[03/28/2009] Assassin's Creed

[Devia Eleven]

 

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Publisher: Ubisoft

Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows

Release Date: (NA) November 14, 2007

ESRB: M

Media : Blu-ray Disc, DVD-DL, Download

 

The plot is somewhat complex, please visit Wikipedia for further clarification.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin%27s_Creed#Plot

 

From first glimpse of the screenshots and game cover, you wouldn't expect that the character all over the advertisements for the game is actually only a mere memory and an ancestral construct of Desmond Miles, a typical bartender who is oblivious to his lineage. A select few times in the game, you will be able to wander around the laboratory as modern-day muck up of Altair. You are only able to walk while outside of the Animus, considering that all of the central gameplay takes place in Desmond's time in the Animus device.

 

 

The game Assassin's Creed bases itself on extremely conspicuously recurring but enjoying gameplay elements. The game is a sand-box action adventure experience where only a handful of actions can be committed. Basically as Altair the Assassin, your duty will be to follow the orders of Hassan-i Sabbah, over and over without lead. His orders are for the most part non-negotiable. After a major plot point in the beginning all of your weapons and abilities are taken away from you, as a temporary demotion. So by the end of the game, you will eventually have had already gained everything you lost in the start of the story.

 

As an Assassin you wield a one-handed sword, knives that can be thrown, a knife that can be distended from your special swiss-army knife like gauntlet, and your petty fists. So, in-between missions, ninety percent of the time, this is what you will be doing. There is a map that has various icons that indicate which missions are present. There are viewpoints scattered all across different districts of cities. The purpose of these randomly placed viewpoints is to allow you to climb them, and look upon the area or city around it. What this does is, it discovers new missions to complete. So ordinarily your map will be empty until you activate a viewpoint.

 

 

Each major story element is in a form of a DNA strand, as a presentation to correlate to the ancestral point of the game. They are separated as Memory Blocks in the Animus device. As a regular modern-day human, you will lye down upon it, and there is a visual hologram that contains several different Memory Blocks. Only so many missions are required to unlock the next Memory Block. Each mission is actually a single strand of the DNA resembling Memory Block, not all strands need to be filled, but that's up to the player and if he or she wishes to complete a Memory Block fully.

 

Masyaf is your home town, your kin is located there, and basically, no missions take place there. You can however, accept missions from your master, and practice in the tutorial lounge, to ostentatiously display your swordmanship. Masyaf is the central portal to all other cities. Each city has a different district. They are separated by working class, Rich, Poor, and Middle district. You can ride horses easily as a form of transformation in-between different cities. Horses are not allowed inside cities, however.

 

 

There are two icons on maps that aren't missions. Scholars, whom of which are a four man group of scholars who slowly stride throughout town. The purpose of these guys is to help you get past guards. You can walk in-between them at their pace, and you can copy their mannerisms to blend in. The second are the Mercenaries. The Mercenaries are a form of citizens that help you escape or face guards. The more citizens you save from guards, the more Mercenary groups that will be around town to help you.

 

In each Memory Block the process is as follows. Visit the Assassin's Bureau, which is a small room, and there is only one located in each district of each city. In the Bureau, there will be a man to assist you in the mission at hand. Upon encounter, you will witness an in-game cutscene. After this cutscene, missions will be placed across the map. They include; "Save a Citizen", "Viewpoint", "Pickpocket", "Interrogate", "Information", and "Eavesdrop". I'll explain the missions that aren't self explanatory. The "Information" missions are those of which, are comprised of talking to some type of nomad, he will make you do a miscellaneous selfish mission to give you information regarding your task. The missions can range to collecting flags, and silent assassinations. After all of these minor missions are completed, your health capacity will sometimes increase an, your major Assassination mission will be available for you to complete.

 

 

All cities are structured the same. They all contain a seemingly infinite amount of guards. You being an Assassin, catches their attention easily. Your synchronization bar contains your health capacity, and your status with the law. A yellow eye indicates that the guards are watching you, a red eye indicates that you have done something wrong, and that the guards have suspected you. Once the guards unfortunately discover your misdemeanor, they chase you until you manage to escape successfully. There are safe hiding spots laid out around the map, and they can only be hid in, if your status indicates color yellow. You have the choice to fight them, which is less of a hassle once you gain the ability to counter attack.

 

Aside from the relentless always watching guards, the townsfolk are as fairly unlikable. When you climb buildings, which are readily easy, they often make scolding comments about it. Also, you’ll be harassed and chased by needy townsfolk who need money. The climbing system is extraordinary. Nearly anything can be climbed and grasped. You can simply run towards a wall, and Altiar will run up and grasp whatever object is sticking out from the wall. He can scale walls, walk upon skinny foot boards, and can climb just about anything on a wall if it's sticking out in any form or fashion. The speed at which this is done is also realistically animated. He jumps automatically across gaps, and will only lose so much health if he misses a ledge or a platform.

 

While in the city, you have high and low profile. Low profile actions are “low profile”, which are stealth-like and sly. High profile actions are obvious, abrasive, rude and gruesome. Holding the High profile button while running will make you run even faster. Apply this to everything else, weaponry, and personal gestures. Within crowds, you can hold a button to courteously move people aside without upbraiding them. More actions can be gained as the story progresses. The climbing system is generally the forgiving quality in the game for its exponential repetitive nature. If I said anymore I would be spoiling at this point.

 

- Repetitive Gameplay

This one is obvious. Throughout the entire game, the same missions are done.

 

- Saving the Citizen

There is a problem with this mission. Sometimes when trying to save the citizen, he or she runs away from the fight. After you are done killing off the bullying guards you find out that the citizen is nowhere to be found, and if you chase he or she down, you cannot talk to them. So, you'll sometimes end up having to leave the "Save the Citizen" target, and return shorty thereafter when the game decides to re-spawn the victim citizen and guards. Also, for some illogical reason you can even walk towards the guards that are picking on the victim, without targeting them or having your weapon unsheathed, and they will still automatically start fighting. I find it irrational that my synchronization bar tends to turn to a red color, when I'm not even the one that provoked combat.

 

- Informer

I had a personal debacle with the one informer that shows up each time. He insultingly and sarcastically acknowledges my presence and then demands that I fulfill one of his own selfish missions for two sentences of information that I could generally do without. The flag collecting isn't so bad, but the silent assassinations are just asinine scenarios at times. When tracking down your victims, the guards will for no apparent reason, recognize you, when you haven't even perpetrated anything. You can blend in to avoid attention, but when I do this he walks extremely slow, so I cannot chase a person that I want to kill in blend mode. If I get detected by a guard the mission is automatically disbanded, that's very aggravating and frustrating, this crud is unacceptable.

 

- Casual Walking

I can't even casually walk around town and see the sights that there are to see without some jackfool guard breathing down my neck because they have no one else to pursue. If I even walk close to a guard, they sometimes get the abrupt desire to kill me just for my existence. It doesn't make sense to me, on account of how guards pursue me and fight me when I'm walking around town, whistling, while singing Beatles tunes.

 

- Horse Riding

I really never understood this. The game states that in order to get around guards while on horseback, is to, trot slowly. What I am I doing wrong by galloping?

 

- Retards

I assassinate any retard that decides to push me on sight in the middle of the town. This is heavily irritating. Especially when trying to escape the guards. They push me, and it takes so long for Altiar to recover from his stumble. Then, when you actually kill them the game faults you for doing so, as if they are giving retarded citizens an excuse for their rude behavior.

 

- Beggars

I also like to assassinate beggars, who get the audacity to chase me and harass me for money that I couldn't give them even if I wanted to. This is even more upbraiding when there are more than two beggars all over your genitalia for money, when you're on a mission or when you are trying to escape from guards.

 

Assassin’s Creed’s graphics are “good” for it’s time of release. The soundtrack is groundbreaking, also along with the well created glitchy sequence sound effects. The voice acting is well done. Altiar has a surprisingly straightforward personality type, and this is even intensified by the cinema dramatic voice work. Here is yet another warning, the gameplay exuberantly repetitive beyond occasional belief, but the platforming, climbing, swordplay, and acrobatics is what balances that out for the better.

 

Gameplay: 8.6

Sound: 9

Controls: 9

Presentation: 8

 

-- 8.5

[2eyez]

I hated the game. I got so bored of the game, I started to murder everyone in a one spot. Died bodies everywhere.

[L.S.D]

I just completed 100% on this game.

 

Torturing flags gathering (the hidden packages in the game), repetitive missions as mentioned. I would rate the gameplay 7 as the result.

 

In order to cure the boredom, i would alternate between flag gathering, doing missions and finding templars and climbing viewpoints to keep it fresher. recommended if you stop playing after each mission for better effect .

[GodPigeon]

Yea i hated this game because of its repetitiveness. Alot of potential, but it got boring HELLA quick. Maybe il give it another shot on PC

[Inky]

Assassin's Creed was the biggest disappointment of 08 for me. I couldn't stand it. and it had such a good idea. the potential was there. hopefully a sequel will get it right.

[Devia Eleven]

The sequel will supposedly involve guns, this seems like a terrible idea.

[L.S.D]

The sequel will supposedly involve guns, this seems like a terrible idea.

Well, if they really follow the storyline, it will be set in modern time now. Which I think would fail

[Devia Eleven]

The only thing that's keeping me playing this game at this point, is the Achievements, without them I would be willing to put the game back in it's case.

[Skythe]

Pfft, game was awesome.

[Hera]

Pfft, game was awesome.

 

 

The concept and storyline was pretty awesome but I do have to agree that I would get pretty bored after like an hour and a half. It took me forever to beat it...was just too much blah-ness from time to time. I'm a little iffy about the sequel though.

[BloodyBandage]

I read Assasins Creed 2 has over 450 people working on it..so expect it to be twice as good as the first one; going to be epic.