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Hmm, I just realised its been almost a month since my last post here.. so what have I been up to?

Gaming as always. Somewhat more full on this last few months even by my standards. I picked up a couple of Xbox games cheap in a ‘two for one’ deal finally adding Assassins Creed and Halo 3 to my ever expanding library.

Halo 3 was one of those games I could have lived without.. I left it too long and then Call of Duty 4 released and any incentive to pick up Halo 3 vanished in the face of the sheer greatness of CoD4, but I had to get something and it was the best of the bunch by a long shot so there you go.

Assassins Creed was another title I’d almost decided to let go based on criticism I had heard regarding its repetitive missions before each assassination.

However, I’m a big Hitman fan. Despite the controls, despite the camera, I like it a lot. Odd one that, stealth games usually leave me cold and clammy, knowing full well what looks good on paper doesn’t always translate to being good in practice. Generally I dislike having to tailor my gameplay style to one of patience and deliberation. Metal Gear Solid beat it out of me and has continued to beat it out of me with every release since the first one. Possibly due to the fact that once you realise that while stealthing through a level in 20 minutes is a tense, exhilarating gameplay experience, its just as feasible to run right past everyone to the next area and no matter how many people chase you down, or how many alarms are set off, the next area’s guards will be blissfully unaware of any wrong doings. Its like they all collectively switch their radios off at the first sound of panic and hope for the best. It doesn’t matter how many ‘The End’ boss fight encounters you can pump out if all the areas leading you to it can be cleared by simply leaning one analogue stick in the correct direction.

Back on point, I liked Hitman a lot.. yes it was a port, it didn’t add much graphically, and it had issues with various things. However it featured multiple ways to get the job done. A stealth game that didn’t penalise you if you couldn’t be bothered to get the right suit to infiltrate the right area or if you didn’t want to follow the games hints and various linear methods to off your target. Don’t expect it to be easy to just pull the SMG out and run around like some gun toting psycho, there’s no running into the next area and back to reset the guards.. however its the fact that Hitman put the choice in the players hands that made it stand apart for me.

Similarly with Assassins Creed, its a strange freedom offered to the player. A lot of work has been put into the stealth side of this game you can tell. However, you can also tell that Ubisoft knew its target audience well. While its entirely possible to be nothing but a ‘blade in the crowd’, a hidden unseen enemy stalking his prey on foot and from rooftops.. its also more than possible to run into each city, blade in hand, middle finger raised to the world, and slaughter wave after wave of guards and civilians until you reach your objective.

Ok there are penalties in place for butchering that old woman that asks you for coin for the millionth time, and no-one will look kindly on you for gutting the retards and lepers that mill around each city seemingly waiting to get in your face at any opportunity.. but the fact remains the option has been placed in the players hands and I like that. Ubisoft gave the player a sandbox to play in and it is in that respect the game shines.

The meat of the game sees you travel to one of three major cities at the request of your leader to gather information on various targets before ending the lives of various figures of society. Doing so involves infiltrating the target city and completing a number of side missions to gain information on your assassination target. Its is these sections that are largely to blame for the criticism this game has received. Each assassination target has you complete the same tasks and side missions as the last. Pick pocket someone on the street for information, eavesdrop conversations, beat up some loudmouth, kill a few guards that one of your brethren is having problems with.. its all pretty much rinse and repeat with varying degrees of difficulty or frustration. Thankfully, you do not have to complete every side mission to open the assassination encounter (although I have been doing for the achievements). Just completing two or three of the tasks gathers enough information to get going but obviously the more side missions you do, the more information you have available to plan your next hit.

It goes without saying, the assassinations are the some of the most fun you will have in the game. Not in a sick "I like to stab people" type of way but its just undeniably fun leaping over rooftops, flinging throwing knives into archers and guards. Slowly removing all obstacles in your way before approaching the target and ending him swiftly, and with any luck a bit of style.

Its at this point the game takes a slight dive. Once you’ve successfully eliminated the target, the screen warps into a limbo type area in which you converse… at length… with your targets before warping you back into the real world to escape. Essentially this is the games Moral Code kicking in, showing you the opposite side to your actions and in some cases highlighting the fact that your mission to kill people for the greater good is no better than the activities each of your targets has been carrying out. Unfortunately while I find these scenes to be ok for the most part, and a decent vehicle to move the story along, its very disruptive to go from heart pounding, intense action into a 2/3 minute cut-scene, then just as suddenly warping back out to be faced by 20 guards with sharp swords aimed at your face. Its not a deal breaker its just an odd shift in pace that takes a while to get used to.

Overall I think its a great game but not without its share of flaws.

The travel sections between cities is made unbearably annoying thanks to the fact that guards will be wary of you unless your moving at a snails pace. This seems like a major design flaw to me, why create an outdoor area, give the main character a horse, then ask you to move slower mounted than you would on foot? I think Ubisoft knew full well this would be an area of contention as after the first few times you are subjected to it, the option is available to skip these sections and go straight to the destination.

The beggar women that are littered throughout the cities were fairly novel to me the first few times I encountered them. The animation is very well done and they do a convincing job of getting in your way for a few spare coin… then put two or three of them in the same area as an assassination side mission you need to complete and get ready for an exercise in patience. Right as you approach the target they mob you, resisting your gentle pushes forcing you to stop in your tracks. After 50 odd times of this happening, to say these beggar women are annoying is the understatement of the year. Whenever I wander into one of these cities now I have no issues with shanking each and every one of the beggars that approach me..

The mental, emaciated guys are even worse if that’s possible. Same situation, assassination mission, guards are wary, walk past one of these nutjobs and he will immediately shove you breaking your cover. Cries of "Assassin" quickly ring out and the guards are on you. Mildly annoying the first time, then just plain frustrating every time afterwards. I could accept it more if these guys targeted an NPC every now and again but they only have a problem with you it seems.

The other big problem I noted down whilst playing was some of the pedestrian audio. If you pass a civilian in trouble with guards (side missions that can be completed to increase your standing with civilians in certain areas) and wait around instead of triggering the mission, these peds are stuck repeating the same two or three lines over and over and over and over. Even when your passing overhead on rooftops you can hear the dialogue repeated a few streets away. Yes it draws my attention to the mission but if I was just in the area doing my own thing it gets very annoying to hear the same lines of dialogue 20 times in a minute.

Despite the glaring problems it has I can overlook them purely because the game does so many other things right. The free-running system is intuitive and requires little effort, the combat is reasonable if a little repetitive, and the assassination missions are a lot of fun. If I had to pin down what I like most about this game it would be the ability to load the game up and just spend an hour or two doing nothing more than moving around the map offing guards on rooftops. I look for things like this in a game nowadays.. if there is nothing fun to do outside of the missions/levels laid out for you then I see very little replay factor and as a result, less worth in paying full price for the a game. I can see me playing this game long after the campaign is over and that to me is only a good sign.

I’m not going to mention the ‘future’ aspects of this game because a) I see them as little more than a means to an end. Something to push the story forward and link it together, and b) because I’m still one assassination away from completing the game and I just know the last mission is going to be an ‘escape from the lab’ type affair so I’ll reserve my comments till after I see it to completion.

Final Verdict: Don’t believe the critics without at least giving it a rent. Well worth a purchase if you like the Hitman games or just enjoy a little free-roaming carnage.

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