Assassins Creed is a game set in 1191 AD, when the Third Crusade was tearing the Holy Land apart. You play as Altair, a master Assassin with an attitude which eventually gets him stripped of his weapons and his title. To regain the respect of the other Assassins after breaking the creed, Altair has to assassinate some chosen targets oppressing certain cities. Assassins Creed has been hyped quite a bit but after the embarrassing demo at E3, does it live up to the hype?

Graphics

During the game you get to traverse many huge, wide open environments which at times can be fairly detailed. Altair’s character model is fairly detailed too. The wrinkles in his clothes and small details like that look pretty good, however minor characters are far less detailed and features like their hair really needs some more development time. Shadows are all rendered in real time, meaning they’re not just a black circle on the floor but a true shadow of whatever a shadow is being cast of. This is nothing new to next gen games, but sadly though they are so jagged it’s disappointing but unless you stare at Altair’s feel as you run through the city it shouldn’t bother you too much. Textures, clothes and the general look of the game is pretty good, but I wouldn’t go as far as to call them impressive graphics. I’ve seen worse on the PS3 but this certainly doesn’t match up with the likes of Uncharted: Drake’s fortune in the neither graphics department nor does it with animations, however they are pretty good. Small things like jogging to a stop when you blend after sprinting impressed me as most games just would have had the character stop instantly without phasing into a stop.

The things during combat and generally running round a city are hardly much for the Playstation 3 to handle after seeing games like Lair with so much going on at the same time, but thanks to Ubisoft Assassins Creed seems to struggle. Through no hardware fault of its own the PS3 version has terrible frame rate, clipping and screen tearing issues. As well as that on playing it this morning again the game completely froze which eventually crashed the PS3. The frame rate issues are irritating to say the least because the game is very much playable since the issues on appear at time to time and aren’t ongoing, but the freezing quite obviously halts the gameplay which is pretty pathetic. However annoying it is, Ubisoft are apparently working on a fix so I’ll update accordingly.

Gameplay

The free running in Assassins Creed is fantastic. Pretty much anything can be climbed up or onto at any time. The freedom of where you can go in this game really sets it apart from others and apart from killing people it’s the bulk of the game – and it’s really really fun. However, it does have a downside but it’s not too much to be worried about. While controls are solid and simple anyone can do it. And I mean anyone. There is literally no skill level involved. You hold R1 push the analogue stick forward and press X and you begin to climb. From here you just move the analogue stick in the direction you want to move… and that’s it. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but running across rooftops seems a bit too easy. You just hold these 3 buttons and wait until you get where you want to go. There’s no timing or anything like that, it’s just press and wait. This is good and bad. Good because it’s easy for pretty much anyone to do and you can do some cool looking stuff with minimal effort, but it all seems a little too easy and I would have liked a bit more of a challenge while doing the acrobatics.

Sword fighting is much in the same in terms of, it’s really good but not very challenging. I hardly expected Altair to be able to perform moves like Nariko but once you’ve mastered when to press Square to counter (once you have earned it) fights get a little dull. The first few hours of fighting you do you see some damn cool moves which really do look pant-exploding but you’ll see them all too often and it gets too easy. It would have been nice to learn a couple of new moves or something just to keep you from seeing the same thing over and over.

Sound

The score is pretty good for this type of game, and goes with whatever you’re doing quite well but I can’t say it stands out all that much. Voice acting is pretty good, especially for Altair which is really like. The beggars sound like beggars and the soldiers sound as they should. No one’s voice seems out of place and everyone’s voice matches the way they look which is rare. The little things the townspeople say when they see you climbing walls and stuff are quite entertaining and punching the irritating beggar in the face and hearing their screams is pretty satisfying too.

AI

The most upsetting part of the game is undoubtedly the AI. At times I have stood with a one-on-one with a guard without being attacked by them for 30 seconds. They just stand and stare, sometimes shouting random things like “You won’t get away from me!!” but failing to even attempt to kill me… Other times when you assassinate a guard or something another guard might notice the body and run over. If you press and hold X you go into blend mode which is when Altair pretends to be a scholar. Obviously a scholar would never kill anyone so the guard completely ignores the sword wielding assassin stood next to the body and asks “Who is the one responsible for this?” However, at the same time as taking half a minute to attack you and not seeing the obvious, when they pursue you they can really catch up if you’re not careful. In a recent E3 demo I watched I noted how the guards stood still and looked up at you while you stood on a building – not anymore. They climb ladders jump gaps and do pretty much anything to get to you, which is a plus considering the battle AI.

Replay Value

There are loads of flags to find, as well as extra missions and things which you don’t have to do to progress to the next area. The game will last you a pretty long time considering it took us roughly 2 hours to assassinate the first target out of 9. The 1191 AD story is good and the cities are so huge that you might just spend ages looking round it before starting your missions.

Closing Comments

Despite the bugs, and there are a lot of noticeable bugs, Assassins Creed plays pretty well and has a pretty good 1191 AD storyline. The game lasts for ages and there is a lot to do and while things can get a little repetitive at times assassinating the ultimately annoying beggar always makes me feel better, and that’s exactly it. Freedom. The freedom you have in this game really makes it much more fun. However freedom is limited to the area you are in, if that makes sense. You can do whatever you want really inside the city, including free running and murdering everyone you see if you really want (and can manage to fight your way out or escape) but these blue walls (Which are kind of a spoiler) block you from entering certain places and will only let you pass until you have completed a certain quest which is fair enough.

Ubisoft’s terribly kept secret about the game, in my opinion, should have been left out as it sort of ruined the feel of the games originality for me considering there isn’t another game like this at all really. At the start  you really don’t care about these other scenes where you’re not assassinating (When you play the game you’ll understand) and the feel kind of pointless, however as you get into the game you sort of want to know what’s going on, but the most part of you just wants to kill some people.

Graphics: 7

Gameplay: 8

Sound: 7

AI: 6

Replay Value: 8