But still, it looks like Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood will be an extraordinary game, with the amount of time and money being pushed into this, I personally cannot wait!

Although Assassin’s Creed has beautiful visuals, repetitive game play hampers what could otherwise be hailed a gaming classic.

Storyline

The start of the game sees you playing as Desmond Miles, a bartender from the near future. This may seem strange, as this game was shown in the previews to be set during the crusades, several hundred years ago. Well, this is sort of the case. It seems that Desmond is a descendant of Altair, a famous Assassin during the Crusades. Desmond has been kidnapped by a group of scientists, who strap him into a machine, called the Animus, and read his memories for an unknown reason. The player plays as Altair during these memory periods, and when not strapped into the machine you play as Desmond as he walks around his cell figuring out what the heck is going on. The plot is certainly interesting and fresh, but does get quite silly and lacks a definitive ending. I don’t want to spoil too much for you, but lets just say when the credits start rolling you’ll probably be thinking “Huh!? It’s over!?”.

OVERALL: 6/10

Game Play

When you first enter the Animus, you are given a quick tutorial for the basic controls, and then thrust into a cave to learn about the games unique free running movement. This is one of the games greatest implemented features. Holding the right trigger puts Altair into ‘fast’ mode, and running up to a wall or running to the edge of a building’s roof will make him jump. It’s a little tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it you’ll be jumping off buildings and climbing epic movie style. The first level, set in Masayef, the home of your assassin order, serves as the final tutorial, and teaches you the basics of combat, completing missions and also let you get acquainted with free running. After this, it’s off to your first assassination. The areas in Assassin’s Creed are divided into several sections and cities. There’s Masayef, Damascus, Acre, Jerusalem and the Kingdom. All but the Kingdom are very large, detailed cities, thought that’s not to say the kingdom isn’t. It’s littered with small villages and military camps for both the Saracens and the Crusaders. Bizarrely, despite the fact the game is set during a war, neither faction is ever seen attacking each other, save for a scripted encounter later in the game. The world isn’t entirely open to you, and this (for some reason) includes the cities. When you receive a new mission, a small area of the city and kingdom is opened up to you, until you finally get near to the end of the game, when the entire game area is available to roam about freely. The excuse for this is that when you reach a barrier your ‘memory cannot be accessed’. It is strange, but I guess it prevents people from exploring the world too early. The cities are all unique and seem to have their own lighting effects. My personal favourite is Acre, the only crusader owned city, because it has the most unique architecture. Around these cities are thousands of inhabitants, but only few are available to interact with in side missions. Guards also litter the cities, and acting suspiciously can get you involved in a pretty fierce fight – or flight, depending on your play style. AI is incredible on guards at times, as they too have some minor free running abilities, and can give you a good chase even across rooftops.

Weapons are limited in Assassin’s Creed. There’s a sword, short sword, throwing knives and coolest of all, a hidden blade. Your fists can also be used, but fist fights are rare. The game’s combat system is based on counter attacks and button timing. There are several different moves that you unlock as you progress through the game, but the only one you are likely to use is the anti counter move, as it is easy and very effective. When you kill an enemy, you are rewarded with a gruesome and satisfying animation, ranging from simple stabbings to neck breaking to impaling a blade in their skull. I found that these never got old, and are still incredibly awesome to watch. Unfortunately, this counter system makes the combat incredibly easy, even when faced with dozens of opponents. The enemies do not attack you when you’re knocked to the ground, and only one will attack you at a time. Most of them just stay out of the way until you come to them. Enemies have a tendency to run away, unless there is a lieutenant with them.The general combat is fun, but simple.

Perhaps the biggest letdown for Assassin’s Creed is the missions. Before you are allowed to proceed with a mission, you must gather intelligence. These Intel missions include pick pocketing, interrogating, eavesdropping and talking to informants. Eavesdropping is entirely effortless, and consists of sitting on a bench and zooming in on a bunch of people. The pick pocketing missions can be done in a matter of seconds, and the interrogation missions consist of just beating the crap out of someone until they talk. The Informant missions are the most interesting, and come in two forms. The first is collecting a series of flags in a time limit. Usually they are in a row of free running combo’s and not particularly hard. The most interesting are the timed ‘mini assassinations’. You usually have a few minutes to take care of targets in the nearby vicinity. These missions are truly assassin like, as you cannot be spotted. The mission’s lack of depth is not their main problem, however. For each assassination, the missions are almost identical, just in different areas with different people. The actual assassinations are no different, and only really become interesting near the finale. The lack of stealth is also puzzling- no matter how quiet you kill your target, you always end up having to run away from the entire city whose telepathic abilities have revealed that you’ve just killed someone. It’s a shame, as a true assassin wouldn’t be noticed. Around the cities there are other mission types as well, which also get repetitive. Around each city are citizens in need of rescue, and helping them provides you with a few people who stand around and block guards when you’ve pissed them off. I personally did not like this, as it detracts from the more movie-like feel of some of the battles. There’s also a Templar knight hunt and flag hunting, but these feel like a bit of an afterthought. Most interesting is the view point missions, which are actually pretty much essential anyway. In each district of a city and in the kingdom are high points to scale. Reaching the top of these enables you to synchronise your map, and reveal any missions in the surrounding area. I felt myself climbing them for the breathtaking views found at the top, but if you do not care for this you will need to climb them anyway.

AI is dodgy on occasions. For example, in the kingdom, if you are running on your horse, the guards instantly decide your evil and will try to kill you. It’s strange and ruins the atmosphere a bit, as I’m sure there is no speed limit for horses in the desert. Another is if you just kill someone and stand next to their body, but “blend” (looks like your praying) next to the body, the guards will be none the wiser, despite the fact you’re the only one in the area who is armed at all. But when you stop “blending”, the guards wake up and attack you. It really doesn’t make sense, and ruins the atmosphere of the game on occasions. So, fun, but flawed.

OVERALL: 6/10

Graphics

Assassin’s Creed is definitely one of the best looking games released on the 360 so far. Everything is beautiful, from the models to the shadows to the completely natural animations. Everything is damn near perfect. Well, almost. There are some occasional graphical glitches, including dead bodies bouncing around the place and some incredibly bad slowdown during the more intense scenes. The developers certainly crammed in as much visual awesomeness as they could, and it is indeed a joy to watch. One bad point is the game’s HUD. It detracts from the medieval feel, and can be annoying. I personally play the game without the HUD, which I feel improves the atmosphere greatly. Overall, the games not too bad in this department.

OVERALL: 9/10

Sounds

The sound is above average in this game. Voice acting is fairly good, but the characters themselves are not really memorable and as such, neither are their voices. The sounds of the cities are realistic, and give even more of an authentic feel to the game. Sword combat sounds great, with the predicted twings and twangs as swords clash, as well as the meaty sound followed by a blood curdling scream as another enemy falls victim to your swords. Overall, good but could be better.

OVERALL: 7/10

Final Verdict

Assassin’s Creed is a game that we all so desperately wanted to be good, and it is good on many levels. Unfortunately, is also fails on many levels, including repetitive mission structure, a confusing story and some average sound. So, although Assassin’s Creed has beautiful visuals, repetitive game play hampers what could otherwise be hailed a gaming classic.

FINAL GRADE: 6/10

Entitled the Black Edition, the set features a copy of the game, unique packaging, three in-game bonus quests (entitled Palazzo Medici, Santa Maria Del Frari and Arsenal Shipyard Warehouse), a conspiracy book (featuring game art, story and background information), a variety of internet goodies, a soundtrack and a collectable Ezio statue.

The pack has a retail price of £69.99 and is available for Xbox 360, PC and PlayStation 3.

The news follows a similar set for the US, which is available exclusively through GameSpot for $79.99. This Master Assassin Edition features just two in-game bonus quests, a metal case, DVD, art book and Ezio statue.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is one of the most anticipated games of the year, and is set for release on PC, PS3 and 360 on November 20th.

A PSP edition, Assassin’s Creed Blood Lines, and a DS title, Assassin’s Creed Discovery, are due for release on the same day.

Via mcvuk