Review: Assassin's Creed - High Art killing

Mike Bantick
Sunday, 16 December 2007 01:33

Opinion and Analysis

Where Assasin’s Creed falls down is worth noting, the areas are obvious from the start of play and may be more important to some than others:  Firstly, travel between cities, though beautiful, and with plenty to do, from exploring and flag collecting (to unlock goodies) to belting up annoying Knights Templar (who more often than not are inexplicably hanging out behind barns) can become tedious.

Tedious because after a while, rather than trying to staying hidden, which involves trotting along at a slow steady pace, you will feel the need to gallop around, invoking unnecessary suspicion and usually a pursuit from the many soldiers that populate the countryside.

The touted acrobatics are somewhat limited as well, though it is fun to watch Altair bound up watch towers, or across the roof tops, ultimately it is a combination of a couple of buttons and pushing the analogue stick that nails the tricks.  Don’t expect Prince of Persia button timing requirements here.  Altair pretty much does it all himself, whilst pretty to watch, becomes shallow.

Finally the Splinter Cell, Hitman or more accurately Thief inspired assassination sequences are not as dependent upon player cunning as some may wish.  To make your target simply head to the area depicted on the map, if it is not obvious who the target is, use Altair’s Eagle Vision – a special power enabling that highlights enemies, including the target – watch the cut scene that ensues and then attack the target.

Generally it will be a surprise kill, easily achieved.  Next we see an interaction with Altair and the victim, further fleshing out the Assassin’s Creed story line.  Then it is escape time, though if Altair does fail to escape the guards – no problem, resyncronise memory – post assassination, blend into the crowd and walk out safe.

For me, just not enough set up required no need to scout out the area and take out the guards one by one, devise an escape route prior to the kill or even time your attack at an appropriate moment.  It is all a bit too simple.

Assassin’s Creed is a worthy new franchise for Ubisoft, it does many things well, presentation is top notch, story and immersion hit the sweet spot and the relatively simple gameplay is indeed fun and rewarding.

Despite my negative comments, I am a fan of story driven gameplay, and Assassin’s Creed delivers on this aspect like too few in the video gaming milieu.  Games such as BioShock and similar may not push gameplay boundaries, but as a way of giving video gaming an high art appeal they succeed, Assassin’s Creed is another example of this.