Death from Above
The rumors are true. Assassins Creed does indeed get a bit repetitive in its core gameplay mechanics. Before each of the nine major assassinations that Altair is required to perform you must:
1) Climb to several high points in the city, and hit a button that forces you to look around at the beautiful
environment.
2) Sneak about the alleyways, or climb to the rooftops and run with amazingly fluid animation.
3) Eavesdrop on others who often give you helpful and important information about your current target.
4) Kill a bunch of fools with cinematic finishing moves that makes everyone else in the game run for cover.
Or you can skip almost all of that and get right to the main event. And oh, what events they are. Corrupt officials, psychotic military leaders, evil doctors, conspirators all, but for who? And what? What could tie these men together?
I was sucked in by the story, loved the main assassinations, and happily played through the repetitive investigations side missions just because I loved the immersive world Altair lived in so much. There was nothing better than sneaking down a wall like Spider-Assassin, carefully stepping up behind the target, delivering the killing blow with the hidden blade, getting even more juicy story elements from the target himself, and then running like hell, the whole city alert and on your tail.
The game itself could certainly have had more variety, but the story and game engine technology more than made up for it in my book. Climb to top of the cathedral in Acre, perch on the cross at the top like the bird of prey you are, and simply enjoy the view. It's really stunning.
The new Prince of Persia game is apparently built off the same game engine as this. I cannot wait.
