Assassins Creed review

[3niX]

Well...

Thar she is. Was bored so decided to mash this up. I used a slightly different approach to reviewing it.

Hope you dont dislike it too much.

 

 

 

Assassins Creed (PC)

 

 

 

While console owners have had the chance to live out their fantasies of being a medieval assassin since last years november the average PC gamer has had to wait quite a bit to push his teeth into the game. So what has (nearly)5 months of waiting given us?

Upon first glance it seems not much. The game just looks and feels like a direct port. Usually I wouldnt complain but considering the time its taken for Ubisoft Montreal I wouldve at least expected some meaningful extra content. PC gamers are human too yknow! OK, that aside, what about the game itself?

 

Well, you start out as a medieval assassin who is part of (yes, you probably guessed it) an assassin brotherhood. Right at the beginning you brake a few rules set by the brotherhood and make a "slight" boo-boo due to which a few people get killed. This obviously pisses off the brotherhoods leader. Youre then stripped of your weapons and skills and will be given a task to redeem yourself by killing some semi-evil blokes.

Simple, right? Aha, but heres a catch! Theres actually another parallel (main) storyline which makes it all very confusing. Youre ACTUALLY a bartender who was an assassin (who is part of a very long running assassin family) who has been kidnapped by a pharmaceutical company which actions are morally as questionable as letting your dog lick whipped cream off your balls. Sure, the end result is noble but the way to the goal is very dirty. The ending doesnt seem to help things either considering it comes like a bitchslap leaving behind a massive cliffhanger. Im not saying that the storyline is bad... its just a bit too twisted and tough to follow if youre not concentrated enough. And if a storyline is tough to follow it tends to ruin some of the enjoyment received from watching cutscenes (because lets be honest, you usually only play singleplayer games just to see those entertaining cutscenes). Its probably one of this games biggest faults. If they wouldve stayed with only the medieval plot...

 

 

Anyway, those of you who dont really care about storyline will probably like the fact that this game is GTA-ish, meaning it has free-roaming. The cities are very nice and detailed. Clearly, alot of effort has gone into making them. Sadly I cant say the same about the kingdom itself. It feels as if they just made it so you could ride your pony. They seem a bit empty and pointless. It would have been nice if they spent some more time on giving it a little meaningful gameplay value (you know, like racing your horse or whatever). However, you will probably spend most of your time in the cities anyway so it doesnt take away any pleasure from gameplay. which is pretty solid and cool when youre just stepping into it but gets a bit repetitive and boring after awhile. It seems as if all you ever do is kill people or run around in the city. But then again thsoe two things ARE this games best parts. The combat, for example, is brilliant. It makes you think what to do: what weapon to use, do you attack or defend, should you use some distraction and so on. Theres bound to be some playingstyle to suit you - from stealth to just scaring the sh*t out of the guards. Another shining example of gameplay would be the well-hyped parkour (which seems to be an obvious adition since Ubisoft is french). It works rather fluently.It might even feel a bit too simple but when I start reminding myself a few points in the game where I had to get away quickly Im glad it isnt too complex. If I were to nitpick then I would say that horseriding is a bit too boring and timeconsuming and that the AI is a bit... well... stiff. The game should last 10-12 hours on average and upto 30+ hours if you do all the extra bit which is a pretty damn good value considering the fact that most recent games struggle to give even half of that. In general the gameplay manages to shine through even though it tends to become very repetitive. Due to this games length most of you probably wont play it through in a single day anyway so the repetitiveness wont be bothering you too much.

 

What will be bothering you however is the user friendliness and the way the game presents itself. For example, the camera positioning becomes extremely annoying. You dont have a clear view of whats going on most of the time. Its especially obvious when youre in combat. Ok, so most of the time is a bit exaggerated. I mean its the same system that was used in GTA San Andreas but what really kills it are the controls. They arent exactly what Id call intuitive. 5 months and they couldnt come up with anything better that that? Shame on you Ubisoft! User friendliness takes another dive into the sh*tter in the menu department. This is by far the most screwed up part of the game. It took me a whole minute to exit the game. Stuff like this really show you that its actually a direct-port. Which is sort of like putting salt on a fresh wound. I mean... 5 months for christs sake! Another annoyance with cameras comes in the shape of in-game cutscenes. You just killed a batch of soldiers and saved a citizen after which you get a cutscene where the camera is locked onto the citizen disabling you to run away from the crimescene because you cant see where youre supposed to go. After the cutscene you have a batch of soldiers waiting to slice your sorry assassin ass. Its clear that they sacrificed playability for style. The music is good and most of the time you barely notice it. The narration is a bit of a let down though. It tends to be extremely repetitive. And to be honest it isnt even all that convincing. Something I wouldnt expect from such a title. The graphics are pretty good though. It doesnt come with a big price either. It seemed to run fine on a well-sorted mid-end PC (on no less than maximum settings obviously). Its definitely one of the prettiest games to date. I just wish that the rest of

it were on the same level on the user friendliness front.

 

Assassins Creed is a game that shouldve been but couldnt. It excels most games in gameplay and graphics but really lacks in other areas. The PC version especially seems a bit gimped compared to console versions. Ubisoft Montreal seems to have missed the mark and ended up shooting its own leg. Its not bad but its not extremely good either which makes it average. Which is sort of disappointing considering the surrounding hype it had. The bottom line is... if you have some extra money than you should definitely get it but if you need to choose between it and ...say, for example Mass Effect, than Id go with the other title.

 

7/10

Edited May 4, 2008 by 3niX

[Remix]

Nice review, I read it all, and agree with you on most points.

 

Shame most reviews like yours aren't from a real gamers perspective.

[Iminicus]

Nice review, I read it all, and agree with you on most points.

 

Shame most reviews like yours aren't from a real gamers perspective.

Yes, because we all know IGN, Game Revolution, and the other millions of review sites are staffed by religious zealots who don't play the games they review.

 

 

[sainraja]

But those reviewers get something out of it so you can't always be sure that they are being honest. A friend or someone else who is a gamer is probably going to be the best person you should get gaming advice from in my opinion.

[grantelicious]

I'll give it a 2/10.

 

I got bored on the 2nd mission cause I ran tot his f*cking city and then it made me run all the way back just to run all the way to another one and then all the way back again! What is the f*cking point? The middle ground between the cities is f*ckign boring and annoying as hell and tbh i'd rather have a warp button or some sh*t and even if one came in later in a patch or something I don't care anymore cause i'm bored of it!

 

Every f*cking mission is the same it's like more repetitive than missions in mmorpgs, frigging these were the ESACT SAME EVERY TIME! Even the main story missions was jjust run to a city talk to this guy which was pointless and then go back to him to collect a feather then kill the guy you need to and run back to the main base thing. YAWNNNN

 

The f*cking menus take the piss cause they are such slow arse and I hat ethe fact how you can never skip cutscenes and most the time i know what they're going to say because it's so repetitive! "oh take this feather to wipe on this guy when you killed him" or "well done have a new ability or weapon" or "my students dont know what it is to be a real fighter" etc etc... the main story just repeats the same tired crap over and over.

 

The combat system is boring and f*cking I thought the controls were sooo slow and horrible. Like if i wanted to run up a ladder, because of the way the controls are you'd expect him to go up the ladder even if you abit to the side of it........ no he tries to jump up the wall and gets locked in a animation.... WTF IS THIS ALL ABOUT! Other timesi'm jumping and it goes to ther wrong point and it's like NO GO OVER f*ckING THERE!

 

Then it's like the same voice over OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN! "what is he doing up there" or "spare some change" and tbh I swear alot of them sound like English accent voice overs or something :S IT's LIKE ISNT THIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST?

 

 

 

f*cking peice of annoying boring repetitive sh*t game and i only give it those 2 points for the graphics.