Week 2: Progress Is a Slow Process

     My Hunt for the Nine has been stifled by outside interests. I made the 'mistake' of dedicating a great deal of my time to reading, and the time I had allotted to my backlog was absorbed into personal growth.

I blame Patrick Rothfuss for his incessantly engaging storytelling. What an assh*le, right?

As for my progress, I made it through the rest of Acre, killing the crazy doctor-man and hitting all the memory glitches in the aftermath. The hospital he works in is a pain in the ass, for me at least. I have never made it out of there with perfect stealth.

I kill him while he is absorbed in his work, and am almost immediately discovered and pursued through the city.

Maybe I just suck at stealth...

The assassination of Talal is an interesting change to the formula, if you can call the two previous assassinations formulaic. Rather than stalking the target, he essentially leads you into a trap.

Instead of stealth killing him in the middle of a crowd, you have to chase him down and kill him. It added some tension to the process, with the potential for the target's escape sort of looming, but not really.

In restrospect, I think this could have been done differently. Rather than Talal waiting while his goons try to kill you, he should flee and it should fall to the player to hunt him down within the city with little more than instincts.

I understand that might be a difficult game mechanic, but that could be pretty cool if handled properly.

Even with my full attention, I cannot be brought to care about the plot being carried out with my assassinations. For me, the quest to reclaim rank supersedes the conspiracy developing across the land.

Since I've managed to avoid spoilers to this point, any speculation I offer in regards to the plot is genuine.

I get the feeling I will end up killing Al Mualim. He seems less interested in restoring Altair's rank and more interested in progressing his own agenda, or the agenda he sees fit for the Assassin's Order.

The interactions with Lucy and the opportunities to find information on her, Warren and, I assume, ultimately Abstergo, make the Desmond segments interesting. It is still jarring to go from leaping across rooftops and running through crowded streets to sauntering around a lab with no real options in terms of destination.

You can access their computers and you can go to your room. Hooray for freedom.

Again, I'm still very early in the game and I imagine it is all leading somewhere. I'm more curious about Abstergo's goal than the sub-plot in the Animus world.

I am fairly close to where I left off with my deepest playthrough in terms of story progress. I've been given the three assassination targets. Since I'm familiar with the guy throwing the party, I figure I'll take him out first, even if it is another chase down and kill target.

After him, William of Montferrat. He was the last target I assassinated in my previous playthrough and marks the furthest I've made it through the game.

I intend to reach that point midway through next week so I have something more than a review of previous feats to share.