The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

AC1's assassinations were gold. Ac2 wasnt half bad. Since i've beaten Ac:b. the assassinations are just horrid. Very easy to do, like u said, nothing building up to it. You don't really talk to people you assassinate. The ones u do, dont say much and dont make much sense.

i was especially dissapointed with Cesare's final scene. I thought that it would be nice to make up for the previous ones, but its pretty dissapointing. The whole time cesare spams his gun while you fight off other guards. And it takes like 5 tries to kill him as you keep tearing away his armor, i didn't exactly think that was cool at all. Cesare's final words and Ezio's reaction is the only thing i liked about the final scene w/ Cesare

Yea I just kept doing the same thing, kick then mash square, kick then mash square, then mash square more to cut off some armor.

More of the time in this game I had no idea I was doing a main assassination, was like what its taking me to the memory corridor, that was the main assassination?

yea i thought assassinations like carnifice were just little side things you did for a civilian. When i enter the memory corridor after killing carnifice im expecting a nice monologue. Instead i get a 'Rest in Peace' and thats it. Ac:b has impressed me in many ways, and dissapointed me in many ways

I agree with Arrrogance "ACB has impressed me many ways and dissapointed many ways"

* Ubisoft made AC1 very realistic...AC bloodlines was meh short'
*Then AC2 came along Beautiful cities' and the story really went indepth with Ezio...
*As with Desmond's story at first came 'normal' then all the way to a 'fantasy' which gets very weird but also kinda cool.

So I'll make a Review of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
First off I'll start with Negatives(-)

*Combat isn't my favorite in the AC series. From Altair to Ezio both were almost too easy. Having 20 enemies around me and I'll never worry about dying (unless you were trying to make fighting more difficult).

*From AC2 to ACB... I dislike TIMED missions, never really was a big fan of having a timer in the screen in front of you... Desynchronize from something totally random is very common in ACB (unless it's just me).
"Assassins should have freedom to choose to move stealthy or anonymously"

*Some components in the game I didn't think were really needed...
=Leonardo's tank which you control (other machines were pretty neat)
=Cristina missions
=economy system with florins in general i.e. stores ... Why you ask? I love to earn new weapons and armor by finding them not buying. Like chests, feathers,flags

Some my favorite moments was unlocking Altair's armor and Romulus's armor.

Positives(+)

*I LOVE Assassin's Creed Brotherhood's Main Secondary missions
=Leonardo's Machines (To awesome)
=Secret Locations (magnifico atmosphere and music) (also platforming is just awesome) Wonder if there are some Easter Eggs in ACB hmmm...
=Templar Agents have some pretty neat assassinations
Even AC2 2nd missions were cool

*Rome itself is very big and I love sandbox games where you explore and find collectables

*Story with Desmond both became more interesting and odd at the same time
*Multiplayer added

For a game rushed by Ubisoft not bad. AC3 will hopefully be a WHOLE lot different from AC1 to AC2.

No I agree with you on the desynch, there have been times where I would not even be given an objective and suddenly desynch. I kinda hope AC3 and its spin offs have a completely different feel. AC2's feel was so much different from AC1 with the whole economy system added, and I dont mind ACB expanding on that because, well the game is sort of an expansion of AC2 ( No, im not calling it DLC, call it a sequel if you must)

I hope AC3 gives off a new vibe, maybe no economy system. Maybe being set in Desmonds time wouldnt be such a bad thing if they can pull it off.

I would like to see more indoor levels, the Castello worked really well for me although I did get lost loads of times

Not to mention the lair of romulus (however u spell it) are exceedingly easy. and the armor of brutus looks to heavy for an assassin to be running around in.

I unlocked armor of altair but i dont like wearing it, i never did in ac2. I think it makes Ezio look fat, i have no idea why (maybe the emblem sticks out?)

I either run around in the Ventian Noble clothes or just regular Ac:B armor

Jack, you too? I'm always getting lost in the Castello! Even with the minimap distance indicator now telling you if you're above or below your destination, it still really easy to get lost.

I don't think an economy system would work at all in a game set in modern times. The egregious mismatches between prices and currency units would stand out far too much in a game that used dollars or euro. A florin in Ezio's time had the purchasing power of between $50 and $150 today, so paying a few hundred of them to renovate a building is fine, but paying 50 of them just for some medicine is ridiculous. Of course, gameplay-wise, you can't have medicine selling for a tenth of a florin, because you want the player to have to actually earn money to get that medicine. All this fades into the background with a currency far removed from today's world.

Also -- I've said this many times before -- there's just too much killing, particularly casual killing, in AC2 and ACB. I'd like to play an Assassin game where the only deaths are to the ten (or whatever) people I kill as part of the plot. You shouldn't have to go out of your way to play a minimum-kill game; that should *be* the game. It's not Butcher's Creed or Street-Thug's Creed here.

in Ac2 didn't Ezio say "i only kill those who kill others"

i dont fully understand that meaning. Ezio kills plenty of non-killers who simply work for the borgia. Did Ezio mean he kills people who kill others? or he kills people who help kill others? or...i dont know

I couldn't agree more. Despite the repetitiveness of AC, the similar build up to each of the 9 assassinations made each target much more definite and far more important.

The fact that I know how many main targets there were proves this. With ACII, I wouldn't have a clue...

I think that in terms of final bosses, Al Mualim was a bit better than Rodrigo or Cesare. Both of them are ridiculously easy to exploit - with Rodrigo, it's grab, punch, punch, punch, kick, repeat. With Cesare, it's kick, hit hit hit, repeat. The only way to end Al Mualim's fight quickly was with the hidden blade counter - otherwise, it was pretty challenging.

I think in terms of story, AC:B was a step up from Brotherhood, but still not AC1. Brotherhood struck me as a Russell T. Davies story, almost - Jeffery Yohalem has a great grasp on the characters [La Volpe, for example, was far better written than in ACII], but he's not very good at tying the plot together at the end.

Come again?

I think he meant a step up from ACII

Rodrigo Borgia doesn't even require punching etc. I jus threw all my throwing knives and he was beaten instantly

My method of killing Cesare was one kick, then unload all my Gun and all my Crossbow ammo into him. If you need more, you also have Throwing knives, which are faster.

For AC3 or any future game, I'd like to see a more innovative final battle. Both AC1 and AC2 (don't spoil Brotherhood for me!), you had to kill dozens and dozens of throwaway guards before facing off against one last big boss. How about testing all the skills you've acquired throughout the game and making the last scene a desperate sprint or chase? Preferably something that's difficult enough to be a challenge, but not so hard or illogical that you have to memorize the course and then just repeat it until you get it.

for cesare i could have handed the controller to my sister and said "mash the A button and X button for a few minutes"

The assassination of The Banker was challenging, and it had a nice AC1 feel to it (kind of reminded me of Abul No'quod due to the partying), but it was still pretty easy (even with the full synch challenge, all you have to do is slide around the outside edge in a hanging position to get to the bench without being seen).

The assassination of the French General was flat-out embarrassing, and if I could slap Ubisoft in the face I would. The guards were all facing the wrong direction, and I only had to kill two of them before air-assassinating the General. The full synch challenge is 5 minutes, and due to the incompetence of the French army, I did it in 45 seconds. If Ubi was trying to show that France has always been a military failure (see WWII), then at least they got that right, but for God's sake, I bet Jacopo de'Pazzi could have walked in there untouched and put a dagger in the General's face. Ubisoft, I am disappoint.

The assassination of whoever the hell that was in the Colleseum was way too scripted and way too easy. I didn't even know who I was supposed to kill, and I still don't. I don't even know why I was helping Lucrezia's lover. We needed a key to get back in the Castello? Why don't we just take the same route we did THE FIRST TIME WE WENT THERE to get back inside? Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

Any other assassinations? No? Wow Ubi, that's pathetic. Really nice job. I just wish they would revert back to the AC1 way of doing things which was, "figure it out yourself, we're not telling you how to do anything."

The Banker also reminded me of Abul No'quod The whole lavish party atmosphere and creepy, overweight target seemed very familiar. Still a good mission though.

To get 100% sync on this mission, (starting from the very last area) I simply assassinated the first guard (near the haystack) from behind, poisoned the second, still guard (in front of the building), and killed The Banker's patrolling guard with poison too. He never even noticed that his guard was gone and I casually jogged to a bench, sat down and took him out as he came past

I had to give to give up on poisoning guards during the Banker assassination because the idiot always walked right up to poisoned guards to see what the hell was going on and he'd immediately be killed by them. Anti-climactic and only 50% sync.

I think the point of AC: B is that they were trying out a different style of things: the main story assassinations are very scripted and interwoven into the plot, and stuff like the borgia towers can be done like the traditional ones, any way you like. I was expecting waaaaay less content in this game than I got, so I was extremely happy with this. This was marketed like a cheap spinoff sequel usually is, and it was made in about the same amount of time as those usually are. After I beat the game, I was kinda shocked at: #1 the ending (HOLY CRAP!!!) #2 how interesting it was to play through more scripted and epic feeling assassinations, #3 how much quality classic style optional AC content there was left to do. I never found the AC1 assassiantions to be that difficult, and the combat was only difficult because it was kinda cheap and unpredictable. (50% of the time I dominated, and the other half I was unlucky and killed.) Some may say that that's because enemies are supposed to make you wanna run from them, but I'd prefer if the reason they were scary was not because they felt cheap, but that they felt strong. Hope that's amended in AC3.

The freeflow combat is kinda like arkham asylum, and if they make the classes that are supposed to be "elite" resistant to it, and make desmond's movements in combat as he chooses another target more fluid than traditional ac combat movement, and give the enemies waaaay more damage output, so if you do mess up, you mess up bad, it will be perfect for AC3.

One review I read said that brotherhood is a spinoff game forced into the role of taking the place of a game it was never designed to. (AC3) And it almost makes it there. Brotherhood was a great game, and worth the money, but it didn't really feel like a sequel, more like the the missing half of AC2.

It felt like more of an extension to AC2, which is ok since I think thats what they were going for. I can barely remember the other assassinations, that target int he coliseum during the play was a main assassination? If its just a key they are after, why put so much stress on saving the no names life?

He was named, and I think he also had some info, right? The most memorable assassinations for me were the borgia tower ones. I'm having fun replaying those. Some of them kinda remind me of AC1.

I like how they brought back Save Citizen from AC1.

Yeah, but dont you think they could have made them a bit harder? I think maybe the higher the starting level of the recruit, the harder it could be to rescue them, with a level 5 recruit being the hardest surrounded by papal guards or something

That would have been a great idea.
I love that idea. If they bring back Assassin Recruits for ACIII, they should do it that way. The higher the starting level, the more difficult the fight.

OR

You could have different kind of missions. Like, someone opposed to the Templars is thrown to drown, as some kind of well fills up with water, and you have to get to him and save him before he drowns. Otherwise you fail the mission, (no penalty, other than not getting the Recruit) and have to go to a different location.

That could end up being too scripted though. What do you think?

Both great ideas.

I want to see more difficult fights (throughout, not just for rescues). I've written long posts in the past detailing my ideas for a more challenging (and more fun IMO) combat system, and it wouldn't require a lot of changes. Kick should only work when their guard is down (otherwise you get hurt), hidden blade counters shouldn't be an insta-win move, and we need tougher combatants like the papal guards. Everywhere.

Yea I didnt even know I was finally fighting Papal guards until the fight was over....

I havent even bothered to save all citizens because its the same fight over and over.

I think I fought Papal guards may twice as part of the core story. The other twelve maybe where infront of the vaticano district (there's four of them talking, not doing their job and looking for me). Disappoint. There should have been atleast 2 at the party where you kill the banker (easily the best assassination in the game).

Despite the combat changes/ improvements it's still too bloody easy. The counter kill is still over-useful as you can just use it on a standard guard, perform an execution streak and take out pretty much everyone before any of the guards respond. Even when they attack mid-streak you can just press R1 or x (after reading their really obvious attack) and carry on. And I swear Brutes are easier to kill...?! The Borgia captains are also annoyingly simple to kill/defeat.

What do you mean by "figure it out yourself, we're not telling you how to do anything." The freedom to "do what you want" in AC1 is completely illusory. There are no two ways to assassinate your target. It always ends with you putting your hidden blade in their neck. Just because you could "investigate" didn't mean you had complete control over anything. So what if you find out that there are no guards on the north end of the Souk when you are going to kill Tamir? You can walk straight through the front door with no problems. It makes no difference. If the devs are sincere about giving you the freedom to take out your targets however you want, then there should be different outcomes for each option.

Same goes for investigating the doctor in Acre. You find out that there is a guard missing from the rooftop detail but what does that matter? There are still tons of guards up there and they're all easy to kill. They give you the option to enter from the roof or use monks to walk in the front but neither option is very intriguing and both lead to the same outcome.

AC1 only gave you the illusion of freedom. In reality, there was very little to set each assassination apart from one another. On top of that you had to go through the monotonous exercise of "investigating". Sure there was a certain tension and atmosphere during the assassinations in AC1 but getting to them was pretty boring and after the first three targets you realize that there is no deviation from the pattern.

At least AC2 and Brotherhood realized this and decided to make the targets a bit more interesting to get to. The path is more linear but at least there is a little bit of excitement before inevitably being forced to use your hidden blade on your targets. In my opinion, I hope the devs realize that assassins can kill their targets in a multitude of ways. I really want the option to set traps and use alternative methods to eliminate people.

Dont get me wrong, I appreciate what AC1 was trying to do and I applaud Ubisoft for actually trying something new but I don't think they were very successful.

I agree with pretty much your whole post but this last bit really stuck out. As a game on its own, Ubisoft definitely did suceed in creating something very new and unique but I agree that it wasn't as good as it could have been, especially when compared to ACII and AC:B. But if you look at where AC has led us, to the aforementioned ACII and AC:B, I think it was a success. It was a good starting point for an ever-improving series IMO and even on its own its still a pretty damn good game. Obviously the investigations were very repetitive but its still very enjoyable as a whole, unique experience. I'm not disagreeing with you, or claiming you're wrong, but I think AC was, in a sense, actaully a very successful game indeed

I totally agree with you. I didn't mean to sound like I hated playing AC1. I still play it to this day because it got alot right. Its just a case of a game being a little too ambitious. I feel like they put so much time into the technology behind it that they kind of forgot the basic gameplay elements.

The AC franchise is my favorite current gen series and I love that the devs constantly add new ideas and challenge the usual gameplay norms. I don't know about most of you but I'm so tired of playing first person shooters and most RPGS. Its just nice to see something completely different than anything else out there...even if it had a rough start.

Couldnt agree more!

Sorry but i still can't get over the coliseum mission. You literally have to walk to an exact spot in a certain time, walk to another spot in a certain time, and then you can kill your target. I know AC1 didnt give too many options, but damn that had almost NOTHING you could change about it.

Its not really the outcome anyway, its how you did it, and the results. I simply liked the idea of checking out the location first, finding an escape route, and trying to kill my target without anyone else noticing. Sure its possible in AC2/ ACB, but most of the time I never even knew the location of my targets, and almost always got seen as I had no idea where the guards were.

I do agree with the investigations, that is kinda what I made this topic for, I want a mix between a good build up to assassinations and side missions etc

Hopefully Ubi can ask us for feedback on build-up for AC3.

We are looking at you hidden Ubi employee.
You can come out, we don't bite... well... watch out for DAZ...

I can see why some people might not like the coliseum mission, but I loved it. From tailing Micheletto and stealing the outfits to infiltrating the play without being spotted by the gunmen to positioning yourself in the right spot, everything was done spot on if you ask me. No, killing the target wasn't "difficult" but getting there was supposed to be the challenge.

I don't quite understand your criticism about simply walking to an exact spot though. To assassinate Tamir, you simply had to walk up to him and press a button. Aren't the situations similar? The only difference is that in Brotherhood the devs game you this epic infiltration mission to play through while AC1 makes you watch your target stab a guy to death and then walk in circles around the souk until you decide to kill him. One is a very active mission structure, the other is a passive one.

There were some pretty good assassination targets in AC1 that I enjoyed, though. For all my complaints about the doctor in Acre, I really liked the atmosphere of that mission. Once your inside the castle you had to really watch out for the crazy guys as well as the guards. I really felt tense as I played that one.

Anyway, to each his own. I guess I'm just a bit bummed that some people didn't like the Coliseum mission as much as me. haha.

Also, if there really are people from Ubisoft that come on these boards to see what the fans think, I just want to put an idea out there for AC3.

Time sensitive missions would be a really nice addition to the gameplay. Maybe you're tasked with taking a target down and after you're done investigating you learn that he will be in several places in the city throughout the day. If you go during the morning, he's in one spot (maybe the city market), if you wait for the afternoon he's moved on to another spot (maybe a local parade with lots of onlookers), or if you wait until nightfall he's gone back to his fortress and you have to find a way inside.

This wouldn't simply involve you arbitrarily deciding when you want to kill him. It would entail several variables. Maybe you decide to kill him in the morning but the guards are swarming and you just cant find a way through. You could bust in and try a head on kill but you would probably get slaughtered (I really think the AI and difficulty need to get a major overhaul, OR just add a hard mode).

So you regroup and try to kill him after he's moved on. Maybe now its easier to get to him, or maybe not. One of two things could happen here. Maybe there is some big event happening in the city that day and the crowd gets in your way and you miss your chance. This means you have to get into his fortress and take him down at night. OR, you make it to your target but he spots you and runs away. Now he's in his fortress, knows your coming for him, and has posted extra guards and traps for you - making your infiltration even more difficult.

I think the most important thing is that you actions should have real consequences. If you kill your target without anyone suspecting you, you should be able to walk out with no problem. And I really think every mission should have a way to do it in complete silence. If no one sees you, your notoriety shouldn't go up. On the other hand, if you're spotted it should NOT be easy to escape. There should be less hiding spots and guards should be able to find you more easily even if you're hiding. If you're seen, your notoriety should go up and it should STAY up. Tearing down a few posters is not going to negate an entire street full of citizens seeing you massacre a dozen guards. Word of mouth travels fast and you can't go around killing every witness. (Oh and Brotherhood made it way too easy to find and kill Officials. As soon as you became notorious a little indicator would pop up on the map telling you that an official was right around the corner. Whats that all about? Is there even a point to the notoriety if you can get rid of it so easily?)

They should also have the option to play on hard mode so if you get hit once or twice, you're dead. This was the original plan for AC1 (or so I've heard) and they dropped it for some reason.

Anyway, I've rambled enough. Hope someone at Ubisoft sees this. haha.

uh no, the tamir mission and what I described are completely different points. For one, Tamir is your first assassination so it might be dull.

Second, im talking about freedom of what how you go about your mission. Your example with Tamir had nothing to do with the epic restrictions on the coliseum mission. For Tamir you could plan your escape, perform an air assassination or stunt of some kind or approach him however you see fit. Im talking about ACB where you dont have much choice in how you go about the mission, and the coliseum is a perfect example

What I never understood was why killing officials lowered your notoriety. I'm pretty sure in the game it says that they are giving false testimony against you, or something like that (I could be wrong), but why are they doing that? You have commited very real crimes, including murder, stealing, climbing buildings, lotting dead bodies, etc., so what crime are they accusing you of that you haven't done?

I don't understand this.
I'm a NICE kitteh.. most of the tiime..
hehe.

Jack, what they did with AC:B is make most of the main storyline assassinations rather easy, and made a quatrillion optional side mission assassinations, and borgia towers, more in the spirit of original AC games. Personally, I didn't mind it, because when all is said and done, Brotherhood is just AC2.5. But for AC3, I want an epic quantity and quality of main story assassinations, and as long as I can replay those, I won't care about having as many optional ones.

I also hope AC3 is a blend of Animus and real life action, with Desmond learning locations of temples and advanced tactics from an ancestor that is hopefully different in personality than either Ezio or Altiar. And I want the animus main story sections to be 1/4th of the game, and the game to be way longer than any other AC game, and for it to not feel like a slog, and more fluid freerunning animations, and a revamp of the freerunning system, and a way to use blades stealthily in the present day sections rather than being some lame sniper, and... well, I should stop there, but refer to the first paragraph for what I meant.

Lol I read the first paragrapgh, a bit of the second and got board, and loled at the end of the second paragraph ( if that makes sense, read your post in that order)

Today I was thinking exactly what you said. I dont really mind because it is sort of like an expansion, a continuation of AC2. I dont mind them using the same style as AC2, for example an economy and lots of side missions. At the same time I expect a lot of quality assassinations in AC3, at least one big one at the end of each sequence.

Notoriety was one of the few things that annoyed me about ACII, cause after killing Marco Babarigo on th boat with loads of people watching, you can just swim accross the river and kill an official and find 1 poster and suddenly no-one remmbers you did it??? I was very dissapointed that they didn't change this, the way to lose notoriety should be by being stealthy and not massacering guards so it goes down slowly over time.

AC1 handled it much better, the patrolling guards acted like you were always notorious later in the game, and you have to be on your guard for them constantly. You also couldnt climb buildings around normal guards, crowd stealth was done quite well even though you couldnt blend

AC1 was definitely better in these regards.

In going back to play AC1 again, I really miss seeing guards on the mini-map and the social status indicator (yellow/red arrows), but everything else about AC1's notoriety was better. The story dictated how and when you were notorious, and you couldn't just remedy it by ripping down a couple posters or bribing somebody.

Let's face it – the concept of notoriety is more about how the people recognize you, but the game(s) always make it only about the guards. Realistically, they won't notice you more quickly if you wiped out an entire guard post and nobody lived to tell the story. Likewise, ripping down a poster wouldn't affect their memory. The notoriety system we got in AC2 and ACB is pretty dumbed down. It feels more like something you'd expect from a kids' game, frankly.

I hope the next AC goes more the way of AC1. Let notoriety be determined purely by the story and don't give the player the ability to remove it. For added variety, put in unlockables that enable you to always be notorious and always be incognito. Then everybody's happy. And if possible, make those menu toggles, not some ugly-as-hell capes or outfits that we have to wince and bear just to get the gameplay we desire.

While on the topic, didn't AC1 actually have several distinct levels of notoriety? In AC2 and ACB, you're either completely notorious or not at all. I'm pretty sure as you got further into AC1, you had to be more and more careful. In the very beginning, you could get away with almost anything, but towards the end you so much as look at a guard the wrong way and he's ready to gut you and mount you on his wall. I'd really like to see a return to a multi-tiered notoriety system. And at the higher level(s), have it affect the people too – if you do something that isn't 'socially acceptable', certain justice-minded citizens should be running to find the nearest guard to rat you out. There should be a strong need to mind your behavior when trying to stay undetected.

AC1 really gave a great feeling of oppression. You really felt like you had to watch your step to not have your cover blown. Granted, being revealed wasn't scary because you could effortlessly kill guards until the cows came home, but that's another problem entirely. Point is, when it came to being stealthy in AC1, it was much more realistic and challenging than in AC2 or ACB. And it had a level of necessity that wasn't related to a lame mechanic where you auto-fail a mission if you're detected.

I was thinking that, Asaic (about the various levels of notoriety btw).

I remember in AC that often simply running or jogging past a guard would cause him to attack you. I distinctly remember a portion of the game where I was forced to walk (and even blend at some points) past a load of guards to avoid attack.

In ACII and ACB, even if your notoriety is at about half the max., you can just sprint past guards and avoid attack. They might get about a quarter of a yellow arrow's worth of suspicion above their heads but by then you've ran out of range and they can't see you. Sometimes this is good if you just want to sprint somewhere quickly but in AC it felt like guards were far more suspicious of you and controlled the city, and the people in it (including you), a lot more, making the oppressive atmosphere more apparent. I preferred it that way.

Detection should increase faster as your tier of notoriety increases as well as how weird you're acting and how close you are to your target and other guards. The main thing I didn't like about AC:B is how indecisive Ezio is. He has no problem killing an accountant yet he won't kill a person who (he witnessed) strangled an innocent politician (I think). Make up your mind bro. Also don't waste time standing on a barrack while cannons are shooting at you, just stab Cesare and laugh at his final words after.

Yeah, I do miss the notoriety system from AC1. Unless you're completely notorious in AC2 and Brotherhood (or you're on a roof), you can pretty much do anything short of murder and get away with it. I liked that you had to be wary of all of your actions in the third act of AC1. Hopefully they change this in AC3.

I just replayed AC1.
I liked it so much.
Everyone is right, the atmosphere is big.
That's one thing that they got right.
Notoriety should be easier to accumulate, and harder to get rid of.
Maybe it just goes down Over Time, over a LOOONG time. So if you don't do anything freaky for a while, it goes down. And the more notorious you are, not just NOTORIOUS, but the more the bar fills up, guards detect you easier. Because in ACII and B, there is NO POINT to using the crowd to Blend. They also took out the Blend button
But yeah, that's a big one. There's basically no point to blending with the crowd. Another thing is that I feel as if the game should have been changed to reflect the altered combat system. Like, if you can kill THAT many guards at once, bring in a MILLION guards. (Maybe not THAT many.) I remember in AC1, where the combat system was really simple, (as simple as an Assassin's Creed game can get, of course) the enemies would pile up by the dozens. Sometimes, some battles took a long time, and it was REALLY satisfying. The best part is when enemies would jump into a fight AFTER it was well underway.

During the fight, I would just think "Man, I should have Blended, Man I shouldn't have gotten caught, who knows if I'm gonna win this!" And I'm pretty sure, if there were a lot of guards, it was kinda hard to keep track of who was attacking you.

And then AFTER the fight, you would feel yourself relaxing, getting AWAY from the bodies, because more people might come, and then just Blending for a short while. Also, I think there should be more enemies that can actually do counters on you.

It was great.

So, to summarize:

Notoriety should be harder to remove, easier to get. It goes down over time.
Notoriety should affect how guards and people react to you, not only when you're Notorious, also based on how full the bar is.
Fights should reflect the combat system, it's been changed, enemies should be changed as well.
There should be really tough enemies that can actually COUNTER YOU! I remember the Templars from AC1. Man. Those guys were INTENSE.

Lol at they took out the blend button.

While doing the first mission for Paola where you have to blend and follow her I just kept fast walking around and getting caught...

I might replay ACB again, with full notoriety and never destroy borgia towers, only look at the viewpoints. More guards, more restricted areas and you cant buy weapons and armor