In depth review for Assassins Creed.
Assassin's Creed encourages you to explore with the amazing freedom you have, to do anything, be it on the city streets, or up on the roofs. Besides, the only way to "discover" the map, and it's points of interest is by climbing the tallest building in the area, where a "discover" option appears, and you scout around the city before you with an impressive fly-by camera. You do this thing a lot in Assassin's Creed, but in never gets boring, because the game is so well put together from this point of view you just sit there watching, in awe, how Altair climbs what seemed to be an impossible ascent. The main character grabs on the smallest pieces of rock, the smallest ledges or any other element of that wall which offers grip it in such a natural way you just want to do it again. And I never ever saw him climb something "the wrong way". If there is no surface which might offer a bit of grip, it means that surface can't be climbed. The synchronisation between Altair's animations and the actual landscape is almost flawless. Impressive. Stealth is a big part of Assassins Creed. Planning your attacks is crucial. Not timing it properly or heading into a attack the wrong way will get you killed for certain. Try neaking up on guards on a rooftop, picking them off one by one, then head to your objective. The assassination part of the game is the most fun. Watch your target,a nd then approch him from behind and swipe him with your hidden blade! But when doing so, be prepeared for a long and tiring chase. All of the city will be focused on you. This is when you have to escape, or fight your way out to freedom. It is a tricky buisness!
Altair's arsenal isn't especially complex. He only has a sword, two types of knives (regular one, and the throwing variety), and the assassination spike, hidden under his sleave. If you feel particularly skillful during a fight, the spike can be used for counter attacks, which is quite difficult, as a missed blow leaves you open to the opponent's sword, not having a proper weapon to block his attack with. Speaking of the assassination spike, the game is called Assassin's Creed for a reason. You have 9 distinct targets who must be assassinated throughout the land! Each target has it's story, shown by usually kick-ass cutscenes before the actual assassination, and different ways to be reached, and killed, as I stated above.
Transport is really well done in Assassins Creed. You ride on horseback throughout the land, travelling from one place to another. When passing by guards though, don't ride your horse to fast through them, as it's kind of a speeding law in this game. They will chase you, and once they do it is very hard to escape. Same is walking around the villages. Don't run where there are guards around, just walk or move with a croud of monks, or you will be found and killed! Simple as that!
The sound is also good, fortunately enough. The music consists mainly out of atmospheric tunes, and a few heart pumping chase sequences here and there. It serves it's purpose. The same can be said for the general sound FX category, which really help in making you feel be in a leaving, breathing place.
The mediocre part is the voice acting. Overall, it's not bad, but the thing that ruins it is the repetitivity. The problem is bigger than you might think: on one hand, the game immerses you in this believable world, and then it bangs your head against the speakers with the NPCs saying the same thing over and over, with Altair's American accent, and the way english is used in certain places where, surely, the original language of the area might have been better. I'm not saying this because I woke up on the wrong side of the bed: the game does have "localized" speech from time to time, such as the Templar knights (really hard to beat) which speak in French, or German, depending on their country of origin, or the city guards who also seem to speak in their native tongue. But this isn't consistent. You sometimes hear it as it's supposed to be, and sometimes you don't.
It's quite possible I'm overreacting, but this is a Triple A title after all, a little more attention to details such as these wouldn't have hurt a bit.
Overall, a very good game, and worth a purchase.
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Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 3/5
Gameplay: 5/5
Enemie AI: 4/4
Replay Value: 4/5