Assassins Creed Revelations Hidden Gun Strategy for Assassinate

Dear Intellectual Opponents,

You seem to be under the impression that I am promoting the Hidden Gun to people because I believe it to be in each individual’s interest. That I am inadvertently causing what few fans I have to undermine the fun of Assassinate. I assure you this is most certainly not the case.

I encourage people to use Hidden Gun precisely because it ruins Assassinate. Its very interaction with Assassinate demonstrates the absurdity of the game mode’s principles.

In all other game modes, Hidden Gun is balanced for several reasons.

• It cannot be used as defense.
• The opportunity of using it is not worth the loss of discretion bonus.
• The unlikeliness of earning Execution bonuses with it lowers its value.

This all makes sense in game modes where the discretion meter serves a purpose.

In Assassinate, no such balance exists. Ubisoft’s “pursuer exposed” mechanic was so poorly thought out that they essentially created a separate game that operates on none of the principles of the other game modes. Perhaps this was intentional; perhaps not. Regardless, such a decision lends itself to powerful, albeit counter-intuitive, tactics. Many have mastered them, and I have been repeatedly impressed by the videos of players who have accumulated a great deal of technical skill over the course of thousands of matches.

However, many of these players seem to believe I should feel a great dishonor in using the Hidden Gun because it is the cheapest, lamest skill in the game. Or because promoting its use to other players will hurt Assassin’s Creed multiplayer.

I suppose the jig, as they say, is up.

You see, in my ideal world everyone would use the Hidden Gun to the point at which Assassinate was so unfun that Ubisoft would have no choice but to remove the “pursuer exposed” mechanic from Assassin’s Creed 3. Consider this all an elaborate a form of protest, if you will.

Furthermore, I contest the common assertion that the game is about getting points (and therefore the Hidden Gun is a bad skill). This is a matter of opinion, but the motivation of others does not particularly interest me.

I personally play for two reasons. Primarily, to end each round in first place (as I almost always do). And secondarily, to make other players lose.

I hope you understand I don’t make a habit of gunning down random, gullible players (at least I’d prefer not to). I check the in-game scoreboard regularly, stalk the characters doing the best, and shoot them as soon as they’ve set up what I’m sure is a 1000 point kill.

While other players tire of following a single target for no payoff, I find there are great rewards in robbing the entitled of their investments. Surely, Robin Hood was similarly motivated. And it comes of no surprise to me that these players will opt out of rematches as soon as it becomes apparent to them that I have no interest in letting them dominate terrible players without consequence. Very well; more points for me.

Do I take a sick, twisted satisfaction in doing this? In a word, yes.

In two words, very yes.

Moreover, I do it to remind these players that for every rock, there is a paper. Alternatively: there is always something higher on the food chain.

A doormouse may feel it is “cheap” that a hawk can fly, but the feelings of the doormouse have no value in a hunter-prey equation. The hawk is a flying bastard because God made him that way. God is responsible for making the equation so unbalanced. And as far as Assassinate goes, Ubisoft is our god. A flawed god whose creation should be ridiculed by his very subjects, one bullet at a time.

But ultimately, this isn’t nearly as important as the truths of creation or any of that. It’s about a  random blogger’s stance on a video game strategy. A self-absorbed man on the internet who espouses a strategy you dislike… in a game that will be replaced by its successor come 2013. Nothing of grave importance or long term consequence is at stake; nothing of value is lost in its dissection. Does this truly merit such vitriol?

Of course not. Not even this diatribe itself is warranted; it serves only to stoke my literary ego. If it ends up having value beyond that, I would be most delighted.

As for those who feel there is only one method of playing Assassin’s Creed: I counter, “Nothing is true.”

To those who feel none should adopt a tactic they find dishonorable: I say, “Everything is permitted.”

And to those who think they have can keep employing single-minded strategies with impunity: I say, “Requiescat in pace.“

Your Humble Antagonist,
WiNGSPANTT