Wow, I see some people have different opinions on whats repetitive and whats not.

For one thing, I do agree with Adam Sessler's thoughts on the game. Its darn impressive by me. In my opinion of course...

Shijirou

@Z4N5H1N: Its disturbing. Don't drink the Kool Aid is referred to a massive sucide from a cult somewhere over yonder, or Sizzurp from the dirty south. Either or, both leads to death.

PsycheE

Assassin's Creed was a disgustingly bad game that made me want to make a cast of a CD, vomit into it, freeze it and put it into the 360 hoping that I would have a better gaming experience to wash out the taste of assassin's.

Just wanting to throw it out there.

Norman

I never ended up finishing the game cause it got so repetitive and boring...not to mention the annoying frame rate running on rooftops on the ps3 version.

I wanted to like it

TriFF51

Let me add that most critics gave Assassin's creed an average of 7 or just plain didn't like it. X-play on the other hand for some bizarre reason. Praises Assassin's creed with a 5 out of 5 and is on the voting list for the Gphoria Awards as one the best games of the year. huh!?
Adam Sessler always says these phrases when presenting the game, "for the amazing Assassin's creed" "For the incredible Assassin's creed" Hold on Adam! Did we play the same game?

Orionsaint

I don't think buddy at Ubisoft quite understands what "drinking the kool-aid" is commonly used as a reference to.

I would imagine there's not a ton of people at Ubisoft committing ritualistic mass suicide right now. I mean, those "Imagine" games are pretty horrid, but not that bad...right?

...Right?

Z4N5H1N

You said it my man Ash! R.E.P.E.T.I.T.I.V.E. I didn't finsih the game cause I was so tired of doing the same motherFrs' job for him twice in each level. The same cat too; I wanted to stab him. Heres to hoping they can pull something better off next go around.

ThatsMrOffDutyNinja

If your only good as your last product, i.e. Ass. Creed, they really need to overhaul the whole infrastructure. Maybe if the R&D team did more then thinking about getting Jade in bed, it would have been an awesome game.

Nothing against Jade, but she fell extremely short on all cylinders with Creed. Awesome game if you need to fall asleep on the couch.

PsycheE

If you find hunting down and killing pissed off French Templars while swinging off of rooftops repetitive and dull then you're not playing the game correctly.

Snake726

I think Bash meant that Assassin´s was way more repetitive than many other games and yeah, after the initial huge hype, going towards more postmortem type reviews lots of people would agree with him.
I only wonder which cute girl they´ll use this time to do the promo tour for the game this time, initially be happy about each post which is about the game, then also ones about the girl more and more until ones come up which are purely about smelling the girl or similar and all is fine for hype until someone posts a weird comic about the girl.
Hm..

tomsamson

Assassin's Creed has a nice engine and climbing towers was pretty funny. At first anyway. Until you realize every city looks just about the same. Collecting flags is boring and I need more to do than just Assassinating people. Gimmie more options. More variety. More to do!

Orionsaint

"Not only hype, but also look forward to Ubisoft explain how the game play is no longer repetitive and dull. We eagerly anticipate that."

Aren't most games like that? I don't see people complain about Halo being repetitive so what difference does it make when it comes to Assassin's creed?

Shijirou

kool-aid? haterade tastes better to me when it comes to ubi.

bigman88zz

I liked Assassin's Creed. The mission structure/variety was the only thing lacking.

Nexus6

I was going to make a "you're only as good as your last product" crack, but it looks like Ashcraft beat me to it.

NighTrekr

I was enjoying Assassin's Creed for a while, but at some point I found myself thinking that the whole process was more of a grind to push the plot along than anything else.
The game actually felt like work.

Not a good thing for entertainment.

kovac

I thoroughly enjoyed assasin's creed. I replay it tons, and I have to say that you can't play it without settling down and relaxing a bit.

blueshoals

Playing Assassin's Creed right now actually. The game is extremely well done from a technical standpoint. Its fun killing d00ds, the parkour stuff works well and the game just looks beautiful.

But its so goddamn repetitive. Im about to kill my 7th d00d now and it feels like I've finished the game and playing it for the 7th time. I wish each assassination affected the city in some way, make it feel like you make somekind of progress. And why not let the player buy some gear? There is nothing to look forward to, except finding out how the story ends. And put in some goddamn co-op in AC2!

zlimness

Assasins Creed is a love it or hate it game with no inbetween. Theres not many of those.

LuppyLuptonium

I will buy it as long as it has a Jade Raymond nude pic gallery if you bet the game with every single achievement.

....

Vanguarde

Yeah, that game was pretty dull and repetitive. I mean, all you ever did was interact seamlessly with the environment; moving fluidly from stealth to combat to evasion. So boring! Seriously though, if you don't find running along rooftops and stabbing people in the head infinitely awesome, there is something wrong with you.

Enimor

@Snake726: You shouldn't have to finish a game to enjoy it.

Coors Light is God

@Snake726:
I'm not too sure why that is addressed at me.

For one thing, I enjoyed the game, AT FIRST, as I got further and further along, I noticed more and more flaws.

Many of my issues come from things that don't make sense, even in the universe of the game, they just seem to assume you'll accept it.

Let's look at the good points about the game you bring up.

Jumping across poles in the water was incredibly frustrating because the controls weren't fast enough to do it fast, so the idea of keeping momentum up to try to make it across doesn't work because your joystick will be slightly to the left of where it needs to be and you fall in the water and have to start again.

The combat? If you don't master combo attacks, you get punished for taking initiative because the guards will use the non-lethal counter attacks that you have at your disposal (which do inconsistent amounts of damage). So most of the game, it's just simpler to hold block and counter when you're attacked and just hope that you pull off a lethal counter instead of a non-lethal one to speed the bloody combat up.

Climbing is impressive, until you reach the point where you realise that all you need to do is basically hold the joystick up. The game does the rest for you, it's all on automatic, and let's not forget how "copy and paste" it is, because all buildings in a major area have the same bricks jutting out, the same bars on the windows. . .

It's not a matter of "what other game does this?" because it's an issue of doing it well, not just doing it. Super Mario 64 does 3D platforming so well that it still holds (in all area but graphics) to this day, other games do it, but most don't do it as well.

The story became the driving force of the game once the individual elements revealed themselves to be half-assed, and like I said before, it's all about the wall-banging moments.

Interacting with the environment, like everything else, is all the same. Deal with an annoying beggar woman who spouts the same line of dialogue "please help me, I'm tired and hungry and poor!" and serves only to hinder your movement.

The game simply doesn't hold up to more than a first impression. So I think you're very much wrong, the critics aren't the ones who only played a little, those who praise it are those who only played it a little, the critics are those who dug deep enough to see all the flaws.

I went in knowing the negative feelings people had about it, and still continued on trying to see that they were wrong. Initially, I thought they were wrong and that it was impressive, then the deeper into the game I went, the more it revealed itself to lack substance, depth or anything overall redeeming. My disproval of the game isn't because it's fun to bash something that's popular, it's because I saw something that was popular to bash, went in expecting a chance to prove everyone wrong and then saw that everyone was RIGHT.

TrjnRabbit

Everyone who hates Assassin's Creed has never finished it. Go figure.

@TrjnRabbit: Maybe in GTA they can come up for an excuse for respawning after getting murdered. For being able to hold so many guns. For being able to avoid police by running outside of a circle.

Get with it. Assassin's Creed is a game too. Stop judging it for its...game-isms.

I just don't get it. The game is systemic. The mission content is there if you want it, but that's not what the game is about.

IE, systemic refers to the ability to climb and interact with anything in the world that sticks out more than a few inches. It means they accomplished a free-running system that was applied to the entire world.

Their combat system is loaded with user feedback and weight; it's a system based around timing and back and forth motions. You only really fight one guy at a time, yes, but it's still entertaining and challenging.

The open world is intriguing. Does no one else remember jumping from pole to pole over water on the docks, throwing some guards off into the water, and then doing battle with a wily Templar?

Climbing is a game unto itself. Finding footholds, circling to find a way up, and then surveying the entire city from the top is a rush.

Now tell me; what other game does any of this?

You complain and complain, you hate on the game and act like critics, but you have no solid reasoning behind your arguments.

The game has a story. The game is not about the story. The game is systemic, not special case.

The fun comes from interaction in the environment and with game tokens (enemies) in different situations, applying the same rules in varying climates (on the ground, on horseback, balancing on a beam, on a tower, on a rooftop, running away, fighting guards).

If you are judging the game with different criteria, then you are missing the mark.

More importantly, you are missing a fun and deep game, because you must strive to be seen as posthumous critics; discerning collectors who have spotted a rotten apple. It is popular to look down on it.

Grow up, wake up, and go play it with an unbiased, objective mind.

Snake726

I loved the first Assassin's Creed. Over all, it was a very well presented game, but it had some tiny (and some not so tiny) issues that stopped me from having as much fun as I should have. I have five things that must, at all costs, be fixed in the sequel if I am to buy it before it hits the bargain bin.

1) MORE ASSASSINATION!

In the Assassin's Creed, my favorite parts were the assassinations. As it was, I got the game (for $59.99, exactly four hours before the price dropped to $29.99) because of what the game proposed on the front and the back. ASSASSIN'S Creed. The assassinations themselves were what made me play the game, but there weren't enough of them. Out of the ten - twelve hours of gameplay, only about two were assassinations. For the entire game, the assassinations themselves were broken up by mindless, repetitive tasks that detracted from the gameplay.

2) Less Talky, More Die...y

In Assassin's Creed, the targets never figured out when to shut up. The scenes and stuff before I move in on the kill were really cool, and, most of the time, really made me want to kill the heartless bastard. Then I go and knife him in the back of the neck (or the front or side, I'm not partial to one as long as the guy DIES) he still finds the strength to rattle on for ten minutes about stuff that is somewhat interesting, but, at the same time, stuff that I don't care about. Yes, there are a couple of sentences that are really imperative to the story, but they're disguised by nine minutes of useless crap. I was listening to one, and, about half way through, I expected him to talk about his day: Well, I got up this morning and had a piece of toast, then I brushed my teeth... blah blah blah. I was getting ready to yell at the TV SHUT UP!, and then it ended.

3) Better Required Missions

What was there for the required missions: Stealth kill guards (Fun) Collect Flags Within Set Time Limit (NOT Fun) Pickpocket, Eavesdrop, Beat Up Informants (In the Middle).
Stealth Killing x amount of guards in x amount of minutes without getting caught is fun. We need more of that! Unfortunately, you only got to do this ONCE per assassination. Collecting the flags was bad. Who the **** put the flags up there anyway? And why is there a time limit? What could this POSSIBLY reveal? Pickpocketing and Beating up informants, I could do those a couple of times before I get tired. Eavesdropping, however, is dull and broken. How can Altair possible hear two people over the roar of the crowd, especially from across the damn courtyard?

4) More (and better) Side Stuff

Fighting thugs to protect the damsels in distress was fun! But there wasn't enough of it. Side stuff involved fighting thugs, scaling viewpoints, and collecting "hidden" flags (usually out in the open, but colored the same as the sand/walls, of course)We've already established that fighting thugs was fun! Scaling the view-points are cool too, but flag collecting is stupid. Instead of collecting these stupid flags, maybe we could get optional assassination contracts. That would kick so much ass!

5) Improve the Gameplay Mechanics & the World Itself

The big open world was great, and full of detail, yet, at the same time, it still felt closed off by loading screens and what-not. Not only that, but despite the huge crowds in the city, the cities felt empty because there wasn't much to do. Fighting the thugs was FUN! Maybe if you go down a side street or alley you stumble on a group of them hanging out or something! And kill them! On top of that, the fighting system is broken, at best. Getting in a fight with a large group of guards was fun, until I realized that only two or three would attack me at once. The others just stood around barking at me in different languages. Also, why can't Altair swim? This reminds me of GTA: Vice City. I had a brilliant idea on how to escape the police: I'd swim under a bridge! Then I hit the water, and drowned! Idea wasted. I had a brilliant idea on how to escape the guards (or at least slow them down) (see the similarities) by swimming around the harbor area, but no, I drowned. Idea wasted. What kind of serious assassin can't ****ing swim? And finally, the saving system needs to be addressed. In a big open world game, there needs to be a save anywhere option. I grew tired of having to complete a side quest or something just to save the game.

As you can see, those are the six things that are a must to fix for Assassin's Creed 2. If they fix those, they'll have one of the best games this gen, easily. Thank you for your time in these early hours of the morning.

Amazon_Chris

Amazon_Chris

I wonder if they're going to give the random guards different moves than the highly trained assassin this time, maybe even stripping them of the same amazing building climbing skills that he has.

Maybe they'll even find a logical way for the Assassin to forget how to dodge for half the game.

All in all, few games have made me rage as hard as Assassin's Creed did, almost every element of it seemed cut and paste together and the plot. . . dear lord the plot. So much wall-banging.

There are a lot of improvements they'll need to make in order to sell me ANYTHING in the near future, especially if it runs on the same engine. Maybe if they could just focus on substance instead of style.

TrjnRabbit

what did eurogamer say? assassin's creed is a $100 engine wrapped in a $5 game.

that said i mean i really enjoyed the engine, too bad they didn't really do anything with it

traced

I'm glad they're sitting at the top of the world knowing they made a crappy, repetitive title that only wows in its graphics and sales.

Yeah...wayyyyy to feel proud of yourselves, Ubisoft. Good job making a title that the vocal minority will hail as "the Title that Didn't Deliver."

AZRoboto

Awsome a sequal to Assasins Creed! Oh wait, didn't the first game suck?

kvadd

@Orionsaint: "And I need more to do than just assassinating people"

um...It's right there in the title. If you want a game that proposes a storyline but only suggests you move along it, GTA4 would be a good start.

Wei

I agree with repetitive. I disagree with dull.

I will be buying AC2 on the first day.

Kohath

this proved that investing in PR is at least if not more important than inventing in the product

hope AC2 can get the game right because people ain't gonna follow

waza

Anyone who buys into the hype again hasn't learnt their lesson!

drmcscott

"Altair, I do not like Mr. Kool-Aid. He has attacked the Assassins on many fronts. Kill him."

I totally wanna see Altair stab the Kool-Aid Man now, with him saying "Oh noooo!"

Salen

I believe Andre 3000 said it best: "You're only as funky as your last cut."

Too true, 'Dre, too true.

shoez

I see that the usual Assassin Creed's hate is still alive and well around Kotaku.

Personally, I enjoyed the game and I want to see where the story is going. So please, Ubisoft, continue the series and fix a few of the problems using some of the great suggestions from people like Amazon_Chris and zlimness!

ビッグ ボス

Boring an repetitive? I will admit that it was repetitive, but when you can pull off badass moves like that, its repetitive and fun.

Dragonis

I really enjoyed the first game, but I'll admit it was repetitive.

CarlitosColon

The plot is where it was at, most open ended plot ive seen in a while for a video game. Personally, i cant wait

Omegasoap

I think the main problem was the missions where really really short and this made them feel more repetitive than they would have.

Think about GTA and how really it uses the same missions over and over again, like Racing, chasing or being chased in cars.

I also think some of the missions where very dull to begin with, like sit on this seat and eavesdrop could have been made so much better with a bit more to it, such as follow informant or having to piece together information with an eavesdrop then having to find a clue from the information or something to break it up.

FelixofMars

"We just did Assassin's and are sitting on top of the world,"

you know what, fuck you, seriously you money grubbing fucking whores, try being a little mroe fucking humble, would it kill ya, the sucked anyway so don't get stuck in the fucking clouds, man I fucking hate Ubi!

Wolf_Dog

Good points Bash, they should think of ways of not making the game god-awfully repetitive. Not even the story give you a flicker of idea what's going on, (reliving someone's memory? what for? very dull indead. Hope they wrap things up on the next one.

functioningbadly

They're pretty elated for people who made a game that sucked 90% of the time. Spend less money on PR, and more on making a good game next time, guys.

Gouki4u

This game is going to be the "Charlies Angels 2: Full Throttle" of video games. So many people saw CA1 (not me) that the movie studio decided to do a sequel. Nobody saw the second one.

Assassin's Creed is a really good example of marketing and frontloading all the game's good stuff. People saw a demo and it looked great (as did the producer). Then they saw early gameplay and it too looked great. They never had to demo hour 10 when you're doing the same mission.

Noris159

If by repetitive and dull you mean vast and exciting then YEAH AC2!!!

Desmondia

@FelixofMars: Good call.

I think they have a huge mountain to climb marketing wise. How are they going to convince the people who played the first one to go out and try the second one? I mean obviously they (including me) were blindsided by the game's initial "wow" factor. But as most everyone said, the repetitive and simplistic nature of the game set it.

And how can they convince the new ones to the "series" to give it a go?

On the development side I think it's going to be more easy for them. As the core mechanics of AC are already set. The game does look nice. They should just think of ways to diversify the game.

excaliburps

You can play Assassin's Creed 2 right now!

The main protagonist's name is Solid Snake and it's set in the future 2014 with some high tech gadgets. You can now equip quite a few techy guns and and its not anywhere near as repetitive!

They must be talking about AC3.

jurb

If Ubisoft wants to regain me as a customer, they need to put some of that advertising money towards subtitles. Come on, dammit.

NKato

Assasins creed left a sour taste in my mouth. It was fun moving around in the game, and the story was interesting, but it didn't feel fleshed out enough, and the ending left you wondering what just happened.

Altima NEO

You know, I just beat this game last week ... and the ending really made the game for me, and then some. Sure, there was repetitive tasks ... but they're in almost every freaking game out there.

You want to talk repetitive tasks? How about having to go on dates with all of your friends every other 5 minutes in Grand Theft Auto IV, and also tack on the "you have to wack this person" on almost every mission. Is that not repetitive? What about the Halo franchise? Point, click, shoot, kill ... rinse and repeat. The same goes for the Battlefield and Call of Duty series. There's repetitive tasks in almost every single game out there. CoD 4, Dead Rising, GTA IV, Lost Planet, Gears of War, Stranglehold, hell ... the list can go on and on and on.

I thought that the gameplay was quite fun, and the story was the big part of the game. I guess most people either missed the story in Assassins Creed, or didn't bother with it. The fact that at the end of the game, it opens everything up and then slams it together in a cryptic ball allowing you to figure it out for yourself is a great thing I think. Are the artifacts from aliens, obviously religion is a sham, what's gonna happen next, what does the hebrew & chinese writing say? There's a lot of stuff to mull over, and I think that the story was great. I usually hate the shit out of games that pull religious drivel and christianity into the gameplay ... but in Assassins Creed it was never in your face or obtrusive. The fact that at the end, there's more of an atheistic view of everything really made me happy.

For those of you who never understood the ending, go here:

[www.computerandvideogames.com]

dead_red_eyes

They really created a beautiful open world...with NO reason to explore the thing. If that's the route they want to pursue, then they should most definitely create more options, and rewards for exploration. The open world really is just a major nuisance, with no real point whatsoever. If they're going to stay within the same vein of the first game, just give us linear missions with more assassinations, and less saving a million civilians for no reason.

ThisCharmingMan

Anyone else here curious as to why their drinkin Kool-Aid at the top of the world? Would you like a bologna sandwich too?

Mr. D

They're going to have a hard time getting me hyped for ASS-ASSINS CREED 2.

I'm not touching this game until a month after it's release. Rented the first and after showing such promise initially it had me catching Z's after the first couple missions.

Like I told my friend, I liked it better when it was call METAL GEAR SOLID and attempted to switch up the gameplay elements every once in awhile.

FunKrusher

hahahaahaa

i love how the ass creed fanboys type up four page rants, actually thinking someone will read it

ass creed looked great, but the horribly repetitive and poorly designed gameplay just killed it

fail fail fail

Pete193

@Amazon_Chris: I should have posted this earlier, but I will make a new point:

6) Stealth Kills >>> Blade Kills, and Should be Rewarded as Such

In Assassin's Creed, the assassinations were the best part about the game, we've already stated that, but it doesn't hurt to refresh out minds a little. Now then: There were two ways of doing an assassination. Fighting, and Assassinating. The one thing that hindered Assassin's Creed to the point of disgust was that you weren't rewarded for Stealth Killing a target. I do feel that, since a lot of the stealth kills were really hard to pull off, we should be rewarded for them. As it is, we get the sam thing we get as if we fought him outright: Pat on the Back, Good Job, now get the hell outta there!...Ten minute load...Good job. Here's a sword/more knives/WHATEVER!. I'm not saying give us better weapons, but I'm saying that it could unlock some cool stuff. Maybe if you stealth killed like all the targets or something, you could get a secret weapon, like a cross bow or something. How cool would that be?

Amazon_Chris

I bought Assassin's Creed for the PC after seeing recommendations from all my trusted magazines (PC Powerplay and Hyper in Australia) and I have to say that I loved it.

Still, there are several improvements that the sequel should have, which is probably why Ubisoft says that they will take their time.

1. More assasinations, please - the highlight and the most fun parts of your game should be the centrepiece. In addition, having more assassinations will allow the game to have more freedom to experiment with different approaches.
2. Make more use of what you have. We never really got to kill a target out in the country. We never had the opportunity to chase them down on horseback, fight him among all those abandoned ruins or simply cut down a bridge and throw him into a ravine or river. I managed to do many of those things to the hidden templars, but it would be great seeing them as part of a mission.
3. Better ending. Full stop.
4. Deeper fighting system. What we had was fun, but it also became tedious after a while. There should be a bit more variety.
5. Enemy assassins - especially if they guard the target and had to be either flushed out or stabbed with the throwing knives without arousing suspicion.
6. And, if they're feeling really bold, forget all that "Da Vinci Code" crap about ancient relics of power and maybe make object of the plot to be the Animus itself (a computer that trains people via VR to be unquestioning zealots).

mcderek3000

Does that mean they will bring Jade Raymond's sister to pimp up the game too?

gencid

@TrjnRabbit: You didn't seem to enjoy it "few games have made me rage as hard as Assassin's Creed did".

1. I didn't fall, and I've played it several times. So subjectively we both had different experiences with that, meaning that the foibles you described may not be exactly correct. I did not notice if the analog stick tended to move to the left.

2. Huh? There is no combination system in the game. You can string moves together, ie light attack, lunge, heavy attack -- but to constitute a combination there would have to be some sort of result achieved by mixing moves. For instance, if doing a light attack then a heavy, then another light, resulted in the character doing a flip, that would be a combination.

The non-lethal counters do not do 'inconsistent amounts of damage'. Because they are hiding the exact variable from the player does not mean they have made a game design mistake. They're not showing you the dice roll. This produces a factor of randomness in the combat system.

3. This is designed; the 'game' of climbing in Ass Creed is not in the mechanics of holding on, like Shadow of the Colossus. Rather it is designed so that the player can concern themselves with navigating. There are larger towers and cathedral spires than require a good many transitions from surface to surface. As well, the mechanic of climbing changes when used while evading enemies at street level -- you're climbing for short spurts and finding routes to higher ground.

Does this really bother you? The bricks jutting out, etc? Would it have been worth it for the developer to model, texture, import, implement and keep track of several different kinds of bricks and wooden poles? A brick is a brick.

4. I don't understand which 'individual elements' you are referencing. I didn't find anything to bang my head about with the story...it was quite straightforward.

5. That's some flawed logic. If Ass Creed were say, the second game to do all of the things its done, then we could expect it do define that sub-genre. Nobody knocks Killswitch for introducing the cover system for GRAW and Gears to perfect later on.

6. This is due to the nature of systemic design. In order to produce an open world environment, these are the concessions you have to make: define a set of interactions and use them consistently throughout the game. You are not being critical in noting this; it was the only way they could have achieved an open world.

7. That's quite a generalization. I've been studying game design for the past year, and Ass Creed has held up fairly well as a case study. It has failed critically because of the bias associated with the hype letdown. It was expected to have a different story.

Everyone who purchased the game believing they would be roleplaying an assassin were appalled, and went into the experience looking for flaws. They're there, but claims by some that the game is broken only leads me to believe they're not quite sure what the term 'broken' means when applied to game design.

You are looking at the game as a product, from the end user perspective, and that's fine. But if you look at it from a developers perspective, the game was nothing but successful. It's a stepping stone for the second game, for sure. They created a unique, polished experience that works and can provide at least twenty hours of fun.

Many of the game's flaws, for instance, are not technical. There are some crash bugs, but most of the complaints: the subject matter of the story, the cinematic camera, the combat system, the environment, are designed to be so. You can not fault something for executing on a plan that you don't agree with.

I don't like Neverwinter Nights very much, but I understand why others do. It does not make it a bad game.

@Coors Light is God: Right, and E.T. was a horrible movie because the alien never went home (right? I didn't catch the ending, was it important?)

Snake726