[Review] Assassin's Creed

How many times have you watched a movie simply because it was directed by one of your favorite directors, or because one of your favorite actors/actresses were starring in it?

Games, as you may very well already know, are no exception; many people will play a game simply because it’s the latest project of their favorite creator. Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Peter Moore, and so on and so forth.

Assassin’s Creed was a bit different in this respect in the sense that the main figure behind it was not a widely-known creator prior to the game’s release, but rather a (fairly easy on the eyes) woman by the name of Jade Raymond.

Ms. Raymond was hardly the first woman to lead a project such as Assassin’s Creed since Roberta Williams (King’s Quest series, Phantasmagoria) did it almost twenty years earlier, and Jane Jensen (of Gabriel Knight fame) did it better, but it was the first time that the media made such a big deal out of it.

The game itself was released in November 2007 in the midst of a lot of hype promising a revolutionary experience, yet no demo was released to the public prior to its commercial debut. While early word of mouth and sales were good, there was a significant backlash against the game before long, with a significant amount of people denouncing it as a terrible game.

The more level-headed types out there would eventually agree that Assassin’s Creed is flawed yet still entertaining enough, stuck in the limbo between a glorious masterpiece and a horrible mess of a game.

How does then Assassin’s Creed stand the test of time and post-release aftermath? Onwards to the pros and cons list for the answer!

Things Assassin’s Creed does right:

- The game’s graphics are simply beautiful, even almost eighteen months after it was first released. Character models are detailed and well-animated, textures are of high quality and the areas are huge in scope.

- Each of the real-life cities that the protagonist, Altair, must visit is richly detailed and has a great number of places to visit and people to interact with. Furthermore, all of them feel like a place where life would go on even without the player’s presence there.

- Voice-acting is solid, which is an important part in a game where the story plays such an important role. A few accents here and there seem off-place, but it’s nothing unforgivable.

- The actual assassinations are wonderfully designed with many ways to approach each one of them. This is the heart of the game, obviously enough, and each one of these missions require skill and concentration to pull off successfully, regardless of whether you decide to carefully plan a sneaky attack or just ruthlessly murder all of your target’s bodyguards before getting to him.

- The combat system works well enough to be enjoyable and not much of a chore, with a few flashy counters being especially impressive from a visual standpoint. Things tend to get a bit messy when there are too many enemies around, but it’s hardly as broken as some people claim it to be.

Things about Assassin’s Creed that aren’t that hot:

- Every assassination mission has a certain number of prerequisite missions that you need to complete before gaining access to the actual assassination itself. The problem is that not only do these prerequisite missions deter you from the heart of the game itself, there is only a handful of different mission types available so you find yourself repeating the same thing over and over again. It sort of feels like what one person described as “Grinding in World of Warcraft, minus the guild chat.”

- The storyline, while it starts out interesting enough, gets too meandering and downright weird at the end, with a couple of pretty obvious plot holes. Oh, and the usual conspiracy theories-related nonsense rears its ugly head again.

- The in-game cinematics that appear every so often in all chapters (and especially after a successful assassination) are not only overly long, but they is also no way of skipping them. This is unacceptable in any game, let alone in one with such lengthy cut-scenes, and it makes subsequent playthroughs feel like a chore.

- The main character and eponymous assassin of the game, Altair, lacks any real sort of charisma. To be completely honest, he feels as too much of a prick to ever relate to, even if he does go through the usual “fall and eventual redemption” trope, which feels neither fresh nor all that interesting.

- There are several bugs and clipping issues that plague the game throughout, such as guards getting stuck in scenery. It’s understandable with a game so huge, but it doesn’t make the fact look any less silly or, frankly, ugly.

Things I just don’t get:

- UNSKIPPABLE CINEMATICS. Who could ever think of this as good idea? I understand in taking pride in your narrative and not wanting people to just press a button and skip through it in a heartbeat, but you know what’s a good way of ensuring that? Making a strong narrative, not punishing them with cut-scenes of increasing tediousness.

- I also could never understand why walking slooooowly never catches the guards’s attention, while running tips you off to them immediately. It’s incredibly arbitrary and unrealistic.

Assassin’s Creed has some great ideas behind it and they are executed rather well yet it is held behind by some rather obvious flaws. It’s rather unfortunate that these flaws weren’t attended to more carefully, as it could have been a very special game otherwise.

The final verdict is:
CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR

TL;DR version:

While the fact that Assassin’s Creed was produced by a good-looking female is perhaps what it’s mostly known for, and even though it sports a few highly questionable design choices, there is something about killing fools silently and stealthily that never gets old, and this game is perfect testament to it.

Your willingness to overlook its few yet obvious faults will be directly proportionate to how much fun you will get out of it.