All that Glitters is Not Gold... You will want to like Assassin's Creed but if you're honest with yourself, you w
If you are fascinated by shiny objects like a bit of tinfoil, you will probably dig this game. You will want to like Assassin's Creed. But if your honest with yourself, you won't. The graphics and sound are unrivaled and really show off the power of the next gen hardware. However, don't get sucked in by its Sirens song before plunking down your $60 bucks because this game is like dating a Playmate with a meth addiction. It might look gorgeous, but the experience is going to be shallow and awful. When it comes to mechanics, there's about as much going on here as any Atari 2600 game.
The cities are huge. There is nothing to do in them outside of climbing a tower and pressing a button. Sometimes, to advance the story, you will have to sit on a bench and press the button to eavesdrop on a target. Sometimes you will have to walk behind a target and press a button to pickpocket them. And don't think you can do this to the hundreds of NPC characters that walk the streets and breathe "life" into this world. These people have about the same personality as the vehicles did in Frogger. In fact, outside of the few characters relevant to the storyline, you don't interact with anyone else in the game. Oh yeah, you can climb around and collect flags.
Running causes you to be noticed by the guards. What?! Am I at the public pool? Now a beeping tone starts. It has the charm of the "Fasten Seatbelt" tone in your car. Want to make it stop? Go hide in a haystack or sit on bench. Hmm. What do you want to do now? Oh yeah, climb another tower to press the button or go find the guild boss to advance the story line. Maybe if I did that, then I could sit on a bench and eavesdrop on someone again. Sure, you could assassinate that "red" guard you see through your Eagle Eye, but why? There is seemingly no benefit in doing so. You don't gain experience or money and if you're killed in the sword fight, you will fall mercy to game's confusing save system.
I really do want to like this game, but there is simply not much to do. It's like GTA with zero side quests. I feel let down by the developers who obviously thought that the game's wonderful graphics would be enough. The story is mediocre and not compelling. Ironically, climbing and sword fighting is fun for exactly 1 hour and 17 minutes.
Definitely give Assassin's Creed a rent before you buy or better yet, sucker a gullible friend into buying it and then borrow it off of him when it is collecting dust in a couple of weeks.