Gaming Assassin's Creed

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/...ssin_s_creed/1

Assassin's Creed has been one of the year's most anticipated new franchises, with equal attention being lavished on the developer, Jade Raymond, as on the game. Now, it's time for us to get hands on with it - the game that is, not Jade - and see if it lives up to the hype.

[notatoad]

that's too bad. i thought this was going to be the game that finally made me stop talking about getting a 360 and actually go buy it. oh well, at least somebody has finally figured out how to render people accurately.

[liratheal]

I find myself disagreeing.

While 90% of this review is right (The researching bits are dull as all holy hell, especially when some idiot has managed to lose flags all over the well guarded rooftops of Acre) but if you can stomach getting through the game, you can replay the levels, when the only real loss anything from the Sync bar is either missing that ledge you should be able to grab, if there wasn't a flag on the other side of it, or being stabbed at by the enemy, which I feel makes more sense. There are plenty of times when the only way to distract the guards is to assassinate a random person in their line of sight, and that typically happens to be civilians, which means losing sync to get around them, which can be a pain in the arse if you're headed to the final assassination, you're already at a disadvantage.

The biggest problem is, in my experience, the Crusaders. However, that's down to my game-play style (I don't use defensive stances particularly often) more than a failing of the game.

On the story front, I think I'd have enjoyed that more if there was no futuristic bit and memories, because to me, trying to tell me that a master assassin went around the same way I go around in the game just irritates me. I think, if more thought had been put into the links between the assassinations, rather than just throwing you out of the stupidly named machine to listen to an old man rant and a young woman feel sorry for you, then the game would have flowed better, and made a hell of a lot more sense than it currently does.

By the way, the 2.01 update for the PS3 doesn't fix all the lockups, infact, it makes them worse. It freezes the entire system, now, instead. There does only seem to be one a day now, rather than the four or five a night that there was with 2.0 update.

I don't agree with the 7, I feel it struck more around the 8/9 area, because it is fun, despite being a very hit or miss game.

[mmorgue]

I agree as well - I think it deserves a higher score.

The graphics are truly next gen, the designs and layouts of the cities and how your character interacts with them/it is superb. There is a real feeling of being in the city and seeing how people walk about and react to your actions is fantastic. True, the combat system is slightly simplified and there is a real feeling of "safety" when you're climbing about at dizzying heights.

But I think this has gone to show what is truly capable of some of the next gen machines and I highly doubt it's maxed out the abilities of either the PS3, 360 or even the development team.

I'm looking forward to see what they come up with next.

[Flibblebot]

Yes, the graphics are really the first next gen stuff we've seen to date, but unfortunately it's let down by the repetitive gameplay. Had there been more variety in the mini-quests, or had the amount of information gathered affected your chances of success of the assassination, or even made more of the Desmond-related scenes (made more of the information that you find out about Desmond at the beginning of the game), then it would have got a higher score.

I stand by what I wrote (for it was me what wrote the review): pretty graphics don't make a game, gameplay makes a game - an involving plot, exciting action, innovation. If this game didn't have the pretty graphics, I think it would have been panned.

Now hopefully Ubi Montreal are listening to the criticism, and Assassin's Creed 2 will have all of these things.

But that's only my opinion, you're perfectly entitled to disagree if you want.

[mrb_no1]

I only briefly played the game on the xbox360, and when i say briefly i was round a mates who had it and i got 10 mins before he wanted it back to continue his quest. I quite liked it but can see the repetitiveness in the gameplay occuring. Did they not have the gradual acquisition of moves etc as the players skill developed as i thought that might delay the repitition slightly. oh well, maybe if i sat down with this game for 10 hours i'd get bored. I thought it promised alot more, but atleast the graphics were stunning!

peace

fatman

[sandys]

Originally Posted by liratheal

By the way, the 2.01 update for the PS3 doesn't fix all the lockups, infact, it makes them worse. It freezes the entire system, now, instead. There does only seem to be one a day now, rather than the four or five a night that there was with 2.0 update.

Have you turned off the stupid info bar, apparently that cause some issues?

[Paradigm Shifter]

Yes, I found the HUD very distracting from the immersion of the game... so I turned it off. You can turn on or off all the HUD elements in the pause-menu-thing. It might be necessary for those console gamers who can't remember what eight different buttons do in a game.

It's a jaw-droppingly pretty game, but it gets samey fast. I'm about half-way through and "Bored now" keeps springing to mind.

Also... the automated jumping/climbing. Hm. I'm not too keen on it, but I can see why they did it from a gaming perspective. Some of those serial-jumps across beams would be an absolute nightmare if you had to do it manually...

[Stickeh]

You didnt use the guard placement maps?
I sure did!

Last assasination i did, i crept around the marker and killed everyrooftop guard, so that when i need to get away there was no flying barage of arrows, i just wish i could figure out how to do the flying-stab-leap thing, i did it once on the fat-poison-all-my-party-guests dude, and it was awesome!

I think this game deserves higher than a 7, while repetitive, its fun and keeps you coming back to finish it off, havent got to the end yet so we'll see if it has re-play value!

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by Stickeh

You didnt use the guard placement maps?
I sure did!

Last assasination i did, i crept around the marker and killed everyrooftop guard, so that when i need to get away there was no flying barage of arrows, i just wish i could figure out how to do the flying-stab-leap thing, i did it once on the fat-poison-all-my-party-guests dude, and it was awesome!

I think this game deserves higher than a 7, while repetitive, its fun and keeps you coming back to finish it off, havent got to the end yet so we'll see if it has re-play value!

I keep doing investigations and getting guard maps but I never realised there was a way to view them! How do you view them?

Flying stab leap thing is right trigger and X with the concealed blade equiped. It's how I start every citizen save.

I agree that the gameplay is lacking, I would have liked to see more benefit from the more investigations you do etc and perhaps more benefit from finding flags / killing templars other than the achievement points. Although it's a really great start for such a new franchise. I just hope they can build on this and create a sequel that will do it justice.

[HugoB]

Finding flags, killing templars etc gives you access to the 'additional memories' on the Animus AFAIK. For the record, you can go back and find all the extra stuff after the main game is over (and the credits have rolled).

[Whalemeister]

That's a pretty good review there but I do feel that you've got bogged down on some of the negative aspects rather than celebrating what the game does well and think that it definitely deserves an 8 (but that's just my opinion).

For example; If Stranglehold got an 8 when it is essentially a poor Max Payne clone with an awful storyline with some of the most repetitive gameplay I've ever had to endure and it's only 'innovation' being some destructible environments with some neat physics and then I fail to see how such a visually stunning game with jaw-droppingly gorgeous graphics (and let's face it they are sweet) and quite an innovative combat system gets slated so badly.

While I agree that graphics certainly don't make a game they do, however, go a long way to create the atmosphere and setting for the game and really affect how immersed you can get. Yes there are some flaws, some even quite large flaws to the gameplay here but there are also some things that this game really excels in, the crowds for example are really something else, the way they react you is just plain awesome, at times it reminds me of a shoal of fish the way that they react to events around them like one living organism, not to mention that each individual person is beautifully drawn and superbly animated the mood of the game in some of the cities is excellent. The combat system is great as it angles you away from just running in hacking and slashing wildly (Oblivion) and suggests a more cunning approach where defence, finesse and timing get rewarded.

I myself am tired of the constant reheated and reprocessed games out there that bring absolutely nothing new to the gaming community, take Call of Duty 4 for example, this is an excellent FPS game and it really is good fun to play, but it doesn't really bring anything that different from the original Doom from 1993 or Duke Nukem from 1996 and that's almost 15 years where they've been making the games look prettier and still keeping the gameplay almost completely the same. I for one am starting to get a little tired of this now as I'm old enough to remember Wolfenstein 3D back in '92 (god I sound like my dad!) and thoroughly enjoy it when a big developer is prepared to be brave and try something a little different.

Anyways, that's my rant over.

Peace

[CardJoe]

To say that Call of Duty 4 doesn't bring something new to the table over Doom or Quake is at least slightly moronic, IMO. The two are worlds apart and to say that is to look at them only at their most basic level, which is contrary to the point you are making.

[Hg]

This Is a Great title i was shocked to see the low rating by Bit-tech.
I cant stop playing this game, Yeah the missions may be samey but what makes it interesting is the fact you can do what you want when you want and go about the missions your way and stealthily take our the guards sneak pass them or run at them with a sword!
You have a whole City to go play in so do it!
If all else fails try to assassinate the whole city! That’s a sure way to make the game interesting

[CardJoe]

Sigh.

[zr_ox]

I will be playing this game when it comes to the PC, the review is leaving me with mixed emotions and now I'm not sure what to expect.

The jury does seem to be split here with most liking the game but wanting more. After reading many of the posts it looks like many think it merits a higher score purely on it's graphical merits, that's a bit of a shame really.

In essence I like the idea but really wish they had left the story in the 12th Century, the reference to modern day and DNA regression (or whatever it is) is just wrong. This game had the chance to set new standards for the stealth genre but seems to have failed in many aspects, the story is weak and I'm a sucker for a good story, the game play seems quite restrictive and why oh why have they overly simplified the controls? I want a game to make me work, not provide invisible harnesses when I'm jumping between buildings or climbing steeples. If I fall off then thats my fault. I don't want a cyber nanny monitoring my joypad!!!

I think this is another great review which perhaps does not deserve all of the criticism. Glad you were not just wowed by the graphics like some of the other reviewers and managed to give an honest and concise breakdown of the ENTIRE game.

[VictorianBloke]

Originally Posted by zr_ox

I will be playing this game when it comes to the PC, the review is leaving me with mixed emotions and now I'm not sure what to expect.

I agree completely. Prior to reading the review I'd stayed away from most of the hype (or tried valiantly at least) and this is actually the first I heard of the futuristic angle.Echoing zr_ox sentiments I'll still be playing the PC version when I can find the time, I'ts just no longer a priority.

[Jamie]

Until I put the game into my xbox I had no idea I was going to be met by some futuristic lab with memory syncing and DNA wotsits but I don't think it really detracts from the game, if anything it adds to the story and I'm almost more interested to know what happens out of the 12th century than in it.

[LeMaltor]

Maybe you should read the articles your fellow staff post.

[CardJoe]

Jamie never listens to me anyway. Him and Hiren have to work in a seperate office to the rest of us to avoid violating NDAs and to stop conflict of interests.

Also, Hiren smells.