The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I hope you enjoy the rest of the games!

Welcome to THB.

Thanks, Double McStab

Welcome! I'm jealous of the newness of your experience.

The greatest thrill in an AC game is getting a stealth assassination of a main target on your first try. Do that before watching videos here, and watch out for spoilers!

I would also advise against watching videos before playing for yourself. Then you'll have incentive to play again.

Welcome! I also came into the Assassin's Creed world via Prince of Persia. If only we could get a crossover...

It'll be refreshing to hear about your experiences.

Hello SunBlade! Like Joey and some other people here, I ALSO came into AC because of Prince of Persia. Back in the day, after I finished Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, I read in a gaming magazine that the next game would be called Prince of Persia: The Assassin's Creed, and I was very excited.

Some time later, I saw that it was not a Prince of Persia game at all, and even though I was disappointed, that very quickly turned to more excitement and love. Assassin's Creed is now (even with its rough patches) my favorite game series of all time.

Enjoy Assassin's Creed, enjoy TheHiddenBlade, and feel free to post your reactions to the games you play! We will never get to experience the Assassin's Creed franchise for the first time again, so I like to be a reaction-vampire and just feed on other players' enjoyment haha.

Thanks for the welcome, guys!
@stabguy, @Double McStab - Usually I try to play through a mission first before looking at vids, don't want to spoil(er) my fun . Only when I'm totally stuck I look for help. And I might look at vids for specific missions afterwards to see how I could have done it differently. And yes, stabguy, stealth assassination on main target is so rewarding, though I mostly don't accomplish it (yet) on first try.

@JoeyFogey, DarkAlphabetZoup - hey, fellow PoP fans! yes, a crossover would be epic...

As to my experiences, I just write down a few, don't want to make a review of AC games Don't know if this is the right thread for it but as it is experiences from both AC games I leave it here

- Controls: I use an XBox Controller for PC and now I'm getting along with the controls quite fine even though they seem confusing at the beginning.

- Story and game structure: so far I only know the story of AC1 and AC2. I like the combination of current timeline Desmond with memory sequences of Altair and Ezio. Especially in AC2, the gradual revelation of the plot details you get by gathering the Codex pages and the glyphs was really intriguing.

As to the stories themselves, AC1 is rather straight forward with the nine mission whereas in AC2 the story is much more fleshed out and detailed. But I liked both games for their own, imo AC1 is more down to the roots of Assassin work with getting the order, gathering intelligence, executing assassination. Together with the Orient setting it's a good start for the AC series. I didn't mind the repetitive sub missions too much, especially the more challenging one like stealth assassinations and timed missions I liked (for practice ).
The story in AC2 feels more complete, it is varied and you as player live with Ezio through the story and witness his development from Italian casanova to true Assassin.
Speaking of Assassins, both types are well placed - Altair being aloof, hidden and slightly mysterious as archetype of assassin, Ezio, outspoken, passionate, involved with other people. The accents though were horrible; I played the English version btw.
As to the sub missions in AC2, I like that they are apart from the main missions. Intelligence gathering is embedded in the story and the optional missions and trophy hunting you are free to do or not to do as you like. It's great that you can just start the game and decide if you want to forward the story or do some optional missions or just go treasure and feather hunting.

- Assassinations: Can't leave out saying something about assassinations lol - I like that there are many different types of how to do away with your target and that there is no "right way" how to do it - essentially it's up to you to figure out how to plan and execute it. I noticed it especially recently in the Bonfires of Vanity in AC2 where you had your nine targets and different requirements how to do the kill and you had to analyse the situation, check the area and guard placment and movement, plan your approach and execution. That was better than having these forced sub missions to gather intel as in AC1.

- Atmosphere: I like the graphics and the atmosphere they create, the dusty Orient cities in AC1, the grandeur of the cities from the Renaissance times in AC2 - together with the many NPCs and the ambient noise it's really an immersive experience. It's awesome how detailed the buildings are! And they scale it nicely with the high buildings and city gates where you feel like being within that city. And especially in AC2, climbing the high towers convey the impression of height with the buildings getting smaller and the ambient noise tuning out until you only hear the wind whistling. And then the big sync moment when the camera pans over the view...I got used to it by now but still it's great!

- Music: The soundtrack is good. AC1 has some Orient tunes fitting to the environment and the situation. And I just love the music underlying your getting away from main assassination back to the Bureau. AC2 Soundtrack is sometimes too prevalent for my gusto and sounds sometimes like variations of the same melancholic theme. Still I enjoy listening to it and it adds to the atmosphere.

- Parcouring: I love the Jumping, Climbing, Running in AC and the fact that you really can start anywhere to get up. Movement is so intuitive and running/climbing/jumping animation is well done. The system is forgiving so that especially in sticky situations you can concentrate on getting away without having to time your jump, finding the exact direction etc. Prince of Persia was less forgiving in that aspect (oh, those Dahaka chases in Warrior Within...) where sometimes a wrong camera angle or slightly off timing could have you jumping to your death. The Tombs in AC2 are great because there you had some more challenging parcouring even though it seemed a little less difficult than in PoP because of the forgiving system.

Ok, I wrote far more than I intended. Hope it's enough feed for the reaction-vampires out there lol. But it's a great series and I am looking forward to starting with AC Brotherhood today

Forgot the fighting system - especially in PoP Warrior Within I loved the fighting system, with the different weapons and combos you had you could really choreograph a fight and the animation was good, especially those flashy special moves. In AC the fighting system is simpler but still rewarding and animation is also well-done. Focus is not so much on Combos but weapon class specific tactics and simple maneuvers like Dodge and Counter went a long way, even in larger groups. I'm now getting more experience and started with other tactics like getting the weapon from your opponent and this experimenting makes fighting fun.

If you think those buildings are big and immersive... just you wait.

Plenty of comboing to be had in Brotherhood. Don't you worry.