The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I put away my Assassin's Creed disc when Assassin's Creed 2 was released about 21 months ago. Shortly afterward, I lost the disc, and I was pretty much convinced that I would never see it again. Much to my surprise, I found the disc about a month or two ago, and I started playing it again a few days ago. It was nice to play Altair again...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeX_NkKFgGg

This assassination is similar to the Triple Jump:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OdKxPms9Vs

You all know by now that I'm a big fan of air to assassinate. Ubisoft must have rushed it in at the last minute because both they and Prima failed to document how to do it. Whenever someone on the internet asks for help, at least one well intentioned player comes to their aid with advice like, "Jump at your target and hit the attack button when you get close." That's what I call a "jump assassinate" (or "stunt assassinate" if the fall is high enough to cause partial desynchronization). Air to assassinate is actually easier and more reliable. The problem with jump assassinate is you have to judge where you will land and make sure it's close to the target. I usually end up jumping way over the target's head.

I saved William de Montferrat for last in Memory Block 4 because many players like to use Throwing Knives on this mission and Altaïr can carry 10 at a time if he's already finished off Abu'l Nuqoud and Majd Addin.

The Montferrat assassination seems to be Ubisoft's crown jewel of ASSASSIN'S CREED. It was the one they would always show in pre-release demos, so it must have been the first one that they developed. As such it feels more polished than some of the other missions. In fact, I think they added air to assassinate late in the development cycle and simultaneously placed a scaffold next to William.