Staff
kevin
Chicago, IL

Assassin's Creed gets a lot right but doesn't have much variety

4 star rating

frequent gamer, history buff
Pros

    Great graphics, Interesting Storyline, Fun to Play

Cons
    Somewhat repeative

JUL
3
2008
 
 
Amongst the things that Assassin's Creed does really well:
  • The graphics engine is superb.  The environments are highly detailed and richly varied.  You feel like they've gone back in time and recreated the Holy Land's cities during the Crusades.
  • The character animations are excellent and fluid.  Fight sequences and scaling of buildings/leaping from rooftops are very well executed.  The fights in particular have the feeling of a Hollywood action movie that you control.
  • The storyline is solid and interesting.  There are two stories going on here.  The main character that you play is an assassin in the the middle ages during the Crusades.  This story begins with him losing rank and face within the assassin's guild after he botches an important mission.  This makes it an easy lead in to the fact that you, the player, need to learn how to become an assassin and master the ranks within the guild.  The story line of who he is assassinating and why he needs to do so is interesting too, and it unfolds nicely.
  • The second story and what I'll call the meta story line is that you play a young man in the near future (21st century) and you are using a special machine that let's you relive and play out the memories of your ancestor (the afore mentioned assassin).  I really like the idea of the meta story as an explanation of how you have come to control a character with a video game interface.  Not many games attempt to explain why there is an avatar in a restricted world which is controlled by an external entity (you).  It doesn't really add to the game play much, but it's a nice flavor element that adds a bit of philosophy to the proceedings.
On the negative side:
  • The actual game-play, while fun, isn't particularly varied.  You basically repeat the same investigation missions before each assassination.  So for each of 9 assassination targets you do a very similar set of missions over and over.  These missions set up the assassination attempt, but don't do much to progress the plot much.  After the 2nd or 3rd time you basically get the format of the game.
  • The horse riding animations are VERY stiff in comparison to everything else...as if they were a last minute after thought.  Horrible and nearly inexcusable given the great level of detail in everything else.
  • The meta story addresses why some guy in the 21st century is controlling an avatar in the Crusades time period, but it doesn't explain why YOU are controlling that guy.  It's like they saw the need for the meta story, but couldn't figure out a way to extend it to reality.  Minor complaint, and since it's meta philosophy of gaming, it doesn't really detract from the game, just from my thinking about the game!  How's that for meta-ness!
  • As much as I Iike the meta story it bothers me immensely that the meta story relies on the concept of Lamarkian evolution, which is flat out wrong -- our DNA does NOT contain memories of what our ancestors experienced and learned within their life times.  Oh well, it's a game, but believe me all the evolutionary biologists should be fuming  ;)
All and all though, Assassin's Creed for PS3 is a solid game.  It's definitely worth renting to see if you enjoy it.  Even if you don't play through all the way, the experience is enjoyable, the world is detailed, and it offers a lot of fun game-play...until it gets repetitive.  So my advice is try it and enjoy it until you get bored.



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I_comment_shdw24 Comments about kevin’s Review

 


kid-kansas wrote on Jul 3, 2008 at 10:49AM

I like that the detail is so good....maybe one day I will get a ps3 but not right now..thanks for a detailed review of the game though...;)

5 star rating
"More than I expected"
More PlayStation 3 - Assassin's Creed reviews
4 star rating
"Fabulous graphics, but a very short game."



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