Assassin's Creed

There are very few console games that immerse players in an open-world environment that are not only breathing with life but also historically factual down to the foundations of every building and the people that make up the surroundings. While there are sci-fi elements at play, Assassin’s Creed for the Xbox 360 places you in the role of a 12^th-century assassin who sets out to dispatch those who wish to aid despots the assassins' order deems as threats. It’s an impressive game to be sure but it’s far from being the perfect hit.

The game’s story is long-winded but interesting and by the time you get to the middle of it you will be very confused. This is not to say that you won’t understand it but story structure is not handled well and the whole DNA-memory-time-travel theory is just so unconvincing. You play the role of Desmond Miles, a young bartender in the future who is being used as a test subject for the Animus center. He was chosen because he was a hitman at one point in his life and - most importantly - he has ancestral ties to a 12^th-century assassin from a real-life order. Diving deep into Mile’s DNA memory banks, we are able to play as Miles’ ancestor named Altair, who is sent on a mission in the Holy Land during the third Crusade.

No travel agent necessary

Altair, as we find out early in the game, does not follow his assassin order’s creed nor does he like to do things the conventional way. He is a rebel who plays by his own rules and this puts him on very thin ice with his superiors that recognize him as an incredible talent and a capable assassin. Altair is sent on a mission to kill nine specific targets that are scattered throughout the massive Holy Land territories such as Damascus, Jerusalem and Acre. Armed with bladed weapons like swords, a retractable blade and throwing knives, Altair is a skillful assassin and acrobat. He’s a stealthy killer who can easily jump from rooftop to rooftop or blend into the environment. In short, Altair has all the right moves to carry out his mission.

Assassin’s Creed does not raise the bar in terms of showcasing a massive open-world environment, but it does get major points for painting an accurate portrait of the locale and time period. Without question you will feel like you’re in the right timeline and cities such as Jerusalem and Damascus have been recreated down to the very last detail. Each city is breathing with life as vendors call out their wares, orators speak their mind before a crowd of listeners, women carry pots over their heads as they make their way home and beggars will plead for a coin or two. Even the road to the cities will find knights on their way to a battle or Templars searching for a watering hole. The environment is so huge that there are various towers Altair can climb to get a better look at his surroundings.

Master of all stealth kills

The heart of the game is, of course, the assassination missions. You can take time to explore and participate in side quests that will have you collecting various flags or defending peasants from bullying soldiers, but the best missions just so happen to be the assassination missions. Once you gather enough intel on your own by eavesdropping on conversations or picking the pocket of a person connected to your target, you will be allowed to assassinate a person of interest. Assassinations, kind of like the Hitman games, are handled anyway you see fit. There are high-profile assassinations where you can simply hack away as horrified onlookers watch or low-profile assassinations where you can sneak up on your target and carefully sink your retractable knife into your target’s neck without too many people knowing what you did.

Oftentimes you will find that your kills will not go unnoticed and you will be pursued by armed soldiers. Chases are frantic affairs that will have you sprinting through the crowd, jumping up on the roof of a building and trying to find cover where you can hide from the soldiers. Altair can jump into haystacks, blend into a crowd of praying monks or take a seat on a bench between two people. Most soldiers will be suspicious of you from the very beginning (as indicated by a color-coded awareness-level panel on the upper corner of the screen) so trying not to call attention to yourself is handled by gently pushing aside people as you walk or pretend to be praying as you walk will often do the trick.

Stealth is also key to your success but it’s not a forced requirement like in the early Splinter Cell games. You can simply draw your sword and start hacking away at your enemies without being penalized for it. Thankfully, Altair is pretty capable with a sword and later in the game you will have some neat parrying tricks and violent combo kills. Still, the enemy just doesn’t stand there and take a good hacking. Enemies are more than able to surround you, block your attacks and a few of them are able to shove you to the ground.

Something smells rotten in Damascus

As far as the game’s controls are concerned, it takes some getting use to in terms of the acrobatic climbing of towers or rooftops. Sometimes Altair tends to bounce off the walls when all you meant to do was reach a window ledge. This is not to say that Altair is a clumsy fool because he’s able to balance himself on the tip of a pole better than Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft. Also, the game’s targeting doesn’t work as well as it should but it’s not too bad either.

While we’re focusing on the negative, I should point out that the pesky sci-fi elements of the story really have a tendency of yanking you out of the timeline when things in that time period get interesting. You are constantly reminded that Altair’s adventure is merely just a memory timeline because portions of the environment are blocked off by a blue force field that scrolls numbers ala the Matrix. The long and somewhat frequent load times take place in a misty nothingness as a computer voice offers gameplay tips. Returning to the facility as Desmond Miles only makes gamers want to skip past these scenes to return to Altair’s time.

As far as the graphics are concerned, Assassin’s Creed is a beautiful game. The lighting is just wonderful and the attention to detail when it comes to the backgrounds, architecture and character models is just amazing. The problems are that there are graphical glitches scattered throughout the game whether it’s the constant pop-in of items or people, or the fact that sometimes characters get stuck and start twitching or flickering like Christmas tree lights. The framerate sometimes takes a nasty dip but this doesn’t happen too often. Still, even with this visual flaws, the impressive attention to detail makes up for the problems.

What does work beautifully, however, are the game’s sound effects. The sound effects are just as detailed as the visuals so the sound really does help bring life to your surroundings. In the cities, you’ll hear the crowds, the screech of an eagle flying overhead and barking dogs in the distance. The game’s music is also a wonderful treat thanks to the diverse score that plays throughout the game and the cut scenes. The score certainly compliments the great voice acting. There’s an in-game joke about the accents but to my ears they’re not bad at all.

Assassin’s Creed for the Xbox 360 is easily the most original and brilliant action game that can be confusing in places but worth playing if you like a game with good stealth elements. While far from perfect in the gameplay and graphics department, the game’s strengths are able to overshadow its weaknesses to offer a gaming experience Xbox 360 owners will not forget or want to miss. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.

Gameplay: 8.0
Altair’s stylish combat moves and graceful acrobatic steps make him a most formidable assassin but the missions can get a bit repetitive. The story would have been epic but it’s a bit confusing and the ending will have you scratching your head. The timeframe is well represented in the game and there’s a lot of ground to cover.

Graphics: 8.5
At times the game will make gamers drool at the carefully detailed environments and character models. Then again, the Shenmue-styled pop-in, framerate stutters and a few other graphical glitches just doesn’t fail to give the impression that the graphics could have looked better.

Sound: 9.0
You will be surrounded by sound whether it’s the various vendors, desperate beggars and outspoken scholars. There’s also a great voice-acting cast and a gorgeous soundtrack that is just so wonderfully cinematic.

Difficulty: Medium
Altair can swing a sword or dagger with the best of them so combat can be a nice challenge. Your enemies run pretty fast but thankfully Altair is acrobatic enough to jump from rooftop to rooftop to find a place to hide.

Concept: 8.0
There’s a wide open world for you to explore and the time period definitely adds a new element to the stealthy assassinations. The number of extras, secrets and side missions should offer gamers plenty to do but aside from this there’s very little to come back to when you finish the game.

Overall: 8.0
Confusing plotline and ending aside, Assassin’s Creed is still an original and profound experience that shouldn’t be missed by any gamer looking for something different. It might not be an achievement in game design either but there is way too much to love about this stealth game.