What sorcery is this?!
Graphics: 10 (one truly amazing world to view / very little frame rates issues / the attention to details is simply astounding; it's so great that it made me feel guilty not locating all the flags)
Sounds: 7 (decent voice acting / musical scores)
Value: 9 (nine assassination attempts / decent amount of things to do however can be repetitive though)
Tilt: 8 (whilst the AI is docile and there's no real cause / effect, the environs / people reactions to your stupidity made this game)
When I first heard this quote from the soon to be master assassin Altair Ibn-La'Ahad, I had a good laugh as this is an appropriate summary of the entire game Assassin's Creed. I won't spoil it for you where / whom Altair referred this to however, little did Altair realised, it's summarised the game in just one sentence. So what sorcery is this?!
Assassin's Creed's plot is all about conspiracy – typical world domination stuff. However throughout the game, it does have a couple of twists and turns. Stuff of 'who's the real villain' is and the best thing about that it is that, at the end of the game, it leaves the decision to the player – that is you.
So you start out as playing as Desmond. Desmond is a descendant of the line of assassins that caused havoc throughout the centuries, and one particular group, the Templars, are not happy with this group. The main reason for this is that, they are looking for an artefact capable of controlling the world and the Assassins have it. So naturally it's a cat and mouse game between the Templars / Assassins of obtaining this prize.
Like all good artefacts, this one disappeared and throughout the ages, cannot be located since. Moving forward into the future (actually it was Sept 2012), Desmond was kidnapped by a megacorp Abstergo Industries and slapped him into the animus – a device where it uses his 'ancestral memories' to locate the last resting place of this artefact. And his ancestor happens to be Altair.
The game play was described by the developers as an open world stealth game. All I can say is 'What sorcery is this?' as yes, it's an open world game however it's certainly not stealth – not by a long shot. Granted that most missions involves assassinating your target quietly however it's not mandatory. Actually, I never assassinate anyone without causing total mayhem prior.
The controls are quite fluent enough surprisingly for a PC port. I won't go into details (as that's what the tutorials are for) however it does require a little learning. My best suggestion is during the first romp, just scale the walls, attack a few guards here and there (or stab them if you prefer) or simply try and find all the flags in that area. Note that the area is quite small so it's a decent 'training' ground. My reason for this is that, if you cannot master the controls, you will have a difficult time later on.
And because Altair was a naughty boy in the beginning, the game slowly eases you in learning all the combos otherwise it will be a complete nightmare learning all of them in one hit. I really like that concept as every time I gain a new ability, I tend to use this new skill during my next assassination. So it's advisable to master these combos as later on, the AI will do this too. If you don't, again the game will be difficult later on. Yet, there are some combos that I use quite often (e.g. the counter attack).
During Altair's adventure, you'll be travelling through four 'zones' being Masyaf, Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus. What joins them together is called the 'Kingdom' and to makes things easier, you can fast travel to each of them or if you are like me, grab a horse. And this is where the game truly shines as each locale are absolutely breath-taking and the attention to detail is nothing short of brilliance. Every building, tables, chairs, water fountains, anything all seems to have a purpose as nothing felt out of place. It was so unbelievable that I actually felt guilty not locating all the flags scattered around.
The activities that you will be performing are a mixed bag though as in the beginning, playing the game will be such a blast as you will be scaling tall buildings (and some tiny ones) to scan the area. Once scanned, you'll have 'hotspots' that indicates activities you need to accomplish; whether be pick pocketing, eavesdropping or interrogation. There are also 'side missions' that doesn't affect your main goal however can assist you – that is saving the locals from harassing city guards. And because I played the PC version, there are extra missions like roof top racing, escorting and some minor assassinations.
Whilst all this sounds like fun (and actually it is), later on it can be awfully repetitive. It's fun doing this three times however when there's nine assassinations in total, it can be quite cumbersome. Yet, to those who want to get in the thick of things, all you need is two clues before going for the kill. The clues are there to assist you completing your assassination without causing too much alarm (as after all, you are an assassin) however I tend just the barge in, open fire (so to speak) and kill everything that moves.
And this is where the game tumbles down unfortunately. Because of the god like self-healing system (the game calls it 'out of sync' cleverly enough) you shouldn't have any real issues defeating six guards in one hit. Later on maybe, however I have confronted myself up to twelve guards without any real issues (as I used my combos to its maximum effect). And if you are getting into too much heat, just sprint until you are out of sight and hide in a bale of hay (or whatever). The guards are docile enough to ignore you shortly.
So what it boils down to is that the game doesn't punish you for being an idiot. I can ride my horse and run over a million guards, climb up buildings and push anyone off that follows me (which practically is all of them), throw them into shopping stands (thus collapsing resulting instant death), stab them in the broadest of daylight and so on, it's like I can get away with blood on my hands. And I remember there's one scene where one of the guards stated 'I can sense an assassin nearby' – seriously, I caused more havoc than a nuclear bomb and this guard 'sense' I was nearby? Doesn't that pile of one hundred dead bodies and me standing in front of it cluey enough? Granted that the crowd's reaction to your stupidity is decent however there's no real cause / effect.
As briefly touched before, there are nine targets to kill and at minimum, you need to gather two clues to move on to your next victim. Because I'm a perfectionist (e.g. collecting flags / saving citizens and gather all the clues), I knocked this off around the 70 hours mark. Granted I used the 'always walk' option quite a lot as the world is so immersive, it would be a crime just to let it fly by you. Yet there are no options to replay the cut scenes as there's plenty of name dropping and there will be times you get confused with the story's progression. Replaying cut scenes will be very handy especially if you decide to take a break for a while. And what's with the six trillion steps just to exit the game is beyond reasoning.
Whilst Assassin's Creed immersion is one of the best I have seen (e.g. crowd reactions / unbelievable attention to detail) the game does not punish you for your stupidity. You can literally kill people with dead bodies everywhere and no one seems to care (sounds like life in general). Other stealth games would absolutely murder me if I remotely do what I have done in Assassin's Creed. So the way I look at it, it's a light hearted adventure; nothing to take too seriously. Yet the story is decent enough but nothing too ground breaking (like Dues Ex for instance).