Assassin's Creed

PUBLISHER: Ubisoft
DEVELOPER: Ubisoft
Played on: PS3
Initial impression: Medieval killing spree... no wait, what? Oh, ok...

Liked:
- Story (Past)
- Environment (Past)

Disliked:
- Story & Environment (Present)
- Repetition
- Quirky Controls
- One Odd Glitch


On The Fence:
- Lack of Trophies


The year is -- well I'm not sure but I'll claim it's the modern day/alternate reality where sci-fi junk exists. You're Desmond, some unknown schmuck who apparently is a distant relative of a great assassin from the middle ages. You're being held captive, made to use the Animus, a sci-fi inspired device that allows you to interact with genetic memories. As far as sci-fi plots go, this was... believable but unexpected.

Into the Animus - The year is 1190. It's the 3rd Crusade and the Templars are attacking the 'Holy Land' like crazy. In the midst of all this the assassin's guild is trying to thwart their every move. The Templars are after a powerful relic. After the opening, you are stripped of all your weapons and your rank in the guild. You have to prove you are worthy of them by pulling off a number of assassinations.

Liked
Not much to elaborate on.
The Crusade-side of the story was interesting. It kept me coming back.
I loved the look of the towns too.

Disliked
The modern day stuff, both story and environment, didn't really catch my interest. Maybe because it wasn't the direction I thought the game was going to take - not really sure. Something about it kind of irked me every time I was forced into it.

Repetition was this game's biggest flaw. Get assignment. Go to a town. Climb some towers to fill out the map.Help townsfolk in trouble. Gather info on target. Get approval from Assassin's Bureau. Kill target. Escape. Repeat. After target number 3 it felt more like a chore than anything else.

What totally didn't help was the controls. As I stated before, once I equated the touchy controls to the same crap I went through in inFAMOUS, I was in a better place - but that aside, it was still a pain in the ass.They teach you all these fancy techniques to use in fights but you're pretty much reduced to "hold block, counter their attack" for every fight. I wasn't able to pull off any good moves aside from the random pissed off button mashing made something ridiculous happen moves every once in a great while. Combos shouldn't be so difficult, and this comes from a guy who loves playing Ivy and Yoshimitsu in Soul Calibur.

There was ONE ODD GLITCH that I couldn't replicate but damn if it didn't totally fuck me up. I was fighting the end bad guy. I chased him around the garden and went for a jump-kill while he was running away. I missed him but managed to slip through the game mesh and into an area where I kept falling... and falling... and falling... for about 15 seconds. I eventually died from such a high fall but it took forever.

On The Fence
There are NO PS3 trophies for Assassin's Creed. None. Not even a "congrats for beating the main story line" one. While that's not really anything to hold against the game - because a lot of early PS3 titles were lacking them until Sony made it a requirement - it was kind of disappointing. Yeah I can say I beat the game and all but having a piece of code unlock a little icon that says "yup, he beat the game" is nice every once in a while.

I give Assassin's Creed a 7 out of 10. The controls are frustrating but the visuals more than make up for it. It's worth playing only so you get the whole story before diving into AC2.

7/10