And where did my secret letter go? I saw the thief out of the corner of my eye before he disappeared behind that heavily armed scholar. Boy that thief is sneaky. And why are their 30 dead guards? I wonder who could have killed them? The guards don’t seem to know either. I hear there is an assassin on the loose. He killed the Governor and walked right out the front door so they say, walking straight down the street killing guard after guard until he climbed up the roof of the Assassin’s Guild in the poor district. Now I hear they’ve been executing priests in the hope that they catch the assassin at random. What could possibly stop a man like this? Do we have nothing besides strategically placed cut scenes designed to build dramatic tension that can slow him down?
Oh look there is another scholar scaling the side of a building. Those men of letters are so strange.
I’m enjoying it quite a bit, but it’s a very flawed game. Basically, once you’ve completed the first assassination, you’ve pretty much already seen everything the game’s got to offer. It’s very repetitive, but a good bit of the repeated content is great fun. Running around the cities, scaling buildings and jumping from roof to roof, and shiving every guard I find doesn’t ever get old for me, no matter how many times I do it.
It doesn’t really compare. There isn’t really a stealth aspect, per se. You don’t sneak past guards by hiding in the shadows, or keeping quiet. If the guards are suspicious, you have to move slowly so they don’t come after you, but you don’t have to stay out of sight. When the guards are actively searching for you, you run until they can’t see you anymore, then find a pre-determined hiding place (a bale of hay, a group of scholars, a crowded bench, and so forth) and sit tight 'til the alarm goes away. You’re also almost always outside. So far as I’ve seen, the only time you’re ever inside a building is when you’re doing one of the major (story-driven) assassinations. Everything else is city streets and rooftops. There’s no stealing element to the game at all, nor any real inventory aspect. Playing it does make me really wish for a fourth Thief game, particularly if they incorporated a similar climbing mechanic, but it’s doesn’t remotely work as a substitute.
Miller I love Assassin’s Creed too. As my wife says, “My god you’re stabby!” My biggest complaint is that it’s far too easy. My second biggest complaint is that you can never actually assassinate the plot significant assassination targets, you always have to fight them because even though you can get right up next to them during a cut scene you have to wait until they retire behind heavily armed guards and chase them. My favorite though, was when you are chasing the fatass all over the palace. That one actually made sense, because you were never within two feet of him during a cut scene. I always hate cut scenes that make it harder for you to attack.
The control of the game is amazing. The plot is pretty neat, I’m a sucker for Assassin’s vs Templars. I like the spin of Wisdom and Knowledge vs Democracy and Order, the Modern era in it’s protean stage, which underlies the whole Assassin’s/Templar mythology as it is. I also find it interesting that you can play a Muslim Assassin killing Christians and it be a best-selling game in America. I have the feeling this is one of those places where the idea went over the head of Christian fundies so they weren’t able to organize a proper protest.
Even the weird Animus subplot, which I found extremely irritating at first, is a fun way to explain away respawning.
The game unfortunately could have done well spending more time on the social dynamic of the game. It’s way too easy to kill 30 guards and then just bow your head like a scholar to escape. I think this is where games need to go next, they need to develop better story-telling techniques within an interactive environment.
I’ve been playing the game practically non-stop for the past few days, I’ve almost beaten it. It’s a lot of fun. It’s like Prince of Persia, but with open environments.