Assassinafication
By Argus 1 Comments
Le me say that there are cliff hanger endings, and there are endings that com e simply because the developers decided that the next game would begin here. Assassin's Creed has one of the later category. It's a shame that the game has such a bad case of schizophrenia - it oscillates so quickly from being engaging to being mind-blowingly dull that I wonder if it shouldn't go on prosaic, spend a weekend in Vegas and go see if it can't work out what must be some pretty troubling issues with its father.
Visually, the game is superb. Environments glow, clouds and characters alike cast shadows, birds flock towards distant, fog obscured mountains. All of it is gorgeous and one realizes that the shine on this game's presentation is largely responsible for the game's positive reviews.
And even technically, the game is impressive. It has several living, breathing cities that use different styles of architecture (although I'm not sure how many houses were transplanted out of downtown London during the Crusades). Altair follows the Prince of Persia in having an incredibly varied move count - watch him climb laterally on the side of a building and its likely you wont see a single move repeat. Combat is entertaining, Camera work is superb. People weave in and out of traffic, and the cities are alive... even if generally its a city populated by a citizen mass that enjoys repeating itself endlessly.
But the story - Oh, god, the story - What a shambles. All "memory" characters - and the protagonist in white most of all - are terribly realized. Writers need to learn that editing out all contractions does not make a character sound noble or historic. It makes him sound strange and off rhythm. I compare the "present" storyline to the "past", though, and the difference couldn't be more pronounced. Characters interact, they have personality, they get angry or funny or any number of emotions, and all the performance is plausible and engaging. If they had shot for a more natural sounding dialog in the past they would have had in me a rapt and attentive audience. As it was I barely listened to any of the dialog, and resented all the side quests that the game required me to take before I went a-killin'. The limited beneath the surface story, as per Halo 3, does a little revive the game but in the end its all too little, too late. In the end it's this aspect of the game that drags the other elements down.
It was a decent game. But I'm selling it back today because I'm certain that I will never, ever play it again.
Yhatzee did an apt critique, by the way.
