HUD-less design of Assassin's Creed 1 -
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/StanislavCos ... reed_1.php
Stanislav Costiuc wrote:
One can say, ‘Sure Stas, the first Assassin’s Creed has interesting ideas, great atmosphere, story, and provided a base for the franchise, but it got repetitive and boring, surely the rest of the series is a big improvement over it?’ Well… in a way yes. But in a way no. After all, ‘Nothing is true, everything is permitted.’ There is one amazing thing in the first Assassin’s Creed that elevates the experience to a different level of immersion and none of its sequels has it. I’m talking about HUD-less design.
What's with that quote? Does he actually believe it? That's a little more epistemological self-consciousness than I'm used to seeing at Gamasutra. As for the rest of the article, can't comment as I haven't read it all. Nor am I likely to. The last Assassin's Creed I played was
Black Flag, and even if it wasn't very obvious where to go without the HUD enabled, I still played without it. I don't think the sequels are lacking when it comes to the praise Stanislav gives the first (based on my experience with
Black Flag), but I'm no expert on the series. Maybe it has gotten worse.