Majin-Tenshinhan

User Score
8.8

Presentation - 8.5
Gameplay - 8.5
Value - 9.0

Assassin's Creed is an ambitious project from the people who, last generation, made the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy. Undoubtedly one of the most hyped games of its year, and a media darling during the months leading up to it's release, one would expect it to hit all the right spots. But does it make the cut?

The beginning of Assassin's Creed takes place in 2012, where you are put in control of a bartender by the name of Desmond Miles. Kidnapped by a company called Abstergo Industries, Desmond must now be the test subject in a device called the "Animus", which revives memories of one's ancestors, that has apparently been stored in people's DNA. Inside the Animus is where the real game begins, when you take control of Desmond's ancestor Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad, a member of the "Assassin Brotherhood" during 1191. You start off trying to retrieve an artifact named "Piece of Eden" from Solomon's Temple with a few other assassins assisting you, but you are soon stopped by members of the Knights Templar, and you are forced to retreat. Once you return to the town of Masyaf, the leader of the Assassin Brotherhood, Al Mualim, is very displeased with Altaïr for breaking the Assassin's Creed back at Solomon's temple, and demotes you to an initiate, the game's explanation for why you suddenly lose all of your equipment and get your HP meter significantly shortened. Now you must head out and assassinate 9 different targets, and regain the respect of the Assassin Brotherhood. As you do so, you'll slowly regain equipment and once more lengthen your HP meter.

At first glance, Assassin's Creed will probably strike you as an open-ended Prince of Persia-game, and in many ways it is. The gameplay consists of scaling large buildings and jumping from roof to roof to travel through the cities as quickly as possible. If you prefer to move on the ground among the masses of people, you can do that too, though. It's really up to you how you want to go about your assassinations. If you want to, you can run in like a maniac with your sword already out and start stabbing your foe relentlessly, but this will alert city guards to your identity and you'll soon be surrounded by many enemies. Defeating several enemies at the same time can be very challenging early on in the game, but it gets easier once you gain new weapons and techniques. Of course, you can also choose to run from the guards. If you manage to escape their sight, and then hide in a stack of hay or something similar they will soon forget all about you and you are free to roam the city once more.

If you want to be a more traditional assassin, though, you can also sneak up on your opponent slowly, and use your hidden blade to end their life, and if you pull it off properly nobody will even notice anything has happened. If you stand around for too long, though, people will of course notice the dead body lying by your feet, so the best thing to do is to sneak away quietly after a successful assassination. When moving between cities, you have a horse at your disposal. Apparently, speeding was a crime back in the olden days too, because if you ride your horse too quickly guards will get angry and start chasing you, and you'll have to dismount the horse and hide to get rid of them.

Assassin's Creed, as a game, looks fantastic. It's a very big world, and a lot of things are happening in it all the time. The cities feel very alive and lifelike, with both guards and regular citizens constantly pacing around, heading to different places. Climbing up to a really high spot and gazing out at the city is an impressive sight, to say the least. With detailed textures and a lot of things on the screen at once, it's clear that the developers wanted to make sure nobody who played this game was disappointed with how it looked, and I'd say they succeeded very well. Voice acting is frequent, people will remark if you climb a wall in front of them, bump into them, and often they will have casual conversations while you simply pass by. The quality of the voice acting is pretty good, and the music shifts depending on your current situation. Say you enter combat, the music will shift to become more panicked, and the transitions flow together very well.

In the end, the fun you'll get from Assassin's Creed is directly proportionate to how much you immerse yourself into the game. The immersion factor is strong, and if you let it envelop you, you can sneak around the city hours on end and plan the perfect assassination, only to perfectly pull it off, and grin with pleasure as you walk into the shadows, leaving the dumbstruck guards and citizens behind you scratching their heads. Immersion is a crucial part to enjoying the game. If you're constantly sitting and thinking that it's a game, odds are you'll get bored, as the game itself is fairly repetitive. It's easy to mix things up, though, by using different weapons for different kills and quickly deciding which escape route would be the best to get away from a bad situation quickly.

As I said earlier in this review, combat, particularly against many enemies at once, can be quite tricky in the beginning. But once you learn nifty maneuvers such as the counter move, enemies won't stand a chance against you as long as you know how to time your button presses. This, above all, is very fun to watch, as every time you pull off a technique it's sort of a mini-cutscene where you finish the enemy off in a variety of different ways, depending on your positioning and your weapon of choice.

Story: Memories being stored in DNA doesn't feel very believable, but if we got caught up in stuff like that we'd have a considerably smaller amount of games to play. The story moves on at a steady pace, and incorporates many interesting elements such as conspiracy theories, and the present and past slowly get tied together properly the further you progress. 

Gameplay: Who knew one could have so much fun simply running around in a city? Performing eagle dives from high towers, traversing cities above the rooftops and exploring the highest points you can find in the game is great if you like exploring. Even though the combat isn't expertly implemented, I feel it's forgivable seeing as the game is called Assassin's Creed and not Fighter's Creed. 

Graphics: The graphics, quite simply, are stunning. Considering how far you can see, and how much is featured on the screen at once at times, it's simply vexing to consider that as early as 10 years ago people were still wowed by PSX and N64-games. If nothing else, you should at least be impressed by the visuals of Assassin's Creed. 

Sound: Mood-setting music and stellar voice acting are a good mix, and the transitions between music tracks should be complimented. 

Fun Factor: As earlier stated, the fun you'll get out of Assassin's Creed is directly related to how immersed you get in the game. For me, the immersion factor was enormous, so I had lots of fun with the game. If you have a hard time living the game, so to speak, you might want to pass this one up, though.