Assassin's Creed
And the award for the game with the worst character name is ... Assassin's Creed and daft name of "Desmond Miles"
Silly names aside, the games real star is Altair, an assassin who is quickly stripped of his rank and equipment and is sent on a quest to eliminate 9 targets in Acre, Damascus and Jeruselem.
The silent assassin has two special tricks up his sleeve
There are several things about this game that make it very impressive. Firstly, the sheer size of the cities that you can explore is amazing and just as impressive is the amount of detail in all of them. The cities are alive and very believable, bustling with traders, beggars and guards, there really does seem like a lot is going on.
Secondly, the climbing mechanic in this game works better than any we have seen before - something that we believe Naughty Dog has copied for their "Uncharted 2" game. If you look at something and think "it looks like I could grab that and hauls myself up" then usual it's true and you can.
Secondly, the climbing mechanic in this game works better than any we have seen before - something that we believe Naughty Dog has copied for their "Uncharted 2" game. If you look at something and think "it looks like I could grab that and hauls myself up" then usual it's true and you can.
Look into the distance and you'll see ... horizontal lines?
Of course no game is without it's flaws and they are quite obvious in Assassin's Creed. The refresh rate and frame rate in this game have some serious problems, unless you have a 100hz LCD TV which is besides the point really. Lines flicker across the screen frequently and slow downs are also not uncommon when turning too quickly.
The other problems are not so major, the AI does stupid things occasionally (don't they always) and although the developers claim you can climb using everything you'd expect, we managed to find several places where we were sure we should've been able to climb but were denied.
So what's the story Mr.Miles?
The storyline is quite good when you play as Altair, although the strange Desmond Miles story seems to have been tacked on and is thoroughly dull and confusing, hopefully the sequel will explain what this part was all about.
Gameplay wise, a lot of - make your own fun - to be had here. The first playthrough we were careful and played the game as it was designed, however, much more fun was had when we decided to wind up the guards, pedestrians and merchants and basically climb, jump and run everywhere we possible could. Although sneaking around stealthily killing targets is fun, you'll find that fighting 20 or so guards in the streets to be equally if not more enjoyable.
Hey! You mean I don't get all the cool stuff straight away?
The only serious problem that we had gameplay wise was the fact that you are unable to counter attacks during the first mission. This we feel was just taking out a vital skill for the sake of advancement later and was unnessessary. If first impressions are everything to you, then combat without countering may have put you off progressing through the game further.
Basically the game just needs a polish, technical problems solved and a few annoyances removed. Hopefully all this will be fixed in the sequel and more added besides. If you're one of those people that needs to know the complete story of a game series, then you should definitely pick this game up before you play the second game, hopefully you'll understand the "Desmond Miles" story better than we did.
Basically the game just needs a polish, technical problems solved and a few annoyances removed. Hopefully all this will be fixed in the sequel and more added besides. If you're one of those people that needs to know the complete story of a game series, then you should definitely pick this game up before you play the second game, hopefully you'll understand the "Desmond Miles" story better than we did.
Has this Assassin hit his mark? or has the Creed produced a failure? - The Verdict
The Good
The Bad
The Verdict
If you've played the "Hitman" game series you'll love this, it's a bit more forgiving and many just a bit more fun too. Give it a shot before you run out and buy the sequel.
- Amazingly detailed and large cities to explore
- Plenty of fun with sharp objects
- Interesting story (well half of it anyway)
The Bad
- Glaring refresh rate and frame rate problems
- Controls a little sluggish, sometimes unpredictable
- Quests are quite repetitive
The Verdict
If you've played the "Hitman" game series you'll love this, it's a bit more forgiving and many just a bit more fun too. Give it a shot before you run out and buy the sequel.
