Assassins Creed
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre: Action
Release Date: November 13, 2007
Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC
Reviewer: Eric
What
started out as a Playstation 3 exclusive ended up being on both
the major consoles. Assassins Creed is finally here and whatever
console you may pick the game looks great. With a complex story
that is better than most Hollywood movies this game will have
you on your feet, even anybody who may be watching you play. If
you are sick of all the
FPS games that have been flooding the
market then you need need to keep reading because Assassins
Creed is as good as people say.
The story in Assassins Creed has a huge twist right off the
bat. I am not going to give away the plot, but I will say what I
can. You play as Altair, an assassin from the third crusade.
Altair and his companions are off to
find a treasure and in
the process they fail. When
Altair goes back to his leader he looses his rank and all his
abilities and now you have to earn your leader and everybody
else’s respect again. The story is so deep and full of twists,
this game feels like a Hollywood without a bad script writer.
This is the biggest strength to Assassins Creed and it should
keep everyone glued, may it be the person playing the game or
anybody that is watching.
Assassins Creeds game play is just like any of the best third
person games out there. Altair has enough weapons and abilities
to keep you on your feet. From jumping down the tallest building
in the city to stabbing someone with a dagger, Altair reminds me
of 007 without the black suit. Sure you may have to earn
everything again when the game officially starts, but numerous
games do this so there really isn’t anything to complain about.
Altair can climb and jump almost anything you see in the game.
The animations in between the climbing and jumping look so life
like; these might be the best animations I’ve seen for a game.
As life like these may look it is extremely easy to jump and
climb, one button. This is a bit of a difference from today's
over abundance of button sequences we see in almost any game,
but when you are running away without any real problem things
start to die down a little.
Combat in Assassins Creed looks great and that is almost all you
can say. You have an attack and block button, you pretty much
hit the same button a few dozen times before you see the death
animations. These animations are life like, just like everything
else in this game. Combat can be
rough at times especially when
you are being attacked by a few soldiers. The enemies for the
most part seem to wait their turn to attack you, but if they
don’t then it may be a little tricky. Things are a lot easier,
too easy, when you learn Altair’s old abilities again. Almost
being able to counter any attack thrown at you takes away the
combat aspect of the game.
Assassins Creed is a stealth game for the most part. If you take
things nice and easy you won’t have too much problem with the
game. The enemy AI is brain dead when it comes to stealth kills,
if they are not grouped by too many other bad guys. Simply stab
them with your dagger, put up your hands to pray like a monk and
walk away. That’s all you have to do for the most part if the
enemies are spread out. If you do get caught Altair needs to
hide fast. Either jump on the roof tops, jump in some hay, sit
on a bench or hide in little tents. Sitting down? Yeah that
seems a bit far fetched, but when you are being chased by five
or six soldiers you will be crying for a bench near by.
The game has a Grand Theft Auto feel, you can travel from town
to town on horse back and you can interact around towns for the
most part. You can get lost in some of the bigger cities, which
can lead to some much needed back tracking if our compass is
pointing in the other way. If you don’t have a
HDTV you may run
into some problems like I do, the compasses numbers are real
small so you may end up going the wrong way more than you think.
Missions in this game have you pick pocketing, saving towns
people, killing certain individuals and then you have the main
quest. Some of these
side quests can take up a lot of time, but
do you really want to do the same thing over and over again? Yes
you do, you are playing a game that has a life like city,
walking around and doing these side quests seems new all the
time. Assassins Creed may not have the best sub quests but the
games main story should have you hooked and these little side
quests won’t matter too much at all.
There really are a lot of great things about this game and
graphics are another thing to be added to the list. Even if you
are playing this game on a standard television it still looks
great, the detail on the lighting to Altair’s outfit are mind
blowing.
Experiencing Assassins Creed is a must for the
graphics; you can tell a lot of time was put into this project
when you see it for your own eyes. There are however some
clipping problems and the camera may get a little goofy if you
are in a corner. Altair is stabbing that man while half his body
is in the house? Crazy…just crazy.
The game offers unique voice acting for almost every character
in the game, even the
town’s people. This gives the game a
realistic feel, which it already had. Assassins Creed also has
some of the better in game music I’ve heard in awhile. It may
not be as good as Bioshock or the catchy as hell theme to Halo
3.
Not every game needs online play, with that said Assassins Creed
doesn’t offer any. Sure online play is popular, but games like
Stranglehold should not have been made to have online play, it
is down right
embarrassing. It may have been nice to have
assassin death matches in some of the games landscapes. Maybe an
expansion may come out with this, but I won’t complain if
Assassins Creed stays as a straight single player game.
Final Verdict
It is nice to see a non FPS game, like Assassins Creed, be
released today. With a market full of FPS Assassins Creed is a
nice change in pace. The game does have some flaws, the combat
system isn’t as good as I hoped and some of the side quests get
repetitious. Even though Assassins Creed has a few problems the
over all game play experience is worth the price of the game.
You really need to buy this game and experience it, skip the
rental and beat out the middle man with this title.
Rating
9 out of 10
Assassins Creed Trailer
