"It would not do it justice to call it a straight up rip-off of Assassins Creed"
While consoles often tout extravagant blockbuster titles such as Red Dead Redemption, Call of Duty and Uncharted, handhelds in which gaming only serves as secondary purpose, can offer mostly addictive, yet simplistic platforming and puzzle games à la Angry Birds. From time to time, small developers create a handheld game that breaks this trend, with detailed three dimensional graphics, extensive use of voice acting, large locations, and generally the whole nine yards. But all too often due to their limited budget, they tend to disappoint.
Backstab on the other hand, came to our attention with a lot of promise. Its obvious "homage" to Assassins Creed is instantly obvious but not necessarily game breaking, as with a unique setting, a large map and varied game-play, Backstab has a lot more to offer than a simple rip off of Assassins Creed.
You may recall Assassins Creed: Bloodlines and other previous handheld iterations of AC. The DS versions were overly-simplified, the PSP version was bland and limited. None truly did the series justice, so how does Backstab fare in comparison? Well, let's take a look.
The game is set primarily in the Caribbean in the 18th Century and does have the involvement of pirates, though is not your typical pirate focused game. In fact, you begin the game as a British Naval Officer, who is stabbed in the back (aha, you're starting to get it now) by his comrade and friend, and after escaping execution you aim to get your revenge. Although revenge is a done-and-dusted premise for a game narrative, there are enough unpredictable moments and often the avoidance of further cliches later on in the game to justify this narrative choice. The story-line isn't fantastic but the utilization of competent voice actors helps you get more engrossed in the story and characters. My only real bugaboo is that cut-scenes are easy to skip unintentionally, and I missed the end of a major cut-scene at the end of the game because I accidentally tapped the screen. That certainly marred the experience a little.
The game-play itself is the core, most important aspect of any game, naturally, and in this case I certainly was not disappointed. From the offset of the game, you'll be able to run, jump, swipe your sword, shoot and climb. Unfortunately one complaint is there aren't really major improvements to these basic mechanics as you progress further in the game. You'll discover new ways to execute people but ultimately that could have been improved upon. Luckily, the core mechanics are tight so that is its saving grace. The platforming itself is executed to a great standard. Of course it is not quite as smooth and fluid as the likes of Assassins Creed, however the character animation (as in the placement of hands and feet against the desired architectural piece to climb on) is certainly accurate and there is a thrill to be gained from climbing the game's taller structures, like the walls of a castle that overlooks the ocean.
As you progress, the worlds map begins to expand and new game-play features, such as the ability to ride a horse, arise. You achieve freedom to explore, and do numerous variations of quests, in many vast and uniquely detailed locations, from sunny beaches, to dense forests, to ancient ruins, to bustling cities and quaint villages. The architectural and general visual design is truly sublime for a handheld title. Within these locations you will be confronted with combat perhaps all too often, but there is a lot to see and do, and the freedom to approach missions however you see fit.
The game-play is not without fault, however. I encountered a number of bugs such as non-playable characters falling through the ground. More severe glitches can actually hinder your progress since your last save, like a slightly more rare glitch I encountered in which one of the building models had bad clipping and I fell right through into empty space where I could not get out, and as a result had to load my previous save. There's nothing too serious but these small issues do somewhat mar the overall experience.
Furthermore, without spoiling the game, I must mention that the ending did feel somewhat unremarkable and I felt it could have been a lot more epic considering the whole build up to it.
The audio in the game exceeds what we have come to expect from handheld games. The music is not particularly memorable but it is usually fitting and pleasant without getting too repetitive. As mentioned above, there is voice acting and it is decent in spite of a few seemingly amateur actors and an occasionally cheesy script. Furthermore there are some parts of dialogue in which there are no voice actors, but all the more major parts have audible dialogue present. All that was really needed in this area is lip-synchronization.
I touched upon graphics above, and you will have gathered that the visuals are great. There are a small number of poor textures, particularly on the main Caribbean island in which to prevent the player from getting off the path there is a two dimensional polygon bearing a picture of trees. It looks incredibly badly done. But other than that, the graphics are rather stunning. The character models, particularly the protagonist, look better than most PSP game character models, the cities and the wilderness both look equally beautiful and full of detail. Foliage, plants, architecture and general little details are all done to an impressive standard. There are very few complaints I have in this area, except perhaps the draw distance could be improved.
Overall, the game is great on all fronts and it would not do it justice to call it a straight up rip-off of Assassins Creed, because the creators simply took inspiration from the concept and made their own game of that style. It is a game in its own league, that should not be compared but instead enjoyed for its own merits. It is not without imperfection, in fact it suffers from a lot of the usual issues that smartphone games tend to have. From irritating bugs, cut-corners in the graphics department and perhaps a slight lack of game-play content. But as a whole, the game performs much like you'd expect a console game to play and will entertain even the most avid action/adventure game fans, particularly those who love Ubisoft and Rockstar titles.
Rating: 8.5/10