As promised the review of Assassin's Creed from Ubisoft Montreal, and as always I'll list what they did good, what's bad, and the ugly reasons why it earned the rating it has.
First off, a little back story. You are Altair Ibn Al-Ahad (pronounced Alt-taa-ir, means the swift one, son of no one) a member of the clan of Hashshashin (literally means hashish user), the originator of the term "Assassin". After failing to secure a value treasure from Robert De Sable, Grand Master of the Templars, and unintentionally leading a templar army to the gate of the Assassin's fortress you are demoted to the rank of initiate and are stripped of all your weapons and skills. Now you must start as a learner again to track nine targets to regain your honor; learn where they will be, devise a plan to publicly assassinate them, and make your escape alive.However these targets quickly reveal themselves to be much more than they seem to be, leading to a conspiracy whose paths lead back to the heart of the Templars themselves.
THE GOOD
Ok, while I'd normally just make the comment about all next gen games looking beautiful and move on about it I must make an exception here because the graphics in this are mind blowing. Say for a moment you climb to the top of a large tower and get a panoramic view on an area you are in, a rather common thing to do in many games. However the exception is here that everything you see you can go to, from the smallest house to places that seem miles away. It's all rendered real time without any static background renders. People move in the streets and carry on their daily business, flag flutter in the breeze, sand and dust blows in the winds. It's the kind of fully realized world that many have tried to make but only few have succeeded at.
Gameplay itself is 'Grand Theft Crusader' crossed with 'Medieval Gear Solid', but so much more also. Let me explain. You have absolute free roaming of your environments which includes walking in crowds to scaling buildings and taking to the roof tops. You can steal horses, take on side missions like saving civilians from harassment from guards, hunt down and kill Templars, pickpocket, ect. However you don't have free reign on the land as suspicious activity will attract the attention of city guards and crusaders who will then attempt to take you down. You can choose to fight them, or make a run for it to break their line of sight and blend in with the crowd, scholars, or hide. Actions like shoving people out of your way, knocking over merchant stands, or causing problems in the crowds will actually make them turn against you as well, so one must learn to hide in plain sight and not stand out in order to get close to your targets.
As mentioned before you can climb just about anything, so long as you can find hand grips, i.e. windows, mouldings, beams, ledges, ect. Added to this is a free running ability where small obstacles like boxes, roof top leaps, cross beams, ect will not slow you down and in many cases aid you in fleeing after a hit. The animations are smooth, natural, and out right cool sometimes. Much of the style was derived Parkour, a form of free-running, giving Altair's style an almost artistic look to it.
The attention to historical detail is particularly amazing. From people's clothing, the cities, the weapons, and even the characters. For example all of your targets are people who all lived and died/disappeared in 1191 in the Holy Lands. Whether they were assassinated or not is another matter all together, but the fact that Ubisoft spent months working with historians to get everything right says a lot to me about how dedicated they were about this game.
Voice acting is also top notch in this, coming off as both natural, and very chilling for some of the villians that you encounters in your travels. While there aren't any big name actors in this, those they do have are far better at voice work than any Hollywood actor.
THE BAD
Mostly it's just the camera, when you lock onto a target it makes it difficult sometimes to see people who are about to bump into you and give you away. Also, the combat system while not bad, isn't the strongest one I've seen. When fighting with swords you don't just whack away at the person to wear down his life, instead you need to time your strikes to overwelm him and finish him off before one of the other enemies tries to stab you from behind. Lastly, some of the side missions can become a bit repetative once you get to your 9th and final(?) target, however they are still pretty fun to do.
Sadly, the save system leaves quite a bit to be desired as you cannot actively choose when to save. Instead you must complete one of the small objectives (collect a flag, get a viewpoint, pickpocket, ect) and the game will autosave. Well, it does beat the pay to save system in Maximo: Ghost to Glory.
THE UGLY
Well, where to begin? The grusomeness of the assassination kills, the bloodiness of combat, the religious and political undertones about the crusades. Tough call. Needless to say this is a game that requires parental disgression before purchasing. I'd recommend our good old friend Youtube to get an idea about it before buying for someone under 17.
CONCLUSION
Like Mass Effect this is a must buy for your next-gen systems. It shows what the hardware can do, and the ever increasing depth of storyline that is being produced. In a word: Amazing.
