QJ.NET reviews Assassin’s Creed

 Ubisoft Montreal had a lot of things to say about Assassin’s Creed (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3) that made us hunger for more. Innovative controls, amazing visuals, big and immersive cities, top notch art direction, you name it. The much anticipated action game finally appears on shelves, and we jumped at it without a second thought. We played it for hours on end, and here’s our verdict.

We’ve been hearing a lot of good things since Ubisoft Montreal unveiled Assassin’s Creed (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3). Back in E3 2006, before we even learned that Altair is the “bird of prey,” the game ran laps around the competition and wiped the floor with multiple awards from major gaming publications.

We can’t blame the hype solely on PR talk and exposure, because all eyes were on Assassin’s Creed‘s spectacular visuals and exciting premise prior to Jade Raymond and other developers’ series of videos to fuel the excitement. Now that it’s on shelves, does Assassin’s Creed live up to what we were led to believe it would be?

The answer relies on your personal taste. If you’re expecting Metal Gear Solid-caliber stealth action or Hitman-style open-ended assassination missions, turn back. You won’t find mister Game of the Year here; what’s waiting is a fun, high-budget action game that defies the first-person shooter trend of triple A titles and offers a fresh experience.

Ubisoft Montreal was very secretive about certain plot elements, but the first five minutes of the game reveal what all the buzz was all about. Even if we mention something that hints at the sudden revelation, it probably won’t have much of a dramatic effect. Let’s just say they tried to pull a Raiden (think Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty) on everyone, but it didn’t work out.

To put it simply, the game’s introduction just lays the foundation for the next step you’ll take, which ultimately leads to 1191 AD when the Crusade was causing trouble in the Holy Land. Players take the shoes of Altair, a master assassin who’s got all the moves to outshine tomb raiders, and the instincts to make hired hitmen look like babysitters. Or at least, Altair was that cool  of a guy before messing up that earned him a demotion back to the lowest “uninitiated” rank.

Altair was on a mission to take down Templar Knights Grand Master Robert de Sable, but careless decisions led to failure. Assassin head honcho Sinan strips our guy of his position, and assigns him to eliminate nine targets to get back to where he was. It’s interesting to note how these nine are historical figures who either died or disappeared in that era.

The game’s sandbox world opens up early after intensive tutorials. As promised, Ubisoft was able to faithfully recreate Jerusalem and its inhabitants. Your eyes will enjoy the visual treat right off the bat. Assassin’s Creed looks great, from the detailed clusters of houses to realistic and dynamic shadows cast upon the ground. However, graphics don’t automatically make a game as fun as it is breathtaking.

Assassin’s Creed gives a pretty good first impression, but not one that lasts in a way we hoped it to be. For the first hour or two, it’s a blast trying to familiarize with what the game has to offer. Beyond the initial encounter, it spirals down due to repetitiveness and glaring flaws.

Some may remember how Ubisoft Montreal kept on stressing out how innovative their game’s controls are. One button handles the head, there’s a button each for left and right hands, and another is for the feet. While this sounds good and potentially intuitive on paper, execution falls flat. Altair moves in low profile by default, and he can go into high profile by holding a trigger. Both modes are layered with a variety of contextual controls, but that isn’t saying much.

Assassins do a lot of jumping and climbing, and Altair makes it easy. Moving from one pillar to another or conquering a tall tower requires less work than you would’ve imagined – just push the analog stick all the way and the game will do it for you. The idea of having full control over your character suddenly becomes forgotten, because you don’t even need to press a button to move your arms or legs to do impressive stunts. On the good side, Altair climbs convincingly real. He can only gain latitude if there’s a rock or ledge to hang onto.

Don’t get any wrong ideas; streamlined controls in Assassin’s Creed is a blessing. It’s a bit disappointing to find out that the flexibility and freedom we were promised with aren’t there, but all that can be overlooked when you’re already in intense chases in which simplified movement is godsent. Your eyes will be on Altair and his rich repertoire of fluid actions that cater to all situations. Devs said they had to make 12,000 animations for Altair alone, and it shows.

Speaking of chases, turning your back on provoked enemies is bound to happen often. They labeled Assassin’s Creed as a “stealth action” game, and you should’ve expected as much. An icon on the left of your pseudo-health bar shows how much attention you’re getting from the guards. Worry not if it’s red all the time, because laying low can be tedious in a hide-and-seek game with too much focus on action.

Altair’s on the wanted list for attempting to kill the Templar Leader. This is what justifies why guards are often hot on your tail even without doing attention-grabbing acts like climbing walls and punching people. To avoid tight encounters, you can “blend” into the crowd or simply sneak away from guards’ line of sight. However, doing so is not exactly rewarding.

They said Altair could “blend” into a group of walking monks, but we never heard about blending with open space to shake pursuers loose. Blending is also a matter of Altair putting his hands together and lowering his head, which doesn’t exactly suffice as a disguise.

When all else fails, you can of course, enter combat. Altair regains his sword and hidden blade early on, while throwing knives are available later. So you’ve got three weapons and your fists to work with, sweet. No need to fret, because these are enough to dispatch all kinds of threats. Swordplay is all where it’s at, though the one-hit kill solution knives from afar is also convenient.

Altair may have the skills of an assassin, but fending enemies off is still no easy feat. Sword fights are very realistic, and you’re no god of war who can overpower other guys with a large swing. Unless you enjoy getting sucker-punched a lot, plenty of parrying ensue and barely any space for button mashing is left. Armed close-quarters combat in this game is all about timing your attacks carefully, or setting up for that crucial counter.

You will be guarding and counter-attacking a wee bit too often, because adversaries can take almost every straightforward attack you dish out using the sword and turn them back at you. Assassin’s Creed‘s fighting mechanic rewards precise strikes over mindless combos, and you’ll be anticipating blows more often than be on the offensive. Looking at the bright side, the sword performs pleasing kills when you can get around the enemy’s defenses

The hidden blade, on the other hand, is packed with very satisfying fatal moves given you can get close enough to use it. In most cases, you’ll be relying on it to score stealthy kills. Throwing knives are relatively safe to use, and it’s a shoot-and-forget affair if no other enemy is close.

You can do all fun stuff early in the game, and you’re told how to do them. Since our former assassin now has to regain respect, he needs to go back through the basics. Before taking out any of the nine major targets, you’re taught how to get information through interrogating, eavesdropping, and pickpocketing.

Soon enough, if you’re done playing around by annoying guards and punching civilians, you’ll embark on a journey to reach the two other cities Damascus and Acre. Finally, you get closer to the real deal. Thing is, there’s not much else outside what you’ve learned in Jerusalem.

All is fine and dandy in early parts of the game, and if you don’t mind visual glitches, you’d probably be immersing yourself in a world teeming with life. People in different social classes do their thing, and you can even help some of them. Traveling, either by horse or by foot, can be linear, but the sights along the way will make you thankful gaming has come so far in terms of graphics.

In between the lengthy trips, or when you’re just chilling out trying to find something fun to do, there are collectible flags scattered everywhere that makes searching every nook and cranny slightly worthwhile. There are also viewpoints located in high places where you can get a bird’s eye view of the immediate surroundings. When gathering info about targets, viewpoints are also helpful since they reveal spots on the map where important people are.

Unfortunately, Assassin’s Creed doesn’t have that lasting appeal. Unless it’s among the first games you’ve ever played, it’s easy to notice how more development time could’ve given Ubisoft Montreal the chance to bring us the true mind-blowing and revolutionary experience devs talked about. Instead of an epic adventure, we’re offered an action game with glaring flaws littered around.

Yes, we intentionally omitted the stealth part. Going low profile in Assassin’s Creed is often unnecessary aside from having to sit on benches to eavesdrop or stalking someone to interrogate. In fact, for the most part, you’re almost encouraged to draw your sword when what you’re doing counts.

To successfully assassinate your target, it’s a process of interrogating, eavesdropping, and pickpocketing for more details on the target’s location. That’s it? Pretty much, yes. Once you meet with the bad guy, you’ll know he’s a bad guy because he’ll tell you things that justify your kill attempt.

After that, said target will run and you’ll have to give chase and encounter the obligatory bodyguards. It’s possible to take the stealthy approach, but more often than not, it will be pointless. The later parts of the game even throw enemies at you, completely eliminating any chances to hide.

The only reason stealth may actually sound appealing is the game’s faulty artificial intelligence. Unlike what devs said before, the locales don’t really react realistically. Wave your sword around and they’ll watch you in awe. Even when you’re running away from pursuers, many of the NPCs seem to completely ignore and just keep on their daily lives. They do run away when there’s a ruckus, but they do awkwardly so.

Hostile forces aren’t any smarter. Alerted enemies throw rocks at you when you climb walls, they hop around and try to reach wherever you are, but that’s the best they can do. We can’t really blame city guards when they try to follow their own patrol routes, but when they continue to do so while a highly dangerous assassin is on the run, it’s a bit disheartening.

Your throwing knife does wonders not because it can kill instantly, but because the dead bodies are often left unnoticed in obscure areas unless the kill happens inches away from another NPC. Still got caught with your alert icon bright red? Don’t worry, because the AI can only do so much. Run away, break the line of sight for a few seconds, hide in a pile of hay, wait for the heat to go down then call it a day.

Music in the game doesn’t really help increase the tension significantly when it should. Orchestra pieces are great particularly when you’re hooked up to an expensive home theater, but the tracks are nothing memorable. Though easily repetitive, cities are brought to life with random chatter, barking dogs, and other things you want to hear in a game set in 1191. The only downside is Altair’s voice actor, who did a sub-par job with an accent that simply doesn’t fit in the Third Crusade era.

All the negatives aren’t enough to render Assassin’s Creed unplayable, mind you. The game is not without merit. It’s arguably among the best looking games on today’s consoles, cutscenes are delivered with cinematic flare (you can often move while cutscenes play out), the story is intriguing albeit the linear narrative and underwhelming ending that screams for a sequel, and it’s just fun to jump around and discover what other things Altair can do.

If there’s gonna be Assassin’s Creed 2, it better add variety to the missions and expand the world to make it worth exploring.