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So by now, I imagine many of you have already picked yourself up a copy of Assassin's Creed, considering it was one of the most talked about titles of 2007 - and well some of 2006. But for those of you that haven't, you might want to reconsider because despite its flaws, it is still one of the best games from last year.

For those of you that don't know the story, you start as Desmond Miles in 2012 in a lab where two scientists who are searching for knowledge about a holy object with magical powers, the Piece of Eden. They have kidnapped Desmond to explore his ancestral memories in attempt to find the object's whereabouts. The machine forces him to relive the life of Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad, an assassin from 1191.

The Assassin Brotherhood to which Altair is a member, is in a violent war with the Knights of the Templar during the Third Crusade. After completing the first mission, where you as Altair pretty much fail at your mission to retrieve the Piece of Eden from the clutches of the Templar (though one of your travelling companions is more successful) and inadvertantly lead the enemy back to your stronghold, you are stripped of your rank and experience, leaving you with only your sword and a few health points. To redeem yourself, you are sent on a mission to assassinate nine historical figures who played a significant role in the Crusades.
After completing an assassination, your master returns to you a fighting skill, a health point and, often, a weapon as well. You can also increase your health by performing a number of other tasks, sometimes related to your assassination, such as gathering information on your target by, say, eavesdropping on a conversation, or unrelated such as saving a citizen from being hassled by thugs or authorities by killing everyone around.

Every once in awhile, Desmond will awake from the memory machine and will get to talk to the scientists a bit.

The game interface is amazing. The environments are extremely elaborate and although you can interact with everything, you can climb almost any building and attack anyone you want (though you lose points for killing civilians). And the developers spent a lot of time taking sound and distance into consideration. For example, when you talk to people you can often still move around as they go into a long spiel on you. And the farther you get from them, the quieter they become. Similarly, if you hear a woman screaming for help, she'll get louder as you get closer. And these increases and decreases are gradual and so sound perfectly natural.

Full-on cutscenes don't provide the same kind of mobility, but you can change the camera angles at given points. And the story is innovative incorporating many historical elements into the narrative. Although the only name actor involved is Kristen Bell, (Veronica Mars, Heroes) the cast is strong. (Bell, as much as I drool over her, may in fact be one of the weaker links. Her delivery as Lucy Stillman, the lab assistant whose “unwillingly” holding Desmond captive in 2012, comes off as rather emotionless and uninteresting.)

And the gameplay really impresses. Never have I seen such a sophisticated interface for a third-person game. The controls take a little while to get a hold of, but the fighting is quite involved, considering the number of weapons, attacks, blocks and dodges you can use. It's perhaps not as complex as a straight fighting game, (certainly he can't shoot fireballs or anything of the like) but it's not as easy as just hack and slash. And fighting only makes up a portion of the game. Much of it is preparing for assassinations (gathering information, scouting the area from high points etc.) and requires agility and skills not typically found in fighting titles.
And thankfully, the game automatically saves after you complete any objective, no matter hoe minor which means you never have to go too far back when you die.

The main drawback is that the game is repetitive. Although, each of the assassination scenarios themselves are unique, they almost all take place in Damascus, Acre or Jerusalem. And the setup is always the same. You head to the city, go to the branch of the Assassin's Brotherhood there to check in. The assassin there then tells you where to look in the city to find out more about your target. Once you've gathered three tidbits of information, (whether it be through interrogation, pickpocketing or by talking to an another assassin after you've taken out his targets, which he was too lazy to finish off himself etc.) you return to the Brotherhood office to get permission to take him out. Then you kill your prey and then run back to the Brotherhood again while the city is on high alert.

And why couldn't I ride my horse into the cities, that would make the cities? That would make the game so much more entertaining.

In 2012, there's basically nothing to do. You just walk around a couple of different rooms occasionally talking to the scientist or his lab assistant. Then you'll eventually give up and go to bed. I couldn't even take a shower or change my clothes, though the developers felt the need to provide both a full bathroom and bedroom closet. (I did manage to pickpocket a pen or some such thing from the scientist, but I never could figure out what to do with it.)

But overall, Assassin's Creed is the most fun I've had gaming in awhile and is probably the best title available for the PS3 so far. Even if it's just for the ability to run around rooftops and jump on top of unsuspecting city archers to dispatch them. The rooftops also made for a much quicker way to get around.

Assassin's Creed
Format: Playstation 3
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
ESRB Rating: M for Mature
Official Site:
http://assassinscreed.uk.ubi.com/
index_old.php
Rating: 8.5/ 10

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G4 Canada (formerly TechTV Canada) launched in September 2001. G4 is the one and only television station that is plugged into every dimension of games, gear, gadgets and gigabytes. Owned Rogers Media Inc., the channel airs more than 24 original series. G4 is available on digital cable and satellite. For more information, see www.g4tv.ca.

Tech News on G4

'Assassin's Creed' a hit

January 28, 2008

By Adam Swimmer - G4 Canada