A Full Review.
What's to like:
- Immersive (sandbox type a la GTA with infinite spawns)
- Rich Story
- Thrilling Action Segments
- Fun horse rides
- Believable Non-Protagonist Voice-Overs
- Ingenuous Controls
- Invigorating Music
- Superb "On the spot" Animations
- Exciting Combat
- Breathtaking Visuals
What you may not like:
- No nights?!
- No open-ended endings
- No real stealth involved
- Little ways to approach your assassinations
- Repetitive Missions
- Screams RPG everywhere but never materializes as one
- Random Crashes / Hangs / Deep Freezes
Story
Part of the story is about reliving the life of Altaïr (Alta-ir), an assassin from the time of the Crusades at the end of the 12th century. In order to restore Peace and Justice, you will be given the mission to eliminate 9 main figures in the Holy Land (Israel area).
Another part of the story will consist of playing Desmond, a bartender, in a world closer to today. Desmond is actually a direct descendant of Altaïr, and so is the reason why it is possible for you, through the means of a device and your DNA, to relive his memories.
The story design is actually pretty clever and opens the doors to so many possibilities. Assassin's Creed will openly set the foundations for its sequel(s) and will leave you with more questions than answers by the end of this first, 20+ hours, installment.
Game
As Altaïr, your role will be to eliminate the targets dictated by your Order. To achieve this, you will need to gather information about your targets through different means. They are:
- Eavesdropping: Sit on a bench and listen to a conversation
- Interrogating: Stalk an informer and then beat the information out of him
- Pick pocketing: Steal a letter from someone linked to your target
- Helping a fellow assassin (assassinations, messages, etc.)
To help you find out where those events can take place, you will have to climb to a high place (viewpoint) and inspect the area. Doing so will make them appear on your map. You won't have to worry about getting back down though, as you can jump and fall safely in a conveniently located cart of hay. Those jumps might give you a slight motion sickness at first, but that's actually a good thing.
The same routine is used for every mission that you will get. This is where it can get repetitive to a point. Know this: each event, task or side quest is a lot of fun to do despite how many times you will end up doing them. What's bothering is, the element of surprise is completely gone after the 3rd target or so.
Exploration
One of the most fun aspects of Assassin's Creed is the ability to move easily and rapidly through the city roofs and other structures. Picture "Prince Of Persia" controls done automatically for you. This means, simply by holding a few keys, you will automatically climb, jump, run, and avoid any obstacle coming your way making it a real breeze to go from point A to point B.
If you are not within a city, there are many horses available to help you go through hills and encampments. You can also fight while mounted if desired, but it won't happen very often. Your horse will also automatically follow you if you decide to go on foot. Pretty neat.
The Assassination
Once you have enough clues, you can finally go after your target.
A very well made cut scene precedes every target encounter. After that, you are free to attack your target by any means necessary. After each kill, another cut scene will follow adding a different perspective to the "evilness" of your target. At that point, all the guards in the city will attack you on sight until you make your way back to your base. Those pursuits are very exciting, mostly because of the great sound track that kicks in at that time.
Know that Altaïr is probably the most athletic and talented fighter found in Assassin's Creed, but he isn't much of a great assassin, so to speak. Reasons are, you can't plan a hit past nightfall or act really stealthy about it. You don't need to be smart or subtle either. Every event, and I mean every single one, will happen in broad day light in the middle of a crowd for everyone to see.
This can be a bit disappointing as you can't outsmart your target or be stealthy like in the Thief series. It's more a matter of how good your combat skills are or how fast you can catch up to a fleeing target.
Not to mention that all the clues you will have gathered don't have a real impact on how you can take down your target. Also, unfortunately, the assassination found in the trailer with the people about to be executed is not in the game, despite the fact that, minus the crossbow, the actual moves can be done exactly as shown in the trailer.
Artificial Intelligence
Though the different AI's seem appropriate at first, it won't take many missions before noticing there isn't a great deal of depth about them. For instance, the guards will attack you if you cause too much trouble initially, also, the people seem to react accordingly to your actions like: "What is this guy doing?" when climbing a building. Punching a crazy person will make him go away and people lying dead will make the crowd go nuts and the guards suspicious.
But by the end, you would expect the guards to be a lot more aggressive toward you. Considering all your assassinations are done in broad day light in the middle of crowds, you would think they would recognize you from a mile away. Not to mention that the "trick" to blend in with the priests always work – which shouldn't be case considering even the cutscenes refer to the fact that they know you try to look like a priest on purpose. So you would think they would be able to identify you at melee range.
Combat
The combat is extremely satisfying. You will get to fight 1 to multiple enemies at the same time. Among your arsenal, you will eventually have:
- A hidden knife (the one used for your "stealthy kills")
- A dagger (also used for throwing knives)*
- A long sword (your most damaging weapon)
- Your fists (for hand-to-hand combat and interrogations)
* There is no crossbow as shown in the trailer; it was replaced by throwing knives.
All the animation transitions are smooth and unique for the weapon currently in use. The actual final blow is more often than not closer to a Fatality move with lots of blood and cheese added to it.
You won't have all possible combat skills at first. Though, by the end of all your assassinations, you will get the ability to block, counter attack, throw knives, grab, counter-grab and assassinate your enemies. These skills will be a must to master before the final moments of the story.
Graphics
The scenery visuals are one of the biggest selling points of AC. They are simply Gorgeous, Breathtaking and Jaw Dropping. There are sun-transitions (gamma intensity variations), every texture is incredibly detailed and the level design is just close-to-perfection. Every little visual FX is also applied when appropriate: some blur when listening to a conversation, particles here and there, and some bloom effect at certain key locations. The shadows are still better in Call Of Duty 4 though.
The actual characters, on the other hand, didn't get the same attention. They don't look bad per se, but they don't look too polished either, almost generic. A special note has to be given about knights. They are so unbelievably good looking. Their armor, whether it is plate or chainmail, look extremely good and… shiny.
Ending (no spoilers)
Considering you play 2 characters (Altaïr and Desmond), there are 2 endings.
For Altaïr, once you are done with the assassinations, the following event is pure fantasy coming to life. I won't spoil you in any way; just know that once you are done with the assassinations, there is still a very nice spectacle awaiting for you.
For Desmond, it ends a bit abruptly -- in a sense that you can't really tell if it's over or not. Fortunately, you will be glad to know that, after seeing the credits, you will still be able to go back and play Altaïr.
The Missing Element: Interaction.
This game biggest fault is the lack of interaction. It's not an action game, a stealth game, a shooter or an adventure game. Then what is it?
It's a game that tries to put you in an immersive environment with many fun mini-games and a rich story. Unfortunately, you will want to do a lot more. For instance, there are merchants, but you can't trade items or upgrade your equipment with them.
You will kill a lot of guards and the thought of looting their bodies will undeniably cross your mind. There are also a lot of people in this world, but none that you can talk to. One can only wonder if Assassin's Creed would have benefited from less figures to execute, 3 instead of 9 for instance (1 per town), and more depth added to the people living in it and more importantly, freedom of choice in the path(s) you take -- whether it is through dialogues or your assassination techniques.
All in all, this game screams to be an RPG game, but it isn't.
Conclusion
Game freezes and crashes put aside, Assassin's Creed is a very high quality game. The depth of its story, the breathtaking visuals and the almost-too-close-to-reality animations make it a more than worthy game to experience.
If you don't fall in that category, or are still unsure if this game is for you, try to rent it or borrow it, a few hours will give you a taste of the overall game minus the greater plot.
Still, make sure you play it through at least once before AC2 comes out, just so you get a chance to touch base with its story.
8.9/10