Assassin's Creed
Review
Stalking people has never felt so good.
by Chris Davis
reviewed on X360
Bring a Knife to a Sword Fight
Combat in Assassin’s Creed, while awkward at first, is very imaginative and fun. Battles are designed to play in rhythm, as counterattacks have you attacking just before the enemies blade strikes while you can also parry and dodge their attacks. “Combo” execution kills are a bit difficult to pull off at times but reward you with a gruesomely realistic scene of Altair making sure his enemy won’t be getting back up off the ground. Once players gain the ability to utilize counterattacks however it can be a bit of a game breaker, as all you have to do is simply wait for the enemy to attack and press a button at the right instance. Some battles can last well into ten minutes with dozens of enemies at all times, but for a majority of the game combat isn’t necessary to achieve your goals. Still, you won’t find yourself not wanting to fight the enemy too often as it is still quite fun.
Assassin's Creed’s only true flaw is in its replay value. As this is a single player game you can't engage with others online or even share scores. You cannot restart the entire game over without having to create a new profile, but once the credits have rolled you can select any mission section you wish, which really helps when item hunting. The collectable portion will extend the gameplay if you are truly dedicated and want your achievements, but it’s not worth going after for the average player.
Architects of a Crusade
As stated before, Ubisoft is well known for quality presentations, and Assassin’s Creed is certainly no blemish to that reputation. The world of the game is fantastic in scale and damn near awe-inspiring when you first visit a new city. Each of the cities is created using the original building plans of the era, with a few artistic licenses used along the way. The grand scale of the cities, while nowhere near the size of what you’d experience in games like Grand Theft Auto and the like, are still robust and completely believable given the time and place the game occurs in. Each location captures the feel one would expect from the city, with evangelicals on corners spouting about the enemy, Saracen or Crusader, while rallying the crowd with their rhetoric. Beggars stand on street corners crying out for anything they can get their hands on and harassers line the backstreets ready to cause trouble should you innocently pass by.
And speaking of crowds, Assassin’s Creed certainly has a huge population. Complimenting the size of the cities, the world feels truly alive when you immerse yourself in a crowd of dozens of civilians as they go on about their daily lives. The crowd control system built into the game allows you to maneuver throughout it almost without getting hung up, though it can occasionally happen. Crowds will actively chastise you should you use high profile movements and the like. The sheer numbers of the crowd are complimented by the number of unique models. Not too often will you find the same model in the same area, which is a very welcome sight since previous games with large crowds (i.e. Dead Rising) have the same model used many times within the same area all throughout the game.
The audio portion of the game is fantastic, especially when listening in 5.1 surround sound. Hearing everything from the bustle of a busy marketplace to the clash of swords is extremely enjoyable. The music of the game is excellent as well, especially when in combat against your assassination target. Even the dialogue is fantastic with a grand mix of English and Arabic everywhere throughout the game. Lip-syncing is well done here, though there are occasions where you do feel like you are in a badly dubbed Japanese monster movie.
We Carry On
Assassin's Creed is an excellent example of what a next generation action adventure game should be. The gameplay is solid, the graphics are great and its audio is hard to compare to any other game in the genre. While the game does end quite abruptly, it is however a perfect set-up for a sequel and I'm certain I'm not the only one really anticipating one. Lets just hope we don't have to wait another three years before we get it.
9.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
