Assassin's Creed - New Interview

[vazel]

Well I got the game today. I played Damascus, assassinated my first guy, and I'm disappointed. Seems like every assassination is going to have the same routine leading up to it. The side missions suck, 'save ten people from the exact same situation of being harassed by guards'. This game needs a load of conversations with side/main mission characters I can't believe this game is lacking there. And as I'm traveling from city to city on my horse it's lame how I always have to slow to a crawl by pressing the blend button when around guards or they start attacking me.

This was my most looked forward to game ever since I first heard about it I'm sad about this but I was probably expecting too much RPG and GTA from this game. My impression of this game was also hurt from me playing Mass Effect which is all kinds of immersive awesome.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Well I got the game today. I played Damascus, assassinated my first guy, and I'm disappointed. Seems like every assassination is going to have the same routine leading up to it. The side missions suck, 'save ten people from the exact same situation of being harassed by guards'. This game needs a load of conversations with side/main mission characters I can't believe this game is lacking there. And as I'm traveling from city to city on my horse it's lame how I always have to slow to a crawl by pressing the blend button when around guards or they start attacking me.

This was my most looked forward to game ever since I first heard about it I'm sad about this but I was probably expecting too much RPG and GTA from this game. My impression of this game was also hurt from me playing Mass Effect which is all kinds of immersive awesome.

Many of the side missions are somewhat interactive. Pickpocket and eavesdrop and informer missions have some npc interaction. Rescuing citizens is just something to do to make moving around the city easier, same as climbing the viewpoints, its not actually necessary.

As the penny arcade article mentioned, if your goal is to just rush through to the end as fast as you can you're probably not going to enjoy it all that much.

 

[vazel]

Many of the side missions are somewhat interactive. Pickpocket and eavesdrop and informer missions have some npc interaction. Rescuing citizens is just something to do to make moving around the city easier, same as climbing the viewpoints, its not actually necessary.

As the penny arcade article mentioned, if your goal is to just rush through to the end as fast as you can you're probably not going to enjoy it all that much.

Seeing a short cutscene when you eavesdrop or approach someone to pickpocket is a given, you have to have some info on what you're doing. I was talking more meaty interactions, I want to get to know people. Seeing such a big detailed world not fleshed out with RPG type storytelling is disappointing.

I am not rushing through anything. I am just disappointed that the entire game is mostly composed of the basic gameplay elements I've already seen in the first part of the game. And the only side quests are the ones where you have to rescue the people being harassed by guards and collecting flags. And yes I climbed around the city lots it was fun but that alone can't carry a game.

I tried to love this game. It's a fair game but not as good as I was hoping. IGN summed it up best.

If you play Assassin's Creed for an hour, you will probably think it's a fantastic game. But as Assassin's progresses, its dual storylines and repetitive quests begin to grow tiresome

 

[expletive]

Well I JUST finished it so these impressions are admittedly 'raw'. Talk about a jekyl and hyde gaming experience... All I can say is that EVERYONE SHOULD PLAY THIS GAME!!! Just not more than a few hours....

I agree with just about everything vazel said and the conclusion ive come to is they simply ran out of time to add content. They engine, the worlds, the cutscenes, everything in that regard is top notch. Let me repeat one part because its worth elaboration, aside for some occasional, minor tearing, the graphics are truly spectacular. Arguably better than anything out there based on what theyre accomplished here.

However, as others have said, the investigations are extremely repetitive and the assassinations vary somewhat but there doesnt seem to be enough strategy required to complete them. Memory blocks 4 and 5 were exercises in patience and the only reason i forged ahead was because i was enjoying the story. A story who's ending was just awflul. If youre going to make people suffer through about 3 assassinations too many, at least reward them with a satisfying conclusion. Word of advice, stay through the credits for a morsel.

My guess is that when they have enough time to fully populate this amazing world with some game content and and a complete story, this will be an all time great.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Seeing a short cutscene when you eavesdrop or approach someone to pickpocket is a given, you have to have some info on what you're doing. I was talking more meaty interactions, I want to get to know people. Seeing such a big detailed world not fleshed out with RPG type storytelling is disappointing.

Well ya if you're expecting RPG like elements, you're gonna be disappointed, but I think you could say that about pretty much every non rpg game. There's way more story in AC than just about (can't really think of one that has more) any non rpg I've ever played.

 

[vazel]

But other games don't have as big a unified world as AC. Most other games you're seeing mostly baddies through linear levels most of the time. This game has three of the best modeled cities I've seen in a game. But the barebones interaction with NPCs makes AC's world feel a little hollow. Having more fleshed out interactions with NPCs in AC's world would've gone a long way to make it feel more alive.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I've only seen Damascus so far but the city is fantastic, easily surpassing anything GTA (or wannabe) games have done and I had hoped that Assassin's Creed would be more like a GTA during the crusades. Unfortunately AC doesn't have a tenth of the diversions available to GTA gamers, which in a world as huge and immersive as ACs, just feels like a massive oversight.

And as vazel said, having to blend every time you pass a guard is just infuriatingly annoying. An assassin who has never donned a disguise to blend in without having to adopt a snail's pace? Who is this idiot 'master assassin'?

DS

 

[RobertR1]

Just rooftop jump and knife toss or assassinate any guards up there. I got to the end like this. The blending got lame rather quickly. Now that I started up Mass Effect, that game just shits on this in many ways. So much so, that I'm not interested in going back to even beat the game at this point (right at the end of AC).

I like the concept but if they don't add mission variety to number 2, they can keep it.

 

[D3v0ur3r]

I'm still having a great time playing this game. Don't know if its been stated before but you can gain more throwing knives if you are low or out by winning fist fights. Also I beat the hell out of the beggars & crazies when they get close, it keeps them from being a hassle. I think I am on memory block 5 & gaining new abilities with every new block is pretty cool. I am still seeing new moves I've not seen when in fights. The guards do not get involved in fist fights so I don't mind throwing down for the hell of it.

Personally the lack of interaction with the city people doesn't bother me in the least. The way I see it is I am there to kill people, not win popularity contests. The more people you get to know I think the harder it would be to fly under the radar. As far as blending around guards, I personally don't use it all that much. I like sneaking up behind them & killing them or running them over with my horse. Btw, the blending issue, also I think since you start the game with a bit of a battle with the Templar's that you are a bit known as an Assassin just by your clothing. Also you do carry a lot of blades for someone trying to look like a holy man when blending. At any rate I really like the game & so far I am not getting bored with it.

I've got Drakes fortune but the wife is making me wait till Xmass to play it. Also CoD4 went to the side after getting AC.

 

[galson]

I myself am quite dissapointed in this game. While the visuals are top-notch as well as sound and music, the gameplay is the weakest part of it (and IMO the gameplay is the most important of these four). It's quite fun during the first few hours, but after that it gets repetitive like hell and simply boring. Every assassination is the same with maybe small minor differences. When you save citizens, every one of them says the same thing. I don't want to rant here, but putting visuals away the game is average at most and seriously, GTAIII has far better and more interesting gameplay than AC. The game had potential, too bad it's been wasted.

I've got Drakes fortune but the wife is making me wait till Xmass to play it. Also CoD4 went to the side after getting AC.

Oh man, what a cruel wife XD

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I've got Drakes fortune but the wife is making me wait till Xmass to play it. Also CoD4 went to the side after getting AC.

That sounds like grounds for divorce!

DS

 

[D3v0ur3r]

Ok, ok. In defense of the wife. She did pay for it with the intention of it being a Xmas present. I just happen to be at the store with her yesterday & asked her if she wanted to get me another Xmas gift.

I've already got a pretty sweet Xmas gift sitting on my desk. http://www.gateway.com/retail/hd2200.php Which the PS3 is hooked up to as well as the PC. One button on the side lets me switch to either I want to use at any time.

So she's not all bad.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I guess the wait will make the experience all the sweeter and it's only four weeks.. 28 days.. 672 hours.. 40,320 minutes!

DS

 

[D3v0ur3r]

Gee, thanks for reminding me.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Back to AC, I had my first freeze on PS3 this morning Having trawled through the Ubisoft forums (where they acknowledge the issue a couple of weeks back, and yesterday in this thread -> http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5251069024/m/3361042116/p/1 promise a patch to fix things), I scanned another thread which speculated that the issue was something to do with loading data.

Something that I had not noticed until I just watched it happen, is that starting afresh, and continuing from my last saved memory block, is that when the game starts proper in whatever environment you're in, it continues to spend well over 5 minutes thrashing the HDD loading more data. Not mild HDD-activity as seen in Ratchet & Clank's streaming, but constant HDD access. On reflection, I wonder if it's more than coincidence that when I was moving about quite slowly I had no issues, but as soon as I started to whizz about quickly it froze? It would be nice if Ubisoft tell us.

DS

 

[patsu]

Ok, ok. In defense of the wife. She did pay for it with the intention of it being a Xmas present. I just happen to be at the store with her yesterday & asked her if she wanted to get me another Xmas gift.

I've already got a pretty sweet Xmas gift sitting on my desk. http://www.gateway.com/retail/hd2200.php Which the PS3 is hooked up to as well as the PC. One button on the side lets me switch to either I want to use at any time.

So she's not all bad.

Heh. I woke up one morning and found the AC disc missing. Couldn't find it for a few days. Turns out the little guy ejected the disc from the PS3 and slotted it into his laptop. Haven't really played it since then. Will try to complete a few levels. It sounds like I should lower my expectation and pace the first few levels while the moment lasts.

I hate buggy/unstable games though.

 

[Jedi2016]

And as vazel said, having to blend every time you pass a guard is just infuriatingly annoying.

Just because you're being watched doesn't mean you have to slow to a snail's pace. I've trotted my horse right by alert guards and they simply watch me go by. The trick is just to be more careful not to do anything to attract attention.

For walking around the city, I've found just normal walking with the Gentle Push is better than using Blend. I've occasionally knocked down the jar-carriers while in Blend, and get attacked anyway.

I traversed the Kingdom yesterday on my way to Acre, and didn't bother avoiding the guards. Twice I even stood in the middle of the road with sword drawn waiting for those "packs" of guards to approach, at which point I'd simply slaughter the lot of them. At one point, I was left standing in the middle of a whole field covered in upwards of thirty bodies. I don't know if they stay dead, though... that's my goal, is to be able to wander the Kingdom without worrying about guards. I guess I'll find out when I return to the citadel after my next assassination.

 

[AlphaWolf]

When you save citizens, every one of them says the same thing.

No, they don't. There's 4 or 5 different responses.

 

[galson]

No, they don't. There's 4 or 5 different responses.

Yeah, I know that, but I was trying to say that there's about 50 or so citizens to be rescued in the game and 4-5 types of responses from them once you have helped them. That breaks immersion a little as the game tries to be realistic and makes those missions quite dull.

 

[RobertR1]

Yeah, I know that, but I was trying to say that there's about 50 or so citizens to be rescued in the game and 4-5 types of responses from them once you have helped them. That breaks immersion a little as the game tries to be realistic and makes those missions quite dull.

Nah, you can have a mini game with yourself at this point. Try to guess what they'll say before they say it! If you win, spoil yourself with a free cookie.