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14.10.2008

*Spoiler Free*The original game released in November 2007, now it's in the Classics Range which means you're basically getting it half-price. I picked it up last week and if you haven't yet read any of the 208 or so reviews for the original game you can wade though this one!Assassin's Creed is what you'd get if you set Grand Theft Auto in the Holy Land back in 1191 A.D. The fist fights are there, your sword replaces the Uzi, your throwing knives replace the rocket launcher, your thoroughbred steeds replace the vehicles and you play as the feared assassin Altair rather than a nobody wannabe criminal, but in a nutshell it's GTA with the added bonus of being available in the Classics Range,so you'll be able to pick it up for £19.99 RRP or less.For historians, it's like going on a virtual field trip with the Third Crusade. Ubisoft the developers have paid great attention to detail and have faithfully recreated their version of the geography and city layouts from available historical documentation relating to this period.You start out in Masyaf, the fortress town where the elite assassin organisation is based. Stripped of your rank and weapons following a recent botched mission, you have to relearn the art of assassination by undertaking a string of tasks set by your Master, Al Mualim.The first few tasks are simple enough, teaching you the arts of eavesdropping (sit on a bench, lock on to your target with LT and press Y to listen), pickpocketting (lock on, follow and press B at the right moment to nick documents) and interrogation (lock on, beat up with your fists until they submit and spill the beans).It's here that you'll get a small sense of the jaw-dropping scale of each level in the game, but if you think Masyaf is teeming with people, all of whom react differently to you depending on how you act, try to remember that Masyaf is a small village in comparison to the 3 main cities you'll be visiting (Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem), not to mention the Kingdom that connects them all.Next you'll learn basic combat, but because you're initially starting anew you only have one basic combo at your disposal until you've progressed through the ranks a bit more.After this, the world is your oyster as you progress through your missions taking out the 9 main targets on your list. Initially you're limited to the first 3 sections of each city, but later on after you've unlocked all the knowledge required to be a master assassin you'll have the entire game at your free-roaming disposal, and the only time you'll get a loading screen thereafter is when switching from one city to the Kingdom or jumping directly to a city from the menu.Each of your assassinations follows the same pattern:- Reveal parts of the map and available tasks by climbing to high points.- Gain information on your targets by performing a minimum number of side quests like eavesdropping, saving citizens, pickpocketting, interrorgations or tasks set for you by informers.- Move in for the kill once you have permission to do so from the local guild.Some gamers might find this repetitive, but for me I was able to get totally immersed in the whole climbing/stalking preparation aspect, so much so that I always performed all the additional subquests before the main one even though they were mostly optional. The advantage to completing all the quests is pretty obvious - you'll have more citizens to block guards when you're escaping, you'll get more background information on your target and hence the storyline, and trying to collect 20 flags within 3 minutes or kill 5 Templars within 4 minutes without alerting guards will certainly put your free-running and stealth assassination skills to the test.I got a real kick out of climbing to highpoints as I get vertigo in real life, and being able to stand at the top of a 200ft spire and look down on the city below really pushes your console graphically, it's something to behold. On top of this, most (not all!) highpoints allow you to take a 'leap of faith', you're not always sure if there's a handy haystack to break your fall below but thankfully it's pretty obvious most of the time.Oddly, most of the combat in Assassin's Creed is optional. City guards dislike assassins at the best of times, and if you want you can do various things to provoke them, or you can behave and blend in to avoid them completely. When provoked, guards will chase you until you either kill them or find a hiding space by way of a haystack, blending with friendly scholars or a rooftop trellis, but to be able to use these hiding places you first have to break the guards' line of sight which can be achieved by getting friendly vigilantes to block their path, running around street corners or scaling buildings.Combat is so much fun, and so very brutal, that a lot of the time you'll be picking fights on purpose just so you can run people through the neck with your longsword after a particularly neat counter-move or combo. Other times you'll be deliberately scampering up onto rooftops to practice your knife-throwing skills on the rooftop guards. And sometimes, just for the sheer fun of it, you'll assassinate random members of the local population just because you can.The controls are simple enough that with good timing you'll get surrounded by 8-10 guards, grab one, throw him away, counter-attack and kill another in a very gory fashion and gradually whittle down the rest with a combination of fierce combos, side-stepping, breaking down their defences, some nifty-knifework, a spot of leg-breaking and the simple fact that spinning around behind an attacker, using a longsword up-swing to break their swordarm in half and then skewering them through the neck and practically severing their head in a satisfying burst of blood reduces the number of opponents you have by one. Every time.Once the storyline is completed ('tis a rip-roaring yarn with lots of neat twists and a rather abrupt ending with 'SEQUEL' scrawled all over it in blood) you'll probably have some achievements left over to get. Thankfully, Ubisoft have designed the game so that you can go back and replay different sections, and longevity is provided in the optional tasks of collecting all the assorted flags and banners (which can be very craftily hidden) or assassinating all of the 60 Templars (slightly tougher than city guards) scattered around the Kingdom and the 3 cities.It's here that the game really shines. If you can imagine popping in GTA IV and immediately having access to all weapons, all skills, all locations, that's basically what you get if you load up Assassin's Creed from a previously completed game, which only takes around 15 hours to do if you skip the optional tasks.You can stroll around cities, gently pushing pedestrians out of your way (the crowd AI sets a new challenge to any developer thinking of trying to emulate it) soaking up the atmosphere from the merchant criers (you can jump through their stalls to escape guards), the beggars (you can grab them and throw them some distance to get them out of your face), the thugs (pickpocket them for extra throwing knives when you run out), the guards (who speak English, French and German all equally gruffly), or simply start a massive fight in order to get the Eagle's Flight (last 10 minutes in open conflict) and Eagle's Challenge (defeat 25 guards in a single fight) achievements.You can jump on a horse (handily they're dotted about the Kingdom) and just go trotting or galloping off around the map looking for flags and Templars, running people down or, if you're unlucky, getting dismounted by some of the wily guards which results in a fight or flight decision. On a side note as an equestrian I really like the way horses handle, replete with Altair clicking his tongue to get them moving or calling out to get them galloping, someone really knew their horses when they coded this section.You can stand there looking at water and wondering why you can't swim (hitting water is instant death), but the game is lenient in that there's no real death penalty, you just get set back to your most recent auto-save which isn't ever very far away. Thankfully there are only two main places in the game where water plays a major part, and one of them is optional.Because this is spoiler free, I've skipped a good 30% of the game's content and about 80% of the storyline because there is a lot more to Assassin's Creed than most reviews let on. Having said that I think I've covered about 99% of the gameplay.When it comes to scoring, I hate giving 10/10s mainly because no game is perfect, but Assassin's Creed comes very very close. Somewhere around the 94% mark for me, hence the 5 stars. Given that it's available in the Classics Range for only £19.99 or less you cannot really go wrong. It's worth that just to get an inkling of what the 360 can do in terms of showing off games and Assassin's Creed certainly doesn't disappoint even though it was released almost a year ago.Definitely a 'must buy'.
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12.11.2008

Assassin's Creed passed me by during its initial release, which was odd considering I have an interest in the Crusades and the Medieval period. When I did get to learn about it I avoided it because of the fairly negative reviews. Eventually my cousin got a hold of the game, and I felt impressed enough by the small demonstration that I brought a copy too.While I certainly enjoyed the game, I do understand that the game's detractors do make a valid criticism of its gameplay.It's worth covering the plot first. The game is split into two halfs. One is set in the Holy Land around AD 1191, at the height of the Third Crusade, when Altair, (the character you control)is given a task of eliminating nine elite members of the Crusader and Saracen armies, in order that his Master, Al Mualim, can usher in a new era of peace. The other half is seen through the eyes of Desmond Miles, Altair's descendant, some time in the near future as he is kidnapped by the members of Abstergo Industries, and forced to test out their new invention, the 'Animus', a machine that allows its user to access the memories of their ancestors.One of the weak points of the game is how the two storylines merge; as what should have been a historical adventure quickly turns into a murky and confusing sci-fi thriller. Towards the last few levels of the game, the future/Medieval storyline becomes increasingly asinine and convoluted.They also don't merge very well in terms of gameplay, as the future section only allows you to interact with two characters, access a computer and go to sleep. Essentially its just a glorified interactive cut-scene.The other section, set in the Middle Ages, is where the main action takes place. Some have described this game as a Medieval GTA, and that's not too far off. You are given free reign to walk, run and climb (but frustratingly not to swim) over most of the Holy Land. Three large cities, Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre are available to explore, as well as all the countryside in between. This is not to mention the Assassin fortress at Masayaf. The medieval world is accurately reconstructed with the buildings and costumes being based on contemporary accounts. Historians were used during the game to ensure the visual world's accuracy. It works very well as visually this game is one of the most beautiful on the PS3. The graphics are stunning, while the the characters movements, whether in fights, or in climbing or on horseback, are fluid and realistic.The game is also easy to get a control over, with some buttons being used as different body parts, for instance triangle for head, X for legs, square for sword hand etc. This makes climbing and fighting easy to control, but it also means there is little skill involved, espcially during battles, which involves pressing the right button at the right time to pull off a kill. That said, it's still a lot of fun.The enemy AI on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired. You can simply walk behind a guard and kill him just by pressing one button (which allows you to blend in) which automatically makes you less conspicuous to them. They will at other times attack you for no reason. They will also attack you in large groups if they see you running through the streets. This makes travelling slow and difficult as you have to walk to most of your destinations in order to not attract attention to yourself.Another hinderance to the game is how the missions are handled. In order to Assassinate somone you must first visit the Master Assassin at Masayaf. He will order you to travel to one of the cities, this means having to explore all the countryside in between (by climbing watch towers) which is time consuming and dull.When you finally reach the city you must do the same, by exploring all the alleyways. Then you must visit the man at the Assassin's Bureau, he will ask you to carry out a series of investigations, including interrogation, pickpocketting, eavesdropping (just listening to a boring conversation for several minutes) and performing tasks for informers, such as having to kill a certain amount of people within a given timeframe, or collecting flags.With these tasks completed you must then head back to the bureau. He will then give you your assassination target. Once you've completed the mission you must then head back to the Bureau (avoiding all the guards along the way). After this you head back to Masayaf for more missions. Essentially the entire game is played out this way, from start to finish. It is extremly repetitive, and it isn't helped by the characters dialogue, which is overlong and dull.Another problem is the lack of activites to do. The cities are large and bustling, but there is very little interaction between you and its people. There are no shops to buy weapons, no buildings to walk into, and nothing much to do. The city folk themselves become annoying as they constantly spoute the same phrases over and over again as you pass them.The game would have been less frustrating if the creators had entered a larger and diverse set of phrases for the game's citizens and public speakers.The addition of the pestering poor women ("Please Sir, I need some coin!") , the drunks and the madmen will leave you fumming as they constanly push you about or get in your way, often blowing your cover and forcing you to do the same missions again and again.A set of mini-tasks are included although they have no impact on the game's storyline whatsoever. These include fighting Knights Templar (a lot of fun) and collecting hundreds of flags (mind numbingly time consuming and utterly, utterly pointless).I won't bother spoiling the game's ending for those who will play it, but I did find the game's direction towards the end rather disappointing, and I wasn't happy with how it turned from a historical adventure game into a sci-fi & fantasy/supernatural setting.With all of this in mind though, Assassin's Creed is a good game. The sword fights are fun, and it makes a nice change from all those Modern/ World War 2 shooters. It's by no means perfect, and it didn't live up to the massive hype, but it's still a solid, enjoyable game.
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3.2.2010

The Story:Desmond Miles, a 26 year old bar tender wakes up to find he's being forced to participate in research program; he's introduced to the idea of "genetic memory" (memories from his ancestors surviving in his DNA). Through a special machine, Desmond is given the ability of not only accessing the memories of Altair, his ancient ancestor, but also being able to 'puppet' him during the experience. As Altair, Desmond must work his way through a number of missions and investigations during the Third Crusade (1191). Altair is being punished from the leader of his guild and being forced to participate in various tasks to win back not only his ranking, but also his weapons and skills.The further Altair will go on, the more he will learn the truth about the conspiracy surrounding the Crusades and the Knights Templar.Gameplay:Gameplay is pretty straightforward on the PC, although, can be slightly easier on a laptop touchpad for navigation than it can using a standard mouse or your cursor keys. Through the keyboard you'll learn various key combinations that will let you leap, run, counter attack, grab, assassinate stealthily, and more. One of the best features of the gameplay is perhaps the option to Freerun, which lets you leap and climb over almost every building in the game (as long as there's something to grab onto). You can virtually scale cities from the highest buildings and gaze down upon spectacular city scapes. The movement becomes so second nature and the effects and visuals in the game are so outstanding you begin to truly feel as if you are in the game yourself as you move and climb through it's vast and interesting districts.Visuals:The graphics are absolutely outstanding, but be prewarned you need a fairly good and recent graphics card, plenty of memory and a good processor to make this run to the full extent of it's potential. You will be astounded, and feel as if you are looking at true life as you move between crowds who look stunningly lifelike, and run across textures that could almost be in front of you in the living room. The cities you will run in are incredibly vast with countless amounts of people; Altair is incredibly lifelike and his movements are so fluid and realistic you will feel as if he might be a real person.Fun:As well as being challenging the game is incredibly fun - especially the optional challenges that this version offers that the consoles never had (such as the stealth archer assasssination) and while the story provides no humour, the townspeople you will run into and annoy in the cities you travel to are amusing in themselves as will often yell at Altair as he accidentally knocks them over, or listening to their complaining about Altair's childish behavior as he climbs up walls while they watch. Combat in the game is astoundingly realistic feeling, and your opponents don't just drop to the ground and disappear, but lay there groaning in agony for several minutes as they're dying through stab wounds and severe beatings; a fun addition to fighting in the game is you can grab your opponent and throw him into the rest of his crew, knocking everyone over and buying yourself time to attack or run off.Missions:The various missions you can be expected to participate in are Pickpocking, Eavesdropping, Interrogation (beating someone up to make them talk) and of course Assassination. There are various other secondary missions such as saving all the citizens from corrupt guards in each district (majorly important to save citizens as the more you save, the more you'll find vigilantes lurking around willing to help you later on), climbing every viewpoint within the game, and as you've got the directors cut, there's additional missions such as assassinating archers without being seen, chaparoning informants, and finding flags. There are flags to collect in every district which is optional to do, as well as trying to find and assassinate every Templar within the game. Plenty to do to keep you entertained even after you've completed the game.Niggles:As fun as the game is, one annoying feature I do feel is a bit much is that there are several sequences through the game which are completely and utterly unavoidable...mission briefings can last as long as five minutes, with no option to skip. When you leave a game, you usually have to start where you left off at the beginning of your missions (with the bureau leaders or the guild leader) which means listening to them nattering on for a while before you can run off and do whatever. Every now and then in between your stints as Altair, your game will also draw you back to reality so you can talk to the people holding you captive and be briefed more about what's going on (also completely unavoidable and at times feeling completely unneccessary). Every scene takes place during the day time and at times I wish some of the events in the game could have taken place in the evening.Bugs:As with all PC versions of things, AC is not without a few bugs. If you are running this and anything pops up in the background, it will occasionally turn your game screen into a small windowed mode that is unfixable - only way to escape it is to get to a safepoint and reload the entire program again. You'll also see the few occasional glitches in the lowest settings of the game (painfully slow cut scenes you can't skip, dead guards hanging from mid air, etc). All in all, they're put-up-able for the price, and they don't completely destroy your enjoyment from the game.All in All:The game is worth the money, and incredibly playable; is very akin to the "Thief" franchise, except you'll spend less time stealing, and more time darting about from rooftop to rooftop stabbing people (literally) in the back.
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18.11.2007

Ubisoft seem to have promoted Assassin's Creed as a stealth game, which would make a lot of sense seeing as the main character is a medieval assassin but let's get this straight, the stealth elements are underwhelming and what you have instead is a beautiful, quirky action/platform game with a compelling story.The majority of assassin's Creed puts you in control of Altair, moody badass and Hashshashin extraordinaire. Altair fumbles an important job for the guild and is stripped of his rank/ability faster than you can say `Super Metroid' and from there on must prove his worth by assassinating nine of the key figures responsible for prolonging the crusades.Controlling Altair is pretty intuitive and it only takes a few minutes to get to grips with the controls. Expect to have as much fun climbing up buildings as in `Crackdown', running across rooftops is very rewarding and gives an impressive feeling of speed and Fighting plays a lot like a rhythm-action mini game.Each assassination is made up of a few steps, first you must travel to the city on horseback. These over-world sections feel a little bit under developed and whereas the horse riding mechanics are fun, they don't really add much to the game. It would have been nice to see a few secrets around the map but as they are these sections resemble those in `Shadow of the Colossus' or `Gun' more than they do `The Legend of Zelda'. Once you arrive at the city you will have a few tasks to complete, firstly you need to seek out tall structures, ascend them and survey the land. This will allow you to see more of the map and cause side missions to show up on you HUD. The side missions are undertaken in order to gain information about your mark and in some cases to make the job easier.These side missions take the form of assassinating guards, eavesdropping, pick pocketing, rescuing citizens from guard brutality and oddly, hopping above the city in timed flag collecting races. They seem to have come under a lot of fire from reviewers but the repetition didn't really bother me a lot. I'll be honest, this isn't `Oblivion', you can expect to hear the same lines over and over again and the challenge or variety never really increases as the game progresses. It would have been nice to see some real depth and variety here but they are what they are and most have some aspect which is fun. My favourite were probably the flag races which reminded me of Ubisoft's other Fall platformer `Naruto: Rise of a Ninja'. There are precious few of these races, largely due to the problems of implementing them into the game narrative. There are only a few times that you can use `Erm... I lost a bunch of flags, can you get them for me before... a generic event happens'.I found the actual assassinations to be a lot of fun, most only really involve going to point A, watching a cut-scene, running up and putting a blade through the target's face then legging it back to the Assassin's Bureau. This will obviously annoy those anticipating a more cerebral take on killing. I'm sure that it's possible to put more thought into the kills but the game doesn't really encourage or reward it and `Hitman' it aint.Graphically the game looks amazing; it renders huge densely populated areas without really struggling. Just climb to the top of one of the towers and you'll feel overwhelmed by what the developers have managed to pull off. I noticed a handful of small glitches as I played such as texture pop-in, and screen ripping but nothing that hindered my enjoyment of the game. Similarly I experienced a couple of stutters while loading areas but I can count the number of times on one hand.The voice work was largely professional, Altair sounds a bit too much like Troy McLure and a few of the NPCs are a tad on the `wacky' side but it's entertaining rather than aggravating. There was music there but I can't really remember it which is usually a good thing in soundtracks. Presumably it supported the action rather than intrude upon it. All in all the sound was adequately done with a couple of stellar moments such as Kirsten Bell's performance as Lucy.Without spoiling what is an admittedly poorly kept secret there are some small adventure chapters that link the sections of the main game and add a twist to the story. I strongly advise players to make the most of these sections as they provide likeable rounded characters, an interesting mystery and hint at the direction of future installments of the franchise. Depending on how much work you put in these sections will either be slow paced and boring or fascinating and you can't skip them so it's up to you to make the most of them. Explore the rooms, use the computers and rummage through emails, I think that fans of TV shows like `Lost' will be well pleased with the overall direction of the story.Overall Assassin's Creed is a solid action-platformer with next-gen looks and last-gen gameplay. I personally enjoyed it a lot but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table and reminds me of a number of existing games. It also leans a little bit to the easy side and offers little immediate replay value. There are numerous flags to collect but Ubisoft have taken the cheap option and bagging each set will only unlock an achievement. Gamers expecting a world changing experience will be disappointed but I suggest that anybody interested in the genre, setting or those frustrated by a lack of complexity in Video Game narrative pick this one up.7/10
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14.4.2008

I had trouble thinking of how I could word this review as there's not an awful lot I can write. I suppose I could start with the obvious appeal of the game and its basic plot.You play Altair, an assassin in the Holy Land in the medieval period. Your job (cutting out a lot of cut scene action) is to assassinate a certain number of people, each time reporting back to the assassins bereau. That's about it. Doesn't sound that exciting but what is remarkable about this game is the sheer size of these medieval cities and the AI of the people inside the cities.The cities are absolutely huge, and accurately depicted accordingly to the game's developers.Unlike the likes of the first Grand Theft Auto where the buildings are rendered quite basically, AC allows you to climb all these buildings (each of which have remarkable detail) to get a bird's eye view of the city. The feeling of power when you climb to the top of one of the look out points and scan the city is something else. The detail, as has been mentioned, is absolutely incredible.What I found really fun (and this may just be due to my fear of heights) was the Leap of Faith. Climbing these huge structures takes time, but the fall is worth it. Watching Altair leap from these buildings in a flying motion makes my stomach leap. It's so realistic and on a big TV, heart stopping. The Leap of Faith is very nicely illustrated not by some random icon, but by looking for where pigeons are perched on top of buildings. I love escpaing from guards only to see pigeons then launching myself off buildings like an eagle straight into a hiding spot.Altair's ability to climb and navigate gaps in roof tops is also quite fun to do. Basing his movements around Free Running, there are few buildings that Altair can't tackle but rest assured, 99% of the landscape can be used to make your escape easier. Having said that, it does take quite a bit of getting used to. Altair moves very quickly and for me anyway, sometimes just jumps straight off buildings that have too large a gap before I have the chance to get my bearings.The animation in this really is second to none. Between Altair's walking and sprinting, to his horse's movements, there's been a lot of time spent making this game as realisitic as possible and this effort should be commended.On the other side of the coin, this game had some seriously irritating aspects that put me off it for a good long while. It's also the reason why the novelty of the above good points wears off so quickly.The plot can be quite dull and samey. You go to a city, evesdrop, pickpocket and then commit the assasination, then go back to Mysaf (your base) for the next mission. And it will be identical to the last one. Altair needs to gather information before commiting the assassination but instead of being quite involved in it, all you do to pickpocket is lockon and press a button. You don't see what you've taken. When you visit the Assassin's Bureau to relay your finidings, you'll find that Altair has gathered an awful lot of information about the target and you don't feel like you've actually done anything to get this information. It's a bit boring to be honest.The "Blend" option drove me insane. I could be (genuinly) innocently strolling past a group of guards, without having commited any offence in a town and they would have a go at me. This was also the case when on my horse in the countryside. Pressing blend stops this for a short period of time, but Altair or the horse will then stroll so slowly that my patience would wear thin (espcially between cities where terrain is huge and there are various small towns and checkpoints to navigate). Sometimes even blend doesn't work and you're attacked for no reason.The weapon system too takes a bit of time to get used to. Altiar has a small dagged fixed to his hand, several throwing daggers and a sword. Combat can be monotonos, however, it is realistic. You can only take on one guard at a time and frequently that guard's colleagues will stab you in the back while you fight the other. The best way to deal with this though is to take advantage of arena time at the fortress and learn counter moves. If you get them right, the effect is realistic and brutal.My biggest gripe though is along the lines of many review magazines. Assassins Creed is trying to be too clever. The "modern" part of the game where you are in a lab is completely pointless and boring. Unfortunately you can't skip these cut scenes. Your character can do nothin except walk around at a very slow pace with the doctor chats away to you about his experiments. I found this frustrating, off putting and unnecessary. The medieval aspect of Assassins Creed is done so well, they shoulnd't have bothered with this "modern" feel.In short there are a lot of very nice touches here which will no doubt find their way into the next Prince of Persia.I guess in summary my final paragraph would say that I watched the promo vids of this game, read the magazine articles and drooled over the game in store. I got it, ripped it open and was quickly put off by its irritating Blend function. All in all though, its a visually stunning game, and should definately feature in your collection.
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20.11.2007

Hopefully you've read the description above which gives a detailed overview of the story of Assassin's Creed. I'll get on to my own experience of the game;I'd say that Assassin's Creed is the most beautiful game ever created. In terms of level design, accuracy, realism, texture and animation this game is a true masterpiece. The three cities you will be exploring are absolutely huge and no stone has been unturned in making them as detailed and accurate as possible. The streets are full of life with completely interactive characters, guards, beggars, thugs and others all going about their own business. The sun shines bright giving the impression of a baking hot and dusty atmosphere with the clouds even blotting out the sun from time to time.Every single building,ledge, statue, beam of wood, basically any object in the 3D world you can climb, jump, stand and crawl along. It's a truly remarkable achievement that the developers have created and something you will never have seen before in games. The game is so gorgeous you will want to just walk around the streets or run along the rooftops or climb sky-high structures to get a full birds-eye view of whichever city you're exploring at the time.Altair is very easy to control, he works by a body part-to-button scheme where he's legs for example will be the X button and his right arm will be the O button. Altair will be able to do alot so this control scheme is really pleasing to use. The main missions are within the three cities Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus but there's also a Kingdom and surrounding areas which link these all together on the map. The cities are surrounded by huge walls and you will have to find your way in without getting into a fight with the guards. when outside of the cities you will be able to jump on horses which will make travelling much quicker and they are forever faithfull to you and will follow you if necessary.You have four weapons - a really cool hidden blade, throwing knives, sword and your fist. Your weapons and skills are removed from you early in the game and with each successful assassination you gain them back. This scheme works well as you can learn how to become great at fighting and stealth and when you do get your weapons back you'll find that it makes life alot easier as some of the guards can be a really tough challenge. Your throwing knives will be great for taking out guards from a long distance without causing a fuss or getting spotted by other guards so you can then proceed to certain areas. Guards guard main areas and will always be on the lookout so you have to be sneaky.You can do a few missions within the cities such as pickpocket thugs for throwing knives, help citizens who will then let others know and groups will then help you out during chases by slowing down guards for you and also there are lots of flags to find giving you great reason to go exploring the gorgeous surroundings. Each city is broken into three parts and you have to assassinate a target in each part. To do this you will need to gather information by eavesdropping, pickpocket certain characters and by doing favours for informers, this will all lead to more information about your target and how you can find them to complete your mission. Once you have all you need you're onto the assassination. You have to find your guy whilst getting past lots of guards and kill him then get out of their fast!There's a huge rush you get after killing your main target and the whole city goes on red alert and every guard is looking for you. The chase is on and the streets can be your enemy or your saviour. The main fault with Assassin's Creed is this same way of finding/killing your target applies to each of the nine guys you have to take out, and that's basically it. There are no other styles of gameplay and that's why some people say the game is repetative, and in that sense it is, however, free-roaming and building up your skills and just enjoying such a massive fully-interactive world is a massive attraction that will give you hours of fun. To top that off there is the story and the fantastic interactive cutscenes and colourful characters within the game.I've had so much fun with Assassin's Creed, it's one of my all time favourites. It's truly remarkable and something every gamer should experience at least once even if it's a rental. The graphics are better on the PS3 version of the game also and you will not believe your eyes when you see the sheer size/design of the levels. If you love great graphics, a deep story with twists, free-roaming and the ability to become one of the coolest master assassin's there is then you owe it to yourself to check out or buy this game. 10/10 from me.
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27.11.2009

This is on of the most anticipated games to be ported to PCs. For this, the Director's Cut edition was produced, adding some content over the console versions (mostly roof-top action missions), and care was taken to make the gamepad-to-keyboard/mouse-transition as seamless as possible. For the most part it was successful.This is a TREMENDOUSLY BEAUTIFULLY GAME. The first thing that grabs you is how REAL the city environments feel. The graphics are just OUT OF THIS WORLD! You will need a very good PC to enjoy their full potential (minimum requirements provided below), but real skies, dynamic shadows, facial expressions and realistically flowing robes are only beginning to describe it!Run on a roof and the other citizens will gather around and comment on your crazy behavior! Throw someone on a vendor's cart and he will come after you complaining about his ruined produce! And the city is alive well beyond your character. If only BIOWARE could take some lessons for its next BALDUR's GATE...Adding to this is the wonderful sound! From the crowd murmurs and the NTCs cries for help, to the whistling of the wind and the well-chosen background music, a good sound-card and speakers set is recommended to truly enjoy this game. If you have a 5.1 speaker system (I do not) I can imagine the experience to become even more immersing.As to the gameplay, you control Altaïr ibn La-Ahad ("The Flying One, Son of None"). He is a member of the Assassin Brotherhood that sides, well, with both...sides, during the 3rd Crusade. In a story twist, he is also your ancestor, the game being your/his flashback memories. This is a twist I could do without, but I would guess it lays groundwork for the sequels.The Third person perspective works beautifully and will never loose your interest. Most missions require sneaking and murdering in the shadows. Others will have you eavesdropping for passwords or pickpocketing documents to gain access into target buildings. Some will have you sharpen those sword skills. Still, the game does not avoid its share of stupid "keep this...suicidal character from getting killed" missions. Keep in mind though that ASSASSIN's CREED is rather a strategically thinking action TPS, not a hack&slash fast-paced one.Controlling your character with a keyboard/mouse takes a lot of getting used to as you have to manage running, climbing, fighting as well as modifying your actions from low to high visibility. The keys are remapable but their complexity will never let you forget you are playing a game. Now for some bad news.These are the official MINIMUM Requirements:* Pentium D 2.6GHz (YES, Dual Core!) (or AMD equivalent)* 1GB RAM (WinXP) or 2GB (WinVISTA) (3GB RECOMMENDED!)* nVidia 6800 (or Shader Model 3.0 compliant or ATI equivalent)* Dual-Layer DVD-ROM (or BluRay disc)* 12GB HDD Space (although my install folder was no larger than 7GB)As one can see, this is worse than CRYSIS! What I cannot get is how on earth ASSASSIN works on only 512MB of RAM of the XBox, yet it is recommended to have...3GB of RAM on a PC! Sure, the extra content is nice but who did the porting, unpaid interns? Has ANY PC optimization been attempted at all?Keep also in mind that (as with CRYSIS) in order to fully enjoy the game, barely meeting the minimum requirements means you will barely experience the game. I refuse to deal with WinVISTA so, obviously, this review pertains to DirectX-9. The game is also DirectX-10 compatible, something I cannot comment on though. And now for some good news.UBISOFT has been recently hit with a $5million class-action suit for hardware (OK, "allegedly") damaged by StarForce bundled with its games. Since, they have announced to be abandoning its StarForce partnership - so let's all rejoice: unlike other UBISOFT games, ASSASSIN's CREED does NOT sport StarForce! Instead, a much milder SafeDisc is used.It is a pity it took litigation to finally listen to their own customers (suing StarForce would make much more sense, but try finding them in Russia!), but let's count our blessings.So, overall, this is a well made and beautiful, immersing (although quite short) game that needed more work in PC optimization (where it looses 1 star Overall) and character control (where it looses 1 star for Fun).As Altair himself would have put it: "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."Well, not everything - and certainly NOT StarForce.
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13.4.2008

This is on of the most anticipated games to be ported to PCs. For this, the Director's Cut edition was produced, adding some content over the console versions (mostly rooftop action missions), and care was taken to make the gamepad to keyboard/mouse-transition as seamless as possible. For the most part it was successful.This is a TREMENDOUSLY BEAUTIFULLY GAME. The first thing that grabs you is how REAL the city environments feel. The graphics are just OUT OF THIS WORLD! You will need a very good PC to enjoy their full potential (minimum requirements provided below), but real skies, dynamic shadows, facial expressions and realistically flowing robes are only beginning to describe it!Run on a roof and the other citizens will gather around and comment on your crazy behavior! Throw someone on a vendor's cart and he will come after you complaining about his ruined produce! And the city is alive well beyond your character. If only BIOWARE could take some lessons for its next BALDUR's GATE...Adding to this is the wonderful sound! From the crowd murmurs and the NTCs cries for help, to the whistling of the wind and the well-chosen background music, a good sound-card and speakers set is recommended to truly enjoy this game. If you have a 5.1 speaker system (I do not) I can imagine the experience to become even more immersing.As to the gameplay, you control Altaïr ibn La-Ahad ("The Flying One, Son of None"). He is a member of the Assassin Brotherhood that sides, well, with both...sides, during the 3rd Crusade. In a story twist, he is also your ancestor, the game being your/his flashback memories. This is a twist I could do without, but I would guess it lays groundwork for the sequels.The Third person perspective works beautifully and will never loose your interest. Most missions require sneaking and murdering in the shadows. Others will have you eavesdropping for passwords or pickpocketing documents to gain access into target buildings. Some will have you sharpen those sword skills. Still, the game does not avoid its share of stupid "keep this...suicidal character from getting killed" missions. Keep in mind though that ASSASSIN's CREED is rather a strategically thinking action TPS, not a hack&slash fast-paced one.Controlling your character with a keyboard/mouse takes a lot of getting used to as you have to manage running, climbing, fighting as well as modifying your actions from low to high visibility. The keys are remapable but their complexity will never let you forget you are playing a game. Now for some bad news.These are the official MINIMUM Requirements:* Pentium D 2.6GHz (YES, Dual Core!) (or AMD equivalent)* 1GB RAM (WinXP) or 2GB (WinVISTA) (3GB RECOMMENDED!)* nVidia 6800 (or Shader Model 3.0 compliant or ATI equivalent)* Dual-Layer DVD-ROM (or BluRay disc)* 12GB HDD Space (although my install folder was no larger than 7GB)As one can see, this is worse than CRYSIS! What I cannot get is how on earth ASSASSIN works on only 512MB of RAM of the XBox, yet it is recommended to have...3GB of RAM on a PC! Sure, the extra content is nice but who did the porting, unpaid interns? Has ANY PC optimization been attempted at all?Keep also in mind that (as with CRYSIS) in order to fully enjoy the game, barely meeting the minimum requirements means you will barely experience the game. I refuse to deal with WinVISTA so, obviously, this review pertains to DirectX-9. The game is also DirectX-10 compatible, something I cannot comment on though. And now for some good news.UBISOFT has been recently hit with a $5million class-action suit for hardware (OK, "allegedly") damaged by StarForce bundled with its games. Since, they have announced to be abandoning its StarForce partnership - so let's all rejoice: unlike other UBISOFT games, ASSASSIN's CREED does NOT sport StarForce! Instead, a much milder SafeDisc is used.It is a pity it took litigation to finally listen to their own customers (suing StarForce would make much more sense, but try finding them in Russia!), but let's count our blessings.So, overall, this is a well made and beautiful, immersing (although quite short) game that needed more work in PC optimization (wher it lost 1 star Overall) and character control (where it lost 1 star for Fun).As Altair himself would have put it: "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."Well, not everything - and certainly NOT StarForce.
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13.4.2008

This is on of the most anticipated games to be ported to PCs. For this, the Director's Cut edition was produced, adding some content over the console versions (mostly rooftop action missions), and care was taken to make the gamepad to keyboard/mouse-transition as seamless as possible. For the most part it was successful.This is a TREMENDOUSLY BEAUTIFULLY GAME. The first thing that grabs you is how REAL the city environments feel. The graphics are just OUT OF THIS WORLD! You will need a very good PC to enjoy their full potential (minimum requirements provided below), but real skies, dynamic shadows, facial expressions and realistically flowing robes are only beginning to describe it!Run on a roof and the other citizens will gather around and comment on your crazy behavior! Throw someone on a vendor's cart and he will come after you complaining about his ruined produce! And the city is alive well beyond your character. If only BIOWARE could take some lessons for its next BALDUR's GATE...Adding to this is the wonderful sound! From the crowd murmurs and the NTCs cries for help, to the whistling of the wind and the well-chosen background music, a good sound-card and speakers set is recommended to truly enjoy this game. If you have a 5.1 speaker system (I do not) I can imagine the experience to become even more immersing.As to the gameplay, you control Altaïr ibn La-Ahad ("The Flying One, Son of None"). He is a member of the Assassin Brotherhood that sides, well, with both...sides, during the 3rd Crusade. In a story twist, he is also your ancestor, the game being your/his flashback memories. This is a twist I could do without, but I would guess it lays groundwork for the sequels.The Third person perspective works beautifully and will never loose your interest. Most missions require sneaking and murdering in the shadows. Others will have you eavesdropping for passwords or pickpocketing documents to gain access into target buildings. Some will have you sharpen those sword skills. Still, the game does not avoid its share of stupid "keep this...suicidal character from getting killed" missions. Keep in mind though that ASSASSIN's CREED is rather a strategically thinking action TPS, not a hack& fast-paced one.Controlling your character with a keyboard/mouse takes a lot of getting used to as you have to manage running, climbing, fighting as well as modifying your actions from low to high visibility. The keys are remapable but their complexity will never let you forget you are playing a game. Now for some bad news.These are the official MINIMUM Requirements:* Pentium D 2.6GHz (YES, Dual Core!) (or AMD equivalent)* 1GB RAM (WinXP) or 2GB (WinVISTA) (3GB RECOMMENDED!)* nVidia 6800 (or Shader Model 3.0 compliant or ATI equivalent)* Dual-Layer DVD-ROM (or BluRay disc)* 12GB HDD Space (although my install folder was no larger than 7GB)As one can see, this is worse than CRYSIS! What I cannot get is how on earth ASSASSIN works on only 512MB of RAM of the XBox, yet it is recommended to have...3GB of RAM on a PC! Sure, the extra content is nice but who did the porting, unpaid interns? Has ANY PC optimization been attempted at all?Keep also in mind that (as with CRYSIS) in order to fully enjoy the game, barely meeting the minimum requirements means you will barely experience the game. I refuse to deal with WinVISTA so, obviously, this review pertains to DirectX-9. The game is also DirectX-10 compatible, something I cannot comment on though. And now for some good news.UBISOFT has been recently hit with a $5million class-action suit for hardware (OK, "allegedly") damaged by StarForce bundled with its games. Since, they have announced to be abandoning its StarForce partnership - so let's all rejoice: unlike other UBISOFT games, ASSASSIN's CREED does NOT sport StarForce! Instead, a much milder SafeDisc is used.It is a pity it took litigation to finally listen to their own customers (suing StarForce would make much more sense, but try finding them in Russia!), but let's count our blessings.So, overall, this is a well made and beautiful, immersing (although quite short) game that needed more work in PC optimization (wher it lost 1 star Overall) and character control (where it lost 1 star for Fun).As Altair himself would have put it: "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."Well, not everything - and certainly NOT StarForce.
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4.12.2011

For over a year, this sat in a cabinet. I'd gotten to the second proper mission in my first major city. Controlling Altair - the game's main character - was a nightmare come true. I was using keyboard and mouse, and controlling the game's swift, agile freerunner of an assassin was like dragging an elephant through setting toffee. It felt like I was constantly fighting an imposed speed barrier and then having to fight to get him past obstacles. Worse, the myriad combinations of keys that you needed to remember to press all at once made it like trying to prep a plane for takeoff. It was, in short, utterly unenjoyable.So it languished until I decided to get a gamepad to play racing games and remembered this was in my drawer.It's a stellar difference.At heart,Assassin's Creed is a console game, so naturally it only plays the way it should with a pad.The limited number of buttons make performing the wide selection of moves far easier, and with the pressure-sensitive sticks controlling Altair becomes far more natural. Even better, since he's far easier to steer the freerunning comes into its own, and soon you're racing across the tops of buildings, skimming across beams over 50 foot drops, and plummetting safely down into stacks of hay from the many high vantage points you have to climb in order to get an eagle's view of where the missions are based.The graphics on PC are also gorgeous. Desert canyons gleam golden yellow in the sun, the clothing looks almost real, and the enjoyably ancient looking cities bathe in the desert sun with the occasional ripple of cloud across the streets.The game allows you a degree of freedom in which 'investigation' missions you complete to find the info you need to go after each main target. These vary from enjoyable stealth assassinations of guards or informers through to breathless parkour races across the rooftops and over buildings to meet up with a source in time.As disgraced assassin Altair, you also feel a strong sense of character. It really does feel like you're playing a secretive and dangerous man trying to blend in as everybody around you goes on with their daily lives.When the game was released a big deal was made of the 'end of game twist'. This was a bit misleading as it's actually given away the second you play, and recurs in brief interactive sessions throughout play. I won't give it away here in case somehow you've remained oblivious. It's a little silly, and could have been executed better, but it adds to the title's rich mythology and gives it background, context, and the chance of a sequel.There are very few flaws once you're playing the game with a pad.Perhaps most obvious is the over-use of limited dialogue - you'll hear the same bullying guards and beggars spout exactly the same lines in every alley of every city - probably nearing 100 times by the end of the game.The game also has a habit towards the end of pelting you with multiple attackers at once (up to 10 or 12) and expecting you to somehow guess a strategy in the three seconds before they start battering you to a pulp. It can be intimidating and frustrating. However the game guides out there on the web are very useful.The bad guys are pretty good, and vary in their attitude and crimes, and Altair's Assassin's brotherhood master and colleagues are all interestingly distinctive. The voiceover of Altair himself makes him come across a bit bratty and arrogant, but that's easy to ignore and eases towards the climax.The combat is also exhilerating and there are many fluid evades and flashy combat moves you can pull off that really do make you feel like a super-assassin, whether it's pouncing on the back of a fleeing target like a cougar, or slickly side-stepping an enemy's attack only to impale them on a sword. It's also possible to create almost your own 'minigame' out of hurling troublesome guards off a rooftop to clear a route or distract the enemies.With multiple weapons, multiple routes and tactics, and a variety of gorgeous locations, this is a genuinely exciting little gem that will give action junkies just the fix they've been looking for.
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11.5.2008

First off, I borrowed this game from a friend. I've completed it and refused to give it back because I love it so much.Gameplay. The gameplay on Assassins Creed is very fun, and polished off. The game is pretty much composed of 3 stages. Stage one is go to the city and find out who you're supposed to be Assassinating. Stage two is to go around the city completing little sub-missions to find out where your Assassination target is. Stage 3 is finding him and Assassinating them, then running back to your Bureau. Unfortunately, this is repeated for the whole game. If you like repetition in games ( like me) then you'll love this game. If not, you'll complete the first Assassination,get to the second one and realise that you're doing the same thing.The combat system is alright, but could be much better. Mostly, fighting just involves hammering the X button as fast as possible, but later on as you unlock different abilities you get the options to guard, dodge, counter, chain attack, strong attack, throw, guard-break. There's lots of abilities you can use, but if you're like me you'll choose one ability and repeatedly use it. As soon as you get the counter move, the game might as well put its hands in the air and give up because it makes combat a joke. Hold down guard, and when the enemy is about to attack, press X and you'll peform an awesome counter-attack. These look pretty, as you see Altair ducking and swerving around blades and mercilessly destroying opponents, but it all gets a bit shallow after a while. Amusing as it is to watch Altair slap a soldier round the face and then stab him, it gets to the point that you purposely run from fights just to avoid having to go through the mindless process again.The AI is quite poor also; in a fight, soldiers will patiently wait their turn to attack you. But sometimes, frustratingly, they'll either be incredibly dim-witted or sharp. On one occassion, you can go up behind somebody, stealth assassinate them and walk off, in plain sight of a guard and he'll stand around shouting 'Who did this?' despite the fact that he saw you kill him. Other times you'll do exactly the same thing, except without a guard in sight and then a guard will spontaniously appear out of an alleyway, accusing you of murder drawing you into a fight.The graphics for Assassins Creed are some of the best on 360. The character models are well detailed, the massive environments and cities are immense, and each one is packed with life. Sitting on top of a massive watchtower and surveying a city is literally breathtaking. The character animations for Altair are also very well done; climbing up walls looks very natural and doesnt look out of place or forced at all. The sound is also very high quality; the voice acting is perfect, Ubisoft had the accents nailed. When you're walking in a marketplace, you'll hear the massive crowd bustling and echoing off the walls. The noise of weapons clashing sounds realistic, and it's incredibly satisfying to hear the shing of your blade meeting the neck of an unsuspecting soldier.This is a very good game in esscence, and I dont think most people have experienced it the way they should; most people stop after the 2nd or 3rd assassination because it's all the same. If you persevere and get to the end, you wont be dissapointed. This brings me onto the most important part of this review; if you cant find it cheap, rent it. It's not worth buying because it has no replay value whatsoever. If you're obsessed with collecting, then there are templars and flags scattered everywhere, but there's really not much point in collecting them. If you're the person who can replay games to their heart's content without getting bored, go ahead and buy it. If you're the majority of the gaming population, then rent it for a bit. For what it is, it's not worth the £40 price tag. If you rent it, you can experience a (in my opinion) unmissable gaming experience. Unfortunately most people end up buying it and then selling it on because they got bored. Rent it, complete it, take it back, I guarantee you will not be dissapointed.
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9.7.2008

I have actually found this game really enjoyable and I would thoroughly recommend it for it's different feel. It should be noted that it is a single player title with no Xbox Live or multiplayer integration at all, but this is no bad thing....at least it means all efforts have been channelled into making the game good.Ubi Soft would obviously claim that Assassin's Creed has been built "from the ground up", but it's roots are clearly in the Tom Clancy's titles, especially Splinter Cell. This means you get decent physics, stunning lighting and quality textures on a richly 3D map, plus a solid, well thought-out story.You play as Desmond Myles, descendent of Altair (al-tie-ear),who has inherited the memory of his ancestors through his DNA. These memories are sought out by a scientific reserach group who are after a lost treasure from ancient times. It's your role to access and play out these memories of ancient times, and in doing so you spend most of your time carrying out the tasks of Altair in the 'simulated' ancient realm.This all happens in the time of King Richard, between the cities of Damascus (Turkey), Jerusalem, and Acre (England I think), with an expansive rural 'kingdom' connecting the cities, which you cross on horseback!The combat is all about swords and knives and archery.....no grenades and rocket launchers here....so fights with city guards and the like tend to be pretty intense. The games' big feature is free running; you can scale pretty much anything and leap from roof top to roof top in an effort to disappear.This is where you can see the re-use of Splinter Cell code....it's all about being low or high profile. If you are discreet you can pass through the cities unnoticed, blending with the crowds and not attracting the attention of any roof guards. Climbing ladders gets you to the rooftops where you can move around more freely, but as you would expect, it gets harder as the game progresses to not attract unwanted attention.So like Splinter Cell where you use light and shade to control how visible you are, in Assassin's Creed you use discreet and non-discreet behaviour in the same way.I've found this particularly enjoyable in Assassin's Creed, as you can change the pace of the game in an instant, whenever you like, and it makes the in-between times less tedious as you don't have to creep around everywhere.There's plenty of side missions and objectives that are well worth doing, and a good haul of gamerscore points available, and also as you progress through the game, you unlock new weapons and abilities. Without this the game would probably get too repetative too quickly, but with this built-in control over your progress it actually helps you develop your skill at controlling Altair's actions.As you spend more and more time playing, you will find that you can move around the environment much, much faster, and it's at this point where I've been disappointed at how regularly the game/disc has to catch up. It's only perhaps half a second that it hangs for, but it still messes with the flow, and I think it's a symptom of Ubisoft games, where they rush to meet a deadline and release a game with a few unfortunately obvious bugs. It's the same with the Rainbow Six Vegas and Ghost Recon AW stuff.My only other complaint, as others have mentioned, is that they only recorded one set of dialogue for people that you re-encounter, so for example, when you save a citizen they'll say the same thing the last citizen said in a different city. For the sake of a couple of minutes of extra audio, it would have made a big difference.Despite these negative points, I still give the game my full recommendation as it's a really fresh approach to 3rd person role-playing action adventure stuff, and the free running is really cool and well done.The concept lends itself to a franchise, and it'd be great to see a sequel set somewhere different, like feudal Japan.
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26.8.2009

Despite the abundance of subject matter history remains an area strangely neglected by the gaming industry. Aside from WW2 and empire building RTS games, there's little room for the historical epic in a market saturated by space marines, mutants and zombies. In this regard, Assassin's Creed gains immediate kudos for originality, but Ubisoft's real achievement is to a make a game that actually lived up to this lofty premiseThe Holy Land, at the end of the twelfth century, it's height of the third crusade with King Richard and Saladin battling for supremacy. In the midst of political turmoil a secretive guild of assassins seek to restore peace and prosperity through a campaign of targeted assassinations.The not too distant future, bartender Desmond Miles is imprisoned by mysterious organisation intent on extracting information from his ancestral DNA, forced to co-operate in unravelling a nine hundred year old conspiracy that has implications way beyond its crusader originsThe whole scale of the thing is mindblowing, three medieval cities and a considerable expanse of countryside to boot for you to explore. Yes, other sandbox games have done it even bigger, but few if any have managed to do it better, Grand Theft Steed this ain't, it's a whole different proposition entirely. Clambering to the top of the many churches and minarets littered across the landscape you can truly appreciate the attention to detail that has gone in to creating a believable medieval landscape. Going back to other sandbox games after this, everything looks as if it was made from Duplo. Only poor water textures strike a wrong note in an otherwise faultless production (something ironically GTA 4 excels in).What is equally impressive is the maturity in which Assassin's Creed addresses its subject matter. Admittedly, this kind of thing only really impresses history nerds like myself, still, from the political rhetoric of the town criers to King Richard's French accent , such historical accuracy makes for all the more immersive historical experience. It's the shame then that the plot ultimately degenerates into Da Vinci Code style religious conspiracy hokum and it makes you wish Ubisoft stuck firmly to the history they've gone to so much trouble to recreate.In terms of gameplay, incredibly slick parkour mechanics mean you'll be acrobatically flying across rooftops in no time at all and the combat system strikes an appropriate balance between accessibility and skill. Combat is largely reliant on timing as opposed to button bashing and with level ups throughout the game you'll develop an ever growing repertoire of moves to dispatch your foes in increasingly imaginative (and blood thirsty) ways.The game is structured in such a way that how you utilise these components is largely up to you, other than the occasional moment where you're forced to flee the scene in the aftermath of an assassination or boxed in by enemies, leaving no choice other than fighting your way out. The same cannot be said however of the missions which, the actual assassinations aside, become repetitive and have little replay value. Such complaints only really surface on the second play through, still, a little more variety wouldn't have gone amiss.Many of these issues appear to have been addressed by Ubisoft for the sequel, due out at the end of the year, with greater variety in the mission structure promised amongst other things. However for the moment such minor complaints shouldn't detract from what is already highly accomplished action adventure game, and now Assassin's Creed has made it into the cut price classics range there's all the more reason to check it out if you haven't done so already.
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20.11.2007

Assassin's Creed isn't without it's faults but I still have found it to be an enjoyable and occasionally awe-inspiring experience.As assassin Altair, you must redeem yourself after being stripped of rank and ability in the first mission. To do this, you are given a list of 9 high-profile targets (merchants, slavers etc.) that you must track down across 3 cities; Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem. You can't choose your targets to begin with which is a shame, but as the game goes on you'll be able to pick your next target from a group of two or three which is better.The story isn't overly developed and Altair isn't going to win any awards for best character, but none of this detracts from game.The graphics are simply stunning! The thing I've noticed is that the PS3s graphics seem to work best in sun-lit enviroments and here, that's what we get. I'll never get bored of climbing the walls of Jerusalem with the sun beating down on me. The only technical downside is that you occasionally get stuck in a wall or ceiling and might find yourself dying in order to get out, but this doesn't happen often and there are loads of save points.The gameplay itself is great fun. Being able to free-run across virtually anything is made possible by holding down R1 and X. In fact it's harder to drop down from the rooftops than it is to stay up there, because Altair will automatically find his next piece of ledge or beam. In theory, you can free-run across the entire city without ever stopping, which makes for a great feeling.On his missions, Altair will need to find information on his prey before striking. Most of this involves eavesdropping or pickpocketing which isn't very taxing. But sometimes, you'll need to do favours in exchange for info, which requires stealth kills that are far more challenging than the actual assassinations.Also, you can take the time to access the cities' towering "viewpoints" where objectives can be found easier. Aside from detailing your map, it's just brilliant to climb up these massive towers overlooking the city and then perform and stomach-churning "leap of faith" into a haystack hundreds of feet below. There are 100 flags to collect around the cities which I don't care for very much, but the best side-quests are always "saving citizens", where some elderly guy or woman is being roughed up and in need of assistance. This is the best one becase.......the combat is fantastic! Some have said that it's nothing but counter-attacks, but I disagree. In one case, I walked up to a gang of soldiers, threw knives at two, performed a counter attack on one, threw another into a shop stand and finished the last off with my short blade. And the best part is that there are always more soliders round the corner. If you're like me, you'll relish the chance to humilate a dozen guards in front of the public and when "vigilantes" get involved it's even better! There's never a pressing need to run away which you could say is a shame but when the fighting mechanic is so good, you won't mind.The downside to things is how samey the info-gathering quests become and how redundant they really are. This is because the hits themselves are never stealthy-affairs. You're intel is never that useful because your targets will be in plain sight and surrounded by guards every time.If you take the approach that this is more of an action game than a stealth one, you'll enjoy it a lot more. Also, you can chose to fly through the game in under 10 hours or, like me, save every citizen, climb every viewpoint and generally get into as many fights as possible and therefore make it 20-30 hours.
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28.11.2007

Assassin's Creed could be described as a mix between GTA 3 and prince of persia. Most of the time you will be playing as Altair, an assassin, in beautifully recreated medieval cities. You can free run through the cities as you please, blending with the crowd or jumping and climbing on the rooftops.Graphically this is one of the most stunning games of the year. The level of detail is quite stunning, the animations are so fluid you'll forget it's a game, the camera shifts during combat counter attacks make these sequences feel intense and dramatic, and the number of AI controlled citizens is impressive to say the least.The Gameplay is also novative in many respects. The free running system feels very natural.At a slow pace it is very easy to use. However, as soon as you are chased by skilled ennemy soldiers, you will crave for a bit more reactivity and precision in the control system. The game feels awesome for the first hours because it feels so fresh, but then as you progress further into the story you might get frustrated because you expect everything to flow naturally and be interactive and in the heat of the action you discover that some elements of terrain are not as interactive as they seem to be. Shame.The combat system is very simple and could've been a bit more varied. Once you unlock the counter-attack ability that almost instant kills all your opponents, combat becomes a routine that remains etertaining through it's beautiful animations. The ennemies however usually present little challenge as they will only attack you one by one, or at most two by two, making huge mobs of soldiers easy to fight off. However, if you don't want to fight you can always run fast to escape from the soldiers and hide in hay stacks or other designed hiding spots.The story of Assassin's Creed is quite surprising. It has a nice but laborious sci-fi touch. The game benefits from a rich opposition between templars an Assassin's through the ages. You are a captured descendant of the assassins used by the templars in a near future to discover the location of a powerful treasure. Unfortunately, as you repetitively scan the medieval past of your ancestor Altair to perform the same sequence of events to kill 10 similar men the story reaches an abrupt halt that undoubtedly call for a sequel. For 40 quid I would've like at least a proper story arc that has a rounded off ending and only subtle clues about a sequel. This feels like watching gladiator and shutting your TV half way through the movie: simply frustrating!Despite the evident flaws in gameplay, AI, sometimes collision issues, and a short and unfinished story, Assassin Creed treats the gamers with a new sensation of liberty. Even if it is sometimes pointless, free roaming and exploration of the cities will keep you busy and satisfy you parkour needs. (watch london jump if you don't know what I'm talking about).Assassinating people has never been so fun. There are many ways in which you can get rid of your opponents. The game will keep you going for a solid 30 hours if you complete all the side quests and determine yourself to fulfill the numerous fighting and exploration achievments. Collecting all the flags however is a real drag and a waste of time.Overall, Assassin's Creed must be played to be believed and i would recommend this experience to everyone. This is a great game to add to yoru collection but i would definately advise you to rent it before you buy it as some people might find the whole package a bit too frustrating for it's price.
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