A brutally honest review.
If you haven't figured it out yet, this review is probably going to make a lot of people out there very upset, but I don't care. I am not writing this for the eight million fourteen year old fan boys who think that AC is the best game on the face of the planet, or the dude who saw the commercial and decided that he would run out and buy the game because he has way too much bloody money anyway… This is a review for gamers like myself who are impressed by a pretty package, but also want a game that will play like a next gen game should. So, if you are out there my fellow gamer, and you haven't played this game yet please READ ON!!!
Make no mistakes about it, this game is absolutely beautiful. The textural detail is downright stunning in some areas, and I was impressed by the skybox detail of rolling clouds that cast real time shadows that they were able to include seamlessly in the game. This is something that we saw in Call of Juarez as well, but no one cares about that game anyway… The beauty of the game, in combination with the dynamic environment, the semi-solid combat system, and the Havok physics engine are really the only reasons that I was able to keep playing through everything that I hated. I would actually venture to say that those aspects were pretty much the saving grace for this title. I certainly don't want to discount the crazy storyline either… but I don't want to include any spoilers in this review, so figure all of that out for yourself if you dare. With all of that being said, I am lead to my first major complaint about this game which would be that it simply felt unfinished in certain areas. It blows me away, that we could have a game delivered that looks as amazing as this one does when you are standing still, but the animation for walking up stairs is simply non-existent… Didn't they think that we would notice that you are magically gliding up stairs, and that your feet are traveling through solid objects? I know that all of this may sound a bit critical, but it is always the little details that can take away from a great game and pull you out of the experience.
Ok, enough playing around… I want to get into the real reason that I gave this game a bad review. The magic word of the day is REPETITION!!! That's right folks, this is one of the most repetitive games that I have ever seen in my life! I can break the entire first 6 hours of the game down for you in a couple of sentences. You leave your lair and hop on your horsie to travel to these ancient cities. Once you arrive, you will need to save a citizen outside the front gate to gain access inside the walls "yes, it is the exact same drill for every city that you go to." Once inside, you will climb the first perch that you find to get a lay for the land, and dive from there into a pile of straw. Doing this will gain you access to a variety of simple and mindless missions, which I will list now and explain in a second. You will have one or several of these missions available to you, pickpocket, interrogation, eavesdropping, informant, or save the citizen. The pickpocket mission consists of you finding the dudes that they want you to pickpocket, standing there while they talk for about 2 minutes, then walking behind one of the guys and holding the B button. If done correctly, you will pickpocket the guy and complete this mission. Simple as that, and you will do it dozens of times in this game. Eavesdropping consists of finding your target, and then locating a bench to sit on… Yes, I said locating a bench to sit on. Once you do that, you can target the people you are supposed to listen to, and push Y to listen more closely. After about a 2 minute conversation your mission will be complete and you will move on. Yes, you will do this dozens of times as well… Interrogation consists of you listening to some dude rant to a crowd of people that aren't even there most of the time, then following him to a dark corner and beating the crap out of him. Informant missions make no sense at all, since they are mostly timed and can be almost impossible in the later parts of the game when the guy wants you to assassinate 5 targets around the city in 5 minutes, while the slightest bit of detection fails the mission for you and by the way, if you are detected you will be in the midst of about a 5 minute battle with 15 guards or so. Once you complete enough of these mindless quests, you will gain access to the "bureau" which will allow you to carry out your assassination. The assassination quests are fairly interesting and quite often fun as well but are straight forward as well.. Find guy, kill guy, run away... Wash, rinse, repeat... I didn't forget about the save the citizen missions, I just didn't mention them because they don't actually advance the storyline at all. They are a way for you to acquire allies in the cities.
The other major gripe that I had was the AI. The guards seem downright idiotic sometimes when you can dive off of a huge tower right in front of them into a bail of straw and they don't even seem the least bit suspicious. Or simply holding the A button and folding your hands will be enough to convince most guards that you are not a threat even when you have 2 swords and numerous other sharp objects hanging from your person. The developers tried to add difficulty later in the game by adding these drunk people all over the place that will push you for no reason if you come near them. This serves to break your cover and alert any guards or targets that are near by. VERY ANNOYING!!! There is no way to stop this, and it gets old very quickly. Couldn't they think of a better way to add difficulty?
I don't want to write a novel for you here, I just wanted to share my disappointment in this game as a whole, and some examples to back everything up. All in all, this game wasn't horrifically bad, but it wasn't good either. It does enough to remain interesting until the end, if you can manage to break the monotony with some swan dives into straw. By the way, I found it interesting that your character can fall 5 stories into 2 feet of hay and be fine, but if you fall into the water, you die instantly… Anyway, don't go buy this game like me… Rent it, beat it, and move on if you feel so compelled.
Thanks for reading this,
Brandon