Pretty disappointed...


Just played through this game for the first time. I thought it was about time I gave the AC series a try, but so far I am disappointed...

1a. Missions and gameplay are very repetitive. Even the assassinations themselves don't really change, as the player has no way to actually plan how he hits his targets! You always have to enter via the main entrance, watch a god darned 5-minute-unskippable cutscene and then fight off anything from 5 to 30 guards.

1b. Btw. what is going on with an assassin who is not even once able to kill his mark and get away without raising the guard of the ENTIRE BLOODY CITY?! Wasn't stealth like something of a specialty of assassins? Ever heard of a night mission perhaps?

1c. If I had a penny for every time Altair tried to climb a wall instead of walking past it, holding onto a ledge instead of jumping off it, etc., I would be a filthy rich man.

1d. These damn hay wagons have a tendency to suck Altair in like god damn magnets do an iron nail. You can't even jump over an alley where one of the darned hay wagons is parked, it will magically pull you from the air.

2a. Killing guards sucks. At times it is super easy and 10 guards who surrounded me die in a manner of seconds. Other times even 4 guards surrounding me could beat the everliving *beep* out of me. How comes? At any rate, I basically always just climbed up the nearest 3 story building and waited at the top to kill the guards as they climb up after me one-by-one - or just simply kick them over the edge. Any player who is not a total nitwit will figure this out 10 minutes into the game (or make that 40 minutes, as he'll spend 30 in the tutorials :P) - after that there is basically never any new kind of challenge.

2b. What is it with those guards anyway? One dude spots me three alleys away and in 2 seconds the 4-story building is stormed by guards like they were ants on an ant hill. And how the f_u.c,k are these knights in full mail armor jumping and climbing around like an assassin anyway?

3. The final boss fights are horrible. Basically just killing 15 guards/knights/assassins/al'mualims at once like 6 times in a row. Don't know if people found this challenging, for me it was just annoying... Hit them a couple of times, maybe kill one or two, then run around like a mad man and wait for your health to regen... Rinse and repeat. Not difficult, it just takes a long time.

4. The story is ok, although a bit convoluted. But the ending is horrible. No reward, no explanations, no nothing - neither for the medieval times nor the present day story.

5. Why all the useless scenes where we can walk around in the present day lab? There is really not much going on there...

6. Jesus H Christ the beggar ladies and drunken fools are annoying. All the challenges just get 100% more frustrating.

7. Unskippable cutscenes we are forced to watch? What is this, Clockwork Orange?

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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? - Who watches the watchmen?

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1a. Yep, but for it's day the amout of Dev that went into what is essentially fully 3-D environments is simply stunning. The rest was kind-of testing the water, I feel. It worked out well enough that they gave us AC:II and onwards.
Don't worry - It gets SOOO much better in later games!!

1b. Assassinations specifically are about surprise attacks and almost always against political or prominent figures. Often they were done publicly in broad daylight, to show to everyone how easily the deed was (seemingly) accomplished and how no-one was untouchable. One of the terms for those in the historical Assassin heirarchy translates to 'self-sacrificing agent', meaning that they *weren't* expected to escape after the kill. Their sole purpose was to reach the guy and kill him, likely dying right afterward.
So from that perspective, the game is pretty accurate. Also you can, to some extent, plan out the kill, scope out the area, figure out how & where you will reach the target, etc. You need to gather intel in advance, though.

1c. What platform are you playing on? I always found PC much easier than console.

1d. You may well be thankful for this later on, when the game gets more intense!


2a. The combat is limited in AC:I, but you are mostly invincible so long as you learn your moves and wait patiently for them to attack. Nine times out of ten (more like 50/60), the simple Counterattack move is all you need here. It's all down to timing and you learn this quick enough with a bit of play. I believe that even in AC:I, there are guards of different abilities. Chances are if you're getting wasted, you're picking on the tough guards.
Try finding a large open space, like the town square or something and pick a fight with the guards for some practice. Walk around their corpses with your blades out and wait for the next bunch to arrive. After 60 or 70 kills with barely a scratch, you'll have it down pat. It's good fun to try just once, if nothing else!!

2b. Guards call each other over. Line of sight and all that. Just a little challenge for ya. Plate armour isn't that heavy when you wear it anyway, but also you're not exactly the most limber chap in all yer robes and dresses and stuff - Try parkour in that outfit and see how well ye do, heh heh!!


3. I didn't have the patience to run around regenning. I just went at it until I killed them. The Al-Mualim fight was kinda lame, though.


4. Get used to this. The endings are all about setting the story up for the next installment. I wasn't much of a fan and throughout the whole Desmond tale, I was wondering where the F this was all going... I wasn't really impressed with where it went either, but it was okay... I suppose. Yeah.


5. These are mostly set-ups for the end scene (after the credits, IIRC). That and picking up little tidbits of info on the modern story as you go. There's a tiny little mission or two as well, but no biggie. Can't even recall if it affects the main plot or not.

6. Yep. That's their sole purpose. I absolutely hated the wandering retards who escaped from the mental house. There were two specific missions of following someone and I was being all sneaky, when one of these retard bastards would ALWAYS shove me straight into the nearby guards... they get angry, fights break out, my cover is blown... it was a seriously frustrating mess!!!
But then, that's what they're meant to do.
Punch them once and they usually run away. Later on, there are other ways to deal with the annoying street people, as well as some really awkward new buggers!!

*beep* MINSTRELS!!! :-D


7. Again, I'm fairly sure these are skippable on PC.


Stick with it, get it finished and then treat yourself to playing Ezio in AC:II, see if that's more to your liking. AC:Brotherhood is pretty wicked and AC:Revelations is more of the same. better combat, better characters, better environment, more moves, more stuff, lots of annoying things (like challenges and collections) are either gone or at least optional... everything's just more fun!






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