Loading ...Ass-assins Creed Review
Its finally arrived, after months and months of drooling over screenshots, gameplay vids and developer interviews Assassin’s Creed hits Xbox 360 and PS3 with the PC version to come early 08.But was it really worth the wait? Simply put, NO!. How can a developer take such a beautiful engine, intriging story and fabulous combat system and screw it up you ask. Well somehow Ubisoft Montreal have done just that and the one word that negates all their hard work is monotony.
Assassin’s Creed previewed back at E3 2006 and was tipped as being one of the killer aps of 2007. I for one was on the band wagon the moment i saw our anti-hero Altair force his way through a crowded street and sink his hidden blade into his mark. But what you soon realize is that the trailer is pretty much the game. Practically ever single mission in the game is just a rehash of the mission before but in a slighty different city. This to me is just another sign of uncreative game design in a GFX fueled market.
Graphics - 9
This is pretty much the core and only strenght of AC. Powered with a wonderful game engine the graphics just scream ‘next gen’. From the breathtaking long distance views high above the city down to the well detailed models the game just looks and feels like pure gold. Also the art direction really captures the era superbly which is to be expected from the team behind the Prince of Persia Trilogy. Sound - 8
On the whole the sound is great with some wonderful voice work littering the game. Unfortunitly Altair our main character seems to be the only person that doesn’t have an accent. I mean if your going to go to all that trouble to assemble a team of great voice actors and give them accents, why destroy it by making the main character sound completely out of place. Did Ubisoft learn nothing from Alexander?
Gameplay - 5
This my friends is the most dissapointing aspect of AC. How in the world Ubisoft managed to make the job of an Assassin uninteresting is beyond me, but they have. You can forget about the cerebral challenge’s of Agent 47 or the cool gadgets of Sam Fisher. Altair is about as inconspicuous in his work as the US army!.
No matter how much you plan, or how long you spend collecting information eventually the assassin concept drops off and the game becomes anarchy incarnate. You can’t silently kill your marks, basically once located you navigate to them enter cutscene and all out war ensues between Altair and the everspawning bodyguards. This is basically Dynasty Warriors with alittle detective work.
Speaking of detective work thats about as fun as watching paint dry. There are 4 ways to gather info about your mark around each city.
Pickpocketing
Eave’s Dropping
Strong Arming
Assassin Contacts
You’ll use 3 of these 4 tools to ‘gather’ the required info in order to ‘assassinate’ your target. After the second or third time i could barely stomach the thought of them. The only thing that kept me playing was the hopes of finding out what the hell was actually going on in the story. Oh and the chance to shove more peasants.
Replay Value/ Longevity - 6
AC can easily be clocked in under 8-10 hours, thats also accounting for the coma inducing secondary objectives. If your a 360 Achievement whore theres plenty of flags to find and peasants to save around each city but i’d be surprized if anyone had the patience to get the whole 1000 points on offer.
Conclusion
I was really expecting great things from Assassin’s Creed and Ubisoft Montreal after the wonderful POP series but unfortunitly AC is just smoke and mirrors. Worth a rent in the new year but with the likes of Mass Effect and COD4 gunning for 360 owners money right now this title just doesn’t hold water. PS3 ownerrs however may want to take alook, well’s there’s not much else right now is there.
Verdict - 6.5/10
I must admit when I saw this game I too jumped on the “graphical bandwagon”. I did note however that even from the videos and interviews it seemed like a glorified platform game, and a game that might not lend itself well to mouse and keyboard controls.
My hopes were that this would be a game along the lines of the excellent Thief series (well 1 + 2 anyway!). From the developer interviews I found out fairly quickly that it would be nothing like Thief!!! Why won’t someone make a new thief game?!!?
Comment by Justin — December 7, 2007 @ 9:58 am
I have to agree with you there. The original Thief was superb and way ahead of its time. Hopefully Ion Storm will pull the lead out and put out a fourth installment. But i think they irritated alot of the core fans with Deadly Shadows much like they did with Deus Ex 2.
It just goes to show though doesn’t it, the gaming industry is really taking one step forward and two back while engaged in this GFX race. Most developers are spending all their time making sure their titles look cutting edge instead of making sure their fun to play.
Is it just me or is the gaming industry starting to get alittle too Hollywood on us?
Comment by Steve — December 10, 2007 @ 1:54 am
TOTALLY AGREE
I seen a complete promo on Comedy Central for the game, bought a 360 and found out……the game I bought the system for sucks, I will continue to play guitar hero and my new found favorite “Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare” now thats a game worth paying sixty bucks for. Dont waste your money unless your a hard core all around game person.
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Comment by DarkUtah.com — December 18, 2007 @ 7:14 am