The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

The Hidden Blade's featured member for September is Jack-Reacher, who contributed all of the videos on hidden treasure in Assassin Tombs and Templar Lairs. We interviewed Reacher and here's what he had to say:

Tell me about the first time you played AC1 and/or AC2.

I think the first time I played AC1 was on the 25th of December, the year it was released. I quickly became drawn in to the game thanks to its superb graphics and awesome kill animations. I have never been into sword games, mostly play war games and I surprised myself on how much I enjoyed it, it was a great experience.

I wish I could say the same for AC2. I got past the small fist fight with Vieri’s men at the start of the game. I was really amazed with the new hand to hand combat system, never really used it in AC1. Then my PS3 gets YLOD and I can't see the game for another 4 months. I have to thank stabguy and Ian for keeping me entertained with AC2 videos while I had to wait.

What do you like most about the games?

I am also a big fan of Metal Gear Solid (MGS) and the things I like in that game relate to this game. I like the freedom this game gives you in how you go about your missions. You could play this game loads of times, with different overall play styles and different ways or routes to complete each mission. I have never really been a fan of games that have scripted missions if you know what I mean. The other thing that draws me to these games is the story. Like MGS, it has a good story with philosophical ideas to it. The thing I miss from AC1 are the confessions from your targets. In AC1 I thought they were very powerful and made you question whether what you were doing was really the right thing.

What is your favorite style of assassination?

AC2 now gives you the option to kill your targets with any weapon. My favorite style is grabbing them from behind with a short sword and using the kill option to slice their throat. I also enjoy the heavy weapon kill animations on unarmed targets. My favorite style going about missions is the type inspired by Ian, where you kill all guards in the area first without being seen before taking out the target.

What is your favorite quote from the game(s)?

“The Auditore are not dead. I am still here. Me! Ezio! Ezio Auditore!

What would you like to change about AC1 or AC2?

I would like to add a skip option to Al Mualim's speeches. I thought they did the worst possible job of replaying missions, and it only gets worse with AC2. I saw a lot of potential with the kingdom area with AC1: many villages, so much ground yet you don’t really do anything there except collect pointless items. I am glad they fixed this up with AC2 by adding the missions outside the city gates, and even a chase sequence in the Mountains.

What AC1/AC2 accomplishment are you most proud of?

I'm very proud to be the featured member for September on the best Assassins Creed website. As for in game, I'm proud of my Assassins Creed Contract videos, something I put a lot of time into and I usually quit most of my video projects. Managed to find something unique about each stage. I hope I have inspired others to take more interest in these challenges. Finally, I'm proud of my Secret Area videos. I decided to find these for completion's sake yet couldn’t find any on YouTube, so I thought why not do it myself then.

Are there any philosophical aspects of the game that intrigue you?

As stated above I liked the first game's philosophy. I like how Altair questions his work in both games and realizes the rules and creeds conflict with each other if they are to be met. In Metal Gear Solid there are no good guys or bad guys (well, Snake is a good guy but there are no bad guys). The bad guys always have good intentions for the world, for mankind, and it always comes back to do the means justify the ends (with the exception of Volgin, a true bad guy). This is sort of like AC1 with the Templars, AND with the Assassins killing the Templars to save many, they are sort of hypocrites in a way.

Which Assassin's Creed game is your favorite: AC1 or AC2? Why?

I enjoyed Assassins Creed 2 the most and, although the replayability is horrible, I have replayed it the most. Call me the most unimaginative person in the world but AC1’s investigations, although good for building up really good assassinations, were just too repetitive and dry.

Is there a question that you would like me to ask the next featured member?

What other games do you enjoy?

Is there anything else you'd like to add or promote?

http://www.youtube.com/user/DemonReacher
It's a link to my channel. It has a bunch of MGS, GTA and AC on it so use the playlists to find the AC stuff hidden in there somewhere. I hope you enjoy watching them, due to lack of replayability though I wouldn’t expect to see many (if any) AC2 videos from me in the future. Also my DLC issues (EU PSN+NA AC2 disk = waste of damn money) have made things frustrating. Maybe when the game comes out for 7 days to rent you will see more...