The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

http://youtu.be/iRLFhK6NQGM
[Front-paged by stabguy]

The Serial Offender mission is a memory where you assassinate a doctor. This memory is part of the storyline in sequence four. After the scene that starts the mission the doctor appears in place in front of a doctor shop. He just stands there and won't move unless you either do the mission the way it was intended by following where the courtesans are pointing or locking on to him. I'm not the first person to have discovered this, but I did discover it independently.

The Fast Route: This is the quickest way to assassinate the target. It can probably be done a little faster, but I was just showing an example.

Tripwire: For this you want the target to run a certain route. I lock on to him from the opposite direction to make him run there. When he starts running climb up the building but don't run ahead of him or he will turn back. I aim from a small platform (since the gun is level to the target's head the timing has to be just right).

49 Meters: The mission desynchronizes at fifty meters, so I get a long shot with the hidden gun. I climb to the top of a high building to get a clear view of the target (because if there is anything blocking the targets view the shot misses).

Stunts: I perform two stunts, one near where I perform the tripwire assassination, and the other from the same building where I did the 49 meter shot (during that I accidentally jump in a haystack).

Poetic Justice in the Form of a Mysterious Death: A mysterious death is very easy for this mission, but I did it mostly for the sake of poetic justice. I tried to increase the challenge by being notorious. I also took the same path that I took for the fast route instead of taking a route that would have avoided any enemies. It's poetic justice because of how I used a doctor's tool against the doctor. I purposely used up all my poisons so that I would have to buy the poison from the doctor standing behind the target (yes yes, it looks like I bought the poison from the target himself).

hey everyone, i was recently asked by someone on youtube to make a video showing where the shrunken heads are, so i did and here it is, I hope it can help at least one person

The Featured Member column returns to The Hidden Blade this month with our interview of ThreeLetterSyndrom. We asked TLS about his thoughts on Assassin's Creed. Here's what he had to say.

Tell me about the first time you played AC.

That was a long time ago. I was at a friend's who'd just got the game on PC, for which it had just come out. We played through the beginning. For some reason, I countered all my opponents without even knowing what I was doing. He also showed me the Talal assassination.

What do you like most about the games?

I wouldn't know. I really like the blend between history and fiction. The amount of freedom you get when removing just one or two limitations is amazing. It also makes for very good storytelling and avoids major plot holes due to time inconsistensies.

What I really like about AC1 is the immersion. AC2 and AC:B haven't got this. Without the HUD, I really feel like an assassin. It's awesome.

Finally got around to doing this. The goal is to escape while inside the fortress. This is a pretty robust route, always works for me. There are other hiding spots inside the fortress should anyone else want to try this.

Ian and stabguy pretty much nailed all the stunts for this assassination, so I thought I would take a different approach. Use the priests so you can blend right next to him and assassinate him in front of all his guards.

For those interested I will start working on the save citizen video for this district soon

http://youtu.be/TC6qsqkINjo
[Front-paged by stabguy]

Down To Earth is a templar agent mission where you go after a woman's husband who pushes people off rooftops. The target runs away as soon as you are able to lock onto him.

Tripwire and easter egg: For my first assassination I show an easter egg, a dead body placed next to a building (presumably pushed off the building by the target). For the tripwire assassination I climb up the awning on the building. Then I move the camera to face the target who starts to run away (Ezio doesn't move at all during this) and bring out my gun. From where you are the target will jump right in front of you, landing on the tripwire.

Kill him where he is: For this assassination I'm on a building that's level with the target's. Then I move the left analog stick in his direction and throw knives manually. The target doesn't die until after he falls. Also since he isn't considered a target yet the memory corridor is skipped but you still complete the mission.

49 Meters: At 50 meters from the target you fail the mission. I manipulate the target's flee route so that I can get a clear shot at him with the hidden gun before it desynchronizes.

A little dissapointed with this one, I got seen at the end when trying to double assassinate the brute and the regular guard, but seeing as im leaving my parents place today this will be the best I can upload.

This video shows my favorite way of approaching the captain, its entrance isn't guarded very well and is hidden in the cliffs, use the pigeon coop icon to find it. If done correctly you can sneak right behind the captain. Im also really pissed off at ACB, in my latest videos I Sneak behind them for a high profile kill, but it looks so buggy it doesnt look cool at all, Ezio pretty much morphs into him. I would be better off doing a low profile kill or something.

I might make another video showing how to clear out the entire stage of guards without being seen. I really like these later borgia towers, they are more complex if you want to take out every guard. However some of the stages respawn guards so I wont be showing those.

http://youtu.be/jTd54SWPwJA
[From the forums - stabguy]

Getting in the huddle of Sibrand's scene prior to the assassination is possible although it doesn't affect the assassination itself. Start by going to the docks then get on the boat close to the scene location. Jump to the spot by the stairs. Since this area is supposed to be unreachable you are able to walk right into the scene. There isn't much point to this besides some hilarity. During the scene I don't move the camera much since it follows Sibrand. Also I don't use memory glitches to zoom the camera in since that would make Altair disappear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNfGbI5LWVU
[Promoted to front page - stabguy]

Jubair will not leave the building after the cutscene! Thanks to a few exploits you can get in the scene prior to the assassination and kill Jubair right before he teleports.

First of all, normally the ancestor's memory will start recording when you reach the roof of the building for the scene, but if you are detected that doesn't happen, with memory walls preventing you from going any further. There is a certain place on the west side of the building with a ledge that will lead you to a higher place on the roof, but getting to it is a little tricky. Get a guard to come after you to reach that place, then kill him to get rid of the memory walls. You want to hang on that ledge before he dies, so to delay his death I grab and throw him (I made the mistake of throwing him at a wall, which killed him faster). You need to be in the right spot to grab on that ledge when running up the wall.

Many thanks to Vanitas for noticing this! Original topic can be found here.

The exploit is pretty easy. As soon as the cutscene ends, the distance to target restriction is no longer enforced, so you are free to roam the basilica. There isn't much to do on ground level, but as you can see in the video, you can reach any location in the basilica, except for the Romulus lair. First I demonstrate the slow but safe way to get to the platform, but in a later clip I use a way that's a bit faster, but requires wacky jumping.
I also turkey shoot the cardinal, but as soon as you kill him, you get desynchronised, since the no-killing restriction is still enforced. It's fun to mess around with him, though. It's a shame you can't poison the cardinal. I would've liked to see how he would react to poison punch.
I thought the lamp to be funny. During the chase, Ezio can't use the lamp, but the cardinal continues regardless.

Let me know what you think!

Finally, 101 Borgia Flags collected! I turned Xbox Notifications on in order to record the Capture the Flag Achievement pop-up at the end. I kept my fingers crossed that there wouldn't also be "FLAE has logged in" while recording.

There are three missable cutscenes in this Lair. The first occurs at 0:52 after Ezio enters the Lair. One drunk asks the other, "Did you see that white knight?" You've probably already seen this one. If you jostle one or both of the drunks before opening the trap door, they run off and the cutscene never happens. After Ezio returns from the Lair during story mode, the drunks return for a follow-up cutscene (even if you missed the first one).

The scene after mass at 1:34 can be frustrating. This Lair has a time limit of 8 minutes and we're off like a herd of turtles waiting nearly 2 minutes for the cardinal to leave the room. I don't know of any way to speed up the process so I try to amuse myself to pass the time. You don't need to use Eagle Vision if you instead get up close to the target, so that's the first thing I do. The cardinal pauses two or three times while making his rounds, but not always in the same places. It's okay to poison the guard at 3:15 because he's still alive when the next cutscene begins.