Truly Next Gen?

With the delay of Metal Gear Solid 4 and Haze, the performance of the PS3 this year is relying on two exclusives, Uncharted and Ratchet & Clank as well as a few multi-platform games such as Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament 3 and of course, Assassin’s Creed.

This game has been hailed as one of the greatest next gen game so it was only natural that expectations were high. How did it play out? Well, let’s just say it is a good game but it didn’t live up to the high standards that everyone set upon it.

I don’t want to spoil the plot but basically you are re-living your ancestors’ memories as an assassin. For what reasons? You will have to find out for yourself.

As expected from the makers of Prince of Persia, expect to jump a lot, run a lot and basically all sort of stunts. Of course, this happens often after you assassinated someone. Or if you really suck at stealth. The game requires you to gather intel before an assignment and you can do so quietly or create all sort of ruckus. The game doesn’t really reward you for stealth so it doesn’t really matter anyway.

You can also slip past guards by hiding inside a group of scholars. How they fail to recognise you baffles me. I mean, isn’t the sword and red belt a dead giveaway? So, as you can see, the game certainly has its flaws but I will talk about all that later.

Don’t get me wrong, the game is still fun although a bit repetitive and I am enjoying it so far. My favourite moments in the game is climbing Eagle Eye spots and look at the city from above. It is quite impressive and goes to show how great the game is graphically.

The cities are massive and sprawled out everywhere so expect to do a little travellling.

You can either go on foot or ride a horse and this is something that is good and bad by itself. Those are the gameplay moments. In a nutshell, you have action, platform, stealth and basically a sandbox type of game. You can do anything, anytime you want.

My review will be in point form and I will highlight the positives and negatives.

Positives

• Graphically impressive
• Immersive storyline
• Jumping around and scaling buildings feel natural
• Sticking people with the pointy end is satisfying
• Combat is good (although many say it sucks - they must have been playing a different game)

Negatives

• The game crashed and froze at certain parts (this has since been fixed) but you would have thought such bugs shouldn’t exist in the first place
• No reward for stealth. You can basically just hack and slash your way through
• Too much talking. After each assassination, you will feel like you want to fall asleep through the dialogue
• Altair (main char) has bad, almost terrible voice acting
• Riding on a horse is tedious if you want to escape guards’ attention.
• Repetitive elements. You do almost the same thing everytime.

Final verdict: If you want a good looking game and love jumping around, then buy it. If you do not like doing the same things over and over again, then you might want to avoid this title or just borrow it from a friend.

However, I do recommend getting this game 2nd hand rather than brand new if you can.