Assassin's Creed review (X360)

Oh God, I’m going to need another drink if I’m going to get into discussing what’s truly ‘next gen’ again. Is it down to the graphics and general presentation or do we require an extra dimension of play to finally justify why our gaming hobbies cost us so much? I’ve been thinking about how best to explain and define the concept over the last few days, but instead I’ll just come clean. Assassin’s Creed is superb.

If you’ve somehow managed to stay away from any hype of the game, you won’t know that it’s been highly regarded throughout the industry as a potential step up in all aspects of game design. You won’t know that the game puts you in control of Altair, an Assassin stripped of his rank and privileges within the Hashashin clan and requested to kill nine important characters propagating the third crusade in the world of 1191 to restore his status. These villainous types are located within the three separate cities of Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem apparently accurately modelled on available historical documentation. Did I mention it’s very good?

Play in the sandbox

For those of you that are aware of the game, it’ll come to no surprise to you to learn that when you first arrive in a city, or an area of a city, your first objective will be to climb up to the top of a tall building to survey your surroundings. From there, you’ll be able to see the Assassin’s Bureau which will automatically be added to your minimap. Once you’ve visited your bureau, you’ll be told the areas to check for information about your target. Then you’ll have the option to climb more viewpoints in those areas and discover the sub-missions that will help you find weaknesses in your mark’s defences such as how to enter his surroundings without attracting the attention from his guards.

The number of sub-missions required varies depending on the target, but range from beating up someone for information, stealth assassinating a few targets for informers or just sitting on a bench eavesdropping on unsuspecting associates. Finally when you’ve gathered enough info and are feeling confident you can return to the bureau where you’ll get a feather (apparently this is how it worked) which serves to authorise you to take our your target and prove you’ve done it by wiping his blood on it. Perhaps DNA testing will ensure they believe you. Beautifully, each assassination has different aspects to it that keep them interesting and varied depending on what position they hold within the city, and what public meeting you can infiltrate.

DNA testing

As a matter of fact, the game doesn’t just take place in 1191; a sci-fi twist, hinted at by one of the actors is revealed from the opening scene as we discover you’re actually Desmond Miles, a barkeep descendant of Altair living in 2012, kidnapped to use his DNA for its genetic memory to discover the historic events in the game. Yes, really. While Altair’s story is developing and becoming a morality tale of both whether or not the ends justify the means and if your enemies have the wrong viewpoints, Desmond is dealing with his own issues, complying while plotting his own way out of the situation.

While it may seem unnecessary and tacked on, the duality of the story adds a whole new level to the development but mainly is used to explain away the video game conventions used in the game. Cleverly bypassing why certain areas of the game are unavailable in the open ended world from the outset, and gradually releasing abilities while training you in how to use them. It also works to explain away the time skipping narrative regularly used where you may skip a long trip around the enormous map. The only issue is that some might feel that the game would have been more cohesive if it dispensed with the modern side of things and focussed on the past.

Teaching you the game

Like most modern games, the tutorial is embedded within the game to make it more accessible, and it works remarkably well. Apparently throwing you in at the deep end (but really building up the story), the game quickly holds your hand as you assassinate your first victim, fight your first swarm of guards and perform some crazy free running, and serves to introduce the game perfectly, summing up the experience you will have through the lengthy adventure.

The majority of the gameplay is split between exploring the enormous cities (and the countryside connecting them), fighting (or fleeing from) guards, and free-running around the rooftops. The battle system seems relatively simplistic, giving you a sword defence, attack and a grab and throw move (so much fun on rooftops) but expands quickly to give you a large amount of counter attacks, dodge moves and assassination moves that make fighting guards a pleasure, if only for the beauty of the brief cinematics viewed when you manage a counter attack, in the vein of games such as Heavenly Sword. As for the free-running aspect, Altair is extremely agile and seems to be able to climb any structure around. The slightest hand hold can be used to pull you up and animation wise, your character plants his hands perfectly, and performs everything simply and easily. It’s actually as simple as holding a couple of buttons and pushing in the direction you want to traverse or climb.

It all looked quite pretty back then

The visuals are stunning. From the first time you see a city, or climb a high tower you’ll realise the brilliance of the game engine that allows you to see the entire city on screen at once. Altair remains amazingly detailed and the fluidity of the animation mixed with the texture and model detail leaves me with no question over the production values of the game; It has stepped in as one of the most beautiful games ever made on both platforms.

Much of the story is told in what I can only describe as interactive cinematics. Removing many of the abilities that you may be used to (for example you can’t generally assassinate anyone when in the cinematics), it still allows you to control the camera and move around. It truly amazes me how much pleasure I have got from slowly creeping around the crowd while my target rambles on about his political views. The piece de resistance comes when you decide it is time to achieve your goals and slowly approach him, pushing members of the crowd out of the way slowly as you move closer, speeding up your movements until you are running at him, leaving no chance for defence as you leap at him, pushing your concealed blade into his throat. Ahem, excuse me; I got caught up in the moment there.

Is the experience limited?

That’s about it. The basis of the gameplay remains in the exploration and sub-mission completion, but somehow the experience remains so immersive and stunning that the repetitive nature of your missions never feels too forced to lengthen the game because of the gradual nature of releasing new areas of the cities and skills. Once you’re done with the game, you can still aim to collect all of the flags hidden (sometimes rather well) around the areas for little purpose apart from collecting achievements, or even killing all of the 60 Templars populating the cities. I’ll keep playing, and not just because I’m an achievement whore.

There is no multiplayer mode present, with an entire focus on the single player experience and it really does feel complete enough to not require it at all. Sometimes it’s difficult to stand up to the hype of a massive multiplatform release, but Assassin’s Creed manages it. While the Xbox 360 version is superb and beautiful (although my 360 seems to be on the way out; a few red rings of death moments troubling me right now), from what I’ve seen of the PS3 version, it seems to be one of the first games to run with slightly less slow down on that format than the 360 (though it still has remarkably little).

Perhaps the only disappointment of the game for me are the actual assassinations. Their setup and plot devices remain fantastic, but once you’re good enough to be able to overcome a horde of guards (pretty much as soon as you learn the counter move), it’s just as easy to approach your mark and fight him head on as to plan a clever stealth route to be able to kill him before you’re even spotted. That said, even with Halo 3 and Bioshock adding to my 360 game collection, Assassin’s Creed has stepped in and stopped me worrying about what to choose for our ‘Game Of The Year’ article this year. Clear enough for you?