Before I get into things I have Legally obtained a copy for the XBOX 360 because Amazon Shipped it early. I am 6Hours in, will be updated.
Graphics : The good news is the game is gorgous, the game has brilliant lighting and for the most part the cahracter models are up there or even surpase games like Gears of War 3. Framerate however is not so good, often dips when large view distances or heavy amounts of AI. Also the fog effect is more noticable due more open areas. 93/100
Sound: Not much to say here, pretty well rounded soundtrack, voice acting is top notch, ambience effects can cut out occansionally94/100
Gameplay:This is the saddening part. I have played and completed EVERY Assasins Creed game yet, on PC and Console. Where to begin, first off is fire arms, they require the player to press Y to fire, this was fine with Ranged Weapons in previous games however nearly every enemy drops ammo and guns to use and it feels weird to hold LT to aim and Y to shoot. Now after you shoot you must reload, logically, however if you want to follow that up with a melee attack to block/parry you are out of luck, for the next 3 seconds you're character will do the beginning of the reload animation and will likely be hit by enemy melee attacks. My next complaint my be misinformed, I cannot remember if in previous AC games if you could be attacked by multiple enemies at once. That is the case in this game however, you are often chain attacked to the point of frustration. The AI is clever enough that British Soldiers will split up into Melee fighters and Gunners, while this sounds good it results in chain attacks and annoying time spent watching your character get hit. There are very few Kill animations and the camera often gets way too close and has a mind of its own.
Generally the Camera is fine during acrabatics however many times my character himself clipped onto buildings caused him to fall. Also would bump into small objects and fall as if he had no sense of balance. This game seems to be riddled with glitches such as floating weapons, your character going flying into the sky, going under the ground and such. One thing that annoyed me was that no matter what, guns always locked on, even if you were aiming using LT and pointed 4 feet away from your target. Also you can no longer attack when enemies are not near by, press X and nothing happens. Many times kill animations did not line up even close to the designated script. A few levels had the notorious instant discover = Game Over mechanic. Guards often attack you for no bloody reason, you can be standing around talking to someone and BAM! Five Red Coats are attacking you. In quite the opposite this game can have some of the worse AI in AC yet, you can assasinate Generals and Guards in the middle of the street, sometimes even doing running takedowns and nobody will notice. The game tries to incorperate a human shield Mechanic however it works only 10% of the time. Many times they X or B (only to buttons worth a damn in Combat) would be highlighted to do a specific action and nothing would happen.
Also Ubisoft though that forcing you to Loot bodies before you could pick them up was a good idea aswell, meaning that if a guard is coming and you need to toss a body in the water or something you are out of luck, gotta hold down B for 5 seconds and loot him instead. Also weird is the fact that when you kill an enemy and they fall in the water they float, yet if you toss there bodie, not so much. A couple of posters asked if you could cancle reloading, turns out you can, however the delay is even LONGER due to having to holster your gun. Furthermore, due to all enemies pretty much having muskets, when you attempt to press B to block / counter, you end up picking enemy weapons up. The game insists are you using 2 buttons for the majority of the game yet doesn't map important buttons. Missions devolve into the Most Linear Assassin's Creed yet, with little to no freedom at all, revolving around you following a distinct playthrough to complete objectives, many of whcih aren't assassinations at all. The emphesis on Action and Countering makes me wonder why even focus on the broken stealth mechanics in the first place.
38/100
Story:Won't go too deep into this, however thankfully it doesn't focus on too much on Desmond (Atleast in the First Half so Far) as the previous entries. The plot is quite slow , however not as dreadfull as the first 2 hours of AC2 ( That was awful). Characters are hard to relate to ( Americians may feel different) The game isn't even portraying the Americians as good guys which isn't my issue. It's the fact that every Ally you meet is an absolute prick and you feel no reletion to him at all, same goes for Connor, hes forgetfully and even though I didn't care for Ezio and his accent this is worse. The plot is decent in the fact that there is some backstory and they focus alot on the character development. Last thing, you meet a few character they tag along for Eavesdropping misisons early on in the game, they question how you are so good at it ( Not knowing you are a Assassin) yet don't question you murdering dozens of soldiers in the restricted zones. Also in a Theatre Level you climb around a theatre of nearly 1000 people yet nobody cares to look 1 foot above them, you even climb past private booths, just small details wreck a decent entry in the AC series.64/100
Overall Score so Far : 44/100
I love this series however I feel as if this was a step in the wrong direction gameplay wise, its dull , controls awkwardly at times. Bug filled, and odd gameplay choices result in this game possibly being the biggest flop of the year.
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