Recent reviews by Hamburghini 400 GT

What more needs to be said. In my original review I said the game had a great foundation and I'd change the review to positive once they fixed glaring issues such as the progression system and lack of content. It's been a year and they couldn't even do that. On top of that they axed promised features (on Xbox) and pushed all the new content back EVEN FURTHER. What exactly is 343 getting paid to do? They haven't really done anything at all since launch. I guess all these full-time employees are sitting on photoshop all day using the bucket tool to make new color schemes to sell? What a joke. We got better post-launch support from old Halo games going back to 2 even. And this one is supposed to be the "live service"? LMAO, more like dead service now, because the incompetence of the people running this clown car of a studio killed the game. Even Battlefield 2042 has had better support than this, and that game launched broken while this one launched functional but empty. It's actually impressive how Microsoft gave you 3 chances... to literally drive their most important IP, once on of the most recognizable IPs in gaming, into the dirt six feet under. What a joke of a studio.

There's a lot this remaster does well, but as of launch, there is a whole lot that needs fixing.
At least original owners got this free! If they expected us to rebuy the game in this state, this launch would have been REALLY bad.

The new lighting and texture work is overall great, no complaints about that. As for some more important things though...

Now for the issues that I've noticed that need to be fixed:
1. Cloth physics are bugged in the main game. All the physics but cloth work fine, the cloth is stuck at the lowest quality setting from the original no matter what setting you use here. It works fine in the DLCs. Probably just a bug, but please don't ignore this one and leave it unpatched, the main game looks like absolute crap without cloth physics. And don't just stop at the old medium physics setting, give us the full PhysX cloth physics from the original back. Some other issues with cloth include the physics spazzing out and making odd jutting shapes, which happened in the original but is more common now. I assume it's something to do with the cloth physics being bugged in general, so if the botched physics in this remaster are repaired to their original game state, all of this might go away.

2. Some effects like smoke can now flicker and stutter. This is a very noticeable issue that wasn't in the original game, it's distracting and needs fixing ASAP.

3.Light flicker, on streetlamps and distant buildings, was present in the original but is now more noticable, possibly because of the revamped lighting. It would be nice to get a fix, but since this was an original issue, it could be a fundamental engine problem, so I won't be mad if it's not fixed.

4. Some textures that really need high-res versions still use old textures. The biggest offender is the rock texture. Now that the mountains have been made more rocky and rocks are way closer to you up on the roads, they really need to be sharper because they're so visible. Not essential to fix, but would be appreciated.

5. The eyes. Characters look overall great, but for some odd reason they removed the moving eyes from the original cutscenes, now they blink whenever their eyes change direction, and the eyes are in a new direction when they open, we no longer see them move. Some characters don't even move their eyes, no blinking or anything, they just stare blankly ahead the whole cutscene. It really makes the characters less expressive and more robotic. The fact that they covered some of this up with blinking shows that they were aware that they somehow messed it up, and instead of fixing it they tried to hide it, and didn't even do a good job at that since half the characters simply don't look anywhere but forward now. Really disappointing intentional corner-cutting, stuff like this is why I don't respect Hangar 13 that much. Take the time to do it right, you messed up something that already worked, now fix it. As with the cloth physics, just make it like the original again, copy and paste the old animations into the remaster if you have to, I can't imagine why this would be an issue short of a dumb typo or something.

If Hangar 13 fails to fix the three most important issues that they messed up from the original: the physics, flickering smoke, and eye animations, I will not buy the Mafia 1 Remastered or the future Mafia IV if they develop it. I can let III's issues slide because that was their first game of that size. But breaking things that already worked in the original Mafia II, putting shoddy bandaids on them or ignoring them entirely instead of fixing them, and releasing the remaster knowing these things are broken, is a pretty bad look that shows just how little they care. If they don't fix all three of those issues, I'm done with them.

And I know they shipped it out to another company to remaster; but since they obviously chose someone that wasn't up to the job, received a remaster that was visibly not up to par, and released it without fixing any of the new issues anyway, they might as well have broken it themselves.

After many of Mafia III's still-present issues and now this, Hangar 13 needs to prove to the community that they care about quality by fixing this remaster. How they treat this game with patches after launch is going to be the deciding factor in whether I buy any future game with their name attached to it. The community's good will matters more than they might think; Mafia III's sales were underwhelming because of all its issues and that can happen again. If they keep messing up, the series is either going to permanently end, or get passed off to another developer that's up to the task. In short, either do the community right for once and fix some bugs, or I and many others are out.

Great game, was slightly better before they added Fornite knockoff skins that don't fit in with the rest of the team. :P

It's a shame that this type of Assassin's Creed game is slowly being lost to time. Someday a whole generation of fans who grew up on the new games will look back at anything before Odyssey (or Origins depending on how much they care about it being linear like the previous games) as THOSE Assassin's Creed games that are linear with small world and therefore "inferior", which is really sad. The traditional Assassin's Creed formula remains unique compared to the generic action RPG grindfest the series has become, and this is perhaps the very best of those traditional games. With a great world, gameplay that has managed to age gracefully (with a few forgivable exceptions), a great story with the strongest cast of supporting characters the series has seen, and most importantly Ezio Auditore, this game is as good or even better than it was ten years ago.

Ezio is still the pinnacle of Assassin's Creed protagonists, he has the most wit and charm of any character in the series, although a few others have come close, and his character arc that begins in this game is unparalleled to this day. This was back when the series had a well written protagonist, not a blank (if well voice acted) slate that depends entirely on player dialog choice for characterization, but a truly great character developed over his entire life with skill and nuance rarely seen outside of cinema, or even in it nowadays. The majority of his arc takes place in this game, with him evolving from a brash young Florentine noble into a dedicated but still charming Master Assassin.

I would recommend not only this game, but Brotherhood and Revelations after it for the best story and experience the series has ever seen.

They left game-breaking bugs unfixed and abandoned the game, buyer beware.

When restoring a multiplayer game, both players are set to player 1, both the same player, with player 1's original civilization, meaning player 2 can't do anything but watch player 1 play. All the AI players were changed to Aztec. The game won't start either, attempting to load it causes a CTD, this bug literally destroys the save.

Searching for it, it seems the bug popped up in early 2018. These moron devs broke a feature that worked fine from 1999-2018, released a few more patches that didn't address the bug, and then basically stopped supporting the game. They had to mess up something simple that could have been left alone right before they left. If they had stopped support in 2017, it would have been fine.

This miserable excuse for quality control and customer care is what stops me from buying the Definitive Edition of the first game, because I now know that as soon as AOE IV comes out (I honestly hope it doesn't at this point, the care they put into their product is so bad), AOE DE will be left unsupported, whatever stupid game-breaking bugs they decide to cram in at the last second will remain forever.

The "next gen"update that no one on PC needed or asked for of course introduced new bugs and straight up broke the stable modded builds we were all using. Bethesda, please just use steam's version choice tool to make this optional and let people downgrade easily. I don't care about your creation club garbage, I had the game how I wanted it which was far better than anything you've managed to release in a loooonnnnggg time. PC players play your games to mod them, tbh they aren't good enough to play vanilla or with just the limited mods in the CC. Just leave us alone we don't want your "support".

This game is not for casual Assassin's Creed fans or people new to the franchise. The missions are very repetative and the gameplay is very simple. Assassin's Creed gameplay as many people know it started with Assassin's Creed II.

This game has no air assassinations, no stores, purchasable gear or cosmetics, or any money system at all. After the prologue, you begin with only the most basic tools and skills. You can't even counter attack yet. Each assassination rewards you with new tools and skills that make the combat better. Combat does start out pretty bad, but the more you play, the more fun it gets, so don't give up on it in the first few sequences. By the end, the combat is about the same as the Ezio games.

The setting is one of my favorites. The 3rd Crusade Holy Land of this game is filthy and downright gloomy. You can see the effects of the battles (Acre is filled with smoke and corpses from a recent seige) and the atmosphere is filled with tension and fear. Town criers gather support for their sides with nervous energy, and guards are everywhere and often very suspicious and unforgiving. Despite its old mucky graphics and sometimes poor voiceacting, the setting and atmosphere of the 3rd Crusade is very well done.

There are 9 assassinations held together by a story that isn't at all bad but isn't particularly interesting. Back in 2008, the plot twist was that all the people you killed were Templars. Slowly learning more and more about the Assassins vs Templar conflict was pretty cool back in the day, but it's all common knowledge now, so the story has lost much of its original impact.

The game is VERY structured, you go to a city, do 3 boring and repetative side missions to learn about your target's weaknesses, go kill the target, unlock new stuff, repeat. The sidequests are what drag this game down, as there are like 4 or 5 different types of quests, and over 9 assassinations you will be doing 27 of them.

The assassinations are this game's redeeming factor. Each one is unique, interesting, and (most are) memorable. The lack of things like air assassinations and guns forces you to be careful and strategic. Each target reacts differently if he sees you. With some targets, you MUST pull off a stealth assassination or they will run. With others, you can rush in but you will quickly be surrounded and outmatched as the target cowers behind his men. With others, you might get ambushed, and the target will fight you head-on. Unlike newer games that skip ahead once you assassinate someone, you will have to escape after you are done, so plan you kills with an escape plan in mind.

Overall, this game was revolutionary but repetative back in 2008, and it hasn't aged well. It's at the point where it's old and clunky feeling, but not quite unplayably old and clunky to new players like some 90s and early 2000s 3d games have gotten. Behind its repetative and clunky exterior, this game hides something truly special. It's the closest to the core of the series as you can get, without all the destractions and not-so-stealthy weapons introduced in later games, this one truly makes you feel like an actual assassin, not a guy in a hood running around shooting people.

I recommend this game, just not to everyone. If any of the problems I've mentioned are a turnoff for you, don't buy the game, because you'll just hate it and write a bad review. If you are someone who loves Assassin's Creed, and is used to playing older games, and can approach this understanding that it's very flawed, but you're willling to enjoy the game for what it is (basically 9 good assassinations and a bunch of filler) then you should try this. It's an important part of the Assassin's Creed storyline and a can be a very enjoyable experience if you allow it to.

THE GAMEPLAY:
The combat is solid, probably the best of all the old AC games. The traditional AC combat (anything before Origins) always had satisfying kills but was never the deepest or most challenging system, this game did what it could within the constraints of that system. It has the same basic style and controls as the North America games, but in my opinion it's done way better. Whereas the North America games' combat had satisfying animations and nice gory kills, it was way too simple and easy (counter kill, chain kill, don't try to chain kill the brute or he'll slap you, break his defense instead, kill him, chain kill, all done), Unity's combat has more much more depth. It starts off simple and very similar to the North America games, but you can unlock more attacks as you go along and new enemy types are introduced which make the new attacks a necessity. There is also much more emphasis on timing than previous games, demanding that you be better. It was hard for me at first, but once I mastered it it was great. The animations are great as well. While they are a bit slower than Black Flag's, it makes the combat feel more grounded, the attacks feel like they have weight. My only gripe about the combat is the lack of any human shield or bullet-dodging mechanic. WHY? It forces you to either waste a smoke bomb every time someone tries to shoot you or tank the damage and waste a medicine.
This game's combat carried over into Syndicate with bullet-dodging, but it was completely ruined in my opinion by the horrible cartoony sped-up animations that made each fight look like a fast-forwarding movie, so this game remains the peak of old-school AC combat for me.
The parkour is simply the best in the series, period. Each game had improved upon the upward climbing, and it peaked here. This one also added a very, very useful descending mechanic to go DOWN buildings, unlike previous games where you had to haphazardly drop down and grab things over and over. Once again, these mechanics carried over into Syndicate but weren't as good. Climbing actually stayed the same, but the buildings were more boring to climb and the grapple hook (unfortunatley, IMO) made climbing obsolete. I'm not bashing Syndicate's devs either, it's Victorian London's fault that the buildings and streets were to big and boring, the devs just accuratley reproduced it. I can also summarize the new AC games' climbing as simply boring, they made it much more easy and streamlined , which sucked all the effort (and fun IMO) out of climbing buildings. So therefore, Unity is the peak of AC climbing.
Co-Op (as long as you have teammates that know what they're doing, which shouldn't be a problem, since the only people still playing this 5 year old game are loyal fans) is great, coordinating stealth infiltrations and slaying mobs of enemies together is pure fun. Flexing your all-Legendary, Pure shadow-dyed gear on low-level players never gets old.

THE CITY:
Paris is probably my favorite one-city map in all of Assassin's Creed. It's beautiful and huge, and the buildings are built on a scale that makes them feel real, and this is all done while keeping the city easily navigable, unlike Syndicate where the streets are too wide and the buildings are too tall. Rooftop navigation is not as easy and simple as the Ezio games because the rooftops aren't all the same height, but that didn't ever bother me.

THE STORY:
Here's where the game stops being mostly-perfect. Arno is not nearly as boring and unlikable as people say, but he's no Ezio or Edward. He's charismatic and generally likable, and also has the clear motivation of avenging SPOILER's death, which is replaced by protecting Elise when he realises that he cares more about her than revenge. This shift in motivation is part of a pretty good character arc, where he goes from brash and arrogant to stiff and serious and then to something in between, and finally to understandably morbid and sad in the DLC. He's not the greatest protagonist in the series, but he's miles ahead of Connor, Aveline, and AC1 Altair, and about even with Shay, putting him the the middle of my rankings, so he's not bad.
Elise is a good foil to him, while he cares more about her than revenge, she cares more about revenge than either of them, and is willing to sacrifice anything to get it. She's a bit underdeveloped due to not being in the game much until the second half, but not to the point that she's a bad character. Her revenge motivaton is simple but understandable. Like Arno, I'd say she's good but not great.
With the exception of Marquis de Sade, who was fun but severely under-used, the side characters are nothing special and mostly boring. However, considering that literally every old-school AC game aside from Black Flag, and II/Brotherhood has boring side characters, each with their one exception or none at all, I'll give this one a pass. I can't judge either of the new ones yet as I haven't completed them.
The antagonist is fine. He's constantly worshipping De Molay's leadership of the Templar Order without really much explanation of WHAT about it is so good aside from ridding the Order of corruption. However, he's a Sage, so his motivation is some weird mysterious Precursor plot that I really don't care to know about. He's definatley better than Black Flag's Roberts, another Sage, simply because we see more of him and get to understand him a little better. The minor plot twist involving him was also a cool if not expected diversion, and his manipulation of the Assassins to help with his takeover of the Order is refreshing, but once again somewhat remenescent of Roberts in Black Flag. He's no Borgia or Haythem Keyway, but once again, he isn't bad.
The plot average for an AC game. Arno's quest for revenge is at the core of most of the narrative, and I like that he is driven and doesn't get himself sidetracked in the Revolution going on around him like Connor in ACIII. The pacing is mostly ok, each kill moves the story forward by revealing a new conspirator to kill. It's structured in the same way Black Flag's story is, with a buildup that occasionally lags, the part where everything goes wrong and we have to watch the protagonist be miserable very briefely, then he comes back to quickly kill the antagonist (plural in Black Flag's case) in a somewhat rushed finale (they really couldn't give us more Robspierre, or any mention of him at all, before the final missions of the game?) This game's narrative is better overall than Black Flag but hes inferior characters, so they're about even.
SPOILER's betrayal catches a lot of flak for being "out of nowhere" or "making no sense" but I think it does. He's set up to do what he does pretty early on, he constantly cricizes the leadership and the truce. It's not that it doesn't make sense, it's that he's horribly underused before the betrayal, robbing the emotional showdown of much of the impact it could have carried. He and his betrayal are barely even addressed in the rest of the game, making it seem pointless. What a wasted opportunity.
This is one of the few AC games with a clear, recognizable, and consistant theme, something that I really admire. Arno's ending monologue literally tells you in the end in case you never pick up on it. It's that if you're not careful, "ideas become dogma, and dogma become fanaticism". SPOILER's betrayal and the conflict within the Templars mirror eachother and the French Revolution as a whole, in both sides and in the Revolution, good intentions and ideals are corrupted by radical violence, everyone who tries to find a middle ground is killed. This game's story, if nothing else, is some of the best parallelism I've ever seen in a game, and that's the best thing I can say about it.

Overall, I'd give it an 7/10, its not the best AC, but there's a great game hiding inside of its tarnished reputation. Its not nearly as bad as people say, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Tbh the only thing keeping this game alive at this point is mods, its 11 years old and it was never designed to be THE current Elder Scrolls game for this long. It's still as good as its always been, just getting stale for people who have played it for a decade. TES 6 needs to come out not just so we can have something new, but so that Skyrim can finally retire from the forefront and relax as an older nostalgic game like Oblivion, instead of having to pretend to be new and current. Bethesda's used and abused this poor game far beyond its shelf life and I respect it for standing up to time as decently as it has.

GTA III was revolutionary, Vice City and San Andreas were and still are iconic to the people that grew up with them. If you don't understand/remember that, then this game might not be for you. By modern standards, it is clunky, ugly, dated, and tiny. If you are the kind of person who would enjoy this, you probably don't even read the reviews to decide whether to buy it, you just know it is good because you've already played it. I'm not trying to alienate or discourage anyone who didn't play this years ago from trying it, you might like it, go for it, but when/if you decide you don't like it and can't understand the hype, this is me explaining why.