The Icarus of Stealth Action Games
At its outset Assassin's Creed (AC) promised to be everything I could want in a game. A large world in a fairly uncommon setting, an interesting story, amazing AI, and an exciting blend of game play elements. The animation is excellent and you can almost feel every kill. The sheer size of the cities and the amount of NPCs inside them are staggering. AC also offers the best horse riding game play behind Shadow of the Colussus and some very interesting crowd navigation game play dynamics.
AC succeeds in many regards by being one of the most detailed games produced to date. The large cities bustling with NPCs, the detailed way that weapons appear on Altair, the small pieces of hay left behind when he exits a haystack, amazing animations, and a whole host of other little details. The problem lies with the fact that the majority of these details focus solely on the game's graphics leaving the AI, audio, and actual game play either uneven or lacking in quality.
The AI works well for the most part with crowds scattering when a fight starts or a corpse is discovered, guards pursuing Altair through the streets and over rooftops, and pursuers taking aim with rocks when you climb a structure to escape. The AI can just as easily embarrass itself though with NPC guards repeatedly hopping between the same rooftops , being oblivious to the death of their allies whilst standing only a few feet away, and finally being slaughtered because they insist on taking turns to attack Altair even though he is grossly outnumbered.
In the audio department there is some nice voice acting for the main characters and the main plotline. The dialogue of NPCs is not bad either but entirely lacking in variety. You will save citizen upon citizen from being harassed by guards only to hear the same set of thank yous spoken in different dialects.
The lack of variety in the audio department is also reflected in ACs game play. The story is told around the assassination of 9 targets by Altair to regain the trust of his mentor and restore his rank within the assassin's guild after a fallout at the beginning of the game. The game has a decent story with intruiging details and twists delivered along the way. This is all fine and well, but the game play does not tie into the story at all. Altair repeats the same basics sets of objectives until an assasination attempts unlocks. The individual activities are enjoyable enough, but after your third pick pocket and fourth back alley interrigation you can really feel the grind. Each successful assasination awards Altair new gear and moves, but this does little to diversify the grind of the actual gameplay. The story does make make the grind worth it though and I'd recommend anyone who starts AC to persist to its end.
To summarize I got the impression that AC was a game with a truck load of ambition that tried to pull it all along but got crushed under the load. With more time to diversify aspects like the NPC dialogue and game play options it could've been something truly special. All that potential now firmly lies with its soon-to-be-released sequel and to say I'm excited about AC2 would be an understatement.
