[BleedBurgundy]

I bought it and played about 3 hours last night. Wow. What a game. I've only done one assassination so far but it is a hell of a lot of fun. The thing about this game is that you have complete freedom to do it the way you want. If you're concerened with just burning through it, you can, but you'll miss 90% of what makes it unique. The combat system is actually pretty intuitive and it truly is rhythm based. If you're not stealthy enough and find yourself encircled by 3 or 4 guards it's actually really cool to fight them off all at the same time. That part kind of reminded me of one of those old swashbuckling movies from way back when.

Running from rooftop to rooftop and climbing buildings is also really intuitive. You truly can go anywhere in the game. That comes into play after an assassination when you have the whole city on your ass and you're trying to get away from hordes of guards. Duck into an alley, hide in a giant pile of straw, even conceal yourself among a group of monks. It is pretty awesome when you're running for your life, turn a corner and see a doorway on a side street and know you can actually duck in and hide, unlike most games.

The other thing that I am enjoying is the recon aspect of the game. It only requires two pieces of intel but if you want you can gather I think up to 8 pieces of information by eavesdropping, pick pocketing, interrogation, and performing good deeds. I think taking the considerable time to gather all of the intel makes the payoff a lot more satisfying when you pull off the assassination. Kind of like Hannibal from the A Team. "I love it when a plan comes together..."

Anyway, as cool as it is, I'd say that if you're the kind of player that likes nonstop action or just doesn't have patience, you may want to save the 60 bucks and rent it. But if you play it like you would if you were actually in that situation, i.e. trying to learn as much as you can so that the kills go smoothly and investigating your environment, then I'd say pick it up as it will have alot of replay value.

Overall, definitely the best game I've played on the 360, bar none.