. The Kingdom, as it stands, seems to be dead space. Beautiful, but empty, and each target begins with a boring run and horse ride to the menu screen. The only reason I can see for spacing the targets in each city like this would be if the plan was originally to show the passage of time and effects of your actions on the cities, but because that doesn't happen, it's just a frustration.

There's a bit of backward thinking in the way your powers are taken off you at the beginning. Because I now have both experience, and most of my inventory restored (7/9 dead) I'm finding the combat a trivial challenge. At the start, when I didn't have grab breaks or counters, or an extended health-bar, I found fights extremely difficult. My extended utility has only made the game easier, and the game's yet to step up with new twists or challenges.

The flag collection stuff is pointlessly videogamey, as are the informer challenges.

But I really do love this game. I love standing somewhere high, planning my route in, attacking, then leading my pursuers into a group of vigilantes. The cities themselves are gorgeous (the dock in Acre is my favourite place in a game, ever), Altair's animation just jaw-dropping, and it's the first time I've actually enjoyed just walking at street level in an open world game.

Brilliant beggars, too.

[bago]

Beggars do annoy. I have shanked at least two, as well as 2 brawlers.

[BDGE]

Altair's voice-actor is pretty wooden, and his dialogue worse. I really like the in-game cutscenes that feature the targets, but the monologues between Altair and his boss, and in the future are really bad. It's like the worst pretentious amateur dramatics.

I've had some Anakin Skywalker flashbacks with Altair's voice acting. One direct quote spoken "Yes...master..." sounded sampled nearly directly from the films. Add in all the whining and the connection goes beyond illusionary. It's similarly disengaging, and a wonder who authorized it.

Garrett -was- cool, Altair just looks cool.

[Lizard_King]

The Majd Addin assassination is the second one that gets botched by bugs in the game (the first was the hospitalier assassination simply crashing during the cutscene). In this case, I was already pissed because exiting the game right at the beginning of the mission then loading it up again made me go through the (unskippable) guild cutscene again. No big deal.

Then I get to the assassination itself, and I come in through the southern rooftops after killing all of the roof lookouts. The cutscene initiating prompt appears, and then...nothing. I sit on the roof, and sit on the roof, and nothing comes of it. So I jump down into the crowd in full view of the guards, mill around like an idiot, and then once I get to the center of the crowd and sit there for a bit, it seems I finally hit the trigger and Majd Adin emerges.

So once this unskippable cutscene ends, I rush to the rooftop, where a respawned archer spots me and ruins everything. Approximately one million guards dogpile me, so I say the hell with it and reload.

It makes me do the conversation at the guild again. WHY? I get to the exact same point, shank the archer this time, and then when I am about to drop down behind Majd, my assassing grabs on to the latter next to him instead of dropping. He remains stuck on the latter despite the frantic pushing of B and down, and eventually MA spots me, flips out, and the predictable outcome ensues. Meaning me slaughtering dozens of guards until I cut him down. No big deal, but I definitely felt very frustrated both that I was brought down by obvious bugs and that reloading (in a game that should encourage perfectionism) is so onerous.

[metta]

Oh, bloody hell!

My mouth is keeping my brain hostage >.<

[Alistair]

No spoiler thread for this one then?

[bago]

That was so Metta.

[Alex Dolce]

It saves right before the ending, as you say. If you go through the ending, watch the credits, and go back into the Animus, as soon as it saves in the 1191 VR world, you never have to see the ending again.
Ah! I knew there had to be something that would keep me from having to watch that everytime. So I just have to hop back into the animus and load up a memory! If only that'd been made clear...or even remotely hinted at....or, better yet, once the credits have rolled, just automatically return you to the animus the next time you continue, rather than restarting the ending sequence.

[Charles]

The Majd Addin assassination is the second one that gets botched by bugs in the game (the first was the hospitalier assassination simply crashing during the cutscene). In this case, I was already pissed because exiting the game right at the beginning of the mission then loading it up again made me go through the (unskippable) guild cutscene again. No big deal.

Then I get to the assassination itself, and I come in through the southern rooftops after killing all of the roof lookouts. The cutscene initiating prompt appears, and then...nothing. I sit on the roof, and sit on the roof, and nothing comes of it. So I jump down into the crowd in full view of the guards, mill around like an idiot, and then once I get to the center of the crowd and sit there for a bit, it seems I finally hit the trigger and Majd Adin emerges.

So once this unskippable cutscene ends, I rush to the rooftop, where a respawned archer spots me and ruins everything. Approximately one million guards dogpile me, so I say the hell with it and reload.

It makes me do the conversation at the guild again. WHY? I get to the exact same point, shank the archer this time, and then when I am about to drop down behind Majd, my assassing grabs on to the latter next to him instead of dropping. He remains stuck on the latter despite the frantic pushing of B and down, and eventually MA spots me, flips out, and the predictable outcome ensues. Meaning me slaughtering dozens of guards until I cut him down. No big deal, but I definitely felt very frustrated both that I was brought down by obvious bugs and that reloading (in a game that should encourage perfectionism) is so onerous.

Yeah, it annoys me too that the rooftop doesn't trigger the scene. If you scope the area out, that's definitely the best place to approach from. Some of the MMs (er, memorable moments, aka pre-assassination scenes) were set up by level designers who were stuck in the old mindset of "player comes from here", which can lead to some unfortunate situations like that.

[BDGE]

It's not sand-boxy at all, because in this sandbox there is just...sand. There are no toys in the sand like there is in GTA.

I'm not seeing much fun here so I must be playing it wrong, someone enlighten me.

Zep--

More like there isn't much sand in the box at all.

The snippets of plot that crop up every few hours has kept me playing. The main assassinations are brief, but at least slightly varied. The interim stuff really grows tiring and deserved as much care as the engine and visuals(which is bloody fantastic). Based off Charles' comments, a delay until Spring or Summer for content overhaul could have transformed this into one of the best games of 2008. Probably an impossible order given this was originally supposed to ship in Winter 2006 I think?

[Lizard_King]

Yeah, it annoys me too that the rooftop doesn't trigger the scene. If you scope the area out, that's definitely the best place to approach from. Some of the MMs (er, memorable moments, aka pre-assassination scenes) were set up by level designers who were stuck in the old mindset of "player comes from here", which can lead to some unfortunate situations like that.
Yeah, I get that vibe sometimes. I just got down climbing the ridiculous cathedral in southern Acre...now that's a viewpoint! Fell off the top twice trying to do the leap of faith, but I finally got it. Good payoff, visually, plus plenty of flags and a Templar. That's my kind of viewpoint, one that had some effort put into it.

[Alex Dolce]

I think the whole game had a lot of effort put into it. I enjoyed doing all of the tasks in each section of the cities, before every assassination. However, I realize that a lot of players, mostly the "hardcore" gamer crowd, will find them repetitive and tiresome. While I consider myself in that hardcore group, though, I really enjoyed just about everything AC did, and in how it did it. I don't know, maybe the beauty of the art and presentation won me over more than it did other people. Maybe I'm just getting - gasp! - more casual in my old age? Whatever it is, I thought the whole thing (well, apart from my UI complaints) was freaking brilliant.

[theKevin]

Beggars do annoy. I have shanked at least two, as well as 2 brawlers.

I just punch those fuckers in the face. I got yer food and medicine right here, bitch.

[Alex Dolce]

I've been shoving them this time around. I think there's an achievement for grabbing 20 of them.

[Lizard_King]

I've been shoving them this time around. I think there's an achievement for grabbing 20 of them.
Yes. But I find there's nothing quite like shanking that annoying woman. And the crazies...I hate the crazies. I've been known to send a throwing knife their way and totally blow a mission.

[Charles]

Yes. But I find there's nothing quite like shanking that annoying woman. And the crazies...I hate the crazies. I've been known to send a throwing knife their way and totally blow a mission.


Just FYI, you can charge through them, once you have the ability.

[bago]

Yeah, but after having them blow your cool in front of guards and blowing a mission, well, you just gotta shank some mothafuckas.

[Lizard_King]

Just FYI, you can charge through them, once you have the ability.
Ha Ha. I could also just push past them. But the women in particular sealed the deal by tossing rocks at me when I try to climb away. At least, I hear their angry voice and I get thunked with a rock, so it turns into seek and destroy after that.

[Sockpuppet]

So I don't suppose anyone has played the PS3 version yet? I found a gameplay movie on Gametrailers that looked no different than the 360 movies and didn't seem to stutter either... but who knows for sure? Did IGN lie to me, the bastards?

Note: the following videos contain a mild spoiler regarding the twist that evidently gets revealed in the first five minutes anyways. Just a heads-up for anybody who wants to go in cold.

I'd been planning on picking this up for PS3, but after seeing this comparison video (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28006.html) (HD version available here (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28005.html)) it looks like there's no comparison at all, and the 360 is the clear winner.

The reviews I've read don't even seem to be covering the same game. One read that the PS3 version had a faster framerate while the 360 version had better lighting, so it was a toss-up. Another said that the PS3 was plagued with frame rate issues that seriously started to detract from gameplay. Still another implied that there were no real differences, but that the PS3 looked a little sharper. (I'll try source these later when I have more time, but it would probably require minimal snooping at Gamerankings if anybody needs to know my supar sekret sources right away.)

This video makes it look to me as though the 360 has the better frame rate, better textures, and overall sharper look. Does anybody have any firsthand experience with both versions? I haven't grabbed it yet (I have multiple consolitis, which paralyzes me from purchasing games until I've somehow deduced to my satisfaction which offers the "better" experience), but this went from an "At last! Something to play on my PS3 aside from PS2 games!" to "Neat! A boost to my gamerscore!" as soon as this video played.

[Alex Dolce]

On my 360, the framerate was very smooth most of the time and the lighting was absolutely gorgeous. I have no idea how the PS3 version is, though.

[calvin940]

I started playing last night and I see no issues with it on my PS3. Seems pretty smooth and graphically pretty damned good. Mind you I haven't gotten very far yet, so... If I do notice anything crazy, I'll post.

[Brian Rucker]

I had some problems with freezing up on my PS3 but after I wiped the disk off it seemed fine after that. Looks gorgeous and didn't have any obvious visual glitches at all. But I'm not hyperaware of that sort of thing as long as the game's going smoothly.

[Lizard_King]

So Charles. Just tell me who decided on the water aka Lava of Doom mechanic. When mixed with "drunken sailors" pushing you off the dock and instigating fights, the last third of Acre is surprisingly platformy at times. And I don't really mean that in a good way, as so far one of the things Altair is definitely bad at is hitting wooden poles on top of water. No problem on dry land, but when instadeath is at stake, suddenly we narrowly miss all sorts of things.

I have maximum synchronization so it's just achievement whoring at this point, but some of these informer missions are just terrible. For me. I'm sure someone enjoys the "challenges", but, like interrogations, they seem to go a lot more smoothly with a dry run or two to kill everyone in the path who might interfere (the crazies take a beating). The last interrogation I simply slaughtered the guards, jumped in the hay, then beat him as he stepped off his podium. But getting compromised on the way back from the last of the 5 timed kills because a crazy lurched across the plaza and knocked me into a guard was really a catastrophic turn of events. I was hell bent on beating this prior to Rock Band arriving, but I think I have to be careful with the dosage. I burn out fast on the fetch quests, it seems.

[Charles]

We just didn't really have any gameplay involved with swimming, so we decided to just focus on other things. In a game like this, you couldn't just add swimming. You'd need to fight while swimming, and have all of the transitions in/out of the water. Would've been a big task, so it was decided to just focus on other things.

[Lizard_King]

We just didn't really have any gameplay involved with swimming, so we decided to just focus on other things. In a game like this, you couldn't just add swimming. You'd need to fight while swimming, and have all of the transitions in/out of the water. Would've been a big task, so it was decided to just focus on other things.
Brutal. Thanks for the answer, though.

[Brad Grenz]

Note: the following videos contain a mild spoiler regarding the twist that evidently gets revealed in the first five minutes anyways. Just a heads-up for anybody who wants to go in cold.

I'd been planning on picking this up for PS3, but after seeing this comparison video (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28006.html) (HD version available here (http://www.gametrailers.com/player/28005.html)) it looks like there's no comparison at all, and the 360 is the clear winner.


Most of the differences in the video look like they could be erased by adjusting your TVs settings for contrast and color. It's not like they're using a completely different set of art assets, just the PS3 output looking more washed out.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

Altaïr would need a bathing suit, too. Nobody swims in a big white robe.

[Lizard_King]

One of the best features of crackdown vs every other sandboxish game I played was that water didn't kill you. Hands down. Don't have water in your otherwise fairly evenhanded about fuckups game (I'll take invisible walls over that) if it instakills you. Otherwise, refine the platforming so it's my fault.

Anyhow, it's pretty negligible as of the eighth assassination. I just happened to come across it early in the templar that's out on a dock in the kingdom, and it stuck out as a part that pissed me off. I just wanted to know if that was my irrational rage at getting served by a deviously planned game or if it was a fuckup/leftover, like the flags.

[tromik]

I'm actually really enjoying this game.

At first, I was terrified to ever get caught, because I assumed it would be like Splinter Cell or Metal Gear, and I'd either end up dead or close to it in a terrible spot or something. But you can fight back! And win! And then walk away without penalty!

I'm playing with the GPS on, but that's only because if I'd played without it, I'd get too sidetracked and I'd never progress the game forward. Hell, even without the GPS I'm constantly getting sidetracked. I walked into Acre for the first time last night. The only objective was to go to the bureau. It took me an hour an a half. If I play through it again, I'll try without the GPS.

I don't mind riding through the Kingdom. I can blow past most of the guards, and I killed a bunch of them, so hopefully they're gone for good.

I wish there was a bit more, but more what I don't know. In Crackdown and in GTA3, I'd often forget the story and quests and make my own little games. The classic get five stars in GTA and launch off a huge jump was always fun. In Crackdown I'd stand on a freeway and shoot tires of passing cars. For hours. The closest to that in AC is killing the beggars, and since that's an animation and not a result of physics, it's the same every time.

But I'm having a blast just running around, doing combat, doing the missions, and just causing shit in the cities.

[Charles]

See, I wish we had better achievements.

One that myself and the combat team wanted in the game was "Complete the whole game using nothing but the hidden blade."

Christ that would be hard. And awesome.

Anyway, I'm playing through, doing everything except flags, with no HUD. I'm having tons of fun, and the first assassination mission took me two and a half hours.

It's going to be a long playthrough, but I'm certainly enjoying it. Also, most of the present stuff is new to me, so that's cool.

I also found out that there's a lot of little maps and sketches and info in your memory log -- how I didn't know that is beyond me. But reading all the letters you steal, and looking at the maps, is pretty kick ass.

Also have lots of mail to read in the present.

"ps why do u sign your emails? your name is at the top"

[Jonathan Blow]

Okay, so it's decided.... AC2 has no HUD.

[tromik]

See, I wish we had better achievements.

One that myself and the combat team wanted in the game was "Complete the whole game using nothing but the hidden blade."

Christ that would be hard. And awesome.
I don't really care about acheivements, but sure, better ones are always gonna be better.

Complete the whole game using nothing but the hidden blade is something you could see in any game - I want to do retarded stuff you can only do in that world.

You can't recreate the chase scene in Bad Boys II in every game, but you can in Crackdown (sorta, if you use your imagination and the keys to the city).

[Pentadact]

Daaaad, what's an 'overworld'?

[Shadarr]

One of the best features of crackdown vs every other sandboxish game I played was that water didn't kill you. Hands down. Don't have water in your otherwise fairly evenhanded about fuckups game (I'll take invisible walls over that) if it instakills you. Otherwise, refine the platforming so it's my fault.
San Andreas let you swim before Crackdown. But I agree, if you can't swim then you shouldn't ever fall in the water (unless you intentionally jump off a pier or something). The guy can perch like a gargoyle on top of a friggin' flagpole, he shouldn't fall in the water by accident.

[Lizard_King]

San Andreas let you swim before Crackdown.
Fair enough. I only played up to vice city, and I think I'd had it with the series after GTA3 anyway.

[Jonathan Blow]

I never made it to that part of the world, but yeah, if you die in the water, they should have just not put water in the game.

[tromik]

I never made it to that part of the world, but yeah, if you die in the water, they should have just not put water in the game.
Agreed. What year is this? Why is falling into water a penatly? Just warp the player back to a safe spot by the shore or something.

[TomChick]

Actually, I'm glad the water is in there. The harbor was one of the game's more distinct locations. I'd hate for Assassin's Creed to lose that simply because you guys couldn't suspend your disbelief when Altair falls into the water! Just imagine he can't swim because -- duh!-- he was raised in the desert.

-Tom

[Drastic]

Well, it's the same sort of thing as the Sands of Time death ("Wait, wait...that didn't happen. Let me start again.") He "dies" when he hits the water because Altair never did fall in the water. If he does, it's being remembered wrong, thus needing to back up and re-synch.

But yeah, instadeath water is a little irritating in principle; in practice (I'm at assassination #5 or so) so far, it hasn't been a big deal aside from ill-advised leaps into canals that were entirely my fault.

[Charles]

Just imagine he can't swim because -- duh!-- he was raised in the desert.

-Tom

If only people had said that when complaining about the lack of "weather" in the game.

[tromik]

Actually, I'm glad the water is in there. The harbor was one of the game's more distinct locations. I'd hate for Assassin's Creed to lose that simply because you guys couldn't suspend your disbelief when Altair falls into the water! Just imagine he can't swim because -- duh!-- he was raised in the desert.
It's not that I can't suspend my disbelief, it's because I keep falling into it.

There's a river that runs through Damascus, and because you can't see the streets when your running over rooftops, once in awhile you'll misjudge the distance to the next judge and fall. It's not high enough to keel you, but you instantly drown. Boo!

Fuck, I just flubbed the second assassination. I know there's no penalty, but it's less fun. The first guy turned around at the last second, and while stalking the second guy, all the crazy beggers were pushing me around and I knocked over some jar carriers and was noticed and then everything went to shit. I couldn't figure out how to escape that ward, and I ended up just about murdering everyone in the place.

[TomChick]

Daaaad, what's an 'overworld'?

I can't tell if you're quoting The Simpsons or something, but if this is an earnest question: The "overworld" is like that map in a Final Fantasy game where you pick which city you want to go to next. I don't know where I picked up the term (I might even be making it up), and I could be misusing it, but I used it in reference to Assassin's Creed's kingdom map.

It's not that I can't suspend my disbelief, it's because I keep falling into it.

I hear you, brother! I felt the same way after the tenth attempt to cross that line of poles jutting up out of the harbor.

-Tom

[Jonathan Blow]

Actually, I'm glad the water is in there. The harbor was one of the game's more distinct locations. I'd hate for Assassin's Creed to lose that simply because you guys couldn't suspend your disbelief when Altair falls into the water! Just imagine he can't swim because -- duh!-- he was raised in the desert.

Well, it depends on what your priorities are. If it's visual aesthetics / buffing up the player experience by providing a wide variety of places for them to visit, then, sure, it makes sense to have the water in there. But I am coming at it from more of a gameplay aesthetics standpoint; not just the (a) it sucks to have insta-death like that, but (b) there's a harmony you get when everything in your game works together and works well, which you lose when you add stuff that is relatively unsupported. [Portal is a pretty good example of (b) -- it is not a super-expansive or complicated game, but it makes really tight use out of the few elements that are introduced, and you get a synergy from that].

Plus, dying from falling in water sucks. Also, it sucks.

[Jonathan Blow]

Then again, I would have been much happier with AC if they had just done one city; and then took all the development effort that went into the other two cities and the Kingdom and the starting place, and spent all that on making the one city really interesting, alive and full of cool stuff to do.

[Charles]

Then again, I would have been much happier with AC if they had just done one city; and then took all the development effort that went into the other two cities and the Kingdom and the starting place, and spent all that on making the one city really interesting, alive and full of cool stuff to do.

All programming done in the game was completely generic, and applies to all cities. Sadly, making just one city wouldn't have added any gameplay at all. Just... a bigger city.

[Mehrunes]

I'm so glad you can jump straight to the cities from Musyaf (sic?) after a few assassinations. Now how about adding a simple compass for the directionally deficient no-HUD crowd?

[gamadict]

Finally got my 360 back, and had a chance to play this today. Through two assassinations, I'm not really finding either the pre-assassination filler or the actual killings themselves all that interesting. However, I'm really enjoying massacring huge numbers of bumbling guards with flashy moves, along with the odd civilian. It's a lot of fun to try and time up the combo finishers, and I think the combat could've been really interesting if there was some timing involved in blocking, rather then just holding a trigger.

The production values are top-notch, and while I don't really think the gameplay is anything special, it is kind of weirdly compelling

[extarbags]

Am I doing something wrong? Whenever I stumble upon the dickhead guards having an altercation with one of the locals, it doesn't seem like I can resolve it any way besides cutting the bitches up with my sword. Not that I dislike the combat (quite the contrary), but shouldn't I be able to pull of some stealth kills on those guys?

[Zuwadza]

Am I doing something wrong? Whenever I stumble upon the dickhead guards having an altercation with one of the locals, it doesn't seem like I can resolve it any way besides cutting the bitches up with my sword. Not that I dislike the combat (quite the contrary), but shouldn't I be able to pull of some stealth kills on those guys?

This is how it's supposed to be done. You can kill maybe one or two of them with the hidden blade if you try.

[shang]

You can also kill all of them with throwing knifes before they reach you if you have a clear line of sight.

[Wheelkick]

Am I doing something wrong? Whenever I stumble upon the dickhead guards having an altercation with one of the locals, it doesn't seem like I can resolve it any way besides cutting the bitches up with my sword. Not that I dislike the combat (quite the contrary), but shouldn't I be able to pull of some stealth kills on those guys?

I can get away with one "wristblade"-kill at least. It's not stealthy per se, but it get's you one less bitch to cut up. Just hold right trigger and run up to the guard you have targeted, and press x. Makes you perform an instakill before anyone can react. But after that it's all swords (for me, at least).

And I got past the first assassin and got my counter skill. But now combat seems very easy. Before going to bed I goofed off and charged a guarded viewpoint out in the countryside. Took on about 6-8 guards and won pretty easy. Timing counters is way more easy then timing combos, and they are very powerful. Either it's an instakill or it knocks them down, giving you time to hack them up or switch to blade and finish them off.
Does combat remain easy peasy from now on?

[Zuwadza]

I can get away with one "wristblade"-kill at least. It's not stealthy per se, but it get's you one less bitch to cut up. Just hold right trigger and run up to the guard you have targeted, and press x. Makes you perform an instakill before anyone can react. But after that it's all swords (for me, at least).

And I got past the first assassin and got my counter skill. But now combat seems very easy. Before going to bed I goofed off and charged a guarded viewpoint out in the countryside. Took on about 6-8 guards and won pretty easy. Timing counters is way more easy then timing combos, and they are very powerful. Either it's an instakill or it knocks them down, giving you time to hack them up or switch to blade and finish them off.
Does combat remain easy peasy from now on?

I found it got a bit harder once the enemies could perform defense breaks on you, but still easy for the most part.

[Charles]

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/411493

Minor spoilers, but I can accept such a well done lambasting!

[Shadarr]

Are the Templars basically just flags that you have to kill after you find them? Because seriously, there was a guy hanging out in a blasted out room halfway up a viewpoint. Who does that?

[MonkeyPunky]

Has anyone had the problem where you get chased, block line of sight, jump into a haystack or hidey hut and your pursuers wander away but some other guard is nearby. The witness indicator just flashes blue forever and while its blue I can't seem to move or do anything other than exit the memory and start again? Is there a way to get out of the hiding spot while the witness indicatory is flashing blue? This has happened twice to me today.

[MonkeyPunky]

Are the Templars basically just flags that you have to kill after you find them? Because seriously, there was a guy hanging out in a blasted out room halfway up a viewpoint. Who does that?


I always wish I could loot the treasure chests they're guarding.

[SqueakyFoo]

Aside from the horribleness of the end game, and the insta-death water, and all the other minor annoying issues with this game, the biggest problem I had was guards that would pop-in to the world. I'd be running away from a large mob of angry soldiers, turn a corner and the indicator would start flashing yellow allowing me a couple of seconds to go and hide. Which is what should happen. Except all of a sudden, I'm surrounded by a half dozen soldiers that have magically appeared about a foot off the ground, dropped to the earth, and start chasing me. This has happend quite a bit to me while playing.

[calvin940]

uhm.. Is it impossible to make the main assassinations as a stealth kill or am I just restarded?