Assassin's Creed - Amazing all round!
Obviously something has to go wrong at the beginning which makes the player's task a lot longer and in most cases a lot harder, and Assassin's Creed is no different. Many games have tried and failed using this storyline type and have failed miserably at it (Just look at the Metroid games) but Assassin's Creed does it a lot of justice. When your first put into the Animus, it rejects the ancestor's memory because Desmond's memory isn't in sync with Altair's enough. So you have to start at the beginning of Altair's major task. After Altair screws up an important task he returns to Mayasaf where the assassin's creed is located. He is killed by Al Mualim the creed's master and is "reborn" and is demoted to the lowest rank, again like in other games his loses most of his skills, abilities and weapons and gets them back after he completes an assassination. Al Mualim then sets Altair the task of assassinating 9 people; you can visit 5 different locations in the game Damascus, Jerusalem, Acre, Mayasaf and towards the end of the game Arsuf. The main kingdom splits these different locations up with each location branching off on the map.
Where you arrive in each city, firstly you have to find a way of getting into the city because the guards do not take too kindly to you being there and will push you back if you try to get past them. This is normally solved by blending in with a group of scholars who slowly lead the way, but this does get a little boring so by the end of the game you will most likely be using brute force to get rid of any of the guards in your way. You are set a number of tasks to complete in each city, and each set of tasks are set in the different district of the city. So by the end of the game you will have explored each district in every city. The games environment is huge; one of the biggest I have seen in a game for a long, so you can imagine how much there is to do. I recommend completing all of the DNA tasks as well as the secondary task like saving citizens from corrupt guards this makes the game a lot easier and you will unlock a lot of achievements at the end of the game.
The graphics are amazing, a good amount of lighting and sharp textures. There are a few minor graphical glitches every now and then but you will really need to concentrate in order to see them. The cities are very lively with thousands of randomly generated characters roaming the city, for the most part of the game the citizens act normally and interact with you or other people. But one thing that annoyed me about the crowds is the beggars and the drunks. The beggars will constantly bagger you for money and will get in your way if you trying to blend in or walking. The drunks are the most annoying though because if you get too close to tem they will shove you out of the way and nearly all the time expose you, so you fail the mission and you have to run away from any guards which can become very frustrating.
The controls are a little complex for most players but once you get the hang of it then controlling Altair will become an enjoyable task. You can climb pretty much anything in the city, jump between rooftops and dive into hay stacks from a great height. The only way I can describe the controls of Altair is using parkour/free running. The animation is very smooth and the game creates a sense of urgency when you are running away from hundreds of guards.
The storyline is brilliant too. Mind you, you do have to be paying a lot of attention to make any sense of what is going on. The only major downfall the game have is its ending, it WILL leave you confused and a little bit ticked off that you have just spent hours completing the game and the ending is no where near satisfying as it should be. My advice is to play the game hoping that there will be a sequel sometime soon.
Score Breakdown:
Graphics: 10/10 – Even with the minor graphical glitches.
Sound: 10/10 – Perfect, really does set the mood for the game.
Gameplay: 9/10 – again does really well, fun to play but may leave you a little bit confused with the ending.
Value: 9/10 – You can find this game fairly cheap now, but the RRP (£40) is still excellent value for money considering that you get one of the best games in a long time.
Review's Tilt: 10/10 – I loved this game from start to the minute before the end. With the ending aside this game is brilliant. I recommend it to everyone even if you're not particularly a fan of action/adventure games.
Final Score: 9.9/10