[quote name='pimpinc333']Am I the only one who thought this game was 5/10 average at best? The gameplay for me is just not fun. Every place you go you have 6 missions to do before you face the "boss". The 6 Missions are the same thing for each and every city. It feels like a choir to play each part of the city.[/QUOTE]
The design of how the game flowed (most of what you are complaining about) did kind of suck. It felt pretty rushed.
However enough other aspects of the game (combat, gameplay, world size, art, voice acting, overall production) were so good that it prevents the game from dipping too low on the reviews for that one glaring fault.
Of course, if you typically overlook most things and focus just on how the game flows as being the most important, then yeah it is a 5.
Dead Rising is another game that comes to mind that fits this category.
no your not the only one. This game was a big letdown for me. I have wanted to play this game since I saw the first videos of it and no one said anything about the game. I'm only into the third maybe fourth memory block of the game and now that mass effect came in today I will start on it. AC was almost like a grand theft auto for me. After so long I just got sick of playing and wanted to run around an kill people. I wouldnt give this game a 5/10. I say it is more around a 6 or 7 out of 10. 7 at best.
Also am I the only one that thinks the combat system sucks?
[quote name='pimpinc333']Am I the only one who thought this game was 5/10 average at best? The gameplay for me is just not fun. Every place you go you have 6 missions to do before you face the "boss". The 6 Missions are the same thing for each and every city. It feels like a choir to play each part of the city.[/QUOTE]
I'm kind of in the same boat of not really likeing the game. I mean the mechanics are phenominal, but the missions are just "meh" and a bit uninspired. This game feels alot like Spiderman 2 but a little better.
It's just hard that when gaming time comes I don't really want to put in Assassin's Creed (and am more apt to put in COD4 MP). Then again I feel the same way about Half-Life 2 Ep. 1 -- I just want the damn thing to be OVER.
[quote name='sendme']no your not the only one. This game was a big letdown for me. I have wanted to play this game since I saw the first videos of it and no one said anything about the game. I'm only into the third maybe fourth memory block of the game and now that mass effect came in today I will start on it. AC was almost like a grand theft auto for me. After so long I just got sick of playing and wanted to run around an kill people. I wouldnt give this game a 5/10. I say it is more around a 6 or 7 out of 10. 7 at best.
Also am I the only one that thinks the combat system sucks?[/QUOTE]
I actually thought the combat was it's only saving grace.
The voice work was ok but not the greatest. Graphics were very awesome also but none of that means anything if the game is boring.
I dunno. This was my most anticipated game of 07 and I was let down. I really wanted to like the game but it was too repetitive.
[quote name='CrimsonPaw']I'm kind of in the same boat of not really likeing the game. I mean the mechanics are phenominal, but the missions are just "meh" and a bit uninspired. This game feels alot like Spiderman 2 but a little better.
It's just hard that when gaming time comes I don't really want to put in Assassin's Creed (and am more apt to put in COD4 MP). Then again I feel the same way about Half-Life 2 Ep. 1 -- I just want the damn thing to be OVER.[/QUOTE]
Wow you sound exactly like me. I just want to finish HL2 E1 and 2 but it got boring. I also usually pop in COD4 and play MP over any game besides Mario Galaxy ATM
For me combat is just button mash X or try and time it unless I'm just not geting something. The voice work for me is crap. At times well most the time I see it is not even in sync with the movement of the mouth. Like you I really wanted this game to be good. The game just gets old. I spend most my time looking for people to save or the towers and flags. After about a half hour that gets old. I just expected more from this game then they did the twist. That twist killed this game for me. Bad thing is when I put the game in I saw it coming. When I heard the woman talking I said you have got to be shitting me. I really hope they didnt do what I think they did. Sure enough they did. I shut it off at that point watched some tv then when nothing was on went back to the game. Like Silent Hill I made myself play this game. Bad thing is I don't like it. This and Silent Hill are the only two games I have that I forced myself to play. Unlike this after an hour of Silent Hill I loved it and wondered why I forced myself to play it.
[quote name='Chroma914']Am I the only one who is getting unreadable disc errors with this game? I've gotten 3 total, and I haven't even had the game for a week. The first 2 I got were when I was entering the 2nd city. Restarted the game both times and got the error each time. Played the game a day later, and entered the city without any problems. And then last night, I'm hopping over some buildings and I get it again. I've touched the disc once, and that was to move it from the case to the 360. Totally annoying problem that I've had with no other game on my 360.[/quote]
An update - I pulled the disc out of my 360 and noticed 3 small (maybe half an inch, if that) scratches on the disc, that I have no idea how they got there. Now when I try to load my last save point, I get an unreadable disc error every time. I bought this game on Tuesday at Toys R Us, and still have the recepit. Will I have a problem with just getting an exchange?
[quote name='gsr']i was looking over the achievements for this game and they are just ridiculous..find 100 king richard flags in the kingdom? That's insane.[/QUOTE]
That's not that ridiculous. Crackdown had 500 agility orbs and 300 hidden orbs. They're about on par. You'd need a strategy guide to find most of them (though Crackdown at least makes a noise when you're nearby).
[quote name='lordwow']That's not that ridiculous. Crackdown had 500 agility orbs and 300 hidden orbs. They're about on par. You'd need a strategy guide to find most of them (though Crackdown at least makes a noise when you're nearby).[/QUOTE]
it'd be nice if they had some kind of flag detector after you beat the game once, so you can go back through and get everything..
I am also geting them along with the game locking up on me.
[quote name='Chroma914']Am I the only one who is getting unreadable disc errors with this game? I've gotten 3 total, and I haven't even had the game for a week. The first 2 I got were when I was entering the 2nd city. Restarted the game both times and got the error each time. Played the game a day later, and entered the city without any problems. And then last night, I'm hopping over some buildings and I get it again. I've touched the disc once, and that was to move it from the case to the 360. Totally annoying problem that I've had with no other game on my 360.[/QUOTE]
[quote name='cdeener']It's for both my good man.[/quote]
That's weird, because on the Gamestop site they only have it for PS3 only. Maybe it just sold out already. I was deabating whether I should return my regular version before I open it.
There's no doubt this game is repetitive. However it's also very addicting IMO. I was playing Super Mario Galaxy and Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles before I got this and now I stopped playing both for this. So it's repetitive but in a good way. But I think to enjoy this game you have to do it right by collecting flags, fighting templars etc... just the exploration of looking for those are pretty fun in itself. And the main assassinations themselves are well done too. Despite all this in the sequel I do hope they have alot more variety. If this game had that it could of been GOTY.
Ya I agree. The repititon doesn't kill it for me. Most games are repetitive. I compared it to Spider-Man 2 earlier in the thread. It's not GOTY quality because they are too few missions, but I'd say it's about a 8.5/10.
[quote name='GuilewasNK']That's weird, because on the Gamestop site they only have it for PS3 only. Maybe it just sold out already. I was deabating whether I should return my regular version before I open it.[/quote]
I enjoy a good LE edition of games, but this one is not too great. The tin is cool and the figure is sweet, but tiny. The booklet is just an ad for the $35 LE guide for the game. I haven't watched the bonus disc yet, but I will. I guess if you want to shell out an extra $10, go for it. But it isn't anything to write home about.
I got to play the game today and it is fun. I hope to finish it before I get Mass Effect in the mail from yourfree360games.com. I played a couple of missions and am going to be playing late tonight.
This game is GREAT, I hope its the start of a long running franchise. Having said that, I do see where the "repetitive" complaints are coming from. When you're in the city, the "save a citizen" is the only kind of side mission that ever comes up, it'd be nice if there were other kinds of random side missions, like say, you see a thief stealing something and you have to chase him across rooftops to catch him, and maybe a horse racing mini game outside the cities, etc. So I'd like to see more variety in a sequel, otherwise, good stuff.
[quote name='Kendal']I enjoy a good LE edition of games, but this one is not too great. The tin is cool and the figure is sweet, but tiny. The booklet is just an ad for the $35 LE guide for the game. I haven't watched the bonus disc yet, but I will. I guess if you want to shell out an extra $10, go for it. But it isn't anything to write home about.
I got to play the game today and it is fun. I hope to finish it before I get Mass Effect in the mail from yourfree360games.com. I played a couple of missions and am going to be playing late tonight.[/quote]
Yeah. I always prefer getting LE's whenever they are available. I might just look for it somewhere down the road. I always like behind the scene bonus discs.
This has the worst ending in a game I've ever seen. The game is good other then that, but it does get repetitive after a while. Overall it is a good game I would probably think more so of a 8.5/10 or 8.
[quote name='GuilewasNK']Yeah. I always prefer getting LE's whenever they are available. I might just look for it somewhere down the road. I always like behind the scene bonus discs.[/quote]
Get the LE if you like decent short films from amatures and aspiring film people. I am watching the bonus disc and it just made the extra $10 worth it. These shorts are pretty good.
[quote name='Bazz']This has the worst ending in a game I've ever seen. The game is good other then that, but it does get repetitive after a while. Overall it is a good game I would probably think more so of a 8.5/10 or 8.[/QUOTE]
Did you wait till after the credits?
I didn't mind the ending at all, knowing that it was
pretty much a gurantee for a sequel, gives me something to look forward to.
I just got out of the first city and got my sword and hand knife dealie back. Great game so far. I like the combat and the viewpoint climbing. Neat stuff. I don't totally understand the saving aspect of the game yet, but I am sure I will. I hate auto-saving games where I can't manually save the game, unless I am totally missing something.
was let you go back and replay portions of the game.
Unless you know something I am missing please tell me.[/QUOTE]
If you talked with Lucy throughout the game, and accessed the laptops, you actually get to access a third laptop after the credits in the conference room that reveals quite a bit.
If you talked with Lucy throughout the game, and accessed the laptops, you actually get to access a third laptop after the credits in the conference room that reveals quite a bit.
[/quote]I did that wasn't anything to special to me. I missed a few lines of dialog i think through out the game so I didn't get the achievement though.
If you talked with Lucy throughout the game, and accessed the laptops, you actually get to access a third laptop after the credits in the conference room that reveals quite a bit.
[/QUOTE]
You can do that without beating the game.
I'll hold my judgment on the story until I complete the game; but so far I really love Assassin's Creed.
The game mechanics and graphics are fantastic. The story enables them to do a lot of things while explaining the "game" clichés. Personally I think that's a good way to limit certain aspects of the game while keeping a cohesive story.
The core mechanics though, are just stunning. It really takes the context sensitive nature of Prince of Persia and expounds upon it ten fold. Both casual and hardcore gamers can gracefully traverse the cities of Assassin's Creed with aplomb.
This game does a lot of things perfectly. If they change up the game play and scenario design in the sequel, they'll have an absolute classic in AC2.
Weird ending, but good final boss fights. And I mean fights as in plural. I got very addicted to this game and couldn't put it down. I still haven't gotten all the flags, templars etc... maybe one day.
Hey I just got this and just finished my scond assassination in Acre. THis game is so sweet looking and climbing is a dream. I really enjoy the "rules" of the social interactin and think they pulled that aspect of the game off fairly well. I am a huge fan of PoP so seeing some of the same animations makes me happy.
I can see the complaints about repetition and agree with them, but that is a minor quibble. I can't play this game for hours on end but as a break from COD4 and others it's a real nice one to pick up and run around in for a bit. The assassinations are fun, the fighting mechanic is great (imo) and trying to escape from a mob of the King's men is pretty fun and challenging.
I played it like 6 hours straight yesterday and paused it to take a shower. When I came back my the game had froze. I freaked out because I've had the RROD before. So I turned it off for 2 seconds and turned the system back on and played for another 6 hours and beat the game, without any additional problems btw.
I'd just like to thank you guys for being so good with your spoilers. I just got into the second city so dont really know much of anything about the game. Props.
I keep playing this game for an hour or more at a time. It is hard to just put the game down. I like finding all the towers and the leaf of faith dealies. The flags are going to be a bitch to get 100% of. I might just break down and buy the guide for this game. I hope to get some more time into this game, but Mass Effect is due in my mailbox tomorrow. I have a couple of hits left and can't wait to finish the game.
This did not feel like a game to me, it was more of a tech demo to me with a semblance of a story. There is no closure on either(I know it is a trilogy but mass effect pulled it off), and also the fighting was a total miss on me. I eventually got to the point I would just stand there and counter attack or use knives. Repititiveness is in my opinion allowable in this game since a lot of people will probably play this more than 4 sittings.
[quote name='cindersphere']This did not feel like a game to me, it was more of a tech demo to me with a semblance of a story. There is no closure on either(I know it is a trilogy but mass effect pulled it off), and also the fighting was a total miss on me. I eventually got to the point I would just stand there and counter attack or use knives. Repititiveness is in my opinion allowable in this game since a lot of people will probably play this more than 4 sittings.[/quote]
then you fight with a boring style. i never held down the counterattack button. it looks much better if you attack and only counterattack when someone swings at you. theres nothing more satisfying than brutally attacking and killing a guard in front of you and then wheeling around and destroying another guard that was taking a swing behind you with counterattack.
of course, this is moot, if we were really good assassins we shouldnt need to go into this form of combat that much, if any.
Okay a few comments about Ass Creed, don't worry no spoilers.
First of all, it takes too long to type Assassin so I like to call it Ass Creed, or AC. Ass Creed sounds kind of gay but its funny so I like it.
It seems there are two schools of thought here (1) Ass Creed rocks and kicks major ass, and (2) Ass Creed rocks and kicks major ass, but it can get repettive.
I belong to both, but belonging to the school of thought (2) does not take away enjoyment of the game.
You may be aksing yourself: "How can that be? How can you like a game that you think is repetitive?" Well let me tell you that after being with the same girl for 5 years (engaged to be married) all good things can get repetitve, like SEX. Be mature, don't giggle, yes even SEX can get repetitive, but it's still sex right? No red blooded, meat eating man would turn down sex, even if it is repetitive so what I'm trying to say is this: Ass Creed is like sex: It can get repetitive but still gets your rocks off.
Surprisingly, the combat is sort of tricky at first. After getting used to it, it seems like the most effective way of getting through heavily outnumbered battles is to just wait for your attacker to begin his attack and then counter. DOes anybody have different experiences or tips for me? I've heard complaints about the enemies only attacking you one at a time which is only half true. While it does appear that 9 times out of 10 only one enemy will strike at any given time, when surrounded the striking enemy alternates so there is motivation to get all foes on the same side of you. With grabbing and balancing offensive combos w/ defensive counters, it is the perfect level of variety with simplicity.
By far my favorite thing to do is just roam around the city, climbing all over anything and running around looking for those eagle view points. The game is graphically perfect IMO and just clamoring up walls has never looked so good. The social awareness aspects was incorporated as perfectly as I've seen it done in any videogame ever. Horseback riding is a dream.
I'd give it a 8.7/10.
Another quality title by Ubisoft on a very, very quality system!
I enjoyed the game up until around the 7th/8th kill; was a lot of fun, but they missed on a few things that were REALLY noticeable to me, and hope they fix in a sequel.
-First and foremost, AI. The thing that really goaded me towards trading it in was after I discovered just how stupid it was: at first it was funny to see a guard walked over to a guy I'd obviously just killed, look around, and yell, "WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!?". Then it was ridiculous when I was able to kill a guard in front of another guard on multiple occasions (staring at each other, standing across from each other underneath an archway). Eventually it stopped feeling like a stealth game when I realized I wasn't going to get in trouble by climbing up walls in front of guards, but I WAS going to set the city on alert by being shoved by a psychotic babbling homeless man. Go figure.
-Continuing with the AI, the combat. At times it was greatly enjoyable, but only when more than one person at a time attacked. I'm not advocating getting gang raped by a gaggle of guards, but it would've been nice if two or three had attacked in a believable way. While combat was enjoyable at times, it rarely felt like I was in any sort of danger after getting the combo kills.
-Finally, the clipping. This is what really did it for me. I first noticed it when your cloak dropped through the ledge you crouched on when doing a viewpoint, and it finally ended up costing me an hour and a half of gameplay--I finished the three missions for the seventh kill, killed the seventh guy, did the next three missions, alerted the guards, ran...and got stuck in a wall while trying to hide. Upon restarting the game, I'd lost an hour and a half of playtime.
It was an enjoyable game, I didn't mind the repetitiveness, but the things it hyped the most were the ones that, ultimately, fell far short for me. Hopefully they'll fix it for the sequel.
I just played the first maybe 40 min of this game and I have to tell you......I am extremely disappointed.
I know...I know it really really early on but damn...the game is just to all over the place.
It slows to a grind baby steps crawl so often it has become mind numbingly annoying to play. All the stuff about the "other guy" could have been put in a 20 second cut scene instead of making me listen through a
air duct and then go to sleep. Also all this stuff about DNA and memory is really distracting to the assassins part of the game.
I am not liking the real time cut scenes either, those are the ones where someone is talking to you but you can still move around. Maybe its because I am still really early on and I have yet to get the game "going" yet but it seems like there are to many real time cut scenes and not of enough of me playing.
One of the things I was really afraid of was also confirmed while playing. Yes..blending is a cool feature but its one I dont want to be forced to use regardless of what my person is actually doing just for the sake of using it.
IE I was on a horse, I wasnt pressing the A button that would cause my horse to walk slowly. I was just pressing forward making my horse do what seem to be a brisk walk. This in turns sets off the guards.....why? When I need to get 900 in game yards I dont want to do it at 10% speed just because you want me to use this feature. I just dont see the difference between gently walk and super slow walk being that suspicious to make guards chase you. And seriously...how can you blend in with scholars with alerting them? Dur...there were 4 of us before and now there is 5...I guess we take the job of staring at the ground seriously here. So much so that we dont notice this guy with the sword and knives on his back.
My one other thing. I was trying to get a flag that was on top of a building. As I was doing so I some how alerted the guards when gave chase. Now since the building I was on didnt have a ladder on it..in fact I had to jump from another building to get to the one I was on, I didnt really worry about the guards. All of a sudden I pan the camera and there is a guard standing on the platform I am on.
What the ? I thought I was a heavily trained assassin with super agility compared to the common man. How the did this guard wearing 500 pounds of armor scale the side of this building? So I toss the guy off and see how he gets back up. Yea sure he didnt do back flips like I did to get up there...but he still was getting back up to be in a timely manner. Which I feel is kinda disappointing.
Oh, I have to tell you though. The loading screens? The worst I have ever come across in a video game. Very bright blue and white with DNA flying all over the place.I mean...its cool to have a interactive loading screen but shit can you make it any more annoying and pointless. Moving altair around in a big circule listening to the
computer voice
babbling on about something is not what I call interactive in the first place. If you think about Fifa 08 or Nba live whatever (I never played a NBA live game) their interactive loading screens allow you to actually practice some moves, scores or whatever. Here it loads altair on a blue and white space with DNA flying all over and sure you can move altair....in a big circle for no reason. I just dont see the point in even making that....just put the Assassins creed logo up or something.
But I am still early on so maybe all of this will change. God I hope so.
Ouch, that was a pretty scathing review but I see some of your points. I guess those things don't bother me as much. No videogame is going to be perfect and even attempting to integerate social interaction into a game is a bonus IMO.
It is impossible to make NPC's in videogames act like real people, so they sort of have to give you a set of rules to follow which will make the society react in certain ways. It is with this understanding that I give them some leeway in some of the nonsensical things you mentioned (e.g. when your horse trots they're alarmed and walks they're not, scholars not noticing you when you join thier group, etc..) As to the guards being able to chase you on rooftops and while climbing, if they weren't able to do so it wouldnt be a very challenging game would it? You could just go up a roof and nobdoy could follow you up there. IMO they're not too agile or fast as you are much faster so no BD there.
Load screen does suck, I'll give you that. But hey, at least you can move around and stuff, it beats just sitting there lookin at a load screen. As to there being alot of story, thats a plus to me not a negative, i dont mind standing still while some story fleshes out.
were well done and the main 9 assassinations were also well done. The missions to get to the assassin was no doubt too repetitive and the ending was bad. But I think overall the good outweighs the bad although hopefully in the sequel they have more variety.
My roommate is getting this game on Friday, I am looking forward to playing it. I've heard so many varying things about it that I am curious as to what I'll think of it. It sounds like it could be a cool experience, but if it is repetetive I might get bored. I'll post impressions once I've actually played it.
[quote name='pittpizza']Ouch, that was a pretty scathing review but I see some of your points. I guess those things don't bother me as much. No videogame is going to be perfect and even attempting to integerate social interaction into a game is a bonus IMO.
It is impossible to make NPC's in videogames act like real people, so they sort of have to give you a set of rules to follow which will make the society react in certain ways. It is with this understanding that I give them some leeway in some of the nonsensical things you mentioned (e.g. when your horse trots they're alarmed and walks they're not, scholars not noticing you when you join thier group, etc..) As to the guards being able to chase you on rooftops and while climbing, if they weren't able to do so it wouldnt be a very challenging game would it? You could just go up a roof and nobdoy could follow you up there. IMO they're not too agile or fast as you are much faster so no BD there.
Load screen does suck, I'll give you that. But hey, at least you can move around and stuff, it beats just sitting there lookin at a load screen. As to there being alot of story, thats a plus to me not a negative, i dont mind standing still while some story fleshes out.[/quote]
Whoa whoa whoa.
That was by far not a review. No where near it. Like I said before it was only have 40 min of play time....my thoughts might be vastly different from that when I reach the end of the game.
It was just my comments from the 40 min or so I had played at the time.
Now....on the other hand. I just got passed the 2nd assassination....and let me tell you...this game is quickly becoming a chore to play. I personally like saving the citizens for some reason. By why in the world does the game force to look at them while they talk? So a 10 second thing now becomes a 60 second thing because I have to stare at the person..then stare at the mob that just spawned.
I save the person...I try to walk away but nooooo the game forces me to listen to the same 4 lines by having my camera lock on to said person for 30 seconds. I know I know..your kids never saw a guy like me fine....let me ing leave please.
I must fully disagree about your point of the guards. Yes having the guards not chase me to the rooftops might make the game easier. But having them do so throws out every single thing this game was based on.
Its the same problem I had with Oblivion (before patch) when all the enemy scaled levels with you. I mean whats the use of finding kick ass sword of ass kickery if ever single person in the game has a equal sword?
You can completely take out the assassin part of this game because Random guard number 49 as the exact same powers (skills) as altair. Thus making him completely worthless.
All I am saying is that system is horrid when it comes down to it and they should have thought of a better one.
Off the top of my head maybe a system where every group of guards has a captain and only the captain can scale walls and such. I dont know. All I know is that it doesnt make any sense when I am sprinting across 5 building half way across the city, jumping over carts, hanging off the sides of building, just to find out that every single guard in the city can do the spiderman dance like I can.
Its not even like the guards are worth anything anyway. After getting counter attack..I can kill 10 of them at once. So it seems to me that the only reason to even have guards in the game in the first place is to force players to use their shitty "hiding" system thing. Finding hay and benches and randomly placed roof booths is not why I call fun or even necessary for that matter. Jumping a 10 ft gap then barrel rolling across a roof on the way to jump from 40 feet in the air to grab a 2 x 4 sticking out of random wall then swinging to another roof....just seems like it should be enough to escape a couple of guards.
But no....its the almighty hay stack that conquers all.
I also am just really hating the cut scenes. All of them. They all seem way to long for the amount of information the player gets. Yes altair is an ass...I have heard that in every single conversation I have had so far and I am only on the 2nd boss. The cut scenes are also not done well at all. Why do I have to press a button to get a better view of the people who are talking? Why am I even giving the option of controlling Altair in a cut scene if I cant even move him into a better position.
During the 2nd boss...the one with the bow. As he was stabbing that guy in the middle of the courtyard, way before he even started stabbing him I wanted to walk up to him and kill him because I thought it would make me a bad ass to do it mid sentence in front of all those people. Guess what? Invisible wall prevented me from doing it.
so my question is why the hell didnt you just make that into a complete cut scene, with get camera angles, instead of making me press buttons at the right time to get them?
But truthfully I could have accepted every flaw in this game but the constant computer story line kills it for me. Its so ing stupid. One second I am climbing up buildings ready to surprise my target with a knife to the throat.....the next second I am speaking to a "ghost" in a blue box for 5 min with glitches all around. Then I have to control some douche in a hoody for the sole reason to walk him from one room to another room to go to sleep. What the ? It seems so pointless and stupid.
Its simply to big a contracts for me to get into. And I swear to god I want to turn the game off and quit every time it fast forwards time.
But again I am only an hour into the game. Maybe the game will grow on me...maybe it will turn its self around in the 2nd act....(I have read the reviews though...so I am not giving my hopes up) I dont know. But as of right now. This game is by far the biggest waste of time and money I have had in a little while.
I am not a graphics whore.... graphics. Yeah it looks good..so what? I could care less if the game look like ass and cornbread as long as it was fun to play I will support it. This game how ever is simply not fun to play after the first 10 min its already repetitive....even taking the advice of everyone here about taking your time through it hasnt worked. I have saved every person and found every view point in the first 2 cities. I do all of the side stuff before going after the boss....and he side stuff make me want to go after the boss quicker. And dont get me started on flags ...I didnt buy a wii because I dont want to play kids games.
(wii fans please dont go crazy. It well known that nintendo makes a lot of kids type games. I consider "collecting flags" as a kid type feature. Nothing wrong with it.....)
EDIT: Damn...sorry for the long post...it didnt seem that long when I was typing it. Also for the flags...I ment the ones you have to get for the informer missions not the cheesement ones.)
? I thought I was a heavily trained assassin with super agility compared to the common man. How the 
...I didnt buy a wii because I dont want to play kids games.