Hope I'm not late to the party. I just recently got this game from my girlfriend as a Christmas present (was allowed to open one early for some odd reason...); anywho, I really love this game.

The load times are bareable. I will admit however, I think there might have been a slightly more realistic open-world approach to entering cities... it does seem odd to be riding across the countryside on a horse, to suddenly find yourself in the cloudy loading area on foot... at the very least they could have at least placed you in the loading area still on your horse to have more of a "limbo" effect.

The two points of interest in this game I will say though, is first the slight graphic-tearing it seems to occasionally cause (anybody else with the black line that renders out from the waist will know what I mean, along with certain environments seeming to having "rendored anchorpoints" [which oddly didn't seem to start happening or showing up until about 3 system updates ago]... yes I know many say it's the GPU processor... just seems odd it only seems to occur in certain render situations, and only on certain games... rather than all the time; I honestly think it's some form of rendoring style that's overworking the GPU due to so much happening on the screen at once... it used to happen in older games and back then was called "clipping".).

The second being, once you've done the first major mission or two, and get back a couple weapons and learn a couple attacks... seems between running/leap hand-blade attack, and the R1-counter-attack... used in tandem, you become just about unstoppable. I will say it's fun going through an entire large city slaughtering every guard and living to boast about it, lol... but it can leave the difficulty scale a tad out of whack.

Overall though, I would recommend this game to anybody who enjoys mass-exploration, large worlds, awesome eye-candy, true 3D scaling and environmental interaction, as well as riveting gameplay (but as said above, the jobs do seem a tad repeatable here and there... thankfully there's the side content of finding flags/signs, saving townfolk, starting a brawl with the local authorities, pick-pocketing, etc).

I also think it's a game like Assassin's Creed and its sort of game environment which really opened the door for ideas like Infamous and Prototype.

UPDATE: Having played it a bit now, and being on the "second wave" of the three cities... I will say it does feel a tiny bit repetitive, but can still be fun. Depend on what mindset you're in... also, sometimes when I want a break from a possible repetitive storyline, I just climb along the rooftops and stealth kill the guard. I really love the help citizen side-quests, wish they just kept spawning random ones that would pop up as you run along the rooftops or run through the streets and spot them... I think that alone would have really upped the game even more... being a hero for the people.

FINAL UPDATE: Having just finished the game yesterday, I will say and hope not to spoil anything; but I can see why people say the ending stinks or is weak. I actually didn't mind the ending, though I will say until you "find it" it sort of leaves you clueles, lol; but it does leave you hanging. Now what does sort of stink, is after the credits you're dropped back inside your room at the facility and can access the different emails, see all the "hidden stuff", and jump back into the animus. What I have to frown on, is I seriously think it would have been neat to have a slot on the animus after beating it, after the final chapter and before the additional memories (or perhaps attached to the additional memories) of unspecified data or contaminated data or even miscellaneous data; a block that would allow a person to continue AFTER the final sequence. Instead, the animus acts more like a "level selector" and you can jump back to any unlocked memory, farthest being the final sequence before the final boss battle. I just think it'd be neat after it was all said and done to be able to run around after the final boss battle as a free agent, free as a bird... sort of like in Grand Theft Auto. For those perfectionist gamers out there, don't fret too much I reckon, since you can load a couple memories from the end to keep looking for flags. Reason I say a couple memories from the end, is if you reload the very last memory of the final boss battle, you're stuck in the town and can't leave. Now another bummer... if you were like me and had fun with the "mini games" of saving citizens, eavesdropping, interrogating, pick pocketing, etc... all that is gone. Well, you can still pick pocket but only to resupply throwing knives... although it's fun running around the tremendously large cities exploring for flags and killing guards, it can get a tad old. But there is a bonus, when you go back after the game is over, there's no longer a penalty for killing innocent civilians, rofl; I also read this on another website: After the main storyline is completed Eagle Vision can be used anytime regardless of Synchronization levels inside of the Animus. Would be nice if it had at least alternate endings, as well as something more once you've gotten 20 "health" or whatever they are; it did seem a bit odd to do all the side stuff, see the 15-block bar fill up, then nothing new happen once the health was maxed, perhaps have it increase weapon damage or unlock some new skill like lock-picking or something (would have been neat to have been able to load into building in town... of course, since you can't carry money or items, would be a bit pointless, but would be a great place to hide flags). So low and behold, I now run through Assassin's Creed killing guards, searching for flags, and hunting for the remaining hidden Templar Knights... wishing it was possible to still eavesdrop, even if mundane conversation that's non story-related, as well as be able to interrogate somebody for the simple fact of having them tell you their life story out of fear. Would also be nice to see random save citizen scenarios pop up while wandering through the town for a bit of realism. Overall though, the ending, although some may say it's disappointing, it does leave one MAJORLY wanting to play Assassin's Creed 2, as well as majorly give you a true "X-Files" feeling, lol!

PS - I noticed there's an area just outside the main gate of Jerusalem that's blue/cloudy and says invalid memory or some such, does anybody know if that EVER becomes unlocked¿?

This message was edited by funkyone on Dec 29 2009.
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U might not think its good but i found it to be one of the best games i got and it only installs once unlike mgs4 where it installs after every mission but it doesn't really load at all during the missions. but yeah once u get past like 4 to 5 missons u get most of your stuff back and it gats way better.
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This game really ain't worth it..... To answer the originators question: It simply doesn't.
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quote Abbys

I think he has made his decision now. XD

Yes probably.
If you've given up that's up to you to decide. I found it repetitive so to amuse myself I ran around picking fights with about 30 soldiers then taking them all on without using counter or defend. Anyway since we're actually disussing the bad points (seems as everyone is) then one problem is he can't swim, also there are a number of insane glitches in the game, I fell into the infinity zone and didn't die and I couldn't get back so I had to switch off the PS3. Oh yes, the reason Altiar can't swim is because they didn't have swimming pool's in those times and if you're an assassin then you aren't going to stay out in the open (swimming) if you know there is guards after you.
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I think he has made his decision now. XD
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