Difficulty:

Hard

Time Spent:

40 to 100 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Hard to describe"

Hmmm, this is an odd one as I admit I haven't played any arcade type games in many, many years. I much prefer RPG and adventure games, but for what it is, its well done.

Good:
1. A relatively large world to romp around in.
2. Climbing is so realistic I had butterflies in my stomach.
3. Movement and action is fluid; with a few notable exceptions (you can't crouch for instance) if you can envision it, you can do it.
4. Plenty of things to do if you just love to clear a map.

Bad:
1. This IS NOT a combat game; you can literally go through the entire game and kill everyone with your fists....literally 20 guys will LINE UP to fight you...they have swords and pikes and you kill them with your fists...the ultimate button mashing game.
2. Story is VERY linear. There are things to do other than the follow the main story line; namely, collect feathers, climb buildings, loot treasure chests for gold (the map shows you where they are, and there are a lot of them), race people up buildings, assassinate people, ...there are a couple more, but all are VERY contrived and don't add to the game, unless you are just looking to kill time.
3. I say this is mainly an arcade game as there are 6 vaults and a few storyline parts where you are forced to run, jump, climb and race against opponents and the clock itself...some of these allow VERY LITTLE room for error....be warned, if anyone tells you they did this in 1 try (or 3 or 4) they're lying to you :P
4. Money in this game was just added as the designers felt they had to;it really has no purpose...equipment uogrades are very linear and just add health (which is irrelevant anyway as no one can kill you), the weapon upgrades inspire nothing...its obvious the designers didn't care about this part of the game.
5. At no point in time did the present-day 1% of the game make any sense at all....it added nothing to the game, save that it allows an easy launch into the next game...but anyone playing this game is not doing it for the story, so I;m baffled.