Assassin's Creed Review

[B.A.M.]

Unique. That is the first word that comes to mind when thinking about my many adventures with Assassin?s Creed. I cannot think of anything which implements stealth, sword fights, huge cities, a mind boggling story line, and other things all into one game. It is quite the risk to attempt such a unique game, and sometimes I questioned whether it was done right. But, when the credits finally roll your jaw, as mine and everyone else?s have, will drop to the floor.



Game Info:

Platform: PS3, Windows, and Xbox360
Producer: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre: Action-adventure, stealth
Release Date: November 14, 2007
ESRB Rating: M
Multiplayer?: No

First of all, you aren?t technically the assassin in the box art. More that you are Desmond Miles, currently a bartender in 2012 who has been unknowingly kidnapped by a strange high-tech group. Inside one of their buildings they show you the Animus (The Animus is a machine that takes strands of DNA and uses that to allow the owner of the DNA to replay through his ancestor?s past). To your surprise, you are the ancestor of the assassin Altair. Eager to get started, (not you that is, but your kidnappers) you are forced to get into the Animus and begin your long journey into the past.

You (Now Altair), fellow assassin Malik, and his brother go to a temple, as ordered to retrieve an artifact. There, you find the leader of the Templars, Robert. Altair foolishly tries to assassinate him but is instead separated from everyone. Altair escapes while Malik loses his arm as well as his brother?s life. Fortunately, Malik managed to get the artifact. Despite the mission actually being successful Altair is demoted to Uninitiated by Al Mualim, the leader of the assassins. In order to regain your previous rank you must assassinate the nine men who were at the temple when you originally tried to assassinate Robert. There are three of these men in each city (Those being Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus).

Because of the plot twists I?m not going to say anything more about the plot. In time things will reveal itself and you will be surprised. But as for the gameplay, it, at its core, plays out like a stealth game. Don?t let guards notice you (hiding in plain sight is a very important skill in this game), garner the necessary information, find and assassinate your target. Simple right?

Of course, there are a few bumps on the way. For starters, to get to these three cities you have to go through the vast wide open Kingdom. There you can ride on your horse (which is whatever horse you can find) and just have fun in the wide open. It retains a few things like the cities, such as guards and tall towers (these allow you to find objectives and clear up the map) but for the most part it is just a place to run around. But after playing the game I find it the best part of the ancient world because it just is more relaxing to be in.

Now moving on, once getting to the city you need to find a way in. You can scale the walls and jump over the guard?s heads or you could save a civilian nearby by killing off some soldiers. In return a group of white robed scholars, similar to yours, will bring you in through the main way (Saving citizens is something of a side mission you will find yourself doing often. Inside the cities your reward are scholars, who can take you closer to your target, and vigilantes, who are men which block guards chasing after you momentarily).

Once inside you head straight to the Assassin?s Bureau in which you will get the necessary information about your mission. From there you must head to the right district (Each city is separated into ?Poor?, ?Middle?, and ?Rich?) and complete at least 3 of the 6 missions about information regarding your target. Once done you go back to the Bureau, go through a cut scene, and head off to your target. After reaching it and seeing his fear and corruption you climb walls, jump across pillars, and ultimately stick your short blade into the back of his neck (To fight you can punch, throw knives, use a short blade which is used for assassinations, and a long sword. Really, any method of killing anyone does the trick). Now while this sounds cool the combat plays out like a one button system in which you basically counter guard attacks.

I?m sorry you had to read through that as I put it. But the reason for that is because that is what it feels like playing through each level. Assassin?s Creed is a tough game to play through. Not because of it being hard (which it isn?t) but because there is nothing different about each level besides the characters you assassinate.

It is not just that though. The controls in the game, while simple, are too simple. Basically, to hide from the guards you don't make any actions that make you stand out. Don't bump into people holding onto pots (so they don't drop) and stay away from restricted areas. Near your health bar there is a circle which tells you this. Blank means no guard is watching you. Yellow means you are being watched. Red means you should get the hell out of there. When spotted you have to get out of the guard's sight and hide somewhere until they give up. This could be in a hut on top of a roof, a bench, or a group of scholars.

But anyways, to avoid being scene you just basically walk while pressing down "B" (B prevents you from knocking over pots). To fight you hold down the right and left trigger and press "X" repeatedly. I find it amazing how they made the controls so simple but with that they made it to easy to cheat. And after getting chased by guards 2-3 times on your way to something you will feel tired of it and the need to "cheat".

Besides the Bureau, there is also no place to go in the city. Every part of it acts the same. But to keep you busy you can collect flags hidden throughout everywhere in the city and beyond, or find, fight, and kill Templars. Of course, this is quite a job and I recommend it only to those who go by the name of "achievement whores". :P

Though, it may seem great at first, especially with the epically gruesome in-fight cut scenes when fighting guards, but after the first 2-3 assassinations I found myself reluctant to turn on my Xbox because Assassin?s Creed became a chore. Sure, you can basically climb anywhere, jump off ledges safely, and walk around in 3 huge cities. I get that. It?s great. But, nothing noticeable separates anything. And in a sandbox game, that is a recipe for disaster. But before I was about to call it quits they saved it with the story line which takes your mind away from your surroundings and makes the game actually fun. Unfortunately, the story only becomes indulging near the end.

But even after the story is over, there is more to do (as I already touched on). The game is very replayable. Hell, that?s basically what you do the whole game. But, once you get the story off your shoulders (and with that a lot of the forced repetitiveness) the game becomes much more relaxing as you play to explore.

Camera-wise?it has its ups and down. The game is 3rd person platformer like game so it isn?t common for the camera to get annoying at times. For the most part, the camera works well. The only part I disapprove of is that you can?t look up really, or look at the view of the cities. But it gets better. During the cut scenes it involves you more than just walking around. At some parts, by pressing any button, you can change the camera to get a different view of the ongoing event. In the rest, you can switch between cameras at any time which allows you to be like a director shooting your own movie. The cut scenes can be dry sometimes and this really livens it up.

Though, while I thought some characters were done poorly, the graphics are fantastic. And this is coming from an 11 inch T.V. :P I really wish I had this experience on a larger one, high definition or not, because I?m sure it would have made my experience a lot better. As for sound, it is good. The voice acting is great in some areas and others it is adequate. While playing the game no music came to mind.

If you are considering buying this game, be sure you are committed. You will feel the repetitiveness, believe me. But, thanks to my friends I pulled through and wound up with a game that made me smile in the end and jump to the computer to find out about Assassin?s Creed 2. As I said, it is unique, beautiful, and has a very intriguing story to boot. This game could have been better, much better. But, when it?s all said and done, I regret nothing about it. And, because of that, I give it a [color="#FF0000"]8/10[/color] because, that?s what you look for after beating a game.

I know you may be confused with my score right now. I kind of was tough on the game the entire time. Giving it a high score doesn't usually come with that. :P The reason is because despite it's flaws it is easy to dodge them. This is through taking your time, maybe relaxing in the Kingdom, or just breaking away from the story to collect flags or save citizens in a previous level. Like all sandbox games, your expierience with the game is what you make of it. I can't ignore this. I include the graphics, sound, and fantastic story and had no choice but to give it a great rating.

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This just reminded me to go pick this game up. And your review was good and informative.