First thoughts?

[Zef]

I was fairly eager to get playing to game, so much so that I was playing with one shoe on and no trousers (not sure why I took them off before my shoe) as well as my rather snazzy super limited edition mega-rare Assassin's Creed t-shirt/hoodie/thing. But there are so many annoying things in the game, more so than would be expected from a new game.

So here comes the list:
- No subtitles! Not only can I now not play my own music (since there doesn't appear to be any proper music in the game) but I have to keep changing the volume whenever someone speaks so I can at least try to make out what they are saying. Bloody annoying since the story is going to be a major part of the game.

- Saving. AC is another of those games that doesn't want you to be able to save. Sure it has autosave, but I don't want to have to be stuck at some random point in the game after each session. It also doesn't help the paranoia when you don't know if everything is saved when you want to bugger off and do something else, it wouldn't have been too difficult to have some sort of save option (damned frenchies).

- The camera. Something that really bugs me in third person games. I am happily slaughtering guards, get caught somehow and then haul ass across some rooftops to get away. All of a sudden I am hidden behind a random piece of the scenery and have no idea what is going on or where to go without resetting the camera. And during objectives the little ('little') box that pops up telling you what you are apparently doing takes up too much space, in fights half of the bloody enemies hide there rather cunningly and you can't see them.

- Collecting achievements!! I thought that Ubisoft may have made collecting achievements work, no chance. If they had only stuck the flags in towns and cities, fair enough, but they had to go and stick them in the huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu uuuuuuuuuuge field place and there are 100 of them. I'd safely bet that without a list these will be the last achievements most people get.

- Climbing & parkour bollocks. One of the more interesting parts of the game, but when you are climbing around so much you quickly find out how picky Altair is when it comes to handholds. I occasionally find myself randomly dangling or stuck in one place because he needs to be exactly beneath a ledge, but when you are about to go up he decides jumping off is much easier and you go splat on the floor below.

Kind of dissapointing, especially the subtitles. Once I finish the game I expect to spend many hours killing Altair in silly ways.

So what does everyone else think so far? I know Munty won't be around for the next few days so everyone say what they really think =)

[deiXide]

I don't have problems with most of the issues you brought up. I have noticed some annoyances though. I don't think these are spoilers but I'll note it anyhow.

Possible spoilers:

This guy can scale sheer buildings, do insane acrobatics, "sneak up" on guards and carve out their innards in plain view, but the dude can't swim? Have you tried getting the first flag on the boat in the water? I must have died to 3 foot deep water 6 times before I figured out how to actually jump to the boat the "proper" way.

The lack of multiple save files is obnoxious. With "cutting edge" gameplay and new innovative ideas, they couldn't have gone back to the basics and offered a way for me to not have to delete my entire game in order to start over for an achievement? The "conversation" achievement had me start my game over since I missed the first few opportunities.

The flags are horribly annoying for the following reason. I can't imagine why modern games (Crackdown, etc) can't add "placeholder" items to see which items you've gotten in the past. The Simpsons game did this well by adding a shadow of the item in the location you found it, so you KNOW you found it, and you KNOW you can cross it off your list. My first run-through before restarting, I just got every flag I found. When you're searching for 500 of these, it makes it VERY difficult to keep and maintain a list when you don't know if you've gotten the flag or not.

There is no way to skip through cut scenes? That alone makes replaying the game a chore since it takes a good 30 minutes of cut scenes and training to even get to a point where you're free roaming.

Anyway, this is only after 2 nights of playing. I am REALLY enjoying the game though. I'll probably get at least 30-40 hours of gameplay in my search for 1000 points... which is awesome. Plus, the aggressive assassinations never get old.

[Webb]

Having spent about 5 or 6 hours on it, I find the game fantastic. I agree about the subtitles, the saving and the fussy climbing things however. But these things you mention Zef are tiny little specs on a great game in my opinion. I had so much fun in the battle scenes, linking combo's with reversals was amazing fun and something I'm not sure I can get fed up of. All in all, it's a great title. Definite top 5 for the system so far in my eyes.

Sorry deiXide, didn't read yours because of the spoiler warning :p

[deiXide]

Sorry deiXide, didn't read yours because of the spoiler warning :p

If you've spent 5-6 hours in the game, then nothing above will be a spoiler. I'm only about 6-8 hours in myself. :)

[Zef]

I don't doubt the greatness of the game, but the small things can easily tarnish even the best of games after a while. But when it is such a highly anticipated game one would expect the developers to have made more of an effort on the fine details.

And there aren't any spoilers in his post, unless you really wanted to find out there was a boat all by yourself =P

[Webb]

If you've spent 5-6 hours in the game, then nothing above will be a spoiler. I'm only about 6-8 hours in myself. :)

Ah cool. Had a read now and I agree on lots of levels as well.

Collection achievements have not really been a success so far on the 360. I was hoping this game would change that. I too have missed the talking to the Lady achievement and I'm not even sure what that is but I'm sure I'll fancy another play through of it :p

The first thing I said to Minty about the actual save system on this game was extremely negative and I still remian to be negative about it. Shame really, cause it on some levels spoils a great game (not that much though :p).

[Gorjira]

Its amazing. Ive spent a good 8-10 hours on it so far. =]

[VGA Dark Mac]

If anyone's having problems hearing the voices in cutscenes try turning down the music volume, it helped me a great deal. I have the voices at ten and the rest at 7.

[PhantomNemesis]

Well, the story spoiler for me is a joke. Why not leave it as it is in context?

Agreed on the Subtitles, I hate having to actually pay attention to what they're saying rather than just reading the text. Also, I find it difficult to hold High Profile and play at the same time, couldn't they make it just a toggle? (I haven't actually checked to see if it can, so sorry if I'm making a fool of myself). Oh, and the flag collecting is going to be tedious, Crackdown killed the whole collecting thing with me.

Apart from that, the gameplay is excellent, I love the combat. The game really is fun, it's just those above that really annoy me.

[Deyankees1]

I only had problems when I finihed killing someone and I hear some thrilling music and the person im talking to is speaking low, but that only occurs rarely.

[Tutas]

I think the game is brilliant, but I agree on the saving part, it sucks. Also not being able to skip the smegging cut scenes, is pain. the side missions are pretty repetetive, but thats just me being critical to a game that has a lot of expectations attached to it.

Ps . Zef, love your signature, one of the more memorable moments of Red dwarf