Fell really let down with it
However I am really annoyed with Ubisoft at the way they continue to try and introduce harsher DRM with every release, that I held off buying this game until it had dropped significantly in price.
Well the price is low from Amazon so I decided now is the time and went ahead and bought it.
It came today in the post, so I installed it, didnt take long at all to install.
After installing I launched it, the updater appeared, then a short while later an error message, fatal error connecting to update server. I could select play game so I did, the little splash screen with the spinning circle appeared for quiet a long time, then another error message about online connection problems. So I checked my firewall, all was as it should be, checked my port settings, well in fact I placed my computer into the DMZ outside of NAT limitations, still the game would not launch. So I tried numerous other online games, no problems. I ran a speedtest, no problems. I downloaded some files, no problems. I uploaded files, no problems. I tested my connection on my computer, no problems.
So I uninstalled and reinstalled, still did not work, I repeated this 3 times with no success. At this point, as you can imagine, I am jumping up and down with sheer fury.
No matter what I did I could not get this game to work. My internet is working absolutely fine, as it always has done, so the problem must be with the servers.
Considering I had bought this game, I paid my own money to own a copy of this game, and I was being denied this, I downloaded a crack for the game, guess what, game works fine with no need for internet connection. So I have been forced to install a crack on a legitimate copy of this game in order to play it, I feel really valued as a ubisoft customer at the moment I can tell you (not).
Anyway, after all that, the game itself is merely okay. Its almost identical to the original, enhanced in some areas. The setting is brilliant. I find the climbing a little more involving than the first game, you have to actually pick a path up the walls or you dont always get to the top. Free running is much the same as the original, slightly glitchy as in if you are heading even slightly in the wrong direction you can quite easily fall and get hurt, sometimes the character doesnt do what you want it to either.
Great sound and music, ambient crowd chatter, birds singing, workmen sounds, very immersive, with a classical themed soundtrack. Performance is quite good overall, the frame rate is stable, rarely dropping, even with the game set to its highest settings and multisampling on x8.
Graphics I am a little disappointed in. I know its not a new game anymore, but I do not like the way textures are blurred at only relatively short distances away. If I stand in a square with tall buildings surrounding it, some of the buildings have distinctly blurred textures on them, which for a 2010 release is poor in my opinion. Looking at the buildings on the far side of a wide part of the river, all the buildings on the other side are blurred.
Its almost a DX7 look at a distance, which is a huge shame and its this fact (and the non starting of the game) that makes me mark it down.
Final word, I know I have already mentioned my opinion on the DRM, but this will be the last Ubisoft game I buy unless they sort this out. They are punishing there customers and nobody else. The fact that the only way I could play this game is with a crack, and that with the crack I no longer need to be online to play it, is ridiculous and just shows what a waste of time their system is.