The Premise of Assassin?s Creed is simple, and something that hasn?t truly been done in this way before. You take on the role of Altair, a historically inspired Assassin who is tasked with bringing down 9 templars intent on prolonging and profiteering from the great Crusade.
Story
Alright, so maybe you aren?t really taking on the role of Altair, but rather, his futuristic descendant, Desmond Miles, who has been kidnapped by bizarre scientists and tasked with following his ancestor?s genetic memory to some pre-determined point. Normally, a revelation like this in a review would be deplorable, but seriously, this is revealed in the first 10 minutes of the game, so I?ll say it here. In order to follow the trail of Altair?s memories, Desmond Miles uses a large Star Trek Esque device called an Anima, which reads and represents genetic memories in a virtually real environment.
As Altair, your first mission is a complete bust, so you are stripped of your rank, and must slowly regain your weapons and abilities. Most of these weapons and abilities are useless, but you?ll accumulate them nonetheless. There are some twists to be had, but most of the gameplay is fairly straight-forward.
Gameplay
This is both where Assassin?s Creed shines, and where it takes its greatest hit, depending on what you?re doing. Exploring the city is terrific. Stalking and assassinating your targets is truly awesome. The combat can get a little silly from time to time, but is quite solid, and if you use all the tricks at your disposal (which you rarely ever NEED to use), it can be quite exciting. There are original twists on the stealth gameplay, and several of the Investigation quests are innovative.
However, there are only 5 different types of Investigation quests, and you?ll be doing them all throughout the game, and they don?t change very much at all. The best has to be the stealth assassination investigation quest, where you are tasked with hunting down a certain number of specific templar baddies, between 1 and 5, and sometimes with a time limit. If the guards recognize you, you must start over. These are the best because they are the only challenging part of the whole game.
The other quests merely involve doing some menial task; following a pre-set path in a time limit, following someone and holding the B button, getting into a fist fight, and sitting (yes. Sitting. That?s basically the whole investigation quest.) There are also view points to find, which are high places that reveal the map, citizens to save, which make escaping guards easier, flags to find, and templars to kill to unlock achievements.
Altair can climb anything in this game, he?ll scale the sides of buildings, climb ladders, jump off buildings into haystacks, scale to the highest heights to complete his map. There are LOTS of flags to find for those with a completionist streak ? a bit over 400 flags if my count is right, and 60 pre-placed templar baddies. The only real snag at street level for you are alert guards (more common in the later levels) who attack at the slightest bit of bad behavior, drugged out lepers who shove you as hard as you can, and beggar women who stumble in front of you and knock you from buildings you try to scale (hint: throw them for an achievement!
)
The strongest part of the gameplay is the main assassinations. These are activated once you complete several of the investigation quests. You approach the target, see a cutscene, usually showcasing their deplorable behavior, then you are given free reign to stalk and murder them. There are some twists in these quests as well, but I?ll leave them for you to find.
Graphics and Sound
For lack of a better term, Assassin?s Creed looks incredible. I never saw much in the way of graphical bugs, making this one of the most polished games I?ve seen on the 360. The only bugs I?ve found were where Altair would forget that he could climb for no good reason, but these are not graphical. The game just looks very polished. The sights are inspired by real cities as they existed in 1191, when the game takes place.
The sounds, when they?re directed to the player are very good. The voice acting for the story and investigations is fairly solid, but you will find the confused bystander, beggar woman, drugged leper, and general guard wailing to be quite tiring by the time you finish the game, which sadly doesn?t take very long.
Overall
The main quest of Assassin?s Creed is quite short, so unless you take the time to get all the secret flags or unlock all the achievements (which is quite easy to do ? it?s the first and only game I?ve managed to do it in), it won?t take you more then 10 hours. But those 10 hours are pretty intense. The replay value is in trying to get more stylish assassinations, but in actuality, you may never want to play this game again once you finish it, and wait for Assassin?s Creed 2.
I would rate this game as a Renter, but only because it is so short and because the achievements are so easy to get, following a guide you could probably beat the game with all the achievements in a weekend. If you?re not interested in the achievements and just want to play through the game, you may not even want to rent it, and just borrow it for a day from a friend, because that?s all it?ll take to beat this game.
Next time, Altorin sticks to the Past theme one more time, as he busts out a review of another classic Nintendo Game ? Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past.
Story
Alright, so maybe you aren?t really taking on the role of Altair, but rather, his futuristic descendant, Desmond Miles, who has been kidnapped by bizarre scientists and tasked with following his ancestor?s genetic memory to some pre-determined point. Normally, a revelation like this in a review would be deplorable, but seriously, this is revealed in the first 10 minutes of the game, so I?ll say it here. In order to follow the trail of Altair?s memories, Desmond Miles uses a large Star Trek Esque device called an Anima, which reads and represents genetic memories in a virtually real environment.
As Altair, your first mission is a complete bust, so you are stripped of your rank, and must slowly regain your weapons and abilities. Most of these weapons and abilities are useless, but you?ll accumulate them nonetheless. There are some twists to be had, but most of the gameplay is fairly straight-forward.
Gameplay
This is both where Assassin?s Creed shines, and where it takes its greatest hit, depending on what you?re doing. Exploring the city is terrific. Stalking and assassinating your targets is truly awesome. The combat can get a little silly from time to time, but is quite solid, and if you use all the tricks at your disposal (which you rarely ever NEED to use), it can be quite exciting. There are original twists on the stealth gameplay, and several of the Investigation quests are innovative.
However, there are only 5 different types of Investigation quests, and you?ll be doing them all throughout the game, and they don?t change very much at all. The best has to be the stealth assassination investigation quest, where you are tasked with hunting down a certain number of specific templar baddies, between 1 and 5, and sometimes with a time limit. If the guards recognize you, you must start over. These are the best because they are the only challenging part of the whole game.
The other quests merely involve doing some menial task; following a pre-set path in a time limit, following someone and holding the B button, getting into a fist fight, and sitting (yes. Sitting. That?s basically the whole investigation quest.) There are also view points to find, which are high places that reveal the map, citizens to save, which make escaping guards easier, flags to find, and templars to kill to unlock achievements.
Altair can climb anything in this game, he?ll scale the sides of buildings, climb ladders, jump off buildings into haystacks, scale to the highest heights to complete his map. There are LOTS of flags to find for those with a completionist streak ? a bit over 400 flags if my count is right, and 60 pre-placed templar baddies. The only real snag at street level for you are alert guards (more common in the later levels) who attack at the slightest bit of bad behavior, drugged out lepers who shove you as hard as you can, and beggar women who stumble in front of you and knock you from buildings you try to scale (hint: throw them for an achievement!
)The strongest part of the gameplay is the main assassinations. These are activated once you complete several of the investigation quests. You approach the target, see a cutscene, usually showcasing their deplorable behavior, then you are given free reign to stalk and murder them. There are some twists in these quests as well, but I?ll leave them for you to find.
Graphics and Sound
For lack of a better term, Assassin?s Creed looks incredible. I never saw much in the way of graphical bugs, making this one of the most polished games I?ve seen on the 360. The only bugs I?ve found were where Altair would forget that he could climb for no good reason, but these are not graphical. The game just looks very polished. The sights are inspired by real cities as they existed in 1191, when the game takes place.
The sounds, when they?re directed to the player are very good. The voice acting for the story and investigations is fairly solid, but you will find the confused bystander, beggar woman, drugged leper, and general guard wailing to be quite tiring by the time you finish the game, which sadly doesn?t take very long.
Overall
The main quest of Assassin?s Creed is quite short, so unless you take the time to get all the secret flags or unlock all the achievements (which is quite easy to do ? it?s the first and only game I?ve managed to do it in), it won?t take you more then 10 hours. But those 10 hours are pretty intense. The replay value is in trying to get more stylish assassinations, but in actuality, you may never want to play this game again once you finish it, and wait for Assassin?s Creed 2.
I would rate this game as a Renter, but only because it is so short and because the achievements are so easy to get, following a guide you could probably beat the game with all the achievements in a weekend. If you?re not interested in the achievements and just want to play through the game, you may not even want to rent it, and just borrow it for a day from a friend, because that?s all it?ll take to beat this game.
Next time, Altorin sticks to the Past theme one more time, as he busts out a review of another classic Nintendo Game ? Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past.
