Fast times on Drumheller Drive

Did you hear that? Oops your dead

// December 31st, 2007 // No Comments » // Videogames

  Thanks to my mom I’m now the owner of a little game called Assassins Creed. I held off on getting it because of the mixed reviews it received. You see this game has been in development for a very long time and it was supposed to be the first real next generation game. Sadly it doesn’t live up to that hype but it’s still fun as hell to play and I haven’t put it down since I got it. Basically here’s the story behind the game. I didn’t write this. I stole it. Yup I’m lazy.

“Our story follows a disgraced master Assassin (Altair) who embarks on an epic quest to restore his status within the Assassin Order. After failing to assassinate the Templar Leader (Robert de Sable) and recover the legendary Templar Treasure, Altair is demoted to Uninitiated (the lowest rank in the Assassin order).

Sinan, Leader of the Assassins, offers our hero an opportunity to redeem himself. Altair must venture out into the Holy Land and assassinate men said to be exacerbating and exploiting the hostilities created by the Third Crusade. In doing so, he will stabilize the region, allowing Sinan to usher in an age of peace.

When our game begins, Richard the Lionheart has just recaptured the port city of Acre from occupying Saracens. With a base of operations established, the Crusaders prepare to march south. Their true target is Jerusalem – which they intend to recapture in the name of the Church. However, Saladin, leader of the Saracen Army, currently rules Jerusalem. Stinging from his army’s defeat at Acre, he will now allow Richard to humiliate him again. The Saracens are massing at the ruins of Fortress Arsuf, intending to ambush the Crusaders and prevent them from reaching Jerusalem.

These war maneuvers have left the rest of the Holy Land wide open. While Richard and Saladin battle one another, the men left to govern in their stead have begun taking advantage of their newfound positions of power. Exploiting, manipulation, and provocation rule the day. It is into this chaotic mess our hero now finds himself thrust. He is ordered to assassinate those most active in their exploitation.

And so Altair begins his missions.

Along the way, however, he will begin to discover that his targets are bound by more than just a shared interest in personal gain. They seem to share membership in a secret society – a group all too familiar to the Assassins. And they are not simply looking for profit. The true goal, and how they plan to achieve it are secrets to be discovered during the course of our story.”

So there you go. Now for my impressions on the most important part. The gameplay and everything else. I’ll do this with some pros and cons

Pros

• The game is probably the most beautiful game I’ve ever laid my eyes on. Everything is just so detailed. This also goes for the music,sound effects, and voice acting. Everything is just top notch here.
• The cities you have to do your duty in are so huge it’s just overwhelming. They are filled with people.
• The combat system makes you feel like a god (it also had a con though). Taking on and killing 15 people as they circle around you really makes you feel like you can take on anything
• The main assassinations are well done for the most part. They are the best part of the game. Another con later on though to go with this.
• As an assassin you can climb pretty much anything. When the guards chase you it makes for an awesome foot chase through the city. Climbing and jumping are effortless. Makes for fantastic chases.

Cons

• Ok so I said the cities were huge and awesome and they are filled with people but the people really don’t provide much in this game. They are just there. A lot of them are just in the way and might make some rude remark as you climb up a house or building. They don’t provide much more. I wish they provided more life. I wish there were shops in this game. I wish you could go into a lot of the buildings and they actually mean something.
• The main point of the game is to assassinate 9 main people. Well for you to do this you have to gather a certain amount of evidence against them. This is fine but it’s the same old stuff for every person. You either have to pickpocket people for information about the target, eavesdrop, or beat information out of people. Gets a little boring
• There is other stuff you can do in the cities but they can be equally as boring. You get the save citizens against guards, gather flags from each city, do special missions from others in your group. For a next gen game I wish there was more to this. But if it wasn’t for these extra tasks you would probably finish the game rather quickly.
• AI is sometimes just plain dumb. If you kill a guard, they’ll walk right past his dead body and just keep on walking and no wonder who the hell did it. This doesn’t happen all the time. Happens once in a while.
• Outside the cities there is a nice bit of area you can ride your horse through but theres nothing to do in these areas. They are just roads and trails to get to the cities. It could of been so much more. The areas are beautiful but nothing is in them to do.
• I said in the pros that the combat made you feel like a god. It does but combat is so simple it gets kind of boring once and a while. You only really need to use one or two buttons. I wish there was a combo system in this game. It would of made for such a nicer combat system

Ok so there are my main pros and cons. It might sound like I’m totally bashing the game. I’m not. The game is fun as hell. It’s totally worth a buy or rent. It’s total fun running around these cities killing guards and running over rooftops. When I say you can pretty much jump anywhere or climb anywhere I mean it. Try this game.