Assassin's Creed creates an immersing action adventure game, but you also get the feeling of wasted potential.
This game might be quite different from what you were expecting, as there is a sci-fi plot twist to the entire game's premise. The only real reason you can call this a twist though is because of their advertising campaign. While you'd expect the whole thing to be set at the time of the Third Crusade through the eyes of a mediaeval assassin, you actually start the game in present day as a character called Desmond.
He has been kidnapped by a company, Abstergo, as they need to use him for unknown purposes. All you do know is a rather arrogant scientist wants to access your ancestor's memories, which is easy thanks to some technology they've acquired called the Animus. The concept they're putting over is that we store our ancestors' memories genetically and this machine can extract and play them. However, they can't get to the specific memory they want so they throw you into the nearest one to that date and it's up to you to play through these memories to the point of in which they're interested. This conveniently consists of nine assassinations and a conspiracy plot.
So for the most part of the game you will be playing as Altaїr, a ruthless assassin who, at the start of his story, breaks the rules of his creed resulting in demotion and a nice stab wound to accompany it. You'll lose your weapons and have to start earning your ranks back before you can have some little variation for the sword fighting. Even though you really are quite restricted with your few amounts of weapons, it still gives you some different choices on how react to situations. Once you've got them all back, which isn't that long into the game, you will have your long sword, short sword, throwing knives and of course your wrist blade for assassinations. You will also learn fighting techniques like the vital counter attack accompanied with dodge and step.
The control scheme for your moves is a surprisingly effective way of keeping it simple, even though it might take you some time to get used to it. You have different stances that then change your buttons to different commands. In your default passive stance you can do things like blend in with the crowd to try and avoid suspicion from the guards or do silent assassinations, which hopefully no one will notice; even if you are in a crowded street corner. Then by holding down either R1 or RT you can swap to an aggressive stance, where blend will become sprint/free running and your assassinations will involve a bit more aerobatics for a non-subtle approach.
The free running system works well, but is maybe a bit bland. You will literally hold down the button and run at whatever it is you want to climb. That said, you will have to look at what you can grab onto, as every building is climbable, but the level designers have done an amazing job of making it look authentic. You will also need to move the analogue stick quite a bit when climbing the taller architectures for the purposes of getting to a sticking out brick or similar in the certain direction you point. The climbing is obviously a major part of the game due to the fact you will spend most your time doing it; to either get away from enemies or explore the map more.
Once past the low learning curve to master the basic controls, you'll definitely want to go out shanking the many NPCs clustering the cities. However, this will be punished with a steep health loss as you're a professional and wouldn't go round stabbing innocent women with pots on their heads now would you?
The heavy use of NPCs really is what makes this game feel so alive, though. There is a fantastic feeling and sound to the human traffic, which you can easily get away from by climbing the nearest building. But even then, passers by will comment on how you're going to get yourself hurt. You will also experience your fair share of beggars, drunks and crazy people while on your travels which will most likely annoy you quite a lot at one time or another, but that is what they are there for. While these people can alert the guards' attention, you also have a counter for that with the ever so useful vigilantes.
You will see many people being harassed, who will continue to be pushed around by guards until you step in and save them. Then the person you saved, in a somewhat over the top fashion, will thank you and you will then get a gang looking out for you in that area, who will grab onto guards during a fight to help you out. You will also be saving Scholars in this manner, which you can then use to pass by undetected with.
When you do first arrive at a city, you will want to go to the Assassin's Bureau, where you will be told who your assassination target is, and some general locations where you can find out the necessary information needed to complete this task. There will be three assassinations in the three cities of Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre, and you will unlock a third more of the map for each assassination you move on to. These are represented as the Poor, Middle and Rich districts.
Once you know where about you're meant to be, you will really want to just look up and find a tall building. There are several view points in each district and once up them, you will see a great view of the city and so this will update your map. Once you've completed one view point, all others will be marked on the map, but you will have to climb every one to unlock the locations of all the information quests plus the available citizens you can save for protection.
For each assassination, you have to complete at least three of the seven optional information gathering quests. These can include limited variations of pick pocketing, interrogations or helping out people before they will talk. You will also have eaves dropping tasks which only require sitting on a bench near some people talking about something they probably shouldn't in the middle of a crowded street anyway. These information quests become the major fall of the game, as it does become rather repetitive quickly, but that is not to say it stops being fun. There is no real reason to complete every objective though, as I experienced no reward for doing all of them besides making the game last longer.
The game is also a bit more restricted than you would expect when it comes to killing your assassination targets. You will only be able to attack your target at one particular time and place, and the variation of killing them really is pretty much climbing up and trying to be subtle or just going in the front door, blades-a-blazing. Sometimes, chases will ensue, which are made much easier with the help of your vigilante friends.
Once you've done what you have to do to take your target down, a cutscene will play involving conversation with your target; this is where a lot of the plot develops. As you take more and more of them down, you will see how they are quite linked until you discover a conspiracy. Though the storyline is quite slow to unravel, it will eventually grip you and carry you through the game if the gameplay alone isn't enough.
Once you've done your deed, you need to get back to the Bureau to report the news, but you can't get in while the guards are alerted and considering the town bell is going off and every guard in the city is looking for you, it's not always easy. But there are plenty of hiding opportunities around the place which can only be used if you first break the line of site any followers have. So diving off of a very tall roof into some hay is one of the more useful ones, and luckily not back breaking. This, of course, is all done with fantastic graphics and a high attention to detail. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are practically the same with only minute differences. There is a steadier frame rate on the PS3 version yet slightly better lighting on its 360 counterpart.
Even though almost all of the game plays out really well and is enjoyable until (almost) the very end, it seems to have quite a bit of wasted potential by not allowing more activities to do with the freedom you have around the cities. But as you will have such fun playing this game, you can forgive the unsatisfactory ending the game possesses, which doesn't even give you enough information to raise questions, let alone want answers too.
All in all, though, Assassin's Creed is an addictive and very enjoyable game that will see you through from start to finish. But once the adventure has ended, there isn't much else to do other than wait for the next instalment in the trilogy, which should hopefully leave us with a longer, more satisfying feeling.
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