Post by Gilvan Blight on Jun 23, 2008 10:57:26 GMT -5
Quickly: Beautiful, stylish, cool background, but hard and doesn't end.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]Oddly this is a Sci-Fi game, even though all trailers and the intro would lead you to believe it's a Medieval game. You take on the role of a Bouncer who has been captured by some organization and is being forced to re-live his ancestor's memories in order to provide information on something to this group. The premise is that our DNA holds a complete genetic memory of every ancestor we ever had. A machine in the game lets your Character re-live his previous life as an Assassin in the times of the War for the Holy Land between King Richard and King Saladin.
Without wanting to give the story away, here is a bit of background. You start the game stealing the Templar's Treasure (A piece of Eden). During this action you betray some of the main tenants of being an Assassin. You are then stripped of your Ranks and Equipment and must re-prove yourself to your master. You do this by taking on a variety of Assassination Targets. For each target you must travel to the proper city and then investigate your target. Once you have completed enough investigation the local Assassin's guild gives you the go ahead to complete the deed. As you complete your kills you are slowly given your ranks and equipment back and sent after harder and more guarded targets. You must eventually work through the entire ranks of the Knight's Templar leading you to their Head Man.
Gameplay is a mix of Stealth Action, Fighter, and Prince of Persia style platforming.
About the Platforming: Altair, you're main character (well the character your main character is playing... wow kind of sounds like Dream Park, hadn't though of that until now), has a Dex of about 22 in D&D terms. He puts the Prince from The Prince of Persia to shame with his wall climbing, building jumping, rope swinging, tight rope walking skills. In addition to all the acrobatics that will have you traveling about town like Spider-man without a web, you also have a set of skills of moving subtly. You can walk slowly, hide in large groups, slowly push your way through crowds, disguise yourself in among monks and scholars, etc. The control scheme is set up well for this. Generally if you want to be rash and rushing about you hold down the right trigger. This allows for moves like running, sprinting, tackling, jumping and climbing. Without the right trigger down you act subtly, allowing for slow walking, moving through crowds, hiding on benches, walking with monks etc.
The Stealth Part: as an Assassin your main goal is to not be noticed. Throughout towns there are guards walking around and guarding specific areas. In general when you first arrive in town they will not bother you unless you are doing something suspicious (like jumping from rooftop to rooftop and plowing through crowds on the street, besides the obvious killing of people). Once a few bodies start to pile up though they get much more wary and you have to be much more careful to not be spotted. Later in the game just being spotted is enough to get them chasing you. Once you have been spotted and the guards are after you, you have two choices, stand and fight or flee and hide. Fleeing is usually the safest option, and you must first break line of sight from all guards and then find a safe place to hide, like a bale of hay, or a rooftop garden.
Fighting will take up quite a bit of your time, especially later in the game. The combat system is similar to the Onimusha games, starting with just a basic attack and block. As the game progresses you learn new moves like guard breaking, throwing opponents, various combos and counterattacks. Near the end the game plays much more strategically with only combos and counterattacks actually working and the enemies using similar skills against you.
The basic gameplay follows a repeating cycle. Start in the starting town talking to the leader of the Assassins and get your target or targets. Travel to the city the target is in and sneak in some how. Once in stop in at the Local Assassin's Guild and ask for details of your target. Get 3 hints on where you can find more information about your target. Get to high ground to scope out the surrounding area. Once attaining high ground (by climbing towers, spires, domes and the like) various 'targets' show on your map, including other high ground spots to climb). Visit each target and complete whatever the task is. Return to the Assassin's Guild after all tasks completed. Get a feather and more detail on your Target. Find the Target. Kill the Target and return to the Assassin's Guild. Go back to the Master, repeat.
The actual task you complete in each city are of a wide variety. There is saving citizens being bullied by guards, eavesdropping in on conversations, pickpocketing important documents., integrating specific targets, assassinating certain target(s) while under a time limit and Collecting flags while under a time limit.
The Assassinations themselves are all very different and each requires a different style of play to complete, from complete stealth kills to running in and battling hordes of guards. After each main kill you get a cut scene where the person killed explains their actions. In between main kills you are often dropped back out to the future, where you learn more of why you were captured and what information they ones who captured you are looking for.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]Absolutely amazing graphics. One of the best looking games I have ever seen, especially for having so much on the screen at one time. I've never seen a city so populated that you can just run around free form in. The population even reacts appropriately to what you are doing. It's fun just to run around for a while the first time you get to a city. The number of different tasks you need to complete to get information on your target is rather interesting, it's nice that it's not all just sneaking and killing (aka better then Tenchu). The background and story are some of the best I have seen in a game. I so badly want to know what happens next (see the Ugly). The controls are generally excellent. You will have Altair running, jumping and climbing in a way that would make Peter Parker envious in no time. The whole concept of the game is just fun and cool.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]Unfortunately the movement controls are way better then the combat controls. They seem great at first, but once all of the combat options are added they are a bit overwhelming, and it becomes hard to do exactly what you want. Targeting is the worst part especially when surrounded by multiple enemies. The difficulty on this scales poorly. Instead of the game adding new or more interesting challenges as the game goes on, it just repeats the same challenges and makes them harder. Sometimes too much harder. The combats are the worst for this with it just feeling cheap at the end. The enemies just counter everything you do, and unless you perfectly time a combo they knock you out of it. By the end of the game I would have to take 2 day breaks between playing for fear of throwing my controller right through my LCD screen. It doesn't get harder it just gets more frustrating. The only thing that kept me playing is wanting to know where the story was going to go, which lead me to....
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow] No ending!!! Not only no ending, it pretty much ends before telling you anything. Nothing is wrapped up. Even worse then this is the fact there is no Assassin's Creed Two out there. I can't finish the story and that sucks. The game sucks you in so well, but then just leaves you there unsatisfied at the end. It's so bad that I want to suggest no one pick this up until you know the next part is out, as it's so annoying to fight through those last near impossible battles, just to be rewarded with 100 gamer-points for 'finishing' the game, while the story just doesn't end. Sure the story of Altair is done, but not the story of the Bouncer you are actually playing.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]A beautiful looking game that plays like a mix of Onimusha, Spider Man, Metal Gear and Prince of Persia. Simple controls make for effortless and amazing looking acrobatics as your travel around The Holy Land on your quest to assassinate the Knights Templar. Unfortunately the controls aren't nearly as nice as combat, and combat scales up in difficulty to controller tossing levels. The game can also get repetitive, as it just has you doing the same things over and over at a higher difficulty level as the story progresses. It's the story though that will have you coming back time and again, as it's one of the best I have seen in a game. Unfortunately though the story doesn't end in this game, at all, pretty much no loose ends are tied up and you will be left sadly waiting for more. Even worse is the fact that More doesn not exist, at least yet. I do recommend this one just for the story, but you may want to wait until a sequel is out, as the lack of an ending will leave a bad taste in your mouth.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow]Oddly this is a Sci-Fi game, even though all trailers and the intro would lead you to believe it's a Medieval game. You take on the role of a Bouncer who has been captured by some organization and is being forced to re-live his ancestor's memories in order to provide information on something to this group. The premise is that our DNA holds a complete genetic memory of every ancestor we ever had. A machine in the game lets your Character re-live his previous life as an Assassin in the times of the War for the Holy Land between King Richard and King Saladin.
Without wanting to give the story away, here is a bit of background. You start the game stealing the Templar's Treasure (A piece of Eden). During this action you betray some of the main tenants of being an Assassin. You are then stripped of your Ranks and Equipment and must re-prove yourself to your master. You do this by taking on a variety of Assassination Targets. For each target you must travel to the proper city and then investigate your target. Once you have completed enough investigation the local Assassin's guild gives you the go ahead to complete the deed. As you complete your kills you are slowly given your ranks and equipment back and sent after harder and more guarded targets. You must eventually work through the entire ranks of the Knight's Templar leading you to their Head Man.
Gameplay is a mix of Stealth Action, Fighter, and Prince of Persia style platforming.
About the Platforming: Altair, you're main character (well the character your main character is playing... wow kind of sounds like Dream Park, hadn't though of that until now), has a Dex of about 22 in D&D terms. He puts the Prince from The Prince of Persia to shame with his wall climbing, building jumping, rope swinging, tight rope walking skills. In addition to all the acrobatics that will have you traveling about town like Spider-man without a web, you also have a set of skills of moving subtly. You can walk slowly, hide in large groups, slowly push your way through crowds, disguise yourself in among monks and scholars, etc. The control scheme is set up well for this. Generally if you want to be rash and rushing about you hold down the right trigger. This allows for moves like running, sprinting, tackling, jumping and climbing. Without the right trigger down you act subtly, allowing for slow walking, moving through crowds, hiding on benches, walking with monks etc.
The Stealth Part: as an Assassin your main goal is to not be noticed. Throughout towns there are guards walking around and guarding specific areas. In general when you first arrive in town they will not bother you unless you are doing something suspicious (like jumping from rooftop to rooftop and plowing through crowds on the street, besides the obvious killing of people). Once a few bodies start to pile up though they get much more wary and you have to be much more careful to not be spotted. Later in the game just being spotted is enough to get them chasing you. Once you have been spotted and the guards are after you, you have two choices, stand and fight or flee and hide. Fleeing is usually the safest option, and you must first break line of sight from all guards and then find a safe place to hide, like a bale of hay, or a rooftop garden.
Fighting will take up quite a bit of your time, especially later in the game. The combat system is similar to the Onimusha games, starting with just a basic attack and block. As the game progresses you learn new moves like guard breaking, throwing opponents, various combos and counterattacks. Near the end the game plays much more strategically with only combos and counterattacks actually working and the enemies using similar skills against you.
The basic gameplay follows a repeating cycle. Start in the starting town talking to the leader of the Assassins and get your target or targets. Travel to the city the target is in and sneak in some how. Once in stop in at the Local Assassin's Guild and ask for details of your target. Get 3 hints on where you can find more information about your target. Get to high ground to scope out the surrounding area. Once attaining high ground (by climbing towers, spires, domes and the like) various 'targets' show on your map, including other high ground spots to climb). Visit each target and complete whatever the task is. Return to the Assassin's Guild after all tasks completed. Get a feather and more detail on your Target. Find the Target. Kill the Target and return to the Assassin's Guild. Go back to the Master, repeat.
The actual task you complete in each city are of a wide variety. There is saving citizens being bullied by guards, eavesdropping in on conversations, pickpocketing important documents., integrating specific targets, assassinating certain target(s) while under a time limit and Collecting flags while under a time limit.
The Assassinations themselves are all very different and each requires a different style of play to complete, from complete stealth kills to running in and battling hordes of guards. After each main kill you get a cut scene where the person killed explains their actions. In between main kills you are often dropped back out to the future, where you learn more of why you were captured and what information they ones who captured you are looking for.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]Absolutely amazing graphics. One of the best looking games I have ever seen, especially for having so much on the screen at one time. I've never seen a city so populated that you can just run around free form in. The population even reacts appropriately to what you are doing. It's fun just to run around for a while the first time you get to a city. The number of different tasks you need to complete to get information on your target is rather interesting, it's nice that it's not all just sneaking and killing (aka better then Tenchu). The background and story are some of the best I have seen in a game. I so badly want to know what happens next (see the Ugly). The controls are generally excellent. You will have Altair running, jumping and climbing in a way that would make Peter Parker envious in no time. The whole concept of the game is just fun and cool.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]Unfortunately the movement controls are way better then the combat controls. They seem great at first, but once all of the combat options are added they are a bit overwhelming, and it becomes hard to do exactly what you want. Targeting is the worst part especially when surrounded by multiple enemies. The difficulty on this scales poorly. Instead of the game adding new or more interesting challenges as the game goes on, it just repeats the same challenges and makes them harder. Sometimes too much harder. The combats are the worst for this with it just feeling cheap at the end. The enemies just counter everything you do, and unless you perfectly time a combo they knock you out of it. By the end of the game I would have to take 2 day breaks between playing for fear of throwing my controller right through my LCD screen. It doesn't get harder it just gets more frustrating. The only thing that kept me playing is wanting to know where the story was going to go, which lead me to....
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly:[/glow] No ending!!! Not only no ending, it pretty much ends before telling you anything. Nothing is wrapped up. Even worse then this is the fact there is no Assassin's Creed Two out there. I can't finish the story and that sucks. The game sucks you in so well, but then just leaves you there unsatisfied at the end. It's so bad that I want to suggest no one pick this up until you know the next part is out, as it's so annoying to fight through those last near impossible battles, just to be rewarded with 100 gamer-points for 'finishing' the game, while the story just doesn't end. Sure the story of Altair is done, but not the story of the Bouncer you are actually playing.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]A beautiful looking game that plays like a mix of Onimusha, Spider Man, Metal Gear and Prince of Persia. Simple controls make for effortless and amazing looking acrobatics as your travel around The Holy Land on your quest to assassinate the Knights Templar. Unfortunately the controls aren't nearly as nice as combat, and combat scales up in difficulty to controller tossing levels. The game can also get repetitive, as it just has you doing the same things over and over at a higher difficulty level as the story progresses. It's the story though that will have you coming back time and again, as it's one of the best I have seen in a game. Unfortunately though the story doesn't end in this game, at all, pretty much no loose ends are tied up and you will be left sadly waiting for more. Even worse is the fact that More doesn not exist, at least yet. I do recommend this one just for the story, but you may want to wait until a sequel is out, as the lack of an ending will leave a bad taste in your mouth.