Review: Assassin’s Creed
GamingLet’s get this out of the way right now. Assassin’s Creed has been out for over two months and if you don’t know that there is a twist at the beginning of the game, then congratulations on your Amish community finally installing internet access. I bring up the twist because it was one of the main reasons I stuck by this game until its conclusion. So if you still want to avoid this spoiler skip the next paragraph. Are we good now?
A Tale of Two Cities…
Time periods, to be more specific. Assassin’s Creed places you in the role of Desmond Miles, a seemingly regular guy who is kidnapped by an evil corporation (because as we know, all corporations are evil). The reason our friend has been detained is so the corporation can use him in an experiment that taps into genetic memory. See Desmond is the descendant of Altair, a ruthless assassin who lived during The Crusades. Through the use of a fancy memory device Desmond will live the life of his ancestor while the data is recorded by a research assistant who looks and sounds exactly like Kristen Bell. The futuristic parts of the story were what I found most interesting and eagerly played through Altair’s missions in order to hopefully be treated to a cut scene or anything that would push the story along. Sadly this was not as often as it should have been, as the bulk of the game takes place during Altair’s time and frankly, his story is clichéd and pretty damn boring.
Wow, religious wars were beautiful to look at!
Get used to lots of brown and gray. That seemed to be the color palette of choice 900 years ago. While the colors aren’t exactly stunning, the architecture more than makes up for it. Dalmasca, Acre, and Jerusalem are all rendered in exquisite detail and feel like three truly different cities when you visit them. Each city is also divided into rich and poor sectors, with the poor sectors really showing just how decrepit the lives of these people were. Characters are a mixed bag, with realistic animations making up for some uninspired designs. You’ll run into the same guards and same townspeople over and over again. I wished the level of detail placed into the environments had been placed into all the characters. While certainly modeled well, it lacked a certain distinction.
Parkour, look it up
Controlling Altair around the environment is actually a really enjoyable experience. Point him in the direction you want to take him and he’ll find a way forward, or up, or down. Altair will scale to the tops of buildings, run from rooftop to rooftop, even swing across beams all without you trying to memorize button combinations. Simple? Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. This is similar to the thrill you get from games like Crackdown and Spider-Man where you can take your character anywhere.
Research, Kill, Repeat
So Assassin’s Creed is gorgeous to look at, features a pretty decent story and a damn fine control scheme. Seems like they’re missing something - oh right, a game. When it comes to actual gameplay, we’ve got big problems. Altair is assigned to kill 9 targets throughout the course of the game. As Altair you get to sneak around the city, avoiding detections while researching the target through simple events like pick pocketing a document off an informant or eavesdropping on a conversation between guards. Once you have done this three times you are given the go ahead to head after your target. This usually ends will the target dead and fifty guards trying to kill you. Thankfully the combat is easy to get the hang of and once you master counter-attacks the game becomes a cake walk. The only thing is - that’s all you do. There are no mini games, no dungeons to explore. What you see is what you get. The missions are fun for the first few rounds, then they become monotonous. The end of the game even changes direction and takes away any sense of stealth.
Do you want to keep this memory?
Overall Assassin’s Creed’s strengths lie not in the sum of its parts but rather the parts themselves. Ubisoft has managed to accomplish some amazing visuals, tight controls, and an engaging story. Sadly this came at the price of gameplay. While I played the game from start to finish I don’t plan on a replay. I really enjoyed the ideas more than the game itself. Hopefully Ubisoft will take the criticisms they’ve received to heart when further developing this franchise.
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 11:01 am and is filed under Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.