Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Mixed reactions"

I've been a bit of a spectator when it comes to the AC series. I've played a little bit of the first game, but I've never gotten to experience the whole story. This is all due to me not owning a current gen console yet. I'm pretty much sticking with my handhelds for now.

Anyways, I've been eying the DS AC for a while now, but the price just wasn't right. Finally I found it on the used shelf for a mere ten bucks.

The first thing I noticed is that the game takes place completely from the perspective of Altair. There's no Animus to worry about this time. The plot is pretty thin. You're told to go find the Chalice, whatever it is , and you spend the game finding clues to its whereabouts. There are only a small handful of characters that have lines, and even fewer than have more than one appearance. There's a villain that serves as a rival, and a sort of love interest I guess. Overall, the story is merely a means to an end and doesn't end up being interesting. There's one or two twists, but they're nothing exciting.

The presentation of the game is a bit better. The graphics are blurred and the textures are rough, but there's a good sense of style and diversity in the game. The sounds themselves are decent, and the music is all right, but there aren't very many of them at all and it gets repetitive. Its not bad, but its not even close to the best the DS can pull off.

The gameplay is that of a 2.5D platformer with a bit of stealth and a heaping of combat. The camera is often unable to give you a good angle for all the jumping you're doing, but running at full speed through a section is kind of fun. There's usually one or two combos that you'll use in the game, and the weapons are mostly unused as well. Still, when you manage to hook and enemy and then land a coup de grace, it is a blast. What the game needed was polish, as there are far too many frustrating moments due to a bad camera angle, and jump that isn't quite right, or a trap that feels way too cheap.

The game is a decent length. Depending on your skill, it can last up to about six hours or so. From there you can replay it on a harder difficulty, but there's no reason to go back as there are no extras or collectibles to find.

Overall, the game is decent enough for the ten dollars I spent on it. I certainly am glad I waited until it went down in price though. If you're a fan of the series, its really a pass because the story doesn't connect and has an ending that doesn't work. If you're just looking for a time killer on the go with some action, this could work as long as you're not expecting something good.