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Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360)
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Assassin's Creed for Xbox 360
Assassin’s Creed! One of the more violently fun games I’ve had the pleasure of coming by! You play Altair (pronounced All-tye-eer) who is actually the ancestor of the main character, Desmond Miles.
The majority of the game takes place in the digitally projected memory of Desmond, who has been captured and taken hostage by a pharmaceutical company and their employees. Now if that confused you, let me make it simpler. You are playing a man, playing a man, a game within a game so to speak. The story is really broken into two halves, most of the history takes place in the main game, the ancestral memory of Desmond (Altair), while the modern “real world” takes place when Desmond is released from the memories and climbs out into the real world. It sounds confusing but once you start playing everything falls into place very nicely.
Assassin’s Creed for the Xbox 360 uses a unique control scheme, where the buttons are configured to represent the body. The Y button controls the head, the A button controls the feet, and the X and B buttons control the hands. The whole thing is referred to as a “puppeteer” control, which makes sense when you really look at your controller and see where everything is. While we’re on that subject, I have to say I was very pleased with the control feedback, smooth and easy to manage, but also humanly realistic, with weight and natural balance added. If you run into someone while running at top speed, you fall over and take the time to get up again, for example.
Most of the game is spent using the incredible acrobatic style of movement, climbing up walls, jumping over gaps, and racing through streets and over rooftops to evade guards. The only time you really have your feet on the ground is when you’re in the huge expanse of countryside that connects all the major cities of the game.
The AI in Assassin’s Creed is something to be admired. It’s not what I would call extremely advanced, but basic with a very personal behavior. If you go around running into people or attacking them, they take a fight or flight path and either push back, or run away screaming for mercy, which gives a very realistic attitude. Another aspect of the AI I found interesting was that if you start punching someone in the middle of the street, the guards would only take real notice if you killed the person. However if you took out your sword, they would pay even closer attention, and even warn you to put it away.
Something I found amusing during the game was that the NPC villagers and guards that meander through the bustling streets don’t completely ignore you like in other games. If you run past them or climb a wall within view, at least one will take notice and make a humorous statement such as “Why would someone do that?” or “God save him, he’s gone mad.” One of my favorites had to be “If he hurts himself, I’m not going to help him.”
The game itself is very beautiful, with soft and clean graphics and a very earthy feel to the entire world. Each of the major cities is divided into poor, middle class, and rich districts and you can tell each one simply by walking through them. Poor districts are filthy and dismal alleyways and smoky chimneys, where rich districts have shining polished buildings and rooftops with intricate designs and sparkling fountains.
During your exploration of Assassin’s Creed, you will notice the absolutely breathtaking music. Ethereal and light, the soundtrack is very spiritual and calming, with airy vocals and instruments that you could swear were blessed. Ubisoft actually made two tracks available for download at Gamertag Radio; they are “The City of Jerusalem” and “Jerusalem Horse Ride”, both of them being just absolutely magical.
Now there is a mini map available, but it’s more of what I would call “suggestive” in nature. There’s no real specific picture of the area, or even geographical markings whatsoever, but there are targets and a counter decreasing or increasing, measuring a distance between you and the currently active target, which really forces the player to “feel” around for their destination.
Assassin’s Creed is what I would classify as half sandbox, half linear game. You are given missions, but no real time limit or order in which to do them. You can wander about the expansive landscape and explore the huge lands, or follow directions and get all the missions finished. Very similar to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, you can kill random NPC characters, however you are directly penalized for the guilty pleasure by losing synchronization, which is the HP system in the game. If you lose all your synchronization with your ancestral memory, you have to start out at the last place you had full sync. Which is a pity, as some of the random citizens can be VERY annoying such as beggars and pushy guards.
This was a very thrilling game, and it’s very easy to become addicted!
For more info: Assassin's Creed Wiki
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