So, I finally am playing this game, it was on sale for $10 for the Xbox at walmart to promote the release of the third game. I always wanted to play it, for the setting alone.

But I have to ask..

What the *#&@ is with all the scifi BS?! Does this recede in prominenace? This bartender guy in the Avatar chamber is doing *nothing* for me. I want to run around Jerusalem, taking in the sights, and learning the culture of the order, and the other organizations. I could give a rats ass about some stupid semi-Scientology memory regression/retrieval storyline.

PLEASE tell me this gets better?!?!

Sadly the sci-fi stuff is an integral part of the overall story line. But, on the upside, you can go for very long stretches inside the memories. It does nothing for me either, but damn it's fun running around the Medieval Middle East doing shit.

I loathe this part of the game! I think it was not a good idea. Who is actually the leading character in the game? For me it's Altair but not for developers apparently...

Personally I was kind of enjoying the different take on it all. I too have recently delved into the series to "catch up" since 3 came out.

Granted, I wish the first game had subtitles for the dialogue since I often have to play with a sleeping girlfriend next to me, but I guess that's my only real gripe with the game so far. I like that it's fairly casual in a sense that I haven't run into any real frustrating problems with the game and overall it seems to be fairly straight forward with the missions.

Oh, and some of the voice acting is pretty terrible, but besides that I think it's a solid mess around game. I'm waiting for the Ezio Trilogy to come out before I pick up the next set of games, as I've heard they are much better story wise than the first one. Maybe grind through 1 and check out 2 if you still feel interested in the series.

Also, I was actually really surprised they opened it up with the memory retrieval stuff. When I had first read reviews on the game when it came out, I thought the "sci-fi" portion came much later in the game (granted I didn't really read the reviews too closely since I didn't want to potentially spoil things) but I had always assumed the memory retrieval thing was some form of twist that came out later in the game, lo and behold though upon actually playing it's right there in front of your face from the beginning.

Hahaha. No.

It's going to get worse, so much worse. which is a shame really.

I wish Assassin's Creed 2 was on GOG

It's just a cheap narrative figure. They invented it so they don't need to try the story to make any sense at all.

These threads filled with elitist hipsters are so depressing.

That Scifi bullshit is the story, it's one ties the games together into something that isn't just random assassination plots. AC's main weakness is that the gameplay wasn't varied enough.

The time spent in the animus is just an extremely elaborate form of exposition to explain the things which happen in later games when you're not in the animus.

Personally, I thought it worked rather well, I don't recall seeing anybody else working that angle in a way that actually worked before.

And screw you to anybody that invokes, well short stories and novels did it first, not the same thing at all.

Good god man, if you don't want a story just don't play the game. Unlike call of duty the main focus of this game is the story.

Yeah its bad. It's a flaw of the game. But i tend to forget about it, there's enough redeeming qualities in the middle ages parts. It's just, like, wrapped in a very very cumbersome animated menu of sorts...

I found it extremely annoying at first, but later on it kind of grew on me.

It doesn't change the fact the overall storyline and the way it's told is not the greatest thing ever, but it works ok.

AC2 is much better, I never did finish AC, but I was able to finish AC2 and AC:B, there's more of the scifi in those two, but the gameplay is actually varied and a bit more interesting.

Sorry I didn't like it, I guess i'll go to starbuck now, and try to figure out how not be be such a goddamn hipster while sipping overpriced coffe and browsing the web on an iPad.

I personally don't mind the scifi stuff. It ties the games together. Though the story isn't always the best part of the game, it is one of the main focuses. The best thing to do, however, is to skip the first game and go directly to the second, except if you want to see what happened in ac1 for yourself.

AC2 and Brotherhood are much better, both gameplay wise (there's a lot more variation and stuff to do) and storywise. The background story about the templars and assassins becomes much more fleshed out in these games, especially through the glyphs and clusters of subject 16.

And if you really don't enjoy the scifi parts: the parts were you walk around in the Middle- East or in Renaissance Florence, Venice and Rome are a lot bigger than the parts with Desmond.