Guards are running away now

[PZ]

I'm at a stage in the game where Ezio has enough killing skills that some of the guards in a group attacking me (or me attacking them depending on your perspective) actually run away.  Just as I finish off one and turn to deal with the rest, they run down the street.  Because I know it is not my personal skills at using the PS3 controller, I can only assume that the game is advancing Ezio's skills despite my lack of the same.

[spaceboy]

I noticed the same only it's only the last guard or two in a group that run so far for me...

[PZ]

It's funny - but sometimes I can take out 4 guards, two at a time with the dual wrist blades, and at other times, it is difficult to even make it out of the engagement alive.

[Art Blade]

In AC1 an essential tactic was to keep your back clear, ie back up against a wall. Then focus on one opponent, always parrying attacks and in turn do counter attacks to finish them off one by one. Like that, I took out about 20 guards in the middle of a square in front of a fort  ;D

[PZ]

Thanks Art, I'll try that technique - it does seem to be the case that when I am poked in the back, I turn to fight the new attacker despite what I really want to do.

[Art Blade]

Indeed, same back then. The worst fight I ever experienced was to be ground up between various attackers: I got stabbed in the back, turned towards the attacker, but I got stabbed by someone else, to whom I turned, then a third guy stabbed at me from the back, so I turned round, and then I got... you get the picture, I guess :) Quite embarrassing, I admit  ;D

[spaceboy]

In both games it seems you really are only attacked by one at a time, but it seems like more.  I think if you are on the attack and a guard is backing up (clashing metal or not) you are vulnerable to be attacked from behind.  But if you are under attack the others will certainly watch.  So the two tricks I use are to 1) watch the other guards and if one starts coming towards me, immediately flick your attention to them and do the counter strike (R1, then square),  2) switch between guards fluidly during your fight - don't try to just stay on one till he's down - I guess that'd be called "keeping them off-guard"...

Also, try not to Lock On to anyone using L1 - Ezio's attention gets locked and it's hard to counter others.

[PZ]

Sounds good - I'll try it in a few minutes - however, I was wondering - of you take your attention off a guard that you've been beating, will his health recover like yours does when attentions shifts to another?

[spaceboy]

no that does not appear to be the case.

[mmosu]

Art's right about keeping your back to a wall, there were some fights in the first game that were almost impossible to win because there was nothing convenient to back up against (I'm thinking of the last two fights in the game, the one at the graveyard and the one at the last battlefield).  You guys are on the right track as far as tactics go, seems these games are designed to challenge the player to move fluidly and fight efficiently rather than harder - probably the same mentality a real assassin would have in a similar situation.

[spaceboy]

I think you're right mmosu.  It seems the key to fighting is the counter attack.  You can keep swinging on someone and they typically keep blocking, but if you counter an attack of theirs you get in a sweep, a punch, a kick, etc. followed by a smack with your sword or mace  :)  I think the animations and variations of attacks are much better in this game than the first.

[PZ]

I think that the fighting is done very well - there are several offensive and defensive techniques that I've not mastered, but it doesn't really matter - I can still be successful in a fight despite my lack of controller button skills.

[Art Blade]

What I used to do (maybe you can) is to find the leader of a patrol or guard group, throw a knife into his face from afar to achieve surprise, then take out the weaker opponents one by one. What I never liked is to fight a bunch of medium skilled guys with their strong and skilled leader stepping up once in a while to try and finish me, and when I turned to him, he was very good at avoiding me -- that was the advantage the other guys were waiting for, and they got back into the fight. So my advice is, if it makes any sense in AC2, to kill the boss first. Best from afar, best in a surprising attack. :)

[JRD]

After you beat AC you can reload "unlocked memories" and re-play the levels... only this time the last guard of the bunch you are fighting agains will flee... obviously not for long as a throwing knife would finish him off in no time  ;D

That was it for feeling a badass in AC (and some kills jumping from above at a guard's throat)... guess they brought it to the next level in AC2  ;D ;D

[mmosu]

That's funny you mention that Art, I used to do the same thing.  When I would do the missions where you rescued townspeople that were being pushed around I would do it one of two ways:

1) Skulk around on the rooftops until I could draw a bead on the alpha male with a throwing knife
or
2) approach slowly on the ground from an angle where I had a clear view of the leader, and when I was too close for them to react in time I would spring on the boss and stick him right in front of his men, who would then in turn take a step back in shock, sometimes giving me enough time to strike one of them before they could draw their swords.

Both tactics are great for separating the weak ones from the herd and scaring off the even weaker ones  ;D

[Art Blade]

Hehe, I was thinking about posting that last version you mentioned, too (like: I jumped right on his chest and thrusted my hidden blade into his throat)  :) your first version is what I had in mind in my last post.  Indeed, funny :)

[spaceboy]

you can totally do way more of that in AC2 guys.  a) you can take out two at once with your hidden blade b) you can often turn and still get another before they know what's happening and c) you can even get it done during the middle of a sword fight -switch to hidden blade and then lunge at someone.  The other day I took both my hidden blades and shoved them straight into a guards head/eyes.  Wicked stuff.  Also, lots of blades through skulls and backs  :-X

[PZ]

Although I never played AC1, I'm really impressed with the hidden blades in AC2.  As spaceboy mentioned, you can easily kill two at a time, and not too infrequently I've managed to turn around and get another pair to complete 4 kills in a matter of 10 seconds or so.

When I'm wearing the Medicci cape, I can walk through Florence without increasing my notoriety no matter what I do, so simply wandering through the town killing guards in different ways gives me a great sense of gaming satisfaction.

[spaceboy]

That's right PZ, I should head over to Florence for an afternoon, I recorded some more gameplay in Venice and those guards are tougher there.  I'll edit it hopefully tonight and get it online tomorrow.  I tried showing different stuff like disarming a guard - some of my bad battles skills show through though lol.

Also I picked up an S video output cord for PS3 (totally by luck I stopped at gamestop to see if they had one and they had a GS branded one discounted for $5!)  Anyways the definition did look a little better than my previous recordings but we'll see after it gets uploaded to youtube if the difference is noticeable.

[PZ]

Looking forward to your video space - man I wish the game was available on the PC - so easy to record video using FRAPS.

On an aside, I finally managed to complete the last two tomb missions and went back to the villa to get Altair's armor - it is quite beautiful; black and gold with a red liner on the cape.

[spaceboy]

nice job finishing those tomb missions.  I've still got them to do but ran out of time last night.  I think my next mission is going to be to fly daVinci's machine!  I was scoping out (forget the buildings name) with Antonio and Ezio had an idea to get in like a bird! - my next step is to visit Leonardo.

I'll be hoping to accomplish the Fly Swatter Trophy - kick a guard while using the flying machine.

here's the complete trophy list btw http://mygamepages.com/index.php?topic=437.0

Did you do that mission yet?

[PZ]

Yeah, I did that one before I got into the races - it was very much fun!  The funny thing is that I was going to do the assassin's tomb before it, but could not get access into the building - I even killed all the guards on the brick building and guarding the ground floor.  I finally discovered that I did not even get into the building - the skull knob was near the roof of the brick building!

As to the flying machine, it was easy to accomplish the flight onto the roof of the heavily guarded building.  It was more of a challenge to do the assassination without being discovered, but overall, it was a mission that I enjoyed.

I'm actually looking forward to completing the game (if I can get past those races) so I can re-do some of my favorite missions.

[mmosu]

I'm glad to hear the hidden blade combat has been nicely done in this one, looking forward to it  ;D
One of my favorite weapons in the first game was actually the upgraded short blade.  There was one kill animation with it that I really liked - Altair would kick his opponents leg bringing him down to his knees, and a quick downward thrust would find the short blade sticking out of the top of their head following a sound not unlike that of a firm blow to a ripe melon - Mmmmm, melon  ::)

[spaceboy]

I believe you'll hear that ripe melon splitting sound in parts of my new videos I uploaded   ;D

http://openworldgames.org/owg/forums/index.php?topic=1232.0

[Art Blade]

a quick downward thrust would find the short blade sticking out of the top of their head following a sound not unlike that of a firm blow to a ripe melon

Ok, I'll get the US version of AC2 rather than the localised version. I had that move in AC1, without the part where you'd find "the short blade sticking out of the top of their head" -- bloody censored here. And regarding the info provided by that friend of mine who's playing the localised version of AC2 on the PS3: Again censored, not a single drop of blood. Funny thing: He'll be the one who'll purchase the US version for me (eating his guts out because he didn't buy the US version for himself, lol)