Assassin's Creed Review
There's comes a point during some gaming experiences when you feel like you've been punched in the stomach because a battering ram of disappointment has just charged headlong into your soul. You say "Oh no," either to yourself or aloud, because you had high hopes for a particular game but something suddenly clicks inside of you and you realize it's just not working. You realize, sadly, that the game you're playing isn't going to get any better. You realize this is it. What you've played is what you're going to continue to play, and the sad, static experience will continue for another five or 10 or even 20 more hours - if you can endure it that long.
I experienced this feeling with Assassin's Creed, and I remember the exact point when that battering ram hit me. I embarked on the third mission of the game, and it quickly dawned on me that the game had dissolved into a formulaic, linear affair and lost all of its excitement and promise. It became apparent that the third assassination mission was going to be almost exactly the same as the second one (and the first, for that matter). And the tasks I was charged with completing were going to be exactly the same as before. And the environments that I would be running through and exploring would be exactly the same as well. It was like Ubisoft had flipped a switch that caused the game to repeat the same material over and over again, like a scratched CD stuck in a stereo system. Even if the gameplay and level design were superb, which they're not, the repetitive nature of playing virtual identical missions over and over again ruins what was an extremely promising premise.
I wanted to like Assassin's Creed desperately. I had been looking forward to this title for some time because it stood apart from the first-person shooters and action titles that had flooded the gaming world. It was different. It had an air of excitement around, with a delicious historical narrative and a fresh story that riskily put players in the role of as a Muslim assassin during the Crusades. Ubisoft could have passed on Assassin's Creed and its religiously sensitive subject, but it gambled on fresh, bold idea in an industry that is short on them. I give the publisher and development team a lot of credit for going forward with Assassin's Creed, but at the same time, I cannot overlook the game's myriad of problems and flaws.
Assassin's Creed features a stunning recreation of the 12th Century Middle East, but the beauty is only skin deep.
Assassin's Creed starts off well enough. Much has been written about the game's rumored science fiction twist, but in truth there isn't really any twist. In fact, the game begins in the year 2012 where the playable character Desmond finds himself in a mysterious laboratory at Abstergo Industries. He's being held against his will by Dr. Vidic and his lovely assistant Lucy (voiced by actress Kristen Bell) because Abstergo is trying to obtain some very important memories locked away in Desmond's brain. The trick is, they're not exactly Desmond's own memories - they belong to Altaiir, a distant ancestor of Desmond's who belonged to a group of Shiite Muslim assassins known as the Hashshashin. Dr. Vidic uses an experimental machine called the Animus, which is able to unlock "genetic memories" of people's ancestors. Of course, all of this sounds like junk science, but whatever; I was on board.
The Animus device is cleverly build into the game's user interface - players can activate the machine and jump from memory to memory, for example, the same way you would access save files in other games. Desmond isn't told exactly what Abstergo is looking for, but soon enough he's plunged into the memories of Altaiir in the year 1191. It's the Third Crusade, and Altaiir has been disgraced after failing to complete a mission. To redeem himself, he is dispatched by Al Mualim, leader of the Hashshashin, to assassinate nine men who are believed to be instigating and profiting from the bloodshed of the Third Crusade. There are hints early on that Altaiir's mission is connected to a vast conspiracy that spans from the Crusades to the 21st Centry. It's a tantalizing setup that had me eager to get into the game.
At first, the flaws within Assassin's Creed are kept hidden. The graphics are especially good for a console title (I played the Xbox 360 version for those that are keeping score), and Ubisoft created an exquisite-looking recreation of 12th Century Middle East. Players can ravel to different cities throughout the region, from Jerusalem to Damascus, depending on the assassination target. I'll say this about Ubisoft: the developers absolutely nailed it with the visual style and graphics. If nothing else, I could sit back and marvel at how the 12th Century Holy Land was brought to life with beautiful realism.
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