 Spoiler free review, because it's nice
to push "new game" not knowing what you're about to
discover.
Assassin's creed makes a good impression right from the
beginning; not many games immerse the player in an original setting,
with interesting locations, complex gameplay and an deep storyline.
From a gameplay point of view, the game expands the Prince of Persia
recipe, refines it, in a free roaming universe, placed sometimes
during the Crusades.
Speaking of this game, let's ponder first the following motto : "It doesn't matter WHAT you're
doing, it matters HOW you're doing it". If this sounds ok to you,
there's a big chance you'll be quite impressed by this game. If not,
there's an equal chance to abandon it after a few hours, pissed off
and frustrated by the wasted potential of the game. And that's
because it's obvious AC could have been an instant classic, a game
emulated or copied by the competition, but in it's current form, it's
only practical purpose is serving as a launch pad for the sequel.
It's a good game, but not an extraordinary game, close, but not close enough.
Assassin's
Creed major problem is repetitivity . Everything which doesn't add up
to the universe, animations, combat system or the main quest is
horribly repetitive.
It's quite obvious, unfortunately, regardless of
how optimistic you're looking at the problem. There are 4 types of
secondary missions: interrogation, eavesdropping, pickpocket and save
the citizen. All of them repeat endlessly. Not even the NPCs speech
is different, it makes your head hurt. You're running around the
city, and you're listening the same town cryer message over, and
over, and over again, it's making your ears bleed. And the icing on
the cake is some central market in Jerusalem, where there are 2 of
these guys, place a few meters apart, saying the exact same thing,
with a few seconds delay: medieval cacophony.
Everything random
in this game repeats itself.
The above paragraph represents
the Achilles heel of this game. It's the "game breaker",
the element which will make a lot of people just give up. With a
little bit of patience however, those of you who will close their
eyes to these inconveniences, and will discover the story, and the
universe, and all the different things you can do will not be
disappointed.  As follows:
I don't know by what extent the
producers' rants about the authenticity of the universe are true, but
I know this: the moment you enter the game, the impression of "I'm
here, it looks real" is quite obvious. Starting with the
architecture, and the NPCs clothes, and the interior design of the
buildings. It seems authentic, and it goes a long way immersing the
player in the universe. Another great thing is the way the game's 4
major cities (Jerusalem, Damasc, Acre, Masyaf) are populated. We all
know the publicity around other games trying to recreate a "living,
breathing world", but Assassin's Creed pushes the concept to a
new level. Every single city is full of non playing characters
walking around, doing their daily routine; there is no complicated
system of "now I sleep, now I eat", like in Oblivion, but
one thing is clear: it's way better than Bethesda's game, because of
the sheer number of them, and the way they just seem...natural, doing
their thing. There's literally tons of NPCs roaming the streets in
Assassin's Creed; there's so many of them you literally have to push
your way through them, trying to get out of the crowds.  They scream,
shout and run around, they drop what they're carrying if pushed, and
if the situation becomes dangerous (for them), they call the guards.
Sure, after a few hours of gameplay you're already sick and tired of
hearing the same tired old line used when an NPC calls for help, but
at least from a visual standpoint, everything looks and feels great.
And, when the city's crowds start to get on your nerves,(there
are characters especially designed to piss you off, like the beggars)
you can always go the way of the roofs. And once you reach the roofs,
you realize there is no other game which manages to even get close to
what Ubisoft Montreal has managed to achieve with the game's free
running system. Altair, the main character, runs without interruption
on any surface, "switches" from different types of
animations without any hitches, without seeing where the different
frames change, without those little "dead" moments between
animation types, with such fluidity and grace it leaves you floored
in front of your TV. You move your character using the left stick,
you hold Right Trigger, and push A. By doing that, Altair will
correctly detect the surface he's running on, every single time, and
will run, jump or climb according to the situation. You don't have to
do anything; the game knows if there is a wall in front of the
character, a ledge, a big drop from the roof, or anything else. And
Altair will continue running, regardless of the obstacle, in such a
natural and great way it makes you wish this game had a "replay"
feature. |
