Assassins's Creed 2: Altair In Waterworld

[The 1 2 P]

Yes it's been announced and this time includes 100% more swimming: http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/...s-to-swimming/

The first game sold well but received mixed reviews. For the people who played the first game, what did you guys think about it?

PS--I completely made up that title

[theChad]

Many people complained that the first one was redundant and boring ("you do the same things over and over!" - "um, yeah - what games aren't like that?") however I still enjoyed it and especially trying to be a completionist about it and look for all the templars and flags. Even just roaming the cities looking for flags for hours could be really fun with a well-timed assassination sprinkled in to make for good fights and chases.

I guess I was just really annoyed by how many people said they liked it at first, or 'what an awesome game' etc but then would say "oh, that game sucks" any time after I'd mention I liked it. I welcome a second one with open arms.

[G-Boobie]

Assassin's Creed was the best sixty dollar tech demo/proof of concept I ever returned to Target the day after I bought it.

[roushimsx]

The first game was an awesome crowd and parkour simulator. It's a shame the actual game design was so darn weak. Not worth the $30 I spent on it, but if I'd spent something closer to $15 or so then I might have a higher opinion of it.

If you want to pick it up, just be forewarned that the pacing is garbage, the gameplay structure is extremely basic, and the combat is horribly fleshed out. Oh, and the last hour of the game? It's spent in a giant, drawn out fight.

Yea.

[heybtbm]

I liked Assassin's Creed. I can sympathize with the knee-jerk, anti-hype reaction to a point. The hype machine went a bit overboard before this game was released...but that's no reason not to play it. If you played through the whole game (or most of it) and didn't like it, fine. You're entitled to your opinion. Although, I suspect 99% of the hate is coming from people who either didn't play it or only played it for an hour or two. Oh well.

All I can say is that you're missing out on an fun (and slightly flawed) open world experience that was better than 90% of the games released last year.

[Graham Mitchell]

My fiancee' forced me to pick up Assasins Creed when we got a PS3. She was suckered by the back of the box, which is deceptive. It advertises itself as this big intellectual adventure with heavy religious and philisophical themes. (It's even got a disclaimer about it when you load it). Now, I'm only a few hours into it, but it really hasn't been anywhere near that deep. So far, it's another game from Ubisoft that somebody suckered me into buying that I never touch. I don't know what it is about them, but I've been rather unimpressed with just about every major title they've produced. I agree with G-Boobie. Most of their games are fancy tech demos with little in the way of gameplay.

[GnawRadar]

Many of my friends hate on this game but I liked it very much. It was very good looking and the gameplay was fun, but I do agree it did get a little repetitive. I'll probably pick up the sequel but I won't pick it up right away, I'll probably wait for a price drop or two, but I do look forward to it nonetheless.

[mnkysuit]

Assassin's Creed was the best sixty dollar tech demo/proof of concept I ever returned to Target the day after I bought it.

Seriously, I tried my best to like this game. I really did. In the end though it just didn't cut it for me.

[scooterb23]

I bought the game off a friend, and the next morning, lost the game. That's one sneaky assassin.

[SegaAges]

I loved the game. I thought it was awesome.

I don't know what you guys are talking about, I really enjoyed Assassin's Creed.

Tech demo, yes. worth 60, no.
i paid around 20 for my copy from eBay.

Yes the game is repetitive, but anybody that can seriously sit there and tell me they have never enjoyed a repetitive game? Lots of games get repetitive, but we can still enjoy them. You know, Super Mario Bros. was pretty repetitive too. All I did was ran to the right, jumped and stuff, and collected coins. Kidding aside, I obviously don't care if a game is repetitive.

The combat was meh, but the free running/parkour was awesome. I got super good at it. If you do it correctly, you can ninja gaiden up buildings by jumping back and forth super fast. I could never do it, but was told it was possible.

You guys are crazy, Assassin's Creed was fun.

I will get AC2 when it hits 20 again on eBay.

I will agree that the hype was way too much for the game. No, the game was not as badass as the hype made it out to be, still a fun game, but seriously nowhere near the hype.

And why the hell in this day and age are they still making games where the dude dies if he falls in the water?

We have to wait for sequels in order for them to "learn to swim". Seriously. You are telling me that some sweet badass medevil assassin can't swim. He can f'ing freerun over rooftops and leap from building to build and do all of that jazz, but never learned to swim?

I can see why they get rid of swimming: implementing ai in swimming is just an extra step that is not necessary to push this out to the masses. Plus there would be stuff like lung capacity, etc. Gives them more time to focus on everything else I guess. Also, it is easy to have an edge of a map if it is water and your dude can't swim.

Without that, we end up with stuff like in gta3 where you can go to the "ghost town" which is the sprites used in the very first cut scene. It is pretty cool that you can go to the cutscene sprites, but that is an example of why not every single game needs swimming, so they make you die instead.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Bought AC at launch for PS3, played through the main story non-stop to completion and loved the whole experience.

Being in the category of AC players who mastered the play control, maxed out Altair's combat abilities and weapons, took in the entire story, and completed the game I can understand where the "hated this game" reactions come from.

The game itself was not perfect by any means, it was repetitive in nature (and I'll side with those that cite nearly every action/adventure/platform game in the past two decades as being repetitive as well) and it had a few technical hiccups through the course of the main game (but was far from completely broken), but to me the positives of the total experience of the game completely outweighed any list of negatives that could be compiled.

I do feel that a majority of gamers looked at what Altair could "do" at the opening of the game (or in the first few hours) and wrote the game off then and there ... and when I discuss the game with people who absolutely hated it, often times I'll find that they didn't get to a point where Altair begins to learn complex parry and combat skills much less gets his full compliment of weaponry ... and perhaps that is a flaw in "game design" - maybe the devs should have let people know early on that there was more to be had if people "stayed tuned" till the later portions of the game ...

I haven't gone back and done a lot of the flag capturing, as I checked it out and saw that there were no "unlockables" tied to maximum flag completion. I would hope that they would add something of the sort to the next chapter.

I don't think that there was a more polarizing game (amongst critic and gamer opinions) released that year, but I'm very glad that they're moving forward with the series and I'll be there at launch for the 2nd installment.

[titanzguard]

I bought this game last year around Christmas. I was sold on all the hype and when I got the PS3 I figured I would get AC as well. I played through the whole game and yes I can admit there was a lot of repetition but I enjoyed the game as a whole. Yes, there was a lot of repetition but there were more things to do then just complete the missions. Heck I spent a ton of time in each city checking things out and messing with people. I know there are a lot of haters but I thought the story was fun, the cities were beautiful and the controls were awesome(Althought the camera were a bit painful at times).

I think I paid $50 for this game. Had a 20% off coupon but to me it was worth $50.

[chicnstu]

Yes the game is repetitive, but anybody that can seriously sit there and tell me they have never enjoyed a repetitive game? Lots of games get repetitive, but we can still enjoy them. You know, Super Mario Bros. was pretty repetitive too. All I did was ran to the right, jumped and stuff, and collected coins. Kidding aside, I obviously don't care if a game is repetitive.

At least in the Mario series the environments, and the objects in the environment, are drastically different for most levels.

I played the game for about 15 hours and it was enjoyable for a little while, I like his animations and the voice acting....the reasons I didn't like the game have already been said. Though one thing I didn't see mentioned is how the controls were hyped to be something completely new and unique and were supposed to make you feel like you are actually grabbing the ledges. All I felt like I was doing was holding down the right trigger and A and moving the stick, the character would do things for me.

I hope AC2 has more variety.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

At least in the Mario series the environments, and the objects in the environment, are drastically different for most levels.

While I'm not claiming that the items, art assets, and environments in Assassin's Creed aren't repetitive to a degree ...

But ... objects and environments in Mario games DRASTICALLY different (I assume you mean from level to level/game to game)?

Conversely, in the Mario series, repetition of art assets has never been a critical sticking point ... I just find that a highly suspect argument to make against Assassin's Creed - that the Super Mario games are drastically less repetitious than Assassin's Creed.

[Sudo]

I enjoyed the hell out of AC, it was one of my favorite games of last year. The graphics were stunning, and it's still one of the best-looking console games IMO. The gameplay and sense of scale while looking out over the vast cities were great as well. People say the game is repetitive, but really, the same can be said of pretty much any game.

[chicnstu]

While I'm not claiming that the items, art assets, and environments in Assassin's Creed aren't repetitive to a degree ...

But ... objects and environments in Mario games DRASTICALLY different (I assume you mean from level to level/game to game)?

Conversely, in the Mario series, repetition of art assets has never been a critical sticking point ... I just find that a highly suspect argument to make against Assassin's Creed - that the Super Mario games are drastically less repetitious than Assassin's Creed.

People were talking about the repetitiveness of Assassin's Creed and you mentioned the Mario series so I decided to show that Mario isn't nearly as repetitive as AC because Nintendo makes each environment, and the way it is set up, in a Mario game different. I consider it drastically different because they have sunshine and grass levels, snow levels, desert levels, water worlds, special free item mini game levels, etc.

People say the game is repetitive, but really, the same can be said of pretty much any game

Yes, everything (not just games) is repetitive because things have to have the right balance of style and something unique to keep people's interest. But there is repetitive and overly repetitive, and in my opinion Assassin's Creed is overly repetitive. Which caused many people to lose interest in the game quickly.

[not necessarily directed toward Sudo]

I would be willing to bet that if you made two groups of people, gave group 1 Assassin's Creed, and gave group 2 Super Mario Bros. 3, group 2 would play and enjoy their game more, because of the variety.

[/]

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

People were talking about the repetitiveness of Assassin's Creed and you mentioned the Mario series so I decided to show that Mario isn't nearly as repetitive as AC because Nintendo makes each environment, and the way it is set up, in a Mario game different. I consider it drastically different because they have sunshine and grass levels, snow levels, desert levels, water worlds, special free item mini game levels, etc.



Yes, everything (not just games) is repetitive because things have to have the right balance of style and something unique to keep people's interest. But there is repetitive and overly repetitive, and in my opinion Assassin's Creed is overly repetitive. Which caused many people to lose interest in the game quickly.

[not necessarily directed toward Sudo]

I would be willing to bet that if you made two groups of people, gave group 1 Assassin's Creed, and gave group 2 Super Mario Bros. 3, group 2 would play and enjoy their game more, because of the variety.

[/]

Well ... I wasn't the person who mentioned Mario (but I did call out your estimation/comparison) so I'm okay with the misunderstanding on that.

In any case ... I still think you're really grasping at straws in your comparison ... and considering that there is only one console installment of Assassin's Creed, we really have yet to see how diverse they DO get with the series in terms of repetition/variety.

If one were to compare Super Mario Bros. 1 to Assassin's Creed 1 (I know it's silly ... but simply for the sake of 1st installment vs. 1st installment) I think that there's at LEAST the same amount of "repetition" (running, jumping, collecting coins, etc.) in SMB1 as there is in a a game like Assassin's Creed.

You reference what are essentially "art elements" as things that break up repetition ... but if you strip those away, Super Mario 1 is essentially the same exact thing on every level with the exception of the swimming stages.

Of course, I'm not saying that SMB or any Mario game aren't wonderfully (perfectly in most cases) crafted games due to repetition ... but to deny that it's there is just, again, silly.

And as far as repetition in AC ... It sounds like they're going to address that in the next installment, so it's really a wait and see for those that had a serious problem with that.

[Graham Mitchell]

Based on some of the comments I'm hearing, the game picks up as you get further along, no? I'm going to continue on with it and hopefully stuff gets cooler.

[Sudo]

Based on some of the comments I'm hearing, the game picks up as you get further along, no? I'm going to continue on with it and hopefully stuff gets cooler.

I'd say it definitely does get better as you go along, especially in terms of story. Should you find the side missions repetitive, you can simply opt not to do most of them anyway.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Based on some of the comments I'm hearing, the game picks up as you get further along, no? I'm going to continue on with it and hopefully stuff gets cooler.

When you start the game, Altair has a limited set of weapons and combat skills, battles are pretty much push/pull ... and if you wind up surrounded by 4 or more knights victory would be a challenge (if you're lucky!).

By the time you're on the last level of the game you've got plenty of items to choose from, battles are seamless ballets that are as fun to play through as they are beautiful to watch, and you can easily take on 8 or more knights (I would instigate fights just for the hell of it) without breaking a sweat.

The variety of pre-boss-fight missions never really gets deep in terms of variety (hence all the repetition criticisms) but each boss is worth fighting and beating just for their post loss monologues.