Video game review: Assassin’s Creed (Xbox 360)
Assassin’s Creed is almost a great game.
Ubisoft started with some innovative concepts such as the fluid motions of Parkour and the idea that the player would be able to reach almost any point they could see and combined them with an interesting story and some “almost there” gameplay mechanics to create a refreshing game that unfortunately is marred by issues like repetitive missions and sometimes frustrating combat. In this sense, Assassin’s Creed is somewhat of a disappointment because there is so much potential for a rock solid new franchise.
Assassin’s Creed was billed as an action adventure game set in the Middle East towards the end of the Third Crusade. The player takes on the role of a member of the Order of the Hashshashin, a specific branch of the Islamic faith from which the term “assassin” is believed to have been derived, named Altair who was recently disgraced and is working towards regaining his honor. However, it is quickly revealed that this is all just part of a virtual reality simulation using technology that is supposed to be able to read the “genetic memory” of the player character’s ancestors from his DNA sequence. The player character is actually a bartender who was kidnapped by a pharmaceutical company in order to learn information known only to his ancestors.
While the concept behind the technology is cool and its inclusion in the game allows for some novel ways to represent certain elements of the game’s design such as the revival of the player’s character after death and the direction of important cutscenes, this inclusion also feels somewhat tacked on, even intrusive to the gaming experience. It’s more than a little jarring to go from the medieval Middle East to a simple metallic room in today’s world with with computers, sliding doors and showers.
The “story within the story” of the Muslim assassins targeting certain ruling figures within the three key cities of Acre, Damascus and Jerusalem could have stood alone as an intriguing mystery – as you assassinate each target you learn a little bit more about what connects the people you’re sent to kill and their plans for the future – and a parable about the dangers of blind faith. You should never take for granted that your leaders automatically have society’s best interests at heart and the story writers deliberately made it vague whether it was your character or your enemies who were on the wrong side of the battle.
Nevertheless, even as Altair questions his orders, he continues to follow them, taking out target after target on the road to discovering just what he’s really fighting for. Unfortunately, the game gets rather repetitive when it comes to accomplishing the tasks that earn you the right to go after the target. After entering each city, you first have to find the local bureau leader who will inform you of the parts of the city where valuable information about your target can be acquired. This information is always retrieved in the same manner – you partake in at least three of six available missions in which you might coerce a lackey to reveal your target’s crimes or find clues through pickpocketing or eavesdropping. Occassionally, you’ll be solicited by fellow members of the Hashshashin to assassinate guards or collect flags within a certain time period in exchange for bonus clues that could help in your primary mission.
Once you have enough information to satisfy the bureau leader, you are given leave to take out your target, off to yet another chase through the streets or across the rooftops of the city until your victim-to-be decides to stand and face you (usually once about a dozen guards have caught up). Although you can technically try a more stealthy approach to assassinating your target, there really is no point since the stealth aspects of the game are quite mundane (basically hold the “A” button while walking around to pretend your a monk or scholar) and it’s way too easy to fail, turning the mission into nothing more than a glorified sword fight, which would be okay if the combat system weren’t so tedious.
When fighting opponents, you really only have one of two options: keep hacking away until they stop blocking with their weapons or wait for them to attack so you can counter. The latter is generally the more fun approach as there are some pretty cool cinematics played anytime you counter an attack into a deathblow but unfortunately you more often than not just knock them back with a punch in the face that doesn’t even damage them. Going on the offensive is usually more risky as it exposes your back to the other half dozen enemies involved in the fight, but at least you feel like you’re taking action instead of just waiting for something to happen.
As good as the enemies are at blocking and countering your attacks, maneuvering into better positions and actually attacking you more than one at a time, the guards tend to be quite dumb the rest of the time. You can pickpocket citizens right in front of them, leap around like a member of Cirque du Soleil without drawing much attention from anyone except the passers by and sometimes even trespass right in front of them without much danger. At times, they’ll recognize when you’re somewhere you’re not supposed to be, in which case you can just toss a knife at them or leap forward to plunge your retractable blade into their necks, but at other times you can be running on top of the parapet they’re guarding and they won’t even notice. And if you happen to catch their attention, you can usually just drop below a ledge or walk behind a column to appease them – out of sight, out of mind, I suppose.
Where Assassin’s Creed does shine is in the world Ubisoft created and the tools they give you to explore every inch of it. The developers poured hundreds of hours into researching the three ancient cities in which the game takes place and the results certainly show the value of such dedication and attention to detail. All of the buildings, from the lowly abodes in the poor shanty town neighborhoods to the magnificent palaces, immense fortresses and towering churches that define each city’s skyline, are full of personality and beautifully rendered with every door, window and displaced brick a possible hand hold for Altair to latch onto. The cities also feel very much alive with plenty of citizens roaming the streets, hawking their wares in busy market stalls, begging for money, and even wondering aloud what mental disease afflicts the white robed man trying to climb the side of a house.
The hard work of the design staff really hits home when you scale some of the taller structures, such as the Citadel of the Holy Cross in Acre, and are treated to breathtaking panoramic sweeps of the city below you. The massive scale of each city is incredible, and it’s amazing how you can travel from one end to another without any noticeable load times. The creation of these cities is one of the most impressive accomplishments of this generation of video games.
It’s just too bad that such a feat is wasted on what boils down to a rather rudimentary action game. While playing Assassin’s Creed, I often wondered why Ubisoft didn’t develop a “next generation” Prince of Persia game around this concept, which is much more aligned with the exploratory nature of those games than with the generally more realistic scenario used in this game. Ubisoft should have instead taken cues from the Hitman and Thief series whose dynamic stealth gameplay is much more appropriate for an assassination game.
All in all, Assassin’s Creed is a good game with an interesting premise and stunning graphics that put most of its peers to shame. Unfortunately, numerous problems with gameplay mechanics and some poor game design decisions keep the game from reaching its potential. Thankfully, reports are that the development team took all of the criticism to heart and created a sequel that may do what its predecessor couldn’t and become one of the best gaming experiences of the generation.
Final score: 3 out of 5
Parent to parent
The game is called Assassin’s Creed. That should raise a red flag before you even turn the box over. The whole point of the game is to stalk and assassinate people either with the swords you wear on your belt or the hidden blade that pops out where your left ring finger used to be. I’d say that’s cause enough to keep little Timmy moving on down the Xbox 360 aisle to other games.
Experience this for yourself!
(Amazon)