Assassins Creed (Xbox 360)
Third-Person Platformer//Action Epic//(Stealth elements)
Well let's start at the top. You're probably reading this because you're intrigued, probably by the score I've given Assassins creed. It's a lot higher than most of the press reviews and I'm no Assassins fan-boy if there is such a thing. So why the score you say?
OK then, let me put my argument this way: we've all heard the recent increasingly vocal complaints by the film industry that blockbuster video games are having a big impact on cinema going. In fact I was amazed to read in EDGE recently that Games have now over taken the music industry in terms of total revenue. I think most people (including gamers) would be astounded at such an exponential growth rate. Only movies are left. So quickly side-stepping the 'video games as art' debate, what is the purpose of such a medium of expression as video games? Surely it's Story-telling.
That's what Assassins Creed does better than almost every other Classic video game ever made-tell a story and tell it well. That's not to say the criticisms of Assassins Creed are by any means unfounded. Most obviously; mission repetition, AI problems and rigid gameplay structure. It must be said, there are only 3 types of pre-assassination missions-Eavesdropping, pickpocketing and intimidation-all in order to gather the required level of knowledge in order to acquire approval to go after your target. There are also optional 'Informer'-(assassins) missions but these truly are epically tedious and at times, ludicrous. Why on earth would Altair need to collect flags scattered around, and, most bizarrely under a time limit?! Are they going to fly a away or something? Why does the informer need the flags in the first place? It makes no sense whatsoever when your fellow assassins could simply tell you the information rather that having you collecting flags under the misguided pretense of being helpful? We may never know and I for one don't really care-it clearly hasn't been thought through enough for there to even be an answer hanging in the air at Ubisoft. The AI on the other hand, generally doesn't tend to get in the way and allows Altair's graceful yet brutal to watch fighting style take centre stage. Obviously that's not the most graceful element of this spectacular game; that honour has to go to the sublime free-running, the like of which has never been seen before. Such outlandish platforming is cunningly disguised as 'Stealth Action' In order to attract people who don't like platforms. But it is the platforming that makes half the game.
So onto the other half: the Unparalleled story. It's so rare even nowadays in a playing a video game that you really fell you can relate to a lead-character in such a strong way; that's hard to do when your main man is a man who, even if played to the point of near pacifism, kills literally hundred of people over the course of the story. By the end of the game you find yourself genuinely worried for Altair's safety if he makes a rare mis-step and injures himself catching a ledge or thrown of a rooftop by an enemy. Fundamentally, the genetic memory theme aside, Assassins creed is a story about redemption, that a man can change his ways-and that not all he is taught is true. Altair struggles to make sense of the barbaric world around him and and in that way he becomes human; he doubts. Some genuinely poignant moment come to mind-the shock Altair suffers when he finds his victim fears his imminent demise as he waits for it in his killers arms and tells him 'there is nothing'-as Altair realises, 'You don't believe...?'. The Atheist is but one of the misguided targets Altair begins to regret silencing for his master. The ending at first appears somewhat anticlimactic as it degenerates into a boss battle with the obvious 'plot twist' character-Al Maulim, the master. It is here that Altair again shines as a man when he shows his unexpected purity of heart he is oblivious to the effects of the 'Piece of Eden' (temptation). The plot then finally takes a genuinely fascinating u-turn when Alatair's ancestor discovers that after his time in the Animus reliving the Assassins' genetic memory he can use his 11th century counterpart's abilities, reading the hidden messages scrawled all over his virtual prison foretelling the end of the world.
Ultimately as touch upon previously, this game is a closet platformer; the genre nay-sayers branding every game with a pulse as an 'action' or 'adventure' game, (or even an 'action adventure-imagine that!) in other words, P.R. people. P.R. people with the base intention of convincing people who wouldn't ever pick up a platformer because they are of the opinion, dare I say it that it's 'too hardcore'. To their undoing. Who with two brain cell to rub together can't play such a pure platformer and make fire? That has always been elegance of the platformer-an uninterrupted flow of movement from point to point. A task Altair is perfectly suited to; the attention to detail as every jagged brick and post can be gripped by his hands and the astonishing animation allowing him to flow across the environments in such a spectacular, fluid motion. Who needs AI when you have that? The beauty behind the lurching facade of Assassins Creed is the movement from point to point; the beauty is not in defeating a hopelessly inept guard, or silencing a target with an unseen throwing knife, or even performing a stealth kill-it is in the journey between these generic objectives. That is what makes this game special.
'Spectacular'
9.2
[Copyright Matt Britton 2008]
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