Assassin's Creed

For anyone who has lost faith in the straight single player game in a world of online multiplayer madness, Assassin's Creed is that glimmer of hope you may be searching for. Finally there is a highly satisfying, and richly developed game that has been designed from the ground up to be a solo adventure like non other. This game shows you what a "current gen" one-player game can be and raises the bar for what is possible. You will find yourself with many moments of sheer excitement as you play through the twisting storyline that Assassin's Creed lays before you. Though it is not a perfect game, what little flaws it possesses are few and far between and don't really affect the overall enjoyment of this tale.

In Assassin's Creed, you first find yourself playing the role of Desmond, a normal run of the mill bartender, who has been abducted by some highly industrialized tech company. You find out that they don't really want Desmond they just want his genetic memories, the memories of Altaïr. This is how the game works. You spend some time in a side story as Desmond, before being thrown into the real game to play as Altaïr, the main character. This works by Desmond in essence reliving a genetic memory of Altaïr through the means of an Animus, a machine which links to Desmond's brain and allows him to relive his ancestor's memories. With all that explanation aside, this two-sided story approach is really an interesting way of organizing the games seven chapters. In the beginning you really don't understand at all what is going on in the "futuristic" storyline, but that is intentional. As you progress you find out more and more, piecing together the puzzle of this side story. That leads us to the first big flaw in the game, the ending. I suppose it's not really a flaw, more bad taste in design. Anyone who is familiar with the ending to Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back would have a good idea of the way this story ends. Basically it leads up to some big event that never happens. Since the story starts and ends in this side story that leaves it as a bit of a let down. However the main story of the game does have an ending, which is satisfying if not entirely predictable.

On a gameplay standpoint this game delivers an intense experience. The mix of stealth and action really does go far beyond what Kojima first invented in MGS. To augment the sneaking around, you have four ways to deal with those pesky guards: secret blade, sword, fists, and the short sword/throwing knife combo. You will find a use of all of these as your skills advance. The secret blade is just amazingly satisfying to use and you won't easily tire of it. The game provides a nice cinematic camera touch in key moments when using this blade or performing an equally nice counter kill during a sword fight. Sword fights are not particularly impressive but they do add a different dynamic when faced with no other option and flow fairly smoothly. There are in fact moments when you must face off against a group of guards who enjoy surrounding you and wait for you to attempt to attack one, leaving you vulnerable for a slash across your backside. This can be frustrating for those who enjoy hack and slash sword fighting because timing is everything. If you are off with your timing you are going to get mowed down. This is an example of emphasizing details. The game plays a convincing role in realism details, such as the games use of maps. Basically you have to put together a map of an area from scratch. To do this you must climb to the top of the highest buildings in the city and surveying the surrounding area. That area is then added to a map. There are usually around 10 per area. You might think this to become tedious, and it would, if it wasn't so much fun to do. It truly is just fun to watch Altaïr scale this huge building, perch onto a ledge and take in the sights, before taking a "leap" into a conveniently placed pile of hay. That hay plays an important role in the game.

The main idea here is stealth, get to know the area, gather information on the target, and assassinate all without being detected by the numerous city guards. There are three different states of awareness: the regular state which is basically no guards around, the yellow state where there is a guard around, and the red state when the guards are watching you. The first two states you really don't have to be that careful, it's the last one that will make them wise to what you are. If you do manage to alert them to your presence, and this is increasingly easy to do as you progress through the story, you only have two options: rely on your sword to take down anywhere from one to a dozen if not more guards that are pursuing you until you are no longer suspected, or the games more supported tactic, run. You must run taking turns at high speeds trying to elude your pursuers. Once they cannot see you, you are then tasked with finding a good hiding place until they give up. You will find that sitting on a bench, blending in with scholars or hiding in a pile of hay can prove most useful in eluding your captors. If no pile of hay is available, take to the roofs and hide in one of the convenient covered gardens. In fact the best way to get away from the heat is the rooftops. All in all the whole system of blending in and sneaking around is highly enjoyable and leaves you feeling quite superior.

Satisfaction is delivered on all fronts of this amazing title. Side notes to mention are the fact that though it is great to have in engine cut scenes, you also need a way to skip through them. They become annoying at best on a second play through of any particular chapter. Speaking of a second play through, there really isn't much of a need for it. There isn't much replay value unless you are just itching to find every single last flag in the game. The fact that you have to play the entire chapter over again and cannot just pick up in one spot doesn't help. You might as well just play the whole thing again from start to finish. The whole game won't take you an incredible amount of time to get through but it is a game worth playing if not owning just for its sheer mastery. Through the ingenious gameplay and attention to detail, UbiSoft has delivered to us an experience like non other. The drawbacks aside this is a game worth every penny and it gets a 9 out of 10 only because of the problems it has with the PS3 engine. A 9 out of 10 is "Above and Beyond" in my rating system and that is exactly what this game goes.
(I use a 10 point scale so with Giant Bomb's 5 point system it equals out to a 4.5)