Assassin's Creed is one of those games that makes a person gitty with
anticipation before launch. Unfortunately this title takes a step back
in innovation. Sure the player can fight multiple enemies using many
different methods - hidden blade for silent kills, or throwing knives
and swords while fighting multiple, over aggressive, guards - but it's
been done before in other games like God of War. Even collecting
information about the next target before assassinating them gets old as
Altair eavesdrops, pick pockets, interrogates, and even finds view
points to explore the city. Tasks that get old after awhile.
What saves this title from a bargain bin purchase is the alteration of
religious themes that may seem interesting to some but may also be a
little controversial to others. But even then the story driven action
doesn't pick up until the game is almost over.
In the early days of this titles' creation what was held proud by the
developer, Ubi Soft, doesn't seem like a big deal. Gently pushing
innocent civilians aside to pass through a crowd without alerting the
guards or jumping from one rooftop to the next, isn't innovative.
The controls in Assassin's Creed sometimes can get a bit frustrating
when trying to escape the relentless pursuits of the city guards. For
example: When pressing a particular direction on the left analog stick
immediately while either climbing a latter or hopping onto a horse to
ride off to safety, the calibration of the controls become inverted for
a few seconds making the lead character move in the opposite direction
resulting in some frustrating moments.
In a game where your being continuously chased, you don't need the controls to change on you whenever it feels like it.
Altair as the lead character is one cool dude in terms of personal
conduct of how he handles himself in fights. To me personally he's up
there with Solid Snake and Kratos. Even though the character
developement for him isn't that great, like the other protaganists, I
enjoy the mystique qualities about him.
All in all this game is worth of at least a rental. The story is great
but the action oriented gameplay was too repetitious for me. But be
sure to see a sequel coming in the near future as the ending leaves you
with questions that need to be answered.
