When Assassins Creed was announced way back at E3 2006, It set the gaming world on fire and the hype was unbelievable. Just the idea of playing as an assassin going about his daily business was enough to drive most people (myself included) completely insane with glee. Some time has passed since then and we finally have a shiny new copy of AC in our hands, but does it meet all these wild expectations?
Within 5 minutes of starting game you’re hit with a massive plot twist, which totally changes the entire view on what’s to come. When you begin, You greeted with visuals of the now familiar Altair in some sort of lucid dream. In a white haze with strange numbers and codes ‘glitching’ across the screen but what happens next caught everyone off guard. For plots sake I won’t reveal what happens next but wow. It’s a biggun’.
When you set off to get some killing done there’s rules and protocols to follow. What? That’s right, Being a follower of the assassins creed you’re not allowed to storm in and kill everyone in sight; Initially I was disappointed but when you get into a flow, it works well. Each of the nine hits requires that you gather information on the target before going for the kill, to give yourself the best chance of sticking that fool good.
There are several different sources of information, you could eavesdrop on certain key people, you could ‘interrogate’ public speakers by beating them stupid or you could help out other members of the assassin’s guild in exchange for information. Eavesdropping is relatively simple, Find an important person, Sit on a nearby bench and Listen, Job done. Interrogation is a bit more difficult, but not much. Find a public speaker spouting nonsense about your key target and stalk him into an alleyway or shaded area, then, introduce him to Sir Pain and Dr Fist and he’ll start talking. Finally, The informers ask you to do various odd jobs for them, Varying from collecting 20 flags in 2 minutes up to covertly assassinating 5 guards in 4 minutes, return to them and they’ll tell you important information about the target. That’s it, although there are several less important side missions to be completed at your discretion. Saving citizens from corrupt guards or climbing really high to reach-high points and synchronising with your surroundings. After you’ve done half of these you can seek out a bureau and get permission to kill the target. When you’ve been given the special white feather you can go for the primary target. Upon finding him you usually get to watch a sequence which shows just why you have to kill this person. When the video finishes the crowd disperses and you’re left to do your magic. It’s up to you whether you want to take the harder route of sneaking in (usually into a heavily defended fortress) and silently dispatching of the target or, charge in through the front door and killing everyone who looks at you funny. It’s all up to you. Sadly, after nine targets of this same formula it begins to grate and you’ll find that familiar feeling of monotony setting in.
This games trump card is definitely the free running and climbing of buildings within the world. Each of the three key cities has different buildings and spaces, making for a new experience every time you vault off a roof to the next. Although the control system used for the climbing is very simple, you still feel a sense of accomplishment every time you make it to the top of one of the games highest structures, and you still get that wow moment every single time you get to the top, only to hurl yourself off again into a conveniently placed stack of hay. Just to get out and climb back up again.
One of the major factors not to be overlooked is the games combat system. You could choose to button bash and smash your way through the game, but I promise you that you want make it past the first 10 minutes or carefully choreograph every single strike for maximum efficiency and deadly effect. After about 30 minutes you’ll be accustomed to the counter-attack system and be dispatching foes with ease. If properly timed, The moment an enemy swings his sword, you can break the momentum and use his own attack against him. If properly executed you get to see a zoomed sequence where Altair gets his hack on and butchers the enemy. Anywhere from breaking arms and legs to dropping them on swords you can be sure to hear cries of “Oh my god! Did you see that?” from miles around. The second and believe it or not, gorier method of raising the body count is by performing the difficult combo kills. Attack as usual, but, the moment you hear the sound of swords clashing, hit the attack button again and surprise, Altair gets nasty. Usually some form of slap, punch, snap, stab, stab, stab, slap combo, the enemy rarely gets up; leaving you awestruck, staring at the puddle of blood that was just insulting you. One of the most disturbingly entertaining bits is that enemies don’t always die, while you may be thinking ‘that’s not good!’ just imagine a 20 minute long battle, fleeing up a wall onto a roof, and looking down at 30 or 40 enemies rolling around moaning in pain. If ever there was a moment so perfectly designed for Dr Evil style “Muahahaha!” I’ve yet to find it.
Graphics: As expected, AC is beautiful, The cities are beautiful, Altair is, in his own way, beautiful. Hands down, the best graphical moment is climbing to the highest structures and looking down over the entire city, full with inhabitants doing whatever it is they do without any hangs or slow down whatsoever. Sadly it cant have 10/10 due a few niggling glitches like the ragdolls flopping through/around/over buildings and occasionally violently shaking about the place looking quite silly.
9/10
Sound: Again, Very good. And on a properly setup 5.1 system the chase scenes are very entertaining but, as is the trend with AC it gets let down by little niggling things. For example, running down the same stretch of street to hear what person after person yell the same comment will drive you crazy. The swords and combat sounds very immersive and realistic though again, let down by repetitiveness.
8/10
Gameplay: Brilliant, If a little monotonous. The combat is challenging yet equally rewarding and the free running is a bit simple but still satisfying. The hidden flags and Templar’s add to the replay value but once you’ve completed the story then there’s not much else to do.
9/10
Conclusion: Assassins Creed is without doubt a game that you must have in your collection, Although it has its faults and fair share of monotony its arguably one of the best games of 2007 and an absolute adrenaline ride all the way through. While not perfect it will entertain the vast majority of players at least through the main story, and some will play beyond that. Lets hope AC2 fills on all those little bits that left us wanting.
8/10
