Block, Parry, Rinse, Repeat.
I started Assassin's Creed with a pretty open mind. Move about a city, do some repetitive tasks (it had been that long and all the reviews said so) and eventually kill some bad guys. But I rode quite the unexpected wave.
I had to really push myself to continue at the start. The environments the player is put in all seemed remedial for such a game and I really had no curiousity encountering a new city. The people living in these surroundings were much alike, characters existing purely of repeated soundbites and little to no imagination. Still, I thought I would stick to my guns and see it through.
A little over half way, my thoughts began to pick up. I could see how I could blow through this game, kill each assigned identified target and move on. There were some great roof-top chases and the fighting system was so easy (see title), any goon could do it. And I am any goon.
Fast forward to the end (Because quite simply, the story is forgettable. Generic twists, turns, omg's and spiritual historical references entwined. Yawn.) and the kettle of fish just got different and bigger, but not in a good way. The last few fights are so frustrating, because you are using the same fighting tactic for every fight. This is the games flaw through most of the game, so for the game to become such a tumulation at it's finale is disappointing.
Pretty much the entire game encapsulated in one image.
Spoilers: I'm guessing most people have played it by now, who which to play it, but below is an end game spoiler.
The game also has the biggest cliff hanger for no reason, other than to make you want to play the sequel. This is all fine and good if you enjoyed the journey and the 2nd game is available. But if I played this at the time of release I would have sent my own assasin to Ubisoft (don't take this as a real threat, internet). I lost it much like when I watched the "Tunnel of Light" episode of Lost 2 weeks ago.
Skip this one and start at its apparently better sequel.
