Assassin's Creed

[Himuro]

Calling this now: Assassin's Creed = most underrated game of the year. Before, I would say either Blue Dragon or Taito Legends 2 due to the amazing ire reviewers had against them (well, in TL2's case it didn't get any coverage at all even though it's basically the best game compilation ever). However, Blue Dragon is still mostly loved by most gamers who play it, so user feedback is good. Ditto for TL2.

Now, for Assassin's Creed, the hate this game is getting is completely unwarranted, from both the press and fans. The game is repetitive, yes, but it's FUN, and one of the few next gen games that feels like such a huge leap. The controls in this AMAZING. Yes, if you hold the RT Altair can climb any surface he wants, but it's not on rails. You still have to plan out your escape routes, you still have to navigate most (if not all) surfaces because of their unique designs.

The game would not be nearly as fun if you had to do everything yourself. The chases that happen after making an assassination are simply so sporking awesome. The whole town is alert, and these guys chase you from rooftop to rooftop, and it's extremely exhilirating.

Another thing that pushes AC above other next gen games, especially sandbox games: the atmosphere. Nothing touches it. You've got random beggars that patronize you on the street, crazy people who just run into you and start pushing you... the atmosphere is amazing and really brings this game to life. It's like the next step up from Shenmue and Grand Theft Auto and gets me really excited to see what R* can do with GTAIV.

Combat is simple yet intuitive. It's not cumbersome, it's actually pretty cool. I'm learning different counter attacks and crap and they are awesome. It seems every weapon has its own counter attack animations too, so you're suggested to switch it up.

The story is great. I don't understand what they're saying all the time because the game lacks subtitles (Frust ) but I think you guys would like it.

If not for Dead Rising or Persona 3, this would probably be the best game I've played all year. It's up there.
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She knows stuff.

[Yvl]

It's because the publicists got gamers too hyped up to fully enjoy it. They showed us pretty much all you could do in their PR videos, and everyone was expecting that to be only a sample of what you could do.

Not to mention I'm pretty sure they took some things out of the game since E3. There was supposed to be a system where you couldnt even take one hit to the head without dying and I'm not seeing that.
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[retrospect.]

yeah the game was pretty much hyped through the roof to be something massive, and in reality they showed most of the game's content to hype it up.
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[Himuro]

[Yvl]

There's a hell of a lot more variety of locations and situations in MGS, and Megaman games have a hell of a lot more weapons and higher stakes when navigating across high platforms. And in either game you don't have such an unrealistic amount of health.

The point is that people expected there to be more than 5 ways of avoiding guards. Hell, some of the scholars are just plain gratuitous. There are plenty of other ways there could have been besides scholars to get past guards that are blocking an area. Bribes, sweet talk, posing as a resident, any kind of interaction.

There's just too much about the game that could have been better. More variety in those repetitive towers, more variety with enemies, more variety with weapon... basically more variety in general. Even the lines got very old very fast. You can hardly tell that they spent so much time making the game.
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[Himuro]

Phht. Who cares. ALl of the areas have different designs, and half the fun is mapping out your escape routes. You want variety? You can kill your enemies in 4-5 different ways. You don't need that many weapons. Variety in enemies? Why is that even necessary? Most games of this type don't have varied enemies. It's not the enemies that need variety in this type of game, it's the number of ways you can handle them. AC does this wonderfully. What's wrong with climbing stuff? It makes exploring so much fun. As someone who loves the sandbox genre to death, exploring is always one of my favorite things to do. Climbing, just like it was in Crackdown, is a breath of fresh air and gives me more reason to explore.

Not all games need variety. I can imagine people saying it lacks variety and wah wah when playing friggin Mario for god's sake.
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She knows stuff.

[Calvin]

[AA]

I just started playing this today, i don't normally like action/stealth games, but this one has me hooked. I am only a little way in, but i am loving it. I don't have HDTV but the game is still amazingly good looking and i love being able to switch between high and low profile moves just by holding down a button.

I don't care if the game is over hyped or under appreciated, all i care about is the fact that i like it :)

[Himuro]

It seems most if not all of the people disappointed came in with huge expectations. All I came in wanting was a fun game and got it, plus more. Oh well.
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She knows stuff.

[Tullaryx]

A game is only under or overhyped because the video game news and editorial media makes it so. If a gamer decides to overhype it for themselves then its not the fault of the developers but the gamer who for some for some reason made the decision to assume things about the game. From what I've played of the game, when it wasn't locking up on my friend's PS3, Assassin's Creed is quite fun and intuitive. I'm not one for the stealth games which is why I've never warmed to the MGS series, but Assassin's Creed is something I've decide to get my own copy of for the 360. Maybe then I'll even enjoy it more since it won't lock-up or freeze on me.
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[Parallax]

From my experience so far, there's no question that Assassin's Creed is the sort of game that you get out of what you put into it. If you try to blaze through it and accomplish things as quickly as you can, then it's boring and repetitive. If you immerse yourself, run around and explore, take your time... then I think it's endlessly fun.

Just my own observations from play...I've knocked off the first four assassinations and I still think the game is a lot of fun. There are some elements to it that are repetitive, and I'm not going to call it the greatest game ever produced, but I think it's a good game. Most times, that's enough!
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He's a victim - not a perp - and I'm choosing to let him go.

[Himuro]

[Yvl]

I never said it was a bad game, for the record. I love exploring the Kingdom for Richard flags... but then what's the point of doing that, even? I'm on PS3, so I dont get any gamer points out of it.
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[Tullaryx]

I thought the PS3 version was suppose to have the trophy thingamabob for people who achieve certain goals in PS3 games. I know it was something Sony really pushed as part of the Playstation Network during the 2007 E3 press conference and again during TGS07.
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[Parallax]

I'd love to say that Gamerscore isn't a motivation for me when I play my XBox 360 games...but yeah, it totally is. That way, everyone knows that I found all of those damn Masayf flags.

Which was a pain, incidentally.

I'm about halfway on the King Richard flags. Not sure if I even intend to try to find the rest of them though.
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He's a victim - not a perp - and I'm choosing to let him go.