 "Great concept, poor variety." | 2009-10-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1JE7ZFZ71MR13 |
A decent game that become very monotonous with repetitious tasks. However, the graphics and smooth animations make it a worthwhile playthrough. Initially the "wow" factor is very high, with beautiful landscapes and amazing animations. However, too much of a good thing is a bad thing, and this game is no different. Fun for a bit, but wearing in the long haul. Worth the playthrough if it's found at a bargin basement price.
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 "Victim of hype but still fun game" | 2009-10-18 |
| - Reviewed By canadian3 |
While I first had the Wii, I didn't get a Playstation 3 or an Xbox 360 (price for former, reliability for latter) till awhile later but once I finally bought one, there was several games on my list as far as "games I want to play but couldn't" and one of them was Assassin's Creed. Seems like everyone else had this on their list to play too because the game sold an insane amount of copies and got a lot of hype and anticipation. Well nowadays the game has gotten such a bad reputation thanks to its repetitive mission structure and maybe too ambitious for its own good but with the sequel coming out in just a month's time, I thought I'd revisit the game and see whether or not the game really is that bad or whether people just overreacted. I'd say personally that everyone overreacted because they expected a masterpiece and they got a good game instead.
Story: It's 1191 and there's a conflict going on between Crusader and Saracen forces with 9 men in particular really being the key major players concerning the turmoil to the lands. Al Mualim, leader of the Assassin's Guild, entrusts arrogant and recently demoted member Altair to kill the 9 men and help the conflict and bring some kind of resolve. But the real reason why Altair is doing anything at all will be revealed and it turns out it has nothing to do with the problems in the Holy Land. The story got criticized for being a bit too ambitious concerning its plot twist, it's unfinished-feeling ending and for some people, the lack of coherence since there's no subtitle option to get into the larger plots concerning the intended targets but it's an interesting story, just I guess not properly told.
Graphics: One thing you can never fault - well, least not frequently - is Ubisoft's lack of graphical prowess and Assassin's Creed is the kind of game that not only has a really beautiful and unique look and aesthetic but the horsepower behind the engine as well with incredible draw distances, crowd animations not only in groups but on individuals and especially Altair's parkour animations, Assassin's Creed is certainly a beautiful game which unfortunately gets marred when some screen tearing pops up but it's minimal. But doing the Leap of Faith where you drop practically 10 stories down to a bundle of hay in one camera move is quite impressive.
Sound/Music: The music isn't necessarily buy-worthy but it's a likable soundtrack with some of-the-times type pieces but for the most part it's all the crowd din as you hear the rustle and bustle of the city and it's all incredibly realistic and really puts you in that place. However, the voice acting is incredibly spotty with the intended targets doing admirable jobs with their roles yet Altair is one monotonous and unlikable bugger who really needs a kick in the ass (and who sounds strangely American for a Middle-Eastern character) and the repeated lines will drive you crazy. That one beggar woman who constantly cries out "just a coin, sir I'm sick, I havent any money" will most likely have you wanting to put her out of her misery more than once, in addition to the lines civilians say when you rescue them. How many times have I heard that the whole city will hear of my sacrifice? 50 times too many.
Gameplay: The city has been described as an open-world game which basically means "do whatever you want" but in a way, Assassin's Creed doesn't fit the mold. Whereas a lot of these kind of games offer you plenty of variety of things to do (Grand Theft Auto series) or a massive map to explore (Fallout 3), Assassin's Creed gives you huge areas to explore, just not as much stuff to actually do in them. When you come across the 3 key cities, Acre, Jerusalem and Damascus, it's predominantly the same thing in each city: view points to help fill out the map, saving citizens from brutish guards, eavesdropping missions where you sit on a bench and listen in, pickpocketing people's pockets (yay, alliteration) or roughing up someone for information. There is a tad bit of repetition but it isn't so bad but people might not and didn't like how same-y it got. The other gameplay extender is flag collecting and if you're one of those types that hates finding stuff for achievements than Assassin's Creed will drive you batty because there's 100 flags to collect and not just in one city either and unlike say Infamous which had a similar thing but gave you a radar to locate them, some flags are so well-hidden you practically need a map and cross them off.
A large part of the game is parkour where Altair climbs up down and around buildings to get to where he's going and it's one of the more funner elements of the game since not only does it look so realistic and easy to use (though too many platforming games have me pressing Jump to climb higher that I keep jumping OFF buildings whereas this game just requires you to hold the Up button) but it for some reason actually feels that fun. But should you run into guards on your voyages is where combat comes in and this is where it gets a bit dodgy since you get to counter attack, grab them and throw them away, sometimes straight off cliffs and high roofs too, but face multiple ones at the same time but the AI has a habit of just standing there and sometimes they even pose, as if they don't want to attack you so much as mock. In addition, it's way too easy to actually start a fight and more than once you'll be riding on your horse and people will assume you're up to no good and chase after you and bizarrely they actually don't stop so you can ride 2 football field lengths away and eventually they'll be right behind you slicing your horse's feet and it's like "go away already". City guard AI is worse since sometimes they don't even see you assassinate a guy right near them and yet you can be on a ledge above the street and be like "assassin!" and you'd be like "what did I do, haven't killed anyone for....3 minutes" but it's way too inconsistent.
One of the low points of the game though is strangely part of what's actually not set in the Holy Land but rather the future. While I don't want to spoil the entire story and its concept despite others having done so, the segments where you're not controlling Altair are so linear and really just walk around, chat to chick that you wonder why this wasn't just cutscene. Is this a fun game? It strangely is when your brain isn't thinking about what wasn't included, why one was etc so it's not an outright bad game and maybe not deserving of the huge amount of hype people put onto the game since that kind of influenced what we were expecting but I did find it fun, just maybe not flawless. |
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| "Beautiful, innovative, but a little repetitive." | 2009-10-06 |
| - Reviewed By mtappana |
| Looks great, and really fun for a while. Unfortunately, the missions all seem to follow the same pattern, so it does become somewhat repetitive. Well worth playing though- and a great introduction to what looks like it will be an excellent sequel. |
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 "Assasins Creed a success" | 2009-09-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1VCA0L4K91CD2 |
| An amazing creation and combination of 1st person action and adventure game. This is undoubtedly one of the best games I have ever purchased. If you are not concerned with a small amount of gore and violence then this is the game for you. The amazing free-running/climbing movement is a wonderful complement to good old fashioned hand to hand blade on blade combat. Put up to other action adventure games this game goes above and beyond as an amazing game with wonderful combat, graphics, and in depth game interaction. For anyone out there looking for their next game buy this is the game for you. You should also look to the upcoming sequal assasin's creed 2. |
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| "Assassin's Creed" | 2009-09-18 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1M9AHM36X9ZYW |
| The graphics are the best I've seen so far, and the smoothness of game play is unbeatable. Two story lines at once; one is finished at the end of the game, but the other is left wide open hopefully for the sequel. |
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