Grade: C+
Pros
Great Story.
Cons
Tacked on Gameplay. Framerate is often not satisfying.
Introduction
When I look at the back of the case, I see many statements about gameplay that fill me with interest. But the truth is that these are BOLD statements. As you will read, the gameplay is lacking, and these statements try to embellish the mediocrity. So much so, that what Assassin?s Creed does have, story, is only hinted at. As such, the back of the case tells almost nothing about the game, and instead, has become much more of a marketing tool than usual.
Story
There are a few stories told in the game by either cutscenes, or character interaction. There is a future story, a past story, and a criminal story.
In the future, you are Desmond Miles, an ex-Assassin, and subject #17, being held against your own will for information hidden in your DNA memory. Miles gets into this machine called the Animus so that, through his DNA memory, he can relive his ancestor?s past. But what is so important to these scientists that they have to hold Miles against his will?
In the past, you play as Miles? ancestor, Altair. Altair is a master of the Assassins Brotherhood who has lost all ranking. He must now work his way back up by assassinating powerful criminals. Each of these criminals has a story to them. Why are you killing them?
The future and past stories are very mysterious and I enjoyed watching them unfold. The criminal stories lost me with the strange Arab names the characters talk about. But it doesn?t matter because they play a small part, existing simply to give reason to Altair?s missions as well as help tell the bigger stories. The bigger stories of the future and the past are much better and drive the game very well.
Gameplay
The gameplay is where Assassin?s Creed doesn?t shine. It can be some fun at times, mostly while you?re being chased by guards, or fighting them. However, most of the time you do repetitive things that don?t have much depth to them.
The good thing about Assassin?s Creed is that it has a free world that you can explore. The bad thing is that there is nothing to do in it other than look for hidden flags.
There are four major locations that look Middle Eastern: your home village, the Kingdom, and three cities. The Kingdom is a huge area that connects all four residential areas. All four areas are populated with human life and birds, looking believable some of the time.
Almost all the action takes place in the three cities. The Kingdom is a complete waste because it is so big, but contributes so little to the game. At least you?re able to skip going through it early on in the game, but this just validates its pointlessness. All locations have multiple Viewpoints, the top of tall buildings. You go to one of these, which has an eagle flying around it, and observe the area around it. This reveals details on your map and might reveal objectives. You do two or three simple objectives and you?re on your way to assassinate. That?s all you do.
There are only few objectives you can do. The first, Pickpocket, involves listening to a conversation between two individuals, which they?ll have a letter or a map, and pick-pocket one of them for information. Another, Interrogation, involves listening to an individual giving a political speech. Then you follow him and punch him until he gives you information. Another, Informer, involves talking to a fellow Assassin that will give you the task of killing a few walking guards in exchange for information. Of course the locations are all on the map. Yup. You have to do these three things at least nine times, for each assassination. Even though the difficulty increases with each assassination, each can generally be accomplished without a sweat.
An assassination involves climbing or blending with Scholars to gain access to the victim?s location. After the assassination, all guards are on full alert and you have to run away, hide, and return to your rendezvous point.
When all the guards are after you, run away, be careful not to hit people or you could stumble, and/or climb to break their line of site. Then find a hiding location: sit on a bench with others, or inside a gazebo, or in a haystack, and possibly blending with Scholars. If you are not hidden in one of those spots, you will be found. This is a perfect example of just how scripted and non-free this game is.
Climbing is a major feature of this game and is one of the more exciting gameplay elements, but not without flaws. In an effort to animate a difficult climb by showing a pause between climbs, the developers also annoyed me because they didn?t polish the climbing system enough. Generally all you do is press forward and Altair climbs, but sometimes he stops climbing even though there is more room. This is a bug that happens often enough to hurt the fun of climbing because the delay between climbs could be a bug or not. Still, climbing is very stiff and I?ve seen much smoother controls in Tomb Raider.
In the game, you can go almost anywhere but? water. If you jump into the water, you die. There aren?t many areas with water, but if you come across them, the bad climbing controls can land you in the water if you?re not careful when running away from guards.
The fighting system is alright, being a step up from button-mashing. I wish I had a Moves List to remember what the new moves I ?learn.? Instead, I just end kept doing two moves throughout the whole game, which wasn?t bad. I don?t feel like going all the way back to my home village just to review them. But I still don?t understand why many times a counter punches my opponent instead of stabbing him with my sword. I don't remember them explaining that. The killing is where the fun is.
Each map has a bunch of optional objectives that involve saving a citizen from harassing guards. They are almost useless, but sometimes I have fun killing the guards. After you?re done, you have to press L1 to talk the citizen and listen to the citizen say a stupid line that you?ve heard a thousand times before from other citizens you?ve saved. And if you don?t talk to them, the game doesn?t acknowledge the fact that you saved them. The benefit to saving them is that they will spread news of your good deeds, and Vigilantes and Scholars will appear to help you. Scholars look like you, allowing you to blend in with them and guards won?t know the difference. Vigilantes will get in the way of guards who are on your tail. These optional objectives might make the game a little easier, but aren?t worth the time.
?Crowds react to your every move and will either help or hinder you.? That?s what the back of the case says. If you run or climb, the crowd make repetitive comments like, ?Why is he doing that??, or, ?You better not cause any trouble!? The help you receive is by saving the citizens. The hinder is caused by two things. You could run into people if you?re not careful or you could get close to retards. There just happens to be many retards in certain parts of the cities and if you get close to them, they push you very hard. They are so annoying at times that I?ve punched a few of them to death for ruining my objective. Was this character necessary?!
Other Stuff
The graphics are decent. I?ve seen better in Uncharted, but I guess I have to consider that there is a much more open world in Assassin?s Creed. Still, the graphics remain good and decent, but not impressive; especially when you consider the framerate is often not satisfying.
Conclusion
I thought the presentation of the story, using the future and past, was interesting. I also enjoyed the story, which I said was the major drive for playing the game. The gameplay, although lacking, was mostly just entertaining enough to fill the short void between each major piece of the story. For these reasons, I give Assassin?s Creed a C+.
Update: Sorry about the grade change: I felt like I was neglecting my C's.
Pros
Great Story.
Cons
Tacked on Gameplay. Framerate is often not satisfying.
Introduction
When I look at the back of the case, I see many statements about gameplay that fill me with interest. But the truth is that these are BOLD statements. As you will read, the gameplay is lacking, and these statements try to embellish the mediocrity. So much so, that what Assassin?s Creed does have, story, is only hinted at. As such, the back of the case tells almost nothing about the game, and instead, has become much more of a marketing tool than usual.
Story
There are a few stories told in the game by either cutscenes, or character interaction. There is a future story, a past story, and a criminal story.
In the future, you are Desmond Miles, an ex-Assassin, and subject #17, being held against your own will for information hidden in your DNA memory. Miles gets into this machine called the Animus so that, through his DNA memory, he can relive his ancestor?s past. But what is so important to these scientists that they have to hold Miles against his will?
In the past, you play as Miles? ancestor, Altair. Altair is a master of the Assassins Brotherhood who has lost all ranking. He must now work his way back up by assassinating powerful criminals. Each of these criminals has a story to them. Why are you killing them?
The future and past stories are very mysterious and I enjoyed watching them unfold. The criminal stories lost me with the strange Arab names the characters talk about. But it doesn?t matter because they play a small part, existing simply to give reason to Altair?s missions as well as help tell the bigger stories. The bigger stories of the future and the past are much better and drive the game very well.
Gameplay
The gameplay is where Assassin?s Creed doesn?t shine. It can be some fun at times, mostly while you?re being chased by guards, or fighting them. However, most of the time you do repetitive things that don?t have much depth to them.
The good thing about Assassin?s Creed is that it has a free world that you can explore. The bad thing is that there is nothing to do in it other than look for hidden flags.
There are four major locations that look Middle Eastern: your home village, the Kingdom, and three cities. The Kingdom is a huge area that connects all four residential areas. All four areas are populated with human life and birds, looking believable some of the time.
Almost all the action takes place in the three cities. The Kingdom is a complete waste because it is so big, but contributes so little to the game. At least you?re able to skip going through it early on in the game, but this just validates its pointlessness. All locations have multiple Viewpoints, the top of tall buildings. You go to one of these, which has an eagle flying around it, and observe the area around it. This reveals details on your map and might reveal objectives. You do two or three simple objectives and you?re on your way to assassinate. That?s all you do.
There are only few objectives you can do. The first, Pickpocket, involves listening to a conversation between two individuals, which they?ll have a letter or a map, and pick-pocket one of them for information. Another, Interrogation, involves listening to an individual giving a political speech. Then you follow him and punch him until he gives you information. Another, Informer, involves talking to a fellow Assassin that will give you the task of killing a few walking guards in exchange for information. Of course the locations are all on the map. Yup. You have to do these three things at least nine times, for each assassination. Even though the difficulty increases with each assassination, each can generally be accomplished without a sweat.
An assassination involves climbing or blending with Scholars to gain access to the victim?s location. After the assassination, all guards are on full alert and you have to run away, hide, and return to your rendezvous point.
When all the guards are after you, run away, be careful not to hit people or you could stumble, and/or climb to break their line of site. Then find a hiding location: sit on a bench with others, or inside a gazebo, or in a haystack, and possibly blending with Scholars. If you are not hidden in one of those spots, you will be found. This is a perfect example of just how scripted and non-free this game is.
Climbing is a major feature of this game and is one of the more exciting gameplay elements, but not without flaws. In an effort to animate a difficult climb by showing a pause between climbs, the developers also annoyed me because they didn?t polish the climbing system enough. Generally all you do is press forward and Altair climbs, but sometimes he stops climbing even though there is more room. This is a bug that happens often enough to hurt the fun of climbing because the delay between climbs could be a bug or not. Still, climbing is very stiff and I?ve seen much smoother controls in Tomb Raider.
In the game, you can go almost anywhere but? water. If you jump into the water, you die. There aren?t many areas with water, but if you come across them, the bad climbing controls can land you in the water if you?re not careful when running away from guards.
The fighting system is alright, being a step up from button-mashing. I wish I had a Moves List to remember what the new moves I ?learn.? Instead, I just end kept doing two moves throughout the whole game, which wasn?t bad. I don?t feel like going all the way back to my home village just to review them. But I still don?t understand why many times a counter punches my opponent instead of stabbing him with my sword. I don't remember them explaining that. The killing is where the fun is.
Each map has a bunch of optional objectives that involve saving a citizen from harassing guards. They are almost useless, but sometimes I have fun killing the guards. After you?re done, you have to press L1 to talk the citizen and listen to the citizen say a stupid line that you?ve heard a thousand times before from other citizens you?ve saved. And if you don?t talk to them, the game doesn?t acknowledge the fact that you saved them. The benefit to saving them is that they will spread news of your good deeds, and Vigilantes and Scholars will appear to help you. Scholars look like you, allowing you to blend in with them and guards won?t know the difference. Vigilantes will get in the way of guards who are on your tail. These optional objectives might make the game a little easier, but aren?t worth the time.
?Crowds react to your every move and will either help or hinder you.? That?s what the back of the case says. If you run or climb, the crowd make repetitive comments like, ?Why is he doing that??, or, ?You better not cause any trouble!? The help you receive is by saving the citizens. The hinder is caused by two things. You could run into people if you?re not careful or you could get close to retards. There just happens to be many retards in certain parts of the cities and if you get close to them, they push you very hard. They are so annoying at times that I?ve punched a few of them to death for ruining my objective. Was this character necessary?!
Other Stuff
The graphics are decent. I?ve seen better in Uncharted, but I guess I have to consider that there is a much more open world in Assassin?s Creed. Still, the graphics remain good and decent, but not impressive; especially when you consider the framerate is often not satisfying.
Conclusion
I thought the presentation of the story, using the future and past, was interesting. I also enjoyed the story, which I said was the major drive for playing the game. The gameplay, although lacking, was mostly just entertaining enough to fill the short void between each major piece of the story. For these reasons, I give Assassin?s Creed a C+.
Update: Sorry about the grade change: I felt like I was neglecting my C's.
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