Thoughts About: Assassin’s Creed

The Break Down:
Assassin’s Creed tells two stories. Story one places you in the modern day shoes of man kidnapped by a fictitious pharmaceutical company for the purposes of genetic experimentation. It turns out a ancestor of your used to be an uber assassin way back in the day that stole and hid an invaluable artifact. The corp. is forcing you to use a funky machine that allows you to relive your ancestor’s memories, via DNA sequencing, and to and figure out artifact was lost.

The Game Play:
The game hits player control, actions and environments dead on. Once I got the controls down, I felt like the character was my marionette. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like I’ve had more control in a game and this especially shine through during combat. Getting involved in rooftop sword and dagger duels with multiple guards chasing your character didn’t get old once. Quickly and quietly assassinating guards and templars knights, then disappearing into a crowded marketplace feels very rewarding.

Each of the 3 cities you can visit in the game feels alive. The street and markets are loud and crowded, back alleyways are quite and populated with a few undesirable characters, and beggars harass you for money. The buildings are beautiful and just about all of them your character can climb. I felt glee the first time I climbed to the top of a towering church steeple to gaze down at the busy street below.

Its just a shame that with such great character control, and a beautiful, alive sandbox for your character to play in that there is not much for you to do. Outside of getting into fights with guards and carrying out one of the 9 assassinations that the game requires, the only other things to do in the city are: eavesdrop on conspirators, pickpocket knives from thugs or documents from spies, beat up informants for information, collect flags hidden throughout the city, compete in flag collection races (races!?!) to get information for informants, and reach high viewpoints to map out the city. It’s also worth noting that you would have to complete at least three of these activities before you could begin each one of the games primary assassinations.

Forced to this mechanic, the game play of each assassination, for me, consisted of; finding the high viewpoint to map city, finding the target to pickpocket, finding the target to eavesdrop on, finding the target to beat up, finding the primary assassination target and then taking him out. Rinse and repeat 8 times.

The Final Verdict:
After the 16 hours of play it took me to complete it, I decided Assassin’s Creed is good, but it could have been, and should have been, great. About half way through the game the lack of side missions and stale objectives just made me wish for the ending. Speaking of endings, the game has two; a closing for each story. One of them is satisfying, the other can’t really be called an ending at all. I would stand in line for Assassin’s Creed 2 if it picked up EXACTLY where this one left off, and they did something about the stale game play and mission variety.

6/10