The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I plan on taking it slow and easy and trying to take in everything around me. What that will entail? I can't say. I just hope I will take it slow and not get too anxious to see what what lies ahead.

I'm just doing whatever feels natural on my first playthrough. It's working pretty good so far (not quite half way yet).

Don't plan too much. This game is different from the first. That's all I'll say.

OMG I hate you! You just make it more torturous to have to wait! Can I at least ask if it's everything you expected?

good thing i have a lot of vacation days left to burn this year.

It's all I expected and more.

I just got to a point in the game with a huge surprise. I'm still kind of in shock and don't know what it means. My mind is totally blown!

This bodes well. Too bad I still have to wait a while longer; damn you Asaic!

I'm just going to try to enjoy the game. Pay attention to the story etc. I'm having a hard time deciding whether i should play with or without the HUD.

I'll be trying to use the hidden blades mostly.It is the assassins best weapon.

1st Playthrough: Eagle's Silence. Pretty much a regular playthrough of the game in which I try to be as stealthy as possible.

2nd Playthrough: Eagle's Bruise. Yes, it returns for a second time! I will once again be documenting the hand-to-hand combat only playthrough of the new Assassins Creed here on THB

3rd Playthrough: Eagle's Blood. This is an idea I've always wanted to try. It basically consists of killing guards whenever given the option to but not going out of your way to do so. Basically, the opposite of stealth

4th Playthrough: Hopefully by the 4th playthrough I'll be able to attempt some of stab's and Ian's new findings.

1st play. regular, do whatever i feel like

2nd play. pickup any achivements i might have missed. may or may not take more than one play

3rd play. documenting the low-kill count thing i did for the last game

Definitely play with it on the first time through. The game is quite different from the first one in many ways, thus you'll want to keep the HUD on to learn how a lot of the new things work and get used to them. There are also several missions where having the mini-map on is almost crucial.

I know this is off-topic, but when are going to get around to posting the last part of your fists-only walkthrough FLAE?

More on-topic, I'll probably play the game stealthy first, just because I want to see how good I am at it in this one, followed by a playthrough for trophies, then a genocidal playthrough.

I'm glad you commented on that cuz I was going to ask your opinion about it. I've never turned the HUD off, but I also felt like it took alot away from my immersion. But since I have such a terrible sense of direction, I find it's function necessary. (I just try to imagine Altair pulling a map out of his pocket to get his bearings...yes I am a TOTAL dweeb)

Now that I'm playing post-completion, I tried turning the entire HUD off and I find I'm struggling without some things. Here's a non-spoiler breakdown.

Since your health doesn't regenerate, it's dangerous to leave the health bar off – you could be a hit or two away from desynchronization and not even know it until it's too late. I haven't ever actually died in combat, but I have come down to the rainbow desynch screen a couple of times. If I didn't have a chance to see it coming, I doubt I would have lived through it.

As ugly as it is, the social status indicator (SSI) is tough to do without. It really pays to know when your notoriety is high. Not having this knowledge can make it difficult to move around town and will get your missions failed if they are stealth ones and you didn't know that every guard in town is set to 'attack-on-site'.

I find it easier to go without the mini-map in AC2 than in the first game. Landmarks are much more recognizable, so it's easy to get around without a map once you get the lay of the land. The only thing I miss about the mini-map (that AC1 didn't have) is the ability to see enemy locations. But it's easy to do without that feature when not on the main story missions.

The weapon HUD is about the same – like in the first game, you'll still get into situations where your equipped weapon got changed on you without you doing it yourself, so you might be in for a surprise when you begin fighting. That said, you're far more adept in combat with the hidden blade and unarmed than in the first game, so it's never a dire situation.

The money HUD? Easy to live without.

The control HUD is also a cinch to live without once you've played through most of the game. It's still useful to know exactly when that "ASSASSINATE" option pops up, but you can get a feel for it eventually and you simply don't need it. The control HUD is also linked to the action timer icon, so if you turn the control HUD off you lose that icon too. Not a big deal though.

I spent like two hours writing the conclusion of it back on ac-maps, my login timed out, and I lost all my work. Since then I've been too lazy to type it back up, but I'll confirm once again that I did beat the game (about a month ago).

i didn't even know there was a login timeout

I think that only occurs if you don't have your cookies set right. The site has never logged me out.

And that's saying alot considering the term papers Asaic writes!

Alright, that's fine. Just curious.

No kidding! What a crazy guy!

When I do get it, first playthrough will be story only, not very many side missions, then i'll go back then play them, then eventually go and play 100%

Same thing for me

Now that the game's been out for a while, what part were you talking about? Spoiler tags please.

Desmond's experience in the present. I wasn't expecting to see anything like that.

Yep.

Speaking of which, I was able to put the lantern out of orbit, even though I thought I wouldn't be able to at first.

Nice! The physics seemed to be different, so I didn't try very hard to do it myself.

Maybe Abstergo should just use that to launch the Apple into orbit.

I know exactly what you're talking about! I'm pretty knew to Assassin's Creed games and found that glitch in the first game about a month or two ago. I noticed that the same tower was in the flashback in the second game, I jumped on it once, and the lantern went all over the place just like in the original.

But after all, it's the same area. It's not surprising that every detail (even a small glitch) was simply copied over from the first game, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Strange. I couldn't put the lantern into orbit when I tried and I was sincerely disappointed.