Combat - Nope.  If that's all you're doing, then you're doing it wrong. there's blocks, grabs, attacks, counterattacks, and sometimes shooting.  You can steath assassinate, you can attack from afar with a bow, etc.  The only time what you say is true is if you constantly get into fights with waves of people and only use two abilities.  That'd be like playing Soul Calibur and spamming Raphael's forward/Vertical attack.  It's not the developer's fault you're not creative. 

Platforming - it is a little restrictive, but so is Uncharted or pretty much every other game that features platforming that isn'ta strict platformer like Donkey Kong, Mario, Rayman, or LittlebigPlanet.  And the platforming is there as a part of the game, and not a focus.  it's there, but it's not as much as you think or are acting. 

Other Gameplay - Plenty.  There's stealth elements, combat elements, chase elements, and plenty of things to do as far as optional side quests and one-time events.  If you don'tlike it, that's cool and I won't argue, but just becuase you don't enjoy the gameplay doesn't mean it's poor. 

Story - Easily has one of the best overarching stories and lore sets in any game series, ever.  it has some plot contrivances, but I doubt you'll find many stories that you can't find plot issues with.  far as the medium (and movies and TV, while we're at it) is concerned, it's still one of the best told, best written, and best conceptualized plots ever.  Unless you're a super sensitive religious person who can't handle the idea that maybe God is not God. 

Graphics - the first one was fantastic and the series has done nothing but improve both in fidelity and art direction.   Not to mention the costume design is unrivaled. 

Audio - Again, some of the best voice acting and score in a game.  Score is beat by stuff like zelda and God of War,but it's stil in the upper eschelon in that regard. 

So, overrated?  naw, you just don't like it.  

I don't get how you people don't like it.

the main story that is set in the past is good and has lots of key events from the time. While, Desmond's story itself is truly fucked up and is very hard to understand. Also, combat is simple and easy to grasp, which i like.

But over anything, it's always the location and the time period that makes the game for me. I just running along the rooftops of 16th century Rome or Istanbul, or through the forests outside of Boston and New York in the 18th century. No other game focuses on the past in such a way. It's just fun to explore these worlds sometimes.

But if anything, it's the multiplayer that sucks. That never was fun to play and the high level players are very over powered in my opinion

I admit this game is easy, but again that don't bother me. If you want a challenging game then look elsewhere.

Assassin's Creed III was one of my favourite games from the HD generation. I would give that 8.5 out of 10 though , while Assassin's creed II was definitely better (9.5 out of 10). That still remains the best in the series.

Had you talked about Assassin's Creed 1, i would agree

...This morning.

I've installed a new hard drive, so I'm re-installed all of my games in alphabetical order. I haven't got past the Assassin's Creed games yet because I started playing them instead. I love the characters, I love the huge and detailed world and I love the story. Combat is a bit weak and platforming is too easy, but it's still a blast to do.

Not even the last one? It's funny and all, but when people in a game don't even fight back as you kill them...

Anyway, I just don't see how it's a controversial statement to say that the series is a particularly glitchy one. Maybe I'm just bitter because I bought the incredibly glitchy AC3: Liberation, and while most were just amusing, one actually prevents you from loading your save and just endlessly kicks you back to the Ubisoft splash screen. Nearly three weeks later, Ubi hasn't even officially acknowledged it yet as far as I can tell.

The Ezio trilogy has to be the best story out of gaming this generation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gf4DKZ7yhM

Your assessment sounds like you've only played the first one. I've only played the first two myself, but I've mentioned exactly what you've said here to my pals who are big AC fans and they claim the combat gets much better in each installment, as for the platforming I'm not sure.

But I agree AC1 pretty much sucked due to repetitiveness and the combat being hold block then counter. I want to give this series another shot sometime and play them all. They came out when I was still big into Call of Duty and played nothing else so I never got too into them.

I concur. Also the story sucks too.

like most other games, it has its flaws but to say its one of the worst ips ever created? come on! thats a bit harsh.

What you mentioned about combat doesn't seem to disprove my point. I already acknowledged blocks and counterattacks as being the dominant form of combat. There are offensive attacks, but you cannot do them on most opponents because they spam block and they'll counterattack you. From my experience with grabbing, you can't grab most opponents because they'll immediately push you off. Stealth/ranged attacks were extremely uncommon in AC2 as well. That leaves 90% of the combat being block/counterattack and dodge/counterattack. It makes the combat incredibly boring as you sit there and wait for the opponents attack. The other 10% consists stealth and ranged attacks, and the few times that you can actually be offensive and grab/attack an opponent.

As for the platforming, it's much more restrictive than other game this generation. One of the most essential elements of platforming is jumping and timing your jumps. But in Assassin's Creed, the character just jumps on his own without any additional player input. The player is incredibly passive; all you have to do is hold L1 and push forward. And yeah, platforming is a fairly large portion of the game. There is a ton of time spent climbing walls, towers, buildings, vantage points, etc. It's at least 25-35% of the game.

There may be tiny bits of other gameplay, but platforming and combat make the bulk of the gameplay. Also, chase scenes pretty much fall under platforming, unless you plan to make your escape without scaling buildings. As for stealth, AC2 didn't have much true stealth. Assassin's Creed definition of stealth consists of killing a dude, alerting everyone in the proximity, and going on a chase for a few moments. The only stealth was before the actual kill. There are a few missions where you make kills without ever being spotted, but there are very few of them.

Graphic, story, and audio are all secondary to a game.