Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed is one of those games that seems to divide people. Some people hate it, some people like it. Personally, I enjoyed the game.

I've heard complaints about the combat, but honestly I thought the combat was quite good. Sure, it takes some getting used to, and it's not perfect. But I mostly held R1 and countered in battle, and it worked out nicely. Using the other techniques proved to be useful in the later stages of the game.

The story is well done, if not a bit contrived. The "big spoiler" about the true setting of the game isn't just revealed in the first five minutes, it's revealed in the game's own instruction manual. Ubisoft dodged discussing the "futuristic" elements of the game to the end, but they ended up giving it away in the manual, and even the opening scene. I'm disappointed by that, but I suppose it was for the best.

That isn't to say the game doesn't have twists and turns in its own right. Even in the "future world" segments, it pays to walk around and interact with whatever objects you can. The first few times you can't do much of anything, but soon enough you can talk to the female assistant, access the computers, and so forth. I won't say any more, as you have to play it yourself. Or read a guide. Whichever.

The most fun I had was running around on the rooftops. That was so much fun. It reminds me of Prince of Persia, which makes sense because it's the same company. But it was a lot of fun overall. Also, once you get to the View Points and can look over the city, the scope of the game really shows itself. If you can get to a really high view point, you can look over the city and see how much detail is in there. You can see every building, big and small, and marvel over the power of the current generation of hardware. Some of the views are simply breathtaking.

Which brings me to the graphics. Amazing stuff. However, I wasn't really wowed by the character models of the assassination targets. Yes, they are a step above the previous generation, but I get the feeling as if a lot more could be done. Maybe it was just the art design, but a few of the guys just looked ugly. I'm probably nitpicking, though.

The PS3 version of the game, which is what I played, was very well done. I didn't encounter a single glitch, except a strange "can't read disc" error that happened only once. The game prompted me to upgrade it to version 1.10 when I first started it, so maybe that fixed the bugs. I don't know how it compares to the other versions. I noticed very little slowdown, and it certainly didn't affect the game in any way.

All in all, I had an excellent experience, and a lot of fun playing Assassin's Creed. The end of the game definitely set up a sequel. Even though it was said that the game is part of a series when this was first announced, the ending basically shouted out, "Wait until the sequel to find out more!" If you wait until after the credits, you're granted more time to poke around with the computers and find out even more of the story details.

I'm ready for the sequel. I hope it doesn't take two years. But I'm not getting my hopes up. I do worry, though, what direction the game will take. Will Desmond be forced back into the Animus to relive the life of Altair once more? Or will the game shift to Desmond as the main character? If it is set in the future world that Desmond inhabits, I'm sure there will be a major shift in the gameplay itself, as it goes from sword-based combat into gun-based combat, and I don't see that as being an improvement in any way, shape, or form. I don't know how they could keep the game focused on both Altair and Desmond at this point, but we'll have to wait and see.