The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Nice idea! And you are right, the Brutes on trailers of AC2 they disires to be Smart and Strong, but not, they are dumb and slow...so i guess it's a nice idea to have an almost invincible guard at the targets areas...Like a Knight or something like that.

(cough) Papal guard? (cough)

I'd like to see Ezio in Altair's Armor VS Cesare in the anti-Altair Armor (Robert de Sable/Templar armor?) in the final fight. In Dev Diary #2, you see Ezio in the armor fighting Cesare in what looks like a post-apocalyptic area.

Not just a Papal Guard, a Papal Knight or a Papal Paladin, something like that, got it?

I think that's probably Ezio's escape from Rome after the events of AC2.

Hm, maybe there's a tutorial level that is based on that? Since it picks up as soon as Ezio stops talking to Minerva, it would be epic to run to an escape ship while learning the basic moves throughout a linear section of Rome. But before you arrive, you have to get passed Cesare. That would make sense, because he could easily send someone after him right away.

Yup, much like the Temple of Solomon level in AC1.

That sounds so amazing. I hope your guess is right.

Haha, me too

Same here..

That's a good guess, as Altaïr's armor is destroyed/lost in the Siege of Monterrigioni.

There's also some speculation among fans that Mario is not killed by Cesare during the invasion. Some reasons:

• We don't actually see the execution. It happens off camera.
• They wouldn't include such a major spoiler in the first trailer for the game.
• The developers keep saying things like, "After Ezio's villa is destroyed by Cesare Borgia he journeys to Rome." What they notably don't say is "...to avenge his uncle's death."

I always love epic introductions in action/adventure games. I wonder if it automatically puts the Armor of Altair on you when you start the game, or does it set you up with whatever armor/dye you have on when you finished AC2?

Even if Mario DOES die then i doubt Ezio would travel all the way to Rome purely to avenge his uncle.

One thing that i'm curious about is where will the story of Brotherhood start? Will there be another intro level involving Desmond and Lucy or will you just press start and see Ezio exiting the Vault?

The final moment of AC2 ends with Desmond saying "geuss i better get started" so it be cool if it picks up from there.

Invincible guard archetypes are nice and all, but the most important thing they need to do is get rid of instant hidden-blade kills in combat. You could kill any guard archetype instantly (even captains) by just waiting to counter-attack. While I like that the devs have made it so that the flashy kill animations are now rewarded based on how aggressive you are in combat (hopefully it has nothing to do with combos), that's still only a temptation and not a permanent fix.

I also think that the problem with the invincible guard archetype is that it enhances the difficulty almost too much. Think about it, either you spend your time trying to kill the guard while the others chop away at you, or you spend time killing the other guards while he stabs away at you. Either way, you take serious damage.

I think there's a better way to prevent people from using counter attack tactics. Instead of an invincible guard archetype, why not just turn up the damage dealt out from behind? Imagine how more unattractive combat becomes as a primary option if you lose HALF YOUR HEALTH from one strike across the back. Or make the Seeker's ability to expose you even greater, such as as soon as you are spotted he exposes you to everyone, and then comes the rush of guards.

From what I've seen in the trailers, the devs are trying very hard to prevent combat from being the first option by making gigantic guard fights. I can imagine that taking on an entire squadron of Papal Guards would be long, tedious, and boring, and that's probably what the devs would be going for. That way, players are much more likely to view stealth as an option over running in and chopping everyone up.

That's the point. You wouldn't want to be stuck in a fight with these guys, as it would mean either dying or running away. People would realize this and take the stealthier approach and avoid fighting them.

But I completely agree with you on the back attacks. If we can kill an enemy instantly by just getting behind them, why can't they do the same? That bothered me in AC2.

What I hated in AC2 is that there is a huge period after you have been seen where you can keep doing stealth assassinations, doing 1 hit kills. You can take down loads of guards just doing double assassinations, usually I pick off as many non regular guards as possible, by the time Ezio finally enters fight mode the regulars run away

I actually liked this aspect, it was much more realistic than in AC1. In real life, if a random guy walked up to the guy next to you and stabbed him in the jugular with a blade coming from his wrist, someone wouldn't immediately react as if he was expecting that to happen. Rather, he would be kinda shocked. Very shocked. And people don't have fast reaction time when they're shocked.

yea but it lasts into actual combat. Like they will be running towards you, trying to fight you, and you can just stab them

When you say: The developers keep saying things like, "After Ezio's villa is destroyed by Cesare Borgia he journeys to Rome." What they notably don't say is "...to avenge his uncle's death."

You can note that the developers also did not say this too: "After Ezio's villa is destroyed and your uncle murdered, he journeys to Rome..bla bla..."
So it's like that cesare shoots near Mario's Head just to scare Ezio, than ezio is wounded by a guard..like in the demo...