I can't think of a more inappropriate game to review right now. As it stands Assassin's Creed is the highest new IP to date beating out Halo: Combat Evolved in 2001. This game is the poster boy of why a great game stands to be released as third party and doesn't have to be first or second party to gain back development costs. “Well of course games don't have to be released as first and second party to stand a chance,” you might say, but that isn't how the last twenty plus years of the gaming industry have run. But I’m not here to talk about the paradigm shift in way developers/publishers think in the 21st Century. The point- as elusive as it may be- is that with the cash that Assassin's Creed has been raking in (980,000 and 377,000 units for 360 and PS3 respectively in November, and 893,700 units in December for 360), the word is clearly out as to why this game belongs in your CD tray.
But you wouldn't think that with the reviews the game has been getting.
With an average rating of 83% at gamerankings.com the Creed sits with others like DiRT, Crackdown, and F.E.A.R.- great games all, but not in the same league as the Creed. 83% isn't even the problem; in going through the many available reviews we find that 20 popular sites/magazines didn't all review AC as 83%. Scores range from GameSpot’s 90% to Electronic Gaming Monthly’s 58.3%. Never before have I seen a more varied list of reviews. It’s clear that there isn’t a consensus of what this game is worth, how fun it is, how it ranks up with other games, etc...
So that’s why I’m talking about Assassin's Creed 2 months after it was released.
GAMEPLAY
In terms of equipment, Assassin's Creed starts like most action games: you may have had all your equipment at the beginning but due to a series of unfortunate clusterfucks you now have to recollect yours weapons and abilities. In that way it compares to Metroid, Zelda, Okami, etc... yet unlike those games you don't even need most of the gadgets that you recover. The game’s true obstacle is the environment, and all you need for that is the analog stick and the right trigger. As you enter these cities you'll quickly find that anything you can lock your eyes on can be climbed or scaled onto. This is where Assassin's Creed shines: the unparalleled freedom of movement within three massive cities. The ridiculousness of escaping guards down an alley with two small boxes to spring off of onto two hanging sticks onto a pole that you swing off of and into a merchant’ booth which you dart through (much to the merchant's distress). All of this can be done with the greatest of ease. Seriously, therein lies most of the game for me: maneuvering through this city that seems to be alive and busy. I think there lies the problem with most reviewers, that this may not be enough for them. It takes a certain attitude to take a moment and marvel on how fluid the animation is of Altair (the protagonist you control) or how the crowd reacts to what the hell you are doing to them or around them... an attitude that isn’t conducive to writing reviews for a living.
A lot of criticism has been leveled at the free GTA nature of these “eliminate the target” missions. Basically when you arrive at a given city, you must at one point arrive at your Assassin's Bureau to progress the story. Rather than pigeonhole you into a game that makes you assassinate on rails, the Creed allows you to discover the best way to take down your target Templar; be it through pickpocketing crucial maps, interrogating respected speakers, easedropping on vital conversations, or doing odd jobs for informers to gain their trust. All the while, each city has scattered throughout it numerous citizens that need saving from guards, viewpoints on top of high buildings that need to be surveyed, and collectible flags that are hidden in any dark alley you can think of. All of which adds to how you progress to what type of assassin you are. Sure, saving a citizen doesn't give you light points that accrue your character like in Fable or KOTOR, but it does help you out in dealing with the massive quantities of guards that these cities produce. In the same way, if a fat asshole brushes past you in a crowd or a retarded leper decides to shove you into a guard, you aren't penalized for f'ing their day up... with your knife.
COMBAT
Much like the demo played at E3, a lot of the combat takes place in the middle of a circle of guards that attack you mostly one at a time. As you start assassinating the targets your lord has charged you to kill, you gain vital pieces of equipment and skills that you will need in order to go apeshit on the guards. There’s the long blade, the hidden blade, your fist, or my personal favorite, the short blade (and with it are throwing knives). The system favors watching your opponents for times to strike, such as when one is limping or calling others to go attack you, you can dash over to them and stab them with your hidden blade. Or as they attack you can with all of your weapons counter their attack with some of the most brutal kills I've ever seen. Combat rewards the patient with killer finishers that aren't over-the-top, but still suitably graphic.
In combat you will find that as you go along it pays to constantly switch weapons as the situation demands. Starting with the long sword allows you to go for some easy kills before switching to the short blade to take out one guard as you turn around to lodge a throwing knife into the throat of a guard you just made distance from. Even the hidden blade is effective, as you are guaranteed a one hit counter kill (as opposed to the occasional counter by sword, in which you just push the guard that offended you). This ain't rocket surgery by any means, but it does have a certain finesse that as you go along you will come to appreciate as new counter/dodge/guard block kills are introduced.
Out of combat you will find that hidden blade is the tool by which you manipulate the world to your liking. Until you are all out wanted by guards you have free rein to be as subtle or as obvious as you want in accomplishing your mission. With ways of blending into the crowd if you just decapitated a guard, jumping in a pile of hay, sitting on a bench with some smelly old people, or mixing with a wandering group of monks, you can be as inventive as you want in getting away from the local toughs. As you go along it is clear that your enemies can't distinguish between you and the men of the cloth that walk the streets, in spite of the stockpile of weapons strapped to your body. The throwing knives are a lot of fun too; drive-by long-range guard murdering became a favorite hobby of mine, next to jacking shit from unsuspecting mercenaries.
GRAPHICS
The graphics in this game are nothing short of amazing. This is truly next gen level with these cities living and breathing, a metric assload of polygons on the screen at one time with the frame rate never dipping. But if the sheer amount of bulk you can see isn't enough to get you hyped, then how about the architecture that you experience first hand as you plant yourself on the side of dozens of beautifully crafted churches and castles. What takes the cake for me, however, is that fluid animation that I alluded to earlier. This game progresses the industry in terms of the most seamless transition of a character in how he interacts with his environment. Not only do you have a sense of full control over Altair, but you’ll swear that he has monkey blood (even if you’re a creationist!) in the way he scrambles up and down alleyways and building sides. Once you progress and gain grab ledge, it all gets even more ridiculous on how this man can dominate his surroundings. Yet none of it seems at all too far-fetched. In the realm of an assassin game that takes place in the crusades, I think it is fair to make your character a badass that seems more like an acrobat than an assassin.
STORY
The Da Vinci Code came out in 2004 beset with glowing reviews, an instant best seller spawning dozens of books concerning the Holy Grail and the Templar legacy. Yet aside from Deus Ex and the occasional RTS dealing with the Crusades, not much has been done video game wise on a very engrossing subject. Enter Assassin's Creed.
You play the role of Altair, a cocky assassin that botches up a mission that lands him in his lord's bad side. After the mission you have to redeem yourself to your lord as well as to the rest of the Assassin Order, as you violated all three tenets of the Assassin Creed (namely thou shalt not fuck up) and are just as arrogant as you were before. Soon you learn that really you are a bartender that has been kidnapped by a large corporation named Abstergo Industries (which was obviously modeled after Microsoft). Apparently, memories of past generations are encoded in DNA and can be retrieved through the use of a machine known as the Animus. This device allows the corporation to hijack people and force them to reveal their ancestor's memories, hence why you are so important to the company. You house Altair's memories- being his descendant- and he knew something that they want. Unfortunately for your captors, memories can't be jumped to the relevant information, but must be played out in a linear fashion. Thus the purpose of the game is for the bartender to play his ancestor's memories to the point that the corporation needs.
Personal characterization aside, everyone has a lot to say on how you go about your assassinations. The voice acting is spot on with believable accents and a lot of modern commentary about the machinations of a few men to control a larger population. A lot of the story is believable, although the leap of faith you have to make for the Animus is considerable.
The ending is one that is on the minds of many a reviewer. Gabe over at Penny-Arcade.com said it best, claiming that unless you show your gamertag along with your review, you have no credible way of commenting on the story's ending. You need to have the Visions of the Future achievement in order to talk about what the ending means, and after completing the game I tend to agree. So here:
THE UGLY
Let's talk about the ugly real quick. This game attempts to do a great deal in what seemed to be a short development cycle after the last Prince of Persia. This game can get glitchy, like some other games that didn't have their game testers test the shit out of them. There’s a plethora of structures you can accidentally fall through, some weird NPC, and the occasional touchy script break. That’s to be expected in my opinion and does not weigh down my review as much as it does a lot of others. It is like the reviewers take it as a personal slight that a game didn't got the extra mile to overtest before going gold. Yeah, it’s sloppy, but it is also the nature of the beast when you need to release your game to rake in the cash from Q4.
Some of the missions are a little lacking, but I am of the opinion that Ubisoft wanted you to explore more than anything, and that is how I played the game. I ventured forth into the wild blue yonder, and had fun doing it. I enjoyed eluding guards and cutting down 25 of them with my short blade before the man hunt was finished.
LASTING IMPRESSIONS
What's not to like in this game? It’s as fun as it is deep. The graphics are amazing for what it tries to accomplish and this gem seriously aims high in that respect. Not to sound trite, but I can't rationalize the lack of higher scores for this game as it doesn't play like any other 70 or 80 games I’ve played. With superior voice acting, decent replayablity, great story, amazing graphics, fluid animations, and a lot of fun to be had I can't in good conscience give this game less than a 91.
Score - 91/100
Gameplay footage
