The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

One reason I put the span of two years as an option is because the AC games generally come out near the end of the year.

AC1 - to - Brotherhood.
Without a doubt. There is no question about it.
The creativity was incredible - the things people were finding out in these games were one of the things that was KEEPING ME ALIVE at the peak of my depression back then. This site literally saved my life because of, or due in part to Assassin's Creed 1, II and Brotherhood's influence on this place's content. It was also at that time that everybody here genuinely adored Assassin's Creed to an almost fanatical level - and that was more of a good thing than it was bad. It provided such a ground of happiness, such a place of joy for pretty much everyone here. Discussions about Story and Lore were in-depth, constant questions were being asked, information was being analyzed.

The pride we took in breaking these games, with users like Ian, Stabguy, Aurel, Phi, Jack-Reacher and a few others was straight-up beautiful.

Then Revelations, AC3, Black Flag and Unity slowly came out, and people started losing their love of the series. We began to hate elements of it, to criticize things that should rightfully be criticized. The games became more closed-off. Less room for creativity and transcending the game's limitations was available to people.

I remember seeing the first Eagle Strike in AC1 on the "The Bleeding Effect- Expert Gameplay in Assassin's Creed' video which brought me here, and it felt like watching Neo from The Matrix pulling off things that were POSSIBLE, but no one KNEW were possible. That era of TheHiddenBlade personified "Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted," like no other. Nothing in that video was a cheat or a glitch. It involved existing game mechanics utilized in clever ways, like falling from a Lethal height but catching a ledge at the last moment. Nowadays the most creative things available to us involve exploits at the base level, to even function at all; let alone the idea of executing advanced actions using nothing but the vanilla game mechanics in unexpected ways. They're still cool when someone figures one out - but much of the charm has burned away.

There was a time when Assassin's Creed was practically a way of life for me, a way of survival as well, as I said about my depression.

Then, recently, in the past year or two, all of you even saw MY love for the series slowly calming, slowly laying down and closing its eyes. I still bring the hype occasionally, don't get me wrong. But that moment, the moment when I played through Unity and saw all that AC had become, and all that it no longer was, that moment when that child-like hype and fire died inside me? That was the moment that legit broke me. The most I can say now is, "I'm excited for Syndicate, I just hope it will be good."

And you want to know something else that might interest you all? Hell, maybe it's something you might relate to as well.

Part of the reason I looked forward to new Assassin's Creed releases SO DAMN much, to such a MAD extent - was that without fail, each and every midnight that I went to that game store and held the plastic case in my excited hands, I would wonder, "What's TheHiddenBlade going to be able to do with this game!?"

I looked forward to coming back to this community.

And I still do. I still do. Jermaine's/Calvar's threads are one of the things I come back here for now, and so are the few videos that get made from time to time. But there was just such a large depth to Assassin's Creed during this time in THB's history that I profess was the Golden Age, and that depth hasn't felt like it's been there for a really long time. I still return, day after day, and I constantly hope that the next game in the series will revitalize our fire for it, will allow us our creativity again.

There are 24 days left until we find out if that will come true.

And through all the damage that Disappointment has done to my heart the past two to three years - I am excited. I am.

the real "peak" was during the AC maps website

That's right. The Hidden Blade is turning six years old on October 19. I just renewed the domain name.

The unveiling was timed to coincide with the release of AC2. Like Rob said, we originally published most of our AC1 content on ac-maps. I brought all of my AC1 videos over to The Hidden Blade before it went live. Ian decided to only bring some of his. The rest are just on YouTube now, including The Bleeding Effect.

Forgot all about AC Maps (that's what I get for not being around back then). This poll is more about the golden age of Assassins Creed in depth than just THB. Added another choice to the list.

FLAE said the same thing. I thought to myself, surely we've pulled off eagle strikes just as impressive. Then I got to talk to him in chat about it. It was the originality of first seeing a great plunge followed by an unexpected assassination that made it invariably unbeatable.

I went with 2009-2010. As previously mentioned, I hadn't joined a forum during AC1's prime. Although I joined in 2010, old posts told tales of active topics and discussions. From the release of AC2 into 2010 were the joys of the long awaited sequel. Two years seemed like forever. And after the trailers and demos, AC2 lived up to all that and more! So much was done here in 2010. Then we here another game is coming out later in the year and get all excited. AC1 and 2 are awesome, so another game can only be a good thing, right?

Christmas of that year came with ACB. Shortly after playing, I was the featured member of the month, and when asked what AC game I like the most, I said it might be Brotherhood.

Well the game didn't quite live up to expectations, but looking back, it had a ton of fun features. And since we didn't know that yearly releases would become
prevalent, I would say it was worth it not to wait two whole years again. And now I constantly hope it goes back to that.

Both of which many players didn't yet realize were part of the game.

I may have understood the Catch Ledge trick on a subconscious level but this video from RikimaruTheHulk really drove it home. Ian and I discussed this privately before he pioneered the eagle strike.

Rikimaru's AC1 challenge still stands. Can you catch the bottommost ledge on the Cathedral of the Holy Cross? He never succeeded.

I can't really judge since I've only been here since AC3 (It's a real shame Ac3 sucked sooooooo much in terms of assassinatons or else there would have been more to talk about back then). I still remember how I found this site, I had finally killed William Johnson unseen without an air assassination and I wanted to see if anyone else had been able to do that so after some google searching I came upon this site

But judging from the amount of videos made I'd say the site was most active during AC2-ACB. Those videos hhave a lot of action and creativity as well.

I remember leaping off the cross (in the same direction and way he did at the end) and catching the stairs once because of an accidental jump. Sadly, this was years ago before I even knew about THB and I have no proof except for my memories.

Hey man, I did my part! http://www.thehiddenblade.com/youve-forced-my-hand-and-blade-edward-brad...

Pretty much my only real creative assassination contribution to this site. Was super fun to make too!

That's a nice vid! Had not seen that one yet.

But my point was that if most of the assassinations didn't have so many godawfull restrictions/cutscenes/instant detection then there would have been a lot more room for creativity and thus more videos!

NOW, NOW, MR. FOGLEMAN... GET IN THE ANIMUS...!

Make an Animus and I will!!