2007 was an amazing year for games, but how many triple-A titles were out there that were not shooters? I mean, we had a lot. It kind of bugged me since I am not a big fan of shooters and yet we have so many of them. That mold was finally broken with Ubisoft new game, Assassin’s Creed. At first, I didn’t want to play it due to it being a stealth game. I was more on the line of charging headfirst with a powerful weapon like in God of War or Conan. I respected the popularity of games like Metal Gear Solid, but I wasn’t a big fan of stealth due to the tediousness of Wind Waker’s Stealth section. However, I have finally decided to play this game and review it, so let’s dive in the creed of Assassin’s Creed.
The main story of Assassin’s Creed revolves around a young man named Desmond Miles, voiced by Nolan North. He ends up in a laboratory led by Warren Vidic and his female assistant and fellow doctor, Lucy Stillman. They both work for a company known as Abstergo Industries. They use Desmond as a subject for the machine called Animus. The Animus can find different ancestors of a specific person and use it on Desmond Miles who has Assassin ancestors in his history. The story then switches to famous Assassin Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad, who is the part of the Creed. One day, after pissing off the Templars and evading an attack from them, he is stripped of his rank and weapons, and is at the bottom of the ranks. He must regain his honor and weapons by killing 9 different leaders and gaining back his ranks of the brotherhood. Now, there is a pretty good twist, but I know people probably know about it as of now since it’s been a while since this game has come out. It’s definitely worth it for all of the tedious missions you are given.
The game play in Assassin’s Creed is more on the line of action, adventure, and stealth. You go around through a huge map, either by foot to get some good exercise or ride a horse. You later get the ability to warp there, which helps since this map is pretty big even if there are not a lot of locations. At the beginning, all you have is your handy wrist blade, which is probably one of the best weapons of all time. Throughout the game, you get a short blade or what seems to be a large knife, a sword, and throwing knives which all come in handy to take down groups of enemies and assassination targets. During each mission, you can take on multiple side missions, from getting flags for some reason, to killing informants and pickpocketing people for information on your mission. After each mission, you get one of your weapons back or an upgrade to your arsenal, like more throwing knives. However, you do want to basically go Metal Gear Solid on killing the main target or the guards since it would get you through the mission easier. If you do anything like kill a begging poor person or get caught or found suspicious, you have to run and hide, or else guards and soldiers will chase you. It gets hectic since you have to hide or kill the guards, but it’s more recommended that you find a hiding place like a roof garden or hide between some monks. It’s interesting because one of the ways you can hide is by sitting on a bench with two other people. How does that make any sense? Oh well, I’ll talk about it in the bad parts of this review. The only other thing I have to say about running from the guards is that later in the game, some guards will be able to follow you wherever you go. The best part of the gameplay is that you can basically climb and run and jump on any building in the game. This helps, since you need to find viewpoint areas that expand your map of the city, and give you more viewpoint areas and more side missions.
The graphics in the game are pretty good even by today’s standards when we have games like Batman Arkham Asylum, Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, and God of War 3 coming out. It’s amazing to see how many people are walking around in real time. The scope of the city is amazing. You just get a sense of awe when you stand on a viewpoint area and see the expansive city with some minor detail flaws, but it’s just gorgeous. I also like how you have to chase some of your targets. It’s fun since when I was chasing after one guy, I kind of felt like a super hero like the Spirit or Batman chasing after the bad guy. The voice acting is also very well done with, of course, Nolan North doing Desmond Miles. The music is also well done with composer, Jesper Kyd, who is famous for soundtracks for Borderlands, Freedom Fighters, and Kane and Lynch: Dead Men.
However, it’s time to find the bad parts of this game and explain them here. I felt horrible finding out I didn’t put this down in my earlier version of this review. The game can get very repetitious. At first, I didn’t mind going to each city and killing a certain target. However, looking back at it, it made the game drag on a little more than it should have. I also find it hard to believe that you can escape guards just by sitting down on a bench. That’s something out of a Disney film not some Assassin game. I almost forgot to mention that in Assassin’s Creed, the enemy could be dumb as mud. Unlike Ninja Gaiden 2 where enemies will not wait for you to get back up, the guards in Assassin’s Creed just wait to be killed, one by one. It’s stupid, since it’s not like the guards chose who would die first. I also find it weird that you can climb up most anything, but sometimes you can’t do that. It’s weird since it leaves you sitting there like a frozen Spiderman.
Overall, it still isn’t that bad of a game. Yeah, Assassin’s Creed 2 will blow the first one out of the water, but it’s till a decently fun game. If you want to start at the beginning, I say rent it. This is a great new franchise and I can’t wait for Assassin’s Creed 2. So go join the Assassin’s Creed.
This game gets a 7 out of 10.
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