In the beginning Assassin's Creed blew me away with its free-running gameplay and mixed techno-medieval mythology. Then Ezio came along and the layered story really got its hooks into me; I can remember sitting dumbfounded at the end of AC II as the scope of Desmond's quest came into view. AC: Brotherhood was a welcome follow up. It introduced some fun new gameplay elements and once again I found myself with over 100 hours playtime as everyone's favourite Italian Assassin. I wonder how many other players turned away all the male citizens they saved in an attempt to create a badass all female 'Brotherhood'.
Then we got Revelations and I'll admit I was a little worried. It was the first in the series to glitch on me. Four immortal, yet indifferent, guards fell to my sword and rose from the dead only to watch undeterred as I repeated the process. The hook-blade came with it's own set of oddities. Holding the grab button while jumping toward a roof would sometimes teleport me downwards so that the proper hook-climb animation could play. While the story was interesting it didn't grab me in the way the earlier installations had, there were no great discoveries to be made, no truths revealed. The revelations were all on Old Ezio's part, not mine.
Mind you, I still played it. I still enjoyed it. I was just getting worried is all.
You can imagine my relief these last couple of weeks when AC III was first leaked and then announced. Three year production cycle as opposed to one? Yes please. Radical evolution of existing gameplay, such as free-running through trees? Don't mind if I do. A new setting to explore and another ancestor to puppeteer? Yuh huh! Plus no tower defence mini-games. Thank fucking god.
Needless to say I am looking forward to this a LOT. Anyone else hungry for a bit of Assassin action on the frontier?
