Right OK time for another review and this one will be on a video game (this could almost be like a revolving wheel the way I do these!) and I've opted to review Assassin's Creed, the first game which started the hugely popular stealth action game franchise. And with that let's give this one a closer look....
So a bit about the plot, which I won't go to deep into, but the story is set around a bartender, Desmond Miles (voiced by Nolan North) who is kidnapped by Abstergo industries. Desmond is forced to interface with the Animus, which is a device which can be used to replay the genetic memories of a user's ancestors. Desmond in this instance is used to track the memories of his ancestor, Altair Ibn-La'Ahad, an assassin during the time of the Third Crusade. Once in the Animus after an initial training section, Desmond joins with Altair's memories of the time when he was attemtping to stop Robert de Sable from taking an artefact from a temple but he ended up failing and breaking the tenets of the Assassin's brotherhood. Robert de Sable then launches an attack on the Brotherhood on their home ground, which Altair helps to thwart, but afterwards he is demoted by the brotherhood leader, Al Mualim (Peter Reneday). Al Mualim assigns Altair the task of assassinating nine people, all of whom are Templars. And this is where Altair embarks on his dangerous journey throughout the Kingdom to kill the people he is required to but along the way he learns that all is not what it seems.
There is no doubt that Assassin's creed is a compelling and very entertaining game and its concept is something of a breath of fresh air as far as action stealth games given its unique take on the who stealth assassin game style. Assassin's creed is of course based on the idea of a virtual reality world which is very similar to the Matrix where the Desmond is essentially Neo, as he enters the Animus he is able to join (or synchronise) his mind with his ancestor's memories. The game itself also takes on a similar sandbox still of gameplay as the Grand Theft Auto series does where Altair can roam cities freely largely without restriction although there are some errors that are inaccessible due to limits of the memories that Desmond can access in the Animus. The game itself was in actual fact originally going to be another Prince of Persia title with the idea of the prince being an assassin but this was soon dropped in favour of the idea of an assassin in medieval times.
Gameplay wise Assassin's creed is actually quite straight forward and easily controllable and Altair's movement is actually very similar to the Prince in the Prince of Persia series where Altair can run, jump, climb, shimmy, although surprisingly enough one thing he can't appear to do is crouch! The style of the game works also by Desmond and Altair's memories synchronise with one another and Altair has a health bar, which when he is killed, Desmond memory will desynchronise with Altairs and the memory will be reloaded to a previous point As Altair also carries out the assassinations his health bar increases and he receives a piece of his equipment back each time, e.g. swords, knives or armour and learns new moves and attacks, which you can practise in the game before moving onto a mission. In the game Altair when moving about the different lcoations in the game he must always be way of soldiers, guards and other people as there is a status bar which goes yellow or red when Altair is in danger of being rumbled for his actions. When this happens Altair has to try and give his foes the slip by hiding in a haystack, or garden rooftop or sitting on a bench next to citizens. Altair in the game also has what is called Eagle vision which he can use to determine which characters are an enemy (red), ally (blue) or an assassination target (gold).
During gameplay Altair can also climb up to view points throughout the game's locations which will allow him to scan the surrounding area for new points of interest to discover, which can be quite important to the game as in most instances it allows Altair to complete his investigations for preparing to kill one of his targets. Altair was he begins his investigations can obtain information in different ways such as eavesdropping on conversations of particular characters, pickpocketing, interrogating or carrying out tasks for informers who will provide Altair with further information. Altair can also carry out stealth kills on his foes by using his concealed blade or he can engage in battle with several enemies at once by using his sword or knives where he locks on a specific enemy and he can block attacks and carry out killing moves while in combat.
Visuals wise, Assassin's creed is simply stunning and a feast for the eyes (so to speak!) as its graphics are rich, varied and detailed. Altair throughout the game moves between the headquarters of the Brotherhood in Masyaf as well as three cities, Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre. In the cities Altair can freely roam around the cities either on the ground or over the rooftops of houses, buildings and castles. When Altair climbs up to a view point and performs a synchronisation it creates a visually impressive 360 degree vista shot of the surrounding landscape which is very impressive effect before Altair performs his leap of faith as he dives from the view point into a haystack below. Character model wise the characters are all pretty impressive for their time although they aren't lifelike by any means. The game also features a great music score by Jesper Kyd, which is dramatic, rich and atmospheric sounding, all from the man who could rightly be called the John Williams of video game composers because his scores are simply that good! Voice acting wise the cast are also very good with Nolan North as Desmond Miles, Phil Shahbaz are Altair, Kirsten Bell as Lucy, a research assistant at Abstergo industries, Phil Proctor as Warren Vidic, the leader of the Animus project and Peter Reneday as Al Mualim, all providing excellent performances in their roles.
As for the game's flaws........ well yep OK Assassin's creed is far from perfect and the game's most annoying flaws is that it is actually very repetitive in its gameplay. Each mission takes on the same format as Altair has to travel a long way to get to where he is going and as it happens in each mission it quickly becomes a bit of a chore (and a bore!) particularly for the first three missions. The missions also pretty much take on the same format once Altair arrives at the location of where his target is at and he has to spend alot of time try to scan for new locations for his investigations and then obtain the information and after he does he has to keep travelling back to the Assassin beareau where he has to meet with the beareau leader there, which quickly comes quite tiresome. The game also features some annoying moments such as Altair being pestered by women in the market areas begging for money or in other cases a deranged citizens who keep trying to push Altair and knock him over, both of which are a real pain in the ass, especially when you are trying to escape from guards. I also felt some of the game's combat moves are a bit tricky to pull off properly and during battles and in the end I just resorted to frantically hitting the "X" button on my Xbox 360 controller, which to be fair delivered the desired effect!
Some of the game's sequences involving Desmond can also be a bit tedious where Vidic, the project leader of the Animus tells him about the vision of Abstergo industries and why Desmond is there. It also certainly doesn't make for a fun time for Desmond to lie down on a device and imagine killing people before taking a rest in his room for a bit then go back to do some more! Another slightly annoying issue is that when Altair is ready to carry out his assassination and you go to the location and it saves it in the game, when you reload the game it takes it back to the assassin's bureau which means you have to trek to the location of the assassination again! Also as the missions carry on your contact at the bureau may tell you roughly where to go looking for clues but this can also be a pain as it can be hard to pinpoint where you need to be to find where you want to go and in the end it takes a bit of guess work since the locations don't always show up on the game's in menu map! And last of all let's face it, as far as playable characters go, Altair is a bit of an arrogant twat as he quite often defies his master as well as insults and looks down upon others so even though he is somewhat fun to control as a game character, he is still quite annoying on a personal level and no doubt I'm sure most people would like to give him a slap (although they might not live to see another day afterwards!).
However all that put to the side, Assassin's Creed is still an enjoyable if at times repetitive game which did kick off a very successful game franchise and as such it is still very much worth playing for its gameplay, stunning visuals, good voice acting and its superb music score.
And with that I shall desynchronise for the night!
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