[Bostaevski]

I agree with Ace on most of the points:

Stuff I Like:
The "parkour" type free movement is really impressive. You can pretty much climb around on anything and your character looks very realistic while doing so.

The graphics are amazing

The fighting system is fairly basic (you pretty much just hold down the block button until you have an opening to hit the attack button). That being said, the fights LOOK awesome - so far I have been enjoying the fighting.

It's cool how when you help citizens you are rewarded with the groups of vigilantes, etc.

Some people have complained about the "plot twist" in the very beginning and how unnecessary it was but I actually think it's pretty original. Along those lines, how you reload a saved game is pretty cool... it's not just the old "start -> load" but rather implemented in a seamless and believable way. For lack of better term it's like a "reincarnation" except it's not the stupid clunky way that it was done in Bioshock.

Stuff I don't like:
Hiding from guards... you first have to break line of site and then literally hide in one of the specific hiding places scattered around the city. These are roof gardens, haystacks, and park benches. It is awkward that even though they can't see me they will continue to look for me until I jump into a pile of hay. I don't like that all of the roof gardens are exactly the same.

Gathering Intel - I've only done the first assassination but it seems you only gather intel by pickpocketing, thuggery, or eavesdropping. What I could not figure out is how Altair knows that THOSE guys, for instance, are the ones he should eavesdrop on among all the thousands of other people in the city. You climb to the top of some tower, do a little recon and suddenly a new objective appears.

It's a little hard to swallow how under every one of the towers is a conveniently placed haystack that you can swan dive into.



All in all it's not quite as good as I had hoped it would be but it's also not as bad as I had feared.