Assassin's Creed Comments by Kristan Reed

Im just set up for dissapointment on this one. Can't see it delivering on its promises at all

Glad to see it get's a pretty positive reaction.

Glad to hear the tearing on the preview builds has been sorted.

'you can't just throw your weight around and expect to get away with it. Simple actions like running around town cause absolute havoc - basically because you'll find yourself knocking over civilians, barging into heavily armed guards'

will become annoying after an hour

Is it still full of clunky animations though?

Thief 2 was better.

If people don't call you 'Taffer!!' then it's just not cricket.

The review reminded me of the gameplay in Sly.

@TRIFFID

Try reading the review. Specifically the bit about absolutely stunning animation techniques.

EYES ARE YOUR FRIENDS

Can we stop calling everything "next gen" FFS. Surely the fact that its NOW means that its "current gen", and stuff like the PS2 is now "past gen"

Next Gen now surely (dont call me shirley) is the PS4 or the next Microsoft venture?

Ps. Game looks pretty hood.... I mean good.

Given how popular the PS2 still is, and that Wii versions of PS2 games are appearing, it's more confused than ever. I agree there needs to be a better term than next gen, but everyone understands it. The truth is, there have been few truly next gen games, but this appears to be one that justifies that label.

Holy Moley it's out in 9 days!

I'm really unsure of this game. Pretty much everything I've read about it brings it across as one of those games that I both love and hate, and to be honest I'm not sure if I'm really in the mood for one of those.

From what I've seen and read of the fighting system it really has me worried. It reminds me of the combat system of the first ever PoP game, but with multiple enemies, and anyone who has played the recent remake on XBLA of that knows what a nightmare it can be. Hopefully this actually plays nothing like that.

I'm also really concerned about something that was mentioned in HairyArse's impressions:

"The second and probably most jarring incident I had with the game was when I was stalking a victim I was about to pick-pocket. After following for a short while and managing to evade the guards blocking the path to my intended target, I eventually managed to sneak up on him and was about to pick his pockets when he simply vanished into thin air before re-spawning at the start of his patrol path. Now normally, those two admittedly minor (in the grand scale of things) issues wouldn't have been that significant, especially as games exhibit this sort of behaviour regularly. However, vanishing and re-spawning NPCs completely spoiled that one specific moment substantially because at that point I was fully focused on stalking my prey and was very much engrossed in the moment and more importantly the game.

The thing that drove this point home even more so, though, was Ubisoft's opening insistence that it had strived to do everything possible to ramp up the levels of immersion. I mentioned this to one of the game's developers who pulled a face before adding that unfortunately I'd not managed to pick my target's pockets in time and thus had failed the side mission and it had to be restarted."

Now I'm not buying the game at all, until someone mentions that this is in fact something that no longer exists in the final build of the game. It sounds like absolutely appalling game design, that would just lead me to take it straight back for a refund.

Adam_T
07-Nov-07 17:29:59

"Thief 2 was better.

If people don't call you 'Taffer!!' then it's just not cricket. "

I was just thinking this afternoon about possible similarities between Thief and AC (in the prep stage) It would be nice to have the option of first-person when there's no action, and the guards yelling 'taffer' as an unlockable extra! :D

I'll bet they did this so the reviewer wouldn't give it a low grade because he didn't "get it", as this seems to be complicated at first to control. Expect it to get a 9 or 10.

Glad to hear they've also gone the route of context sensitive movement, it worked beautifully in GoW so I look forward to seeing it in more titles.
My only concern is the same I have with all "assassin" games is stealth. Is it yet more "crouch and be invisible" (Splinter Cell, I'm looking at you!) nonsense?

Hmm this preview has reinvigorated my excitement about the game, just keeping fingers-crossed for a good review (and that the ps3 version isn't a framerate/tearing disaster).

I'll wait till you guys complete it to see how much of that matrix crap is present in the game.

@w00t

"EYES ARE YOUR FRIENDS"

Hehe, I'm going to pinch that :)

That first screenshot is just beautiful.

Plus the gameplay actually sounds rather fun too.

SCORE.

Rirekon from what I gather it'll be like hitman where you hide in plain sight till you do something naughty.

looking forward to this, like medieval crackdown i guess?

It would be awesome if this had a FPS mode, I can imagine some of the free running sections or movement through crowds looking awesome (especially if if went down the thief 3 route and you could see your own limbs and stuff)

Looking forward to this one. Something a little different and, by the sounds of things, very ambitious. Kudos to the developers for going out on a limb and not just carbon copying a known winning formula.

I, for one, have had this on pre-order for a long time now! Hope it lives up to it :)

@Rirekon

It sounds to me that rather than go down the "crouch and you are invisible" route (though it worked just fine for the Thief series), they have gone more the "don't do anything that makes you stand out, and no one will pay you much attention" way of doing things.

I for one am firmly interested in seeing what they have done. I will probably rent before I buy, just because its new ground (whereas I knew what I was getting with Orange Box and Bioshock, for example). I'm feeling pretty optimistic though, which makes a nice change from my usual cynical lilt.

@ SomaticSense -
I couldnt agree more, thats unacceptable, and I wouldnt expect to be able to ever see that happening. I would expect a neat and tidy end to his patrol, he opens a door and goes in locking it behind him, or he gets in moving vehicle and buggers off, not vanishes!, surely his path could just be a loop?!

I fear that this game will be slow going, all the footage looks pretty, but really sluggish. I want to like it, really I do, the thing that Mr. Spoiler is talking about above actually interests me. Although its been kind of ruined now.

@the_dudefather

Whether platform stuff such as appears to be shown the trailers would work in fp is hard to say, though I get the impression that you don't need to be pixel perfect. Rather they have just employed a "I'm an assassin, I know how to jump about thanks very much, just point me in the right direction and I'll take care of the details" way of doing things.

I'm all for choice tbh, and an optional first person mode would probably be nice. Hard to say how much work it would be out of context though. It sems easy to plumb in, but how much of the gameplay relies on your being to see both your own character and all those stood around you? Sounds like it might break the combat at the very least.

I did a pickpocket mission, and didn't see that issue by the way...

@kangarootoo
yeah think the platforming stuff works that way, it would be bad for combat (unless you got indicators telling you the status of other enemies around you, but that would probably not work too well)

thinking more of a toggle for manually looking around, but you can leave it on as you move around, and turn it off when you need to, a bit like hitman I suppose

Have they improved the enemy AI? The videos I've seen often show them all standing around with swords drawn but not actually attacking you together?

I've never read a negative preview in my entire life, it seems to be a thing, so it's really just teasing until this time next week.

Is anyone else slightly... anxious about the apparent lack of PS3 build being shown off anywhere? Everything I read seems to be based off the 360 version, which is even more confusing considering the PS3 was the lead platform for the game, wasn't it?

Anyway, my pre-order is for the PS3 version and to be honest, the actual game itself aside for a second because I'm reasonably confident that'll deliver in some appreciable way, I'm concerned that technically the PS3 version might be discernably inferior, as seems to be the case with PES08 and a few other games. I really hope I'm wrong, but my PS3 (which I won, wouldn't dream of paying the $1000AU for it) just needs something of quality to bloody well play at the moment, but I don't want to be playing a version of a game that might be inferior than another version which I COULD be playing.

@barnard666: "I couldnt agree more, thats unacceptable, and I wouldnt expect to be able to ever see that happening. I would expect a neat and tidy end to his patrol, he opens a door and goes in locking it behind him, or he gets in moving vehicle and buggers off, not vanishes!, surely his path could just be a loop?! "

There is that, but it's the complete lack of any kind of a 'Mission Failed' indictation that really worries me. That Hairy Arse had to ask what the fuck happened, and for the Ubi bloke to reply "Oh, you failed the mission", is frankly appalling. I'd be wondering "wtf...." as well.

''It's certainty one of the goriest games I've ever seen get a 15 rating''
Is it just me, or does that make no sense? :)
Terrible, just terrible.

"I did a pickpocket mission, and didn't see that issue by the way... "

Did you fail it at any point?

Because according to Ubi it's not a bug or anything, it's apparently part of the game design not to inform the player that they have to go back and find him, as they've failed the mission.

30 hours??!!! Sounds very promising, I was afraid the game was going to be 10 hours long, because it looks so gorgeous.... Since I'm an achievement hunter, this means I'm gonna be able to milk like 60+ hours of gameplay from this game. Sold!

If you fail a pickpocket mission you'll know all about it as the NPC whose pocket you are trying to pick will confront you.

That's good to hear. Sounds like it was a bug after all, and the Ubi rep was trying to save face :)

I remember getting excited about Splinter Cell once.

Just to be clear, I predict this is going to be a let down but a solid game.

I can't believe all the negativity this game is getting. Everybody moans "Oh GOD, not another generic FPS" or "Fuck me! It's yet another mediocre driving game" then proceding to bemoan the lack of original games these days. But actually TRY to do something different...

I'm wondering if all the negativity is because this game is SO hyped. I kind of got that way with Halo 3 and became really sick of hearing about it. So maybe that's the reason?

It's by an ace team that gave us the Prince of Persia games, it's got stunning visuals, an vast open world free roaming sandbox to play in, with 30 hours of game play in a world where often a lot games are just a few hours longer than a bleeding DVD movie *COUGH COD4 COUGH* Come on, give em a chance! Take of the cynical and jaced caps and put on your optimistic hats!

I've not seen any night time screen shots, surely the game must look stunning at night - assuming, of course it has day / night cycles.

My thoughts exactly Mr Wobbly Bob, I've been looking forward to this game for as long as I can remember, but now all of a sudden there seems to be this air of negativity around it, which I find confusing, because it's never looked anything but stunning to me :/
As long as it gets 7+ from the main review sources it's a definite purchase, I mean, for a start it's nice to have a game on the horizon that's actually longer than 8 hours!!

I am wondering how on earth i am gonna play Super Mario Galaxy and this at the same time

Maybe I could get the feet of a chimp or something....

My biggest worry is that the game will become a bore after you've done everything once. The combat doesn't look all that exciting, which is fine, but not when there's no much to do on top of it.

Seems like you "go here, do this," rinse and repeat.

I'm hoping not though.

There are a lot of mixed opinions brewing up around this game. I can't wait for the full reviews to set everything to rest.

It looks stunning and sounds stunning, but there are mumblings about this being a only a 'good' game, but not the AAA title that a lot of people are expecting.... espically when you consider it's been bookended by COD 4 and Mass Effect...

This sounds like a game that will rely on its ability to fully immerse you atmospherically to become a monster hit.

Gameplay sounds like a sure-fire 7-8/10 with plus 1 or 2 for the hype factor.

I'm concerned at talk of, apparently artificially, time-limited mssions - that's a sure-fire way to de-immerse you ...

Anyway, i'm sure it'll be a welcome relief from the usual 360 fare assuming there's no guns in it (say it ain't so!)

Why the F do i see people saying "Thief this Thief that" and "This should be in FPS" nonsense !?

Third person IS integral to this type of game. Besides, i WANT to see a great character model perform cool moves and to estimate his relative position in game world space.

Fuck first person camera's and ADHD people whose attention span is way too short for stealth games !

Combat and platforming sound dull as a stick to be frank. The more general gameplay that they fit into better be damned good to live up the the games predecessor (PoP). I just can't get around the "simplified" free running.

I predict a 7 or 8......

Unless you get holy hand grenades and a pair of coconut halves, in which case it's an easy 10.

So its a mix of crackdown, prince of persia and splinter cell, could be very interesting, except i dont like stealth. So as long as you can come up with some funky ways to kill people im all for it.

What a month for gaming indeed, also my birthday so any family members reading take note :-)
But seriously I think this is going to be just a good game and ultimately fail to deliver the goods by being only good.

Already pre-ordered this, cant wait for it.

Btw people that wasnt a review.