Assassin's Creed

Assassins Creed was scheduled to be Ubisoft's next franchise after the Prince of Persia Trilogy. Everyone was excited, adventure lovers and fans alike. There wasn't a reason NOT to be excited, for this was to definitely spark off something immersive and innovative for the genre. Unfortunately, in my opinion Assassins Creed doesn't continue the success of the Prince of Persia Trilogy and is an overrated game but there are plenty of solid despite dragged on areas of the game to be had.

Assassins Creed follows a free roaming, sandbox like experience. There is a relatively long tutorial which can take the average player 20 minutes, replaying users cannot skip this tutorial and while it's certainly helpful for the time it takes, it doesn't explain the most disappointing aspect of the game which is the missions. Finding and traversing the missions using your compass is very confusing, in fact there were so many points on the map, I found it hard to know which one you had to go to. The towns and villages are on the most part the same with the same roads and roof tops which don't help either, but when you actually get onto a mission that's another quest in itself. I'd sit on a bench to start an eavesdropping mission when there would be no indication of how start it or when to start it.

The variety of the missions wasn't that great either. They were recycled far too often swinging back forth and forth. There were eavesdrop and interrogation missions but that was the core section of the missions. While relying on some parts of stealth, it didn't rely on any form of combat or platforming puzzles which were disappointing. The missions aren't explained very well either as written above, the tutorial doesn't give you any help of the missions aside little help pop ins.

Assassinations would be quite fun if they had different possible actions. Different takes on assassinations aren't implemented because you literally have to execute them. You can't get ten metres within the target without them noticing you despite you are blended in pretty well, there are no dives off buildings and stab the target as seen on the trailer. You literally have to swipe your way through the guards and then slash the target. In spite of the sandbox part to assassinations, executing targets are quite fun and don't prove to be a huge challenge but nonetheless you do get that sense of accomplishment when defeating them because of the amount of effort gone into driving through these sometimes confusing and frustrating missions. The targets are quite well fleshed out too as to why they are targeted.

The story is a mixed bag because it has a specific targeted audience. You may probably want to stop reading this review now if you love action packed fast moving movies or hate historical stories. Assassins Creed's story follows two simultaneous stories.

At first, not explained very well except you're a normal young man and secretly taken in by a company who have developed technology on tracking peoples late ancestors through their genes. This company takes you in; you're drugged and wake up to be found on a slab with no rights whatsoever. You have no freedom; you are captivated in a confined area where you are tested on. A scientist and an assistant are two protagonists in the game of which are well fleshed out as the story goes on. The characters aren't especially memorable but are well developed.

This is where your Assassin comes in. After the tutorial of which is excused for a practise memory sequence of your brain, you're a historical assassin and are employed in the Creed who follow specific commandments. They fight for the peace but kill anyone who has disobeyed the Creed or committed murder or along those lines anyway. You are regarded from your leader as an arrogant young man (like the future ancestor captivated). You are to hunt down anyone who is wasteful to the world whether its colonisation or slave labour.

The game unfortunately has a depressing feel to it with the loading screens. While running around in empty spaces is more amusing than reading health and safety loading screens, the dull backgrounds gave me amnesia and déjà vu quite alot of the time. Towns can have invisible walls which are quite annoying seeing as the towns play a big part of the game as there are only a dozen, rather than the environments or surroundings outside of the towns having the invisible walls. Furthermore, the game isn't fluid throughout; there are a dozen separated areas which contain these walls. But at first glance, they may seem like invisible walls but in fact are portals onto the other side as they can only cram in so much content into one area. Pale in comparison to Oblivion where the world is constant throughout in spite of few frame rate stutters and graphical pop ins. Additionally when approaching these little portals, frequent frame rate stutters can annoy you before and after the portals. There also glitches here and there but the frame rate is what can annoy you mostly.

Although the game does innovate a few things; you can ride horses from one town to another which is quite amusing and can save long tedious travels. Riding horses is fun, you can even fight while on your horse (and no, you can't joust). As you progress through the game there are ranks, not developed ranks but specific ranks. You can't expect to kill a soldier and be given experience instead you are upgraded at different parts in the game with new armour and equipment so you don't have any RPG free roaming elements like skills or stats.

One thing Assassins Creed does contain that the Prince of Persia trilogy did not was the free roaming experience. You can climb buildings, traverse roof-tops and so on. The ability to do anything you wish, up to a limit that is. You are given a synchronization bar which relates to your future ancestor. You can die for two reasons. 1) You are killed by a soldier or you fall from a big jump. 2) You kill an innocent, for that you lose one bar. At the start of the game you have five bars, from then on like above at specific points in the game you are given more bars to mess around with. If after time you have a few left it does regain but only after so long. That's what I found so much fun with Assassins Creed. Just killing an innocent and trying out different methods of escape. Either blending in or just running away. Next to your bar, you have a reading to whether you are still being hunted, escaping or are free. This helps alot on chases and you also have a cinematic view on chases which can be quite fun to view on despite one or two camera issues while doing so.

What's also clear in Assassins Creed is that, there are some clever game play implementations. Most are including his array of stealth animations from blending in with the crowd or keeping your head down by sitting on a bench. Many buttons produce many different styles of play. You can blend in with the crowd as stated above with X, Circle can be used to leave fights or place your weapon back in its designated pocket. Triangle is called "Eagle Vision" , a easy way of identifying innocent or suspicious artificial intelligence. Although, you may know what kind of person they are whether they are just citizens or guards is backed up with the fact that suspicion can give you clues whether someone found out who did the murder. It's quite clever in reality.

The graphics are one of the main selling points for Assassins Creed. First off, the characters are endearing and proficient in the way they are slickly presented. The environments are beautifully rendered but there is a downfall to all this, the environments are a little repetitive and can continue on for a bit to long until the next set piece of scenery. Despite this lighting and shadowing is incredible. The Altair always has his shadowed hood while you are constantly changing the angle to desperately see his face. Textures never fall short and on the whole you've got one of 2007's highlights in terms of graphics.

The sound is a bit dragged on as far as that goes. The dialogue feels drought and drowsy, the script overstays its welcome and on the whole despite the solid voice acting it's just a bit boring and un-enthusiatic. The atmosphere is over exaggerated and while good, neither did it make me feel completely immersed into the game. This maybe because the missions were found to be confusing which left me frustrated, but at the end of the day the sound was solid but neither fantastic nor memorable.

Unfortunately, Assassins Creed doesn't just target one specific genre. It targets a theme inside a genre. One that, one could only appreciate given the fact they may appreciate the theme plus the given genre. The story and sound are all intended for history buffs who love the complexity and patience, the missions are confusing and frustrating but the graphics are superbly endeared throughout the game. On the other hand, the game play is also finely crafted aside it is repetitive. All into account it depends whether your one of those people that can handle one of those games, no matter how much effort I put into loving in it it all came out into a decent game, nothing more. I highly recommend renting it if you are still unsure and then if you do love it, well just buy it!
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.Pros
. Gameplay is top notch in platforming segments.
. Graphics are amazing and have that attention to detail.
. Quite good atmosphere and soundtrack.
. Some innovative touches, plus a free roaming experience.
. The story is great for history buffs and patient players.
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.Cons
. Confusing missions.
. DNA Genes background can get depressive and dull.
. Environments are repeated far too often.
. Occasional glitches or hitches with frequent frame rate issues.
. Script is dragged on with needn't complexity.
. Stealth missions, rare combat or platforming missions.
. The story is only for the patient not for the action lovers.
. The tutorial at its length, could've explained missions better.
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Story Missions: 5.5
Story Plot: 6.5
Gameplay: 7.5
Graphics: 9.0
Sound: 7.5
Value: 7.0
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Overall 6.7