There have been a number of reviews online for Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed. And those reviews have been very mixed, ranging from glowing love sonnets to a somewhat more muted response.
There are two main criticisms of the game, which are that 1) the controls are overly simplistic, and that 2) the game is repetitive and gets old real quick.
Simplistic Controls
The criticisms in this area refer largely to the control of movement and combat, which are the primary aspects of the game. For example, the game is designed to be large and open ended, and movement is very free-form. All players need to do is hold down the desired direction and the run button, and Altair (the game's protagonist) will run down streets, scale walls and jump across roofs. Combat, another focus of the game, is also similarly simple, essentially boiling down to timed one button sequences. While Altair has a number of combat options open to him (grabbing an enemy, countering an enemy's attempt at grabbing him), most times the most effective option is to simply hold back, wait for an enemy to strike and only use the counter-blow button.
So while the criticism that controls in the game are simple, I feel that this helps to increase the experience of the game, rather than detract from it. Without having to wrestle with the control, and removing the need to memorise complex button sequences, players spend more time being immersed in the game. For example, when Altair is fleeing from the city guards, I don't spend time thinking, "up, up, down down, left, right, left right, A, B, start". I'm thinking, "I need to get away. I need to be safe. Where can I go?". I spend time surveying the road ahead of me, identifying the most effective escape route, and I just move. Movement becomes much more intuitive. In reality, one does not spend time thinking, "OK, I need to walk. Let's lift up the left leg first, plant it down then the right". One just moves; and this is the feeling in the game.
Similar comparisons can be made for combat. Altair is often faced by multiple enemies, and players can now spend more time being situationally aware, and thinking about position and spotting opportunities to strike.
Repetitive Gameplay
Another criticism is that the game becomes repetitive very quickly, as the number of tasks Altair is required to perform is very small. And in such a large open world, that limited number of tasks stands in even starker contrast. Altair's primary objective is to eliminate nine targets, and finding information needed to locate the afore-mentioned nine. Such information can be sought through eavesdropping, pickpocketing, intimidation, and a small number of random tasks (i.e. chasing down a set number of flags, and assassinating a secondary target). And that is all Altair needs to do... nine times over.
I can understand the repetitive nature of tasks can limit one's enjoyment of the game. There's really not many different things to do. But for me personally, each task does feel different each time I perform it, regardless of how many times I've done it before. And that's for a very simple reason: The city (or cities, to be exact. Three cities, specifically). What Ubisoft has done in this game is to create three extremely detailed cities (Jerusalem, Acre & Damascus). And not only are they very detailed, they feel like living, breathing cities, with crowds of people, markets, beggars, lepers, drunks, and preachers. And as you bring Altair through the city, it really becomes an experience, and one that is distinctively different from each city. And this is what makes each task so different from each other, even though you're doing the same thing. Pickpocketing in Damascus just feels different from pickpocketing in Acre, and therein lies the variety that one seeks.
In closing, I just want to say that I've enjoyed what I've played so far. I'm about halfway into the game, having invested about 7hrs. It's not a long game by any stretch, but the experience has been very immersive and enjoyable.
I leave you now with a retelling of one of my missions: I was off to Acre, seeking to take the life of Garnier de Naplouse, a doctor stationed with the Knights Hospitaliers. From the information that I had gathered, it seemed like the good doctor has been experimenting on a number of people; for what purpose I am unsure of. I make my way to the fortress of the Hospitaliers, where he conducts his monstrous experiments, only to see him ordering guards to break the legs of one of his patients. The poor soul had tried to escape from the doctor, and now his fate seemed sealed. It seems that my mission to take the life of Garnier de Naplouse was a just one. I make my way silently into the fortress, and into the hospital where my prey resides. I stalk him from a distance, making sure my concealed blade was ever ready to strike. I closed in on him, silently, dangerously. But when he was mere inches away from me, one of his blasted patients, no doubt crazed from whatever horrific experiements done on him, shoved me out of the way; I was now discovered! Abandoning all hopes of a swift, silent kill, I made short work of the guards now alerted to my presence, and continued my pursuit of the target. My prey bravely put up a fight, showing he was move than capable with a sword, but his skill was no match for mine and I cut him down like the dog that he was.
Assassin's Creed is available on Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.
There are two main criticisms of the game, which are that 1) the controls are overly simplistic, and that 2) the game is repetitive and gets old real quick.
Simplistic Controls
The criticisms in this area refer largely to the control of movement and combat, which are the primary aspects of the game. For example, the game is designed to be large and open ended, and movement is very free-form. All players need to do is hold down the desired direction and the run button, and Altair (the game's protagonist) will run down streets, scale walls and jump across roofs. Combat, another focus of the game, is also similarly simple, essentially boiling down to timed one button sequences. While Altair has a number of combat options open to him (grabbing an enemy, countering an enemy's attempt at grabbing him), most times the most effective option is to simply hold back, wait for an enemy to strike and only use the counter-blow button.
So while the criticism that controls in the game are simple, I feel that this helps to increase the experience of the game, rather than detract from it. Without having to wrestle with the control, and removing the need to memorise complex button sequences, players spend more time being immersed in the game. For example, when Altair is fleeing from the city guards, I don't spend time thinking, "up, up, down down, left, right, left right, A, B, start". I'm thinking, "I need to get away. I need to be safe. Where can I go?". I spend time surveying the road ahead of me, identifying the most effective escape route, and I just move. Movement becomes much more intuitive. In reality, one does not spend time thinking, "OK, I need to walk. Let's lift up the left leg first, plant it down then the right". One just moves; and this is the feeling in the game.
Similar comparisons can be made for combat. Altair is often faced by multiple enemies, and players can now spend more time being situationally aware, and thinking about position and spotting opportunities to strike.
Repetitive Gameplay
Another criticism is that the game becomes repetitive very quickly, as the number of tasks Altair is required to perform is very small. And in such a large open world, that limited number of tasks stands in even starker contrast. Altair's primary objective is to eliminate nine targets, and finding information needed to locate the afore-mentioned nine. Such information can be sought through eavesdropping, pickpocketing, intimidation, and a small number of random tasks (i.e. chasing down a set number of flags, and assassinating a secondary target). And that is all Altair needs to do... nine times over.
I can understand the repetitive nature of tasks can limit one's enjoyment of the game. There's really not many different things to do. But for me personally, each task does feel different each time I perform it, regardless of how many times I've done it before. And that's for a very simple reason: The city (or cities, to be exact. Three cities, specifically). What Ubisoft has done in this game is to create three extremely detailed cities (Jerusalem, Acre & Damascus). And not only are they very detailed, they feel like living, breathing cities, with crowds of people, markets, beggars, lepers, drunks, and preachers. And as you bring Altair through the city, it really becomes an experience, and one that is distinctively different from each city. And this is what makes each task so different from each other, even though you're doing the same thing. Pickpocketing in Damascus just feels different from pickpocketing in Acre, and therein lies the variety that one seeks.
In closing, I just want to say that I've enjoyed what I've played so far. I'm about halfway into the game, having invested about 7hrs. It's not a long game by any stretch, but the experience has been very immersive and enjoyable.
I leave you now with a retelling of one of my missions: I was off to Acre, seeking to take the life of Garnier de Naplouse, a doctor stationed with the Knights Hospitaliers. From the information that I had gathered, it seemed like the good doctor has been experimenting on a number of people; for what purpose I am unsure of. I make my way to the fortress of the Hospitaliers, where he conducts his monstrous experiments, only to see him ordering guards to break the legs of one of his patients. The poor soul had tried to escape from the doctor, and now his fate seemed sealed. It seems that my mission to take the life of Garnier de Naplouse was a just one. I make my way silently into the fortress, and into the hospital where my prey resides. I stalk him from a distance, making sure my concealed blade was ever ready to strike. I closed in on him, silently, dangerously. But when he was mere inches away from me, one of his blasted patients, no doubt crazed from whatever horrific experiements done on him, shoved me out of the way; I was now discovered! Abandoning all hopes of a swift, silent kill, I made short work of the guards now alerted to my presence, and continued my pursuit of the target. My prey bravely put up a fight, showing he was move than capable with a sword, but his skill was no match for mine and I cut him down like the dog that he was.
Assassin's Creed is available on Xbox 360, and Playstation 3.
3 comments:
Hi Ken. I'm planning on buying an XBox 360 in the next week. Thanks for the review on Assassin's Creed. Top of my wishlist for games at this stage is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.
I think you ought to get The Orange Box, especially if you're going to be connected to Xbox Live. Then you'd be able to enjoy Team Fortress 2, along with Portal, which is a gem of a game.
The Orange Box is definately on my list of must-have games. I played Half-Life on the PC and really enjoyed it.
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