Do Not Compromise the Brotherhood.. and be Ready to Run Errands
Assassin's Creed is a game with a lot of misdirected and unused potential. Some will love it, others with loathe it but regardless of stance, there is a solid game buried in there.
Assassin's Creed is one of those games that gets a lot of buzz, but ends up delivering a mixed package. It is by far one of the most visually impressive games out there, and is one of a select few games that manages to make sprawling urban environments that work (to a degree). Sadly, the game just push its own limits. It feels like a game that is trying hard to do more, but won't let itself. So, without further ado, let's step into the shoes of top assassin Altaï- er wait, Desmond Miles.
It is hard to bash this game because of its plot, but I've got to. Assassin's Creed has gone with the majority of the entertainment industry and decided to weave together a conspiratorial plot involving the ever-mysterious Knights Templar. As such, anyone who's read The Da Vinci Code or caught any of the many trends that has spawned won't be entirely surprised or blown away from Assassin's Creed's plot, which is unfortunate, because a game like this is just starving for a compelling and fresh plot. I'm not saying the plot is terrible, but it isn't shocking, surprising or particularly new. I've talked to plenty of people who think the exact opposite and love it, so like many parts of the game, the plot itself is a bone of contention. Without giving too much away, you play as Desmond Miles in the year 2012 who's playing as an ancestor of his, Altaïr. Yes, to put it simply, you're playing a video game of a guy playing a video game. No matter how much narrative and drama you try to layer over that, the simple fact remains that it is a game within a game.
But enough whining about story-telling, we're in this for the action. Altaïr's movements are all very fluid, and the acrobatic stunts you can perform are all fairly impressive. Combat is simple and intuitive once you get used to the 360-to-PC control set up, which does work, but takes some getting used to. You're probably just better off hooking up a 360 controller and playing it that way. All of the assassination animations feel skillfully executed and professional, but do suffer from one of the biggest flaws on this package: repetitiveness. I had a few gripes with the tutorial of all things, because at one point I was stuck doing one scene over and over again because one command wasn't working as it should've been, but that sorted itself out fairly quickly. All in all, controls will be the least of your issues that may come up with the game, they work, they're good, be happy.
And here's the point where I start talking about the flow of assassinations (read: the missions, not the actual executions) themselves. To me, this is both the best, and the worst part about the game. This is the core gameplay, if anything this should be the best part of the game, but sadly this is what is dragging things down. All assassinations begin more or less the same way. Your boss gives you your orders, you go out to the city (and to the proper district, if necessary), check in with the local assassins, and then go out to collect intelligence on your target. Now, you collect intelligence by completing small missions within that district, as well as having two optional ones that are more for completionists. That doesn't sound bad, does it? Well, the problem is the missions are decided from a very small pool. You'll be pretty much doing the same missions in each city, the PC exclusive added missions are also heavily repeated, so while it does add a little more variety, you'll be seeing them all multiple times. Once you've gotten enough/all the intel on your target, you go back to the local hub and proceed to your target. Once again we stumble into a problem. To actually get to your target and perform a sneaky, y'know, assassination tends to be a chore. You are almost invariably spotted by your target or his entourage well before you get within dagger range, prompting a sword fight- sometimes with dozens of foes. Now that fight isn't hard, no, rather it just defeats the purpose of being an assassin. You end up felling more like a thug in the end when you go after your target and more like an assassin just wandering around the city.
And while we're on the subject of cities, let's start talking environment. As I have said, Assassin's Creed is gorgeous; it is one of the best looking games of recent times. Monkeying around on the Dome of the Rock has never looked so good. And, seeing as how this game takes place in the Holy Land in the middle of Crusades, there's a ton of life in every city (and even the roadways and small towns have a little bit of action). I was blown away at first with the cities, the sheer activity was impressive but all was not right in Jerusalem. Not only is Altaïr the most obvious assassin out there (he walks into the city essentially wearing a sign I KILL PEOPLE), but everyone singles you out. All the time. Beggars standing on the streets, well, the second they catch a glimpse of you, they're in your face (curiously, they won't bother anybody else- apparently assassin garb screams rich in 1191) and if you get fed up and stab them, everyone freaks out, the guards come after you and you lose health. Woo. If only that was the worst part of being the Player Character in a sea of NPCs. No, the worst is the crazed/deranged citizens. You'll start encountering these guys after a couple of missions and it is their sole purpose to make you want to kill each and every one of them with a cruel and burning passion. See, what these guys do is wander around in a spot, usually a crowded one or an otherwise good alleyway for escapes and twitch and mutter to themselves. "What's so bad about that?" you say. Well, as soon as you get too close, they being their homing sequence and then proceed to shove you.
Over
And
Over
And
Over
Again. This also, would only be a nuisance if it wasn't for the fact that if you then proceed to bump into anyone else, the guards flip out and attack you. This is an all-too-common occurance that also begs the question "why only me?" these guys mutter, twitch and generally spaz without attacking anyone else, but they seem to have a burning passion directed against you. With a little more development time and toying with AI, both the beggars and crazed guys would seem less like they're out to get you and more like the various facets of city-life. I have failed to touch on the guards themselves, which seem to understand that you're probably not the friendliest guy out there, and because of that, merely running around the town can sometimes cause a massive guard chase, but that isn't a common occurance. No, the annoying one is when you're traveling to other cities on horseback- during these sequences, if you don't have your horse trotting to your desired location, you're up to something, which will summon hordes of psychic guards upon you and alerting everyone across the land of your presense. So much for immersive, eh? Apparently in 1191, moving at more than a crawl on horseback was a treasonous act that would result in immediate attack. By everyone.
But how does the game sound? Well, everything is spot on that is just creating a mood- music, idle chatter, and weapons all sound alright, but my one gripe with the sound direction is that the citizens you interact with (the generic ones that is- ones you are optionally tasked to "save") have about 10 lines total, so by the 3rd or 4th one you help out, you'll be hearing all too familiar lines. That's more nitpicking, and I'll let it slide, but it wouldn't hurt by any means to just try to do away with all this repetition plaguing Assassin's Creed.
Assassin's Creed is solid. I know it sounds like all I've been doing is tearing it apart, but I did have an alright time with the game when its quirks and such weren't driving me up a wall. Sneaking around (or running, as the case usually is) on the rooftops, hunting down guards to more quickly and efficiently make it to objectives is fun, if only to watch your assassinations but the completionist inside of me is crying for something new or different between all these same objectives. If running around shanking people in the Holy Land during the Crusades appeals to you, you'll probably enjoy Assassin's Creed. If you're looking for an immersive, story driven, action-packed adventure, I'd take recommendations with a grain of salt- you'll either love it or hate it. I don't see myself going out of my way to recommend Assassin's Creed, but I will tell friends thinking about picking it up that they'll probably enjoy parts of it, and that it is at least worth a rental (of course, us PC users don't quite have that option).
In closing, I look at Assassin's Creed and see its potential. I can see the diamond in the rough and I hope the developers take notice to what the fans and critics alike have to say about the game, because if they do some tweaking and work on the story a bit, Assassin's Creed 2 could easily be Game of the Year material whenever it decides to grace us with its presense.
Assassin's Creed is one of those games that gets a lot of buzz, but ends up delivering a mixed package. It is by far one of the most visually impressive games out there, and is one of a select few games that manages to make sprawling urban environments that work (to a degree). Sadly, the game just push its own limits. It feels like a game that is trying hard to do more, but won't let itself. So, without further ado, let's step into the shoes of top assassin Altaï- er wait, Desmond Miles.
It is hard to bash this game because of its plot, but I've got to. Assassin's Creed has gone with the majority of the entertainment industry and decided to weave together a conspiratorial plot involving the ever-mysterious Knights Templar. As such, anyone who's read The Da Vinci Code or caught any of the many trends that has spawned won't be entirely surprised or blown away from Assassin's Creed's plot, which is unfortunate, because a game like this is just starving for a compelling and fresh plot. I'm not saying the plot is terrible, but it isn't shocking, surprising or particularly new. I've talked to plenty of people who think the exact opposite and love it, so like many parts of the game, the plot itself is a bone of contention. Without giving too much away, you play as Desmond Miles in the year 2012 who's playing as an ancestor of his, Altaïr. Yes, to put it simply, you're playing a video game of a guy playing a video game. No matter how much narrative and drama you try to layer over that, the simple fact remains that it is a game within a game.
But enough whining about story-telling, we're in this for the action. Altaïr's movements are all very fluid, and the acrobatic stunts you can perform are all fairly impressive. Combat is simple and intuitive once you get used to the 360-to-PC control set up, which does work, but takes some getting used to. You're probably just better off hooking up a 360 controller and playing it that way. All of the assassination animations feel skillfully executed and professional, but do suffer from one of the biggest flaws on this package: repetitiveness. I had a few gripes with the tutorial of all things, because at one point I was stuck doing one scene over and over again because one command wasn't working as it should've been, but that sorted itself out fairly quickly. All in all, controls will be the least of your issues that may come up with the game, they work, they're good, be happy.
And here's the point where I start talking about the flow of assassinations (read: the missions, not the actual executions) themselves. To me, this is both the best, and the worst part about the game. This is the core gameplay, if anything this should be the best part of the game, but sadly this is what is dragging things down. All assassinations begin more or less the same way. Your boss gives you your orders, you go out to the city (and to the proper district, if necessary), check in with the local assassins, and then go out to collect intelligence on your target. Now, you collect intelligence by completing small missions within that district, as well as having two optional ones that are more for completionists. That doesn't sound bad, does it? Well, the problem is the missions are decided from a very small pool. You'll be pretty much doing the same missions in each city, the PC exclusive added missions are also heavily repeated, so while it does add a little more variety, you'll be seeing them all multiple times. Once you've gotten enough/all the intel on your target, you go back to the local hub and proceed to your target. Once again we stumble into a problem. To actually get to your target and perform a sneaky, y'know, assassination tends to be a chore. You are almost invariably spotted by your target or his entourage well before you get within dagger range, prompting a sword fight- sometimes with dozens of foes. Now that fight isn't hard, no, rather it just defeats the purpose of being an assassin. You end up felling more like a thug in the end when you go after your target and more like an assassin just wandering around the city.
And while we're on the subject of cities, let's start talking environment. As I have said, Assassin's Creed is gorgeous; it is one of the best looking games of recent times. Monkeying around on the Dome of the Rock has never looked so good. And, seeing as how this game takes place in the Holy Land in the middle of Crusades, there's a ton of life in every city (and even the roadways and small towns have a little bit of action). I was blown away at first with the cities, the sheer activity was impressive but all was not right in Jerusalem. Not only is Altaïr the most obvious assassin out there (he walks into the city essentially wearing a sign I KILL PEOPLE), but everyone singles you out. All the time. Beggars standing on the streets, well, the second they catch a glimpse of you, they're in your face (curiously, they won't bother anybody else- apparently assassin garb screams rich in 1191) and if you get fed up and stab them, everyone freaks out, the guards come after you and you lose health. Woo. If only that was the worst part of being the Player Character in a sea of NPCs. No, the worst is the crazed/deranged citizens. You'll start encountering these guys after a couple of missions and it is their sole purpose to make you want to kill each and every one of them with a cruel and burning passion. See, what these guys do is wander around in a spot, usually a crowded one or an otherwise good alleyway for escapes and twitch and mutter to themselves. "What's so bad about that?" you say. Well, as soon as you get too close, they being their homing sequence and then proceed to shove you.
Over
And
Over
And
Over
Again. This also, would only be a nuisance if it wasn't for the fact that if you then proceed to bump into anyone else, the guards flip out and attack you. This is an all-too-common occurance that also begs the question "why only me?" these guys mutter, twitch and generally spaz without attacking anyone else, but they seem to have a burning passion directed against you. With a little more development time and toying with AI, both the beggars and crazed guys would seem less like they're out to get you and more like the various facets of city-life. I have failed to touch on the guards themselves, which seem to understand that you're probably not the friendliest guy out there, and because of that, merely running around the town can sometimes cause a massive guard chase, but that isn't a common occurance. No, the annoying one is when you're traveling to other cities on horseback- during these sequences, if you don't have your horse trotting to your desired location, you're up to something, which will summon hordes of psychic guards upon you and alerting everyone across the land of your presense. So much for immersive, eh? Apparently in 1191, moving at more than a crawl on horseback was a treasonous act that would result in immediate attack. By everyone.
But how does the game sound? Well, everything is spot on that is just creating a mood- music, idle chatter, and weapons all sound alright, but my one gripe with the sound direction is that the citizens you interact with (the generic ones that is- ones you are optionally tasked to "save") have about 10 lines total, so by the 3rd or 4th one you help out, you'll be hearing all too familiar lines. That's more nitpicking, and I'll let it slide, but it wouldn't hurt by any means to just try to do away with all this repetition plaguing Assassin's Creed.
Assassin's Creed is solid. I know it sounds like all I've been doing is tearing it apart, but I did have an alright time with the game when its quirks and such weren't driving me up a wall. Sneaking around (or running, as the case usually is) on the rooftops, hunting down guards to more quickly and efficiently make it to objectives is fun, if only to watch your assassinations but the completionist inside of me is crying for something new or different between all these same objectives. If running around shanking people in the Holy Land during the Crusades appeals to you, you'll probably enjoy Assassin's Creed. If you're looking for an immersive, story driven, action-packed adventure, I'd take recommendations with a grain of salt- you'll either love it or hate it. I don't see myself going out of my way to recommend Assassin's Creed, but I will tell friends thinking about picking it up that they'll probably enjoy parts of it, and that it is at least worth a rental (of course, us PC users don't quite have that option).
In closing, I look at Assassin's Creed and see its potential. I can see the diamond in the rough and I hope the developers take notice to what the fans and critics alike have to say about the game, because if they do some tweaking and work on the story a bit, Assassin's Creed 2 could easily be Game of the Year material whenever it decides to grace us with its presense.
