After spending half of this evening playing the 360 version I'm in agreement with Bob the Insane. Me likes. To me it plays like Prince of Persia with a dash of Metal Gear Solid and a pinch of Thief, as I've not played Hitman or GTA. You can tell that the same team behind Prince of Persia made this game.

The animation in particular is stunning. It gives me the same feeling as Sands of Time did in 2003 in that it's ahead of anything I've seen before and so natural it immediately makes other games look clumsy. Not seen any trace of the tearing some reviews have been complaining about; I’m using 720p and it looks fabulous.

I notice quite a few reviews complain about the guards standing around to take it in turns to attack you. Wish I could say that - I keep getting stabbed in the back by one guard while another attacks me from the front. Block will only stop attacks coming from head on and its hard to evade when surrounded, so this is a very effective combo.

It's a joy to run around and explore. Picking up the optional missions, hunting for flags, and tagging viewpoints. The areas you are given to play around in are massive! Thief III should have handled its city overworld this way.

If someone could explain to me why the guards in the Kingdom area are permanently hostile and will attack me on sight unless I use blend mode I'd be grateful. It's infuriating to have to shuffle along so slowly each time I reach one of the numerous outposts when there's literally miles to cross. I don't have any problems in the cities.

I could have done without the scifi angle on the story. When I first heard about the game it was being reported as a straight up historical setting with Altair trying to keep peace in the Holy Land by judiciously assassinating people on both sides. The scifi tale may yet win me over; it's by no means bad so far.

I have done the first assassination. Quite a ... lively affair.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
The guy drew his sword and started attacking me even though I was in blend mode in a crowd. The city guards joined in. I died. Checkpoint loaded, and the guy does it again, killing me before I had chance to draw my sword. He then went psycho on the city guards. Third time I killed him and ran off across the rooftops, chased by the guards.

I was trying to use my hidden blade for a stealth assassination, yet for some reason I couldn't get it to work. The target kept going psycho on me before I could get close.


No, so far I wouldn't call it game of the year. That doesn't prevent it from being a polished, enjoyable production.