Welcome to First Impressions! This isn't really a review as it is... well, my first impressions of something. I'll explain a few things to keep it from being confusing, and try to keep it professional when explaining, but once we get to the impressions, things will obviously get biased. I know it's not a "review", but I call it that for lack of a better term. Let's get started.
The story for the multiplayer is all but non-existent, and I think that works in it's favor. It's simple (from what I can get for now): You are an Abstergo Agent training on the Animus, the other players are your fellow agents, and you train by killing one another. Simple.
The mechanics are as follows.
1: You spawn and you are assigned a target. Odds are you will have at least one pursuer as well.
2: At the bottom of the screen is a blue circle with a part of it filled in. This is the radar, the filled in part shows you the way to go. As you approach the target, more of the circle is filled in.
3: When you can see the target, the outside of the radar lights up. This means the target can "see you". Now you should stop running. Try to sneak up on them. Running will cause you to become less discrete, as shown by a meter. If the "discrete" meter runs out, you enter "chase mode". Doing so puts an indicator on the target's screen, so they know fully that you are there.
4: Chase mode functions... to sum it up, think the regular AC chases, but this time YOU are the guard. Escaping from the pursuer works similar to MGS. There is an "escape mode", and when you are out of sight, you must STAY out of sight until a timer runs out. You get points for sucessfully escaping. There are multiple devices used to cut off pursuers as well, from closing gates to ropes to launch you to the rooftops.
5: When you do kill the target, you get more points based on how discrete you were. There's "Incognito" for 300 bonus points, "Silent" for 200 and "Discrete" for 50. You get 100 points per kill anyway, but with bonuses like this, it is highly recommended to stay discrete and avoid chase mode unless you have no choice. You also get points for various circumstances, like a jumping kill, pulling them off a rooftop to their doom, ect.
Now then... on to my first impressions:
First off, you have 9 different characters to choose from. There can only be one of each character per group. The map is filled with NPCs that look like the 9 characters, so in theory you can hide amongst them. This really on works in favor of the pursuer, because all the hiding in the world is useless against the radar.
However, the NPCs never run, don't climb, and tend to walk in a set pattern, so lousy pursuers are easy to spot if you keep watch all around you at all times. There is a perk you get at level 2, a disguise, so If you have the feeling a pursuer is approaching, use that to throw them off. Just be sure to be clear when it wears off. Your eyes are the only defense you have against pursuers who are still discrete, so paranoia is going to come into affect after you get killed by a random person a few times.
However, if you kill a civilian, you lose track of your own target. Furthermore, there is no reward for killing anyone except your target. I think this is what keeps it from turning into a regular death-match, IMO. There is an indicator to show how many pursuers you have, and how many other people are after your target, so if you escape one pursuer only to be killed by another, there's only a little "WTF?!"
I must say, when a target just walks right in front of you for what ammounts to a free kill, it's extremely satisfying, but it's annoying as hell when it happens to you. Spawn killing is possible, but at this, it all really comes down to a perfect storm of bad luck (you spawn near a person who is getting a new target, and that target happens to be you. Not likely, but it does happen)
There are some aspects of this that will cause some guaranteed rage.
1: While killing, you are completely vulnerable. This leads to some free kills, sure, but also some "AW, BULLSHIT!" moments.
2: It gets VERY annoying when you have a target right in front of you, and then you begin to be pursued. You now have a choice. Run away, live and lose the target, or cut your losses, kill the target and accept the inevitable death afterward.
3: The disguise is useless against the radar. If they're already close to you, you're screwed.
4: The lock-on system is both a godsend when it works, letting you keep an eye on you target, but an annoyance to use to lock on to a target in a crowd of NPCs.
Overall, I enjoy this Beta, with only a few minor issues, but it doesn't get to much in the way of the fun. I know Brotherhood is going to be overshadowed by Black Ops and MoH, but at least for a little while, I can have fun proving who is the best assassin!
The story for the multiplayer is all but non-existent, and I think that works in it's favor. It's simple (from what I can get for now): You are an Abstergo Agent training on the Animus, the other players are your fellow agents, and you train by killing one another. Simple.
The mechanics are as follows.
1: You spawn and you are assigned a target. Odds are you will have at least one pursuer as well.
2: At the bottom of the screen is a blue circle with a part of it filled in. This is the radar, the filled in part shows you the way to go. As you approach the target, more of the circle is filled in.
3: When you can see the target, the outside of the radar lights up. This means the target can "see you". Now you should stop running. Try to sneak up on them. Running will cause you to become less discrete, as shown by a meter. If the "discrete" meter runs out, you enter "chase mode". Doing so puts an indicator on the target's screen, so they know fully that you are there.
4: Chase mode functions... to sum it up, think the regular AC chases, but this time YOU are the guard. Escaping from the pursuer works similar to MGS. There is an "escape mode", and when you are out of sight, you must STAY out of sight until a timer runs out. You get points for sucessfully escaping. There are multiple devices used to cut off pursuers as well, from closing gates to ropes to launch you to the rooftops.
5: When you do kill the target, you get more points based on how discrete you were. There's "Incognito" for 300 bonus points, "Silent" for 200 and "Discrete" for 50. You get 100 points per kill anyway, but with bonuses like this, it is highly recommended to stay discrete and avoid chase mode unless you have no choice. You also get points for various circumstances, like a jumping kill, pulling them off a rooftop to their doom, ect.
Now then... on to my first impressions:
First off, you have 9 different characters to choose from. There can only be one of each character per group. The map is filled with NPCs that look like the 9 characters, so in theory you can hide amongst them. This really on works in favor of the pursuer, because all the hiding in the world is useless against the radar.
However, the NPCs never run, don't climb, and tend to walk in a set pattern, so lousy pursuers are easy to spot if you keep watch all around you at all times. There is a perk you get at level 2, a disguise, so If you have the feeling a pursuer is approaching, use that to throw them off. Just be sure to be clear when it wears off. Your eyes are the only defense you have against pursuers who are still discrete, so paranoia is going to come into affect after you get killed by a random person a few times.
However, if you kill a civilian, you lose track of your own target. Furthermore, there is no reward for killing anyone except your target. I think this is what keeps it from turning into a regular death-match, IMO. There is an indicator to show how many pursuers you have, and how many other people are after your target, so if you escape one pursuer only to be killed by another, there's only a little "WTF?!"
I must say, when a target just walks right in front of you for what ammounts to a free kill, it's extremely satisfying, but it's annoying as hell when it happens to you. Spawn killing is possible, but at this, it all really comes down to a perfect storm of bad luck (you spawn near a person who is getting a new target, and that target happens to be you. Not likely, but it does happen)
There are some aspects of this that will cause some guaranteed rage.
1: While killing, you are completely vulnerable. This leads to some free kills, sure, but also some "AW, BULLSHIT!" moments.
2: It gets VERY annoying when you have a target right in front of you, and then you begin to be pursued. You now have a choice. Run away, live and lose the target, or cut your losses, kill the target and accept the inevitable death afterward.
3: The disguise is useless against the radar. If they're already close to you, you're screwed.
4: The lock-on system is both a godsend when it works, letting you keep an eye on you target, but an annoyance to use to lock on to a target in a crowd of NPCs.
Overall, I enjoy this Beta, with only a few minor issues, but it doesn't get to much in the way of the fun. I know Brotherhood is going to be overshadowed by Black Ops and MoH, but at least for a little while, I can have fun proving who is the best assassin!
