You’ll have to forgive me, as I’m only familiar with the Thief series through a broad general outline of the games.
You’re mostly right, but there’s a few other key things; Assassin’s Creed isn’t just sandbox, it’s sandbox in a massively open enviornment where you can travel all across Crusader-controlled Israel to go from one city to another, with three cities fully-realized based on actual historical research on their layouts at the time. That’s pretty compelling right there
Another big things is that the game makes heavy use of crowd behavior dynamics, and as far as I know, that’s not something that’s really been a big focus with these kinds of games before.
Lastly, it’s the non-formulaic element of the platform action; instead of using stock environmental objects players know they’re supposed to use a specific skill to navigate, this game supposedly features purely realistic layouts, and is intended to enable the character to interact with any object with sufficient surface area. Instead of having tell-tale spots on a wall for the player to climb, any crudely constructed wall anywhere in the game world is climbable. That kind of thing. It’s sort of hard to explain, but I watched a live demonstration by the lead developer at Penny Arcade eXpo 2007 where he let the audience tell him where to go and how to get about. It’s much more “figure it out for yourself” than “which of these three tactics will work this time?”
I have it preordered, paid in full. It will be waiting for me at Gamestop this Wednesday. I will order a pizza before I leave, go pick it up, get back with ten minutes to spare for the delivery, and gorge myself on hedonistic pleasures.
The only problem is that it tends to be a little too realistic for the surround to really kick in. Most of the combat takes place a fairly long range, as you’d expect with AWACS assisted long range heat seeking missiles. Also much of the wind noise is dampened in the cockpit and the dominant audio is “command” updates and plane-to-plane chatter. The sound is good, but it’s not really rattle the room type sound. Though this might change when I get my hands on the A-10. Hehe.
Incidentally, based on what I’ve uncovered of the back story, the style of fighting and the general sense of cool menace the main character moves with you have to guess that it has the potential to become a pretty awesome movie adaptation. Am I getting a little ahead of myself?
Yes. Way, way ahead of yourself. You’re basing your desire for a movie adaptation on the look of the game, something that the movie adaptation wouldn’t have. I’d rather see something based on the real Hashshashin rather than trying to tie it to a video game, anyway.
Everything gets optioned for a movie these days. An option means nothing.
Heya, I’ve been playing this game since it came out. It’s gotten some pretty mixed reviews, with some sites giving it 7.0-7.5 and others 9.0+. With game score inflation being what it is, people seem to forget that a 7.0 game is still technically “good”.
As for my take on it, I’d say the main criticism is pretty fair. Namely, that the game gets rather repetitive and one-dimensional. However, it’s pretty damn fun and absolutely beautiful and cinematic to boot.
My son has been going on and on about this game for months. My husband bought an Xbox 360 last week. I’m picking up a copy of the game tonight. I’m kind of excited about it myself, it does look like a gorgeous game.
I just went out and bought the game, based on “Gabe”'s strong recommendation. The glowing review from Gamespot didn’t hurt, either, but I haven’t always agreed with their take.
Yeah, I finally figured that out after like 20 trials. Oy.
So far the game is pretty good, but I’m still in the earlier “on rails” part of the game. I think this could be pretty cool when it opens up.
I’m a little put off by the technological, you’re “reliving memories” script. Why can’t I just be an Assassin in the middle ages?, but there’s probably some part of the story that needs this. Still, the “DNA” molecules on the screen and other techno silliness just pull me out of the game, so far.
I haven’t gotten through very much of it yet, but so far, the control scheme is novel. It looks good, visually. Simple movements like turning around look very human.
I agree with squeegee about what he had spoilered.
I’m finding it hard to pick off soldiers without getting noticed. Maybe I need to be more creative. Advice?
I’m pretty sure the point of what squeegee was talking about is so that:
If the game does well, they can crack out sequels in different time periods and parts of the world, rather than be confined to the same era and area over and over
I haven’t gotten to play it yet because my copy is my birthday gift from my parents, so I’m not allowed to open it until Sunday. sigh
PS. Is this spoiler really necessary? I mean they let the cat out of the bag about that a couple years ago in the press. I thought it was nearly as well known a part of the story as the fact that you’re playing an assassin during the crusades?
Well, the game hadn’t really explained it to me, someone who had bought and was playing it, so I was proceeding on that level. I’m not really very aware of what has or hasn’t been said publicly about the game.
There’s a bit of controversy about this game now because of some legal threats UbiSoft has been making. They had a promotional contest where you could win a date with Jade Raymond, the hot producer of Assassin’s Creed. Someone made a comic making fun of this by showing Jade giving blowjobs in exchange for nerds buying her game. UbiSoft sent a C&D letter to the website that hosted the comic demanding they take it down, even though it’s clear that the use of her (drawn) image should be fair use as satire.
I rented this one, and I can’t really see the appeal. All there is to climbing is holding down a button and moving towards a wall, likewise the jumping is just holding down a button and running towards a ledge. About the only halfway challenging part of the game is combat, and once you get the rhythm down it’s really easy too. There’s no point in being stealthy 95% of the time because Altair can easily beat as many guards as they throw at you in combat. It’s a really pretty game, and it makes you look like a real badass, but I’m glad I didn’t buy it.
