Last night I finally finished Assassin’s Creed, a game set during the Third Crusade. You play Altair, an assassin who has been sent to strike at the leadership of three key cities (Acre, Damascus and Jerusalem). Along the way, you discover your missions have far more ramifications than you had imagined.
That’s not a lot of plot summary, but frankly any more reveals too much. I will say the story is well-written, coherent and (reasonably) historically accurate. All things which make for a nice cinematic adventure.
Assassin’s Creed is beautiful. It really shows off the power of the XBox 360, especially when displayed in HD. Altair’s movements are wonderfully animated as he runs, climbs, jumps and fights. However, the crowning achievement is the creation of cities that are teeming with life and activity. No empty streets here (in fact, that can get frustrating). People are everywhere, going about their business and contributing to the immersion.
The game also employs an “awareness” feature where people notice your actions and react to them. If you start shoving people out of the way (which you are allowed to do), then the guards will give warnings, or attempt to stop you. Just like the police. If you’re being chased, ducking around a corner and hiding in a haystack might be enough to throw off their scent and “reset” the encounter. When you consider the entire game takes place during the day, then stealthily killing your targets is all that more challenging.
The most common critique is the repetitive nature of some activities in the game. There’s merit to these claims. On occasion, fighting yet another group of guards because you saved a citizen from their abuse can get a bit old. However, this is countered by the sandbox nature of the game. You’re not put on a linear path. There is a story and you much complete certain objectives to advance it, but for the most part the order in which you complete the objectives is completely up to you. This is extraordinary for a game of its size.
Even the assassinations themselves can be done how you choose. You can stealthily approach the victim, hoping to stab them with a hidden blade and walk away unnoticed, or you can just draw your sword, hack them down and dare all the guards to challenge you. You do get an achievement for a stealthy kill, so make sure you do at least one of those.
To sum up, Assassin’s Creed is a beautiful sandbox in which to act out your part of a larger story, steeped in history from the Middle Ages and wonderful in its degree of control given to the player. People who need their decisions made for them, or who only know how to walk a straight line need not apply. The rest of us can enjoy.
-K
