Assassins Creed; or Why Being Pretty Makes Sales
By Dan Wilkins
Assassin’s Creed was undeniably one of the most anticipated titles of 2007. With an interesting back story, a lovely producer that was tossed in front of a camera every chance that was given, and an undeniably great looking game, copies of Assassin’s Creed were in high demand at release. Unfortunately, as great as a game can look and as ideal as the game play seems in teaser videos, sometimes it just isn’t as amazing as hoped for.
As the assassin, Altair, in Assassin’s Creed (AC), the player is given nine key targets to kill throughout the course of the game. The approach for all of these targets is relatively the same: go to “synchronization points” to acquire points of interest on the mini-map for further research of the specific target during that chapter of the game. Each of these points of interest is a mini-game or means of escape if there is trouble. In addition, the order has no repercussion on the way the story unfolds. So, with these additional sub goals, the player now has a reasonably displayed path of game progression The main assassinations themselves play out very well, each one is dynamic and different in its setting and means of approach, as well as providing more advancement throughout the game. Of course, having an assassination game where you kill all of you’re targets in two hours would not make for a very challenging or involved experience worth the sixty dollars price tag.
The dilemma lying within each of the sub missions is that they are rather shallow. The game does not show any preference for specific mission based sub games, only that they are there for you to continue the game. It simply comes down to which one to do first, as once a sub mission is repeated a few times in a different local, it becomes more tedious than an interesting way of gathering information for a hit. By having the player within a sandbox environment, at least they may approach these from their preferred angle, but the advantage is minimally noticed in the end. Each of the three large (huge, actually) cities does have its’ own theme, but if there are only six types of sub mission, you’re bound to feel a little “same ole same ole” opinion creeping up in your head during the twelve to fifteen hours the game has with a reasonable pace.
The player encounters a few obstacles on the way to their goals, though; the more immediate one is the constant groupings of guards around the city that seem to pick Altair out like a beacon, and the other more passive is the environment itself. AC has a remarkable free run system for movement throughout the game world that doesn’t rely on flagged climbing points, etc. but rather all on the geometry itself for how Altair will react. The detraction from this though, is that there does not feel to be much success when the player does something remarkable, as it feels more as though the player just, “helped out” rather than doing something themselves. This is understandable in why it was implemented though, as climbing high towers, jumping from beam to beam, and vaulting into hay stacks was something Ubisoft wanted everyone to experience, not just those with quick fingers and their wits about them. As far as combat goes, there are two significant parts within the game where the usual sneak-style does not work. One is when saving innocents from corrupt guards for a sub mission, which always results in some needed sword play. The combat in AC is as close to realistic as can get for this style of game, where one or two good jabs drops an opponent, and it is often better to let them make the first move and respond with a better attack, as is implemented with the counter system. The problem from this lies in the difficulty of the opponents; early in the game they are almost so simple it is laughable, and then three fourths of the way through, suddenly the opponents increase in number dramatically, and require four to five slices or counters to drop. This all helps support a more flight response than fight after pulling off an assassination where the guards are alerted, but by this time the player is used to wimpy guards, and can often simply be overwhelmed when they find no easy escape route and fifteen armor clad fellows on the dealing end of a sword.
One of the very strong selling points of this game was that it is beautiful, and it truly is. Much attention was paid to how light works through large scale environments, as well as on individuals within those environments. The amount of research put into restoring these ancient cities accurately, is commendable. Characters are well crafted, if a little limited in their variations on the street. Each of the three cities, as well as the assassin fortress, have their own style and themes, and make them stand apart from each other through the desaturated haze that is apparently all the thing with “next-gen” titles. Fortunately, the lack of color fits AC rather well, as it’s placed in the Holy Land, where often the sun burns away much of the color to be seen anyway.
There was also a proven true rumor of a sci-fi plot twist to mix itself up within the story, and many people speculated as to what it was. Was Altair a time traveler? Were they just dreams? Were the leaders of the holy cities actually aliens? No one knew; until about five minutes into the game where it was all spelled out for the player. I can understand how this made the interface and parts of the story glue together more solidly, but any good writer is going to allow a little narrative tension grow. Rather, in AC we have two narratives that are slowly escalating, but just when one is about to peak, the other pops in at a mundane point and the player has to rise again, ultimately making the story, although interesting, poorly laid at the mercy of speculation from early on. Perhaps the game writers thought it to be unorthodox and fresh, but there are reasons after hundreds of years, some of the key elements in story telling remain the same. In addition, leaving a game at a cliff hang has been noted to only anger most of the player base, rather than give them something to look forward to in a few years.
In the end, much of what was promised from Assassin’s Creed was met. Amazing graphics, sandbox cities, an old world story with a sci-fi twist; all of these elements were favorable, at least. The thread that held them together was the loose part that ultimately made this game go from extraordinary, to mildly entertaining. Everyone wanted to love this game, but unfortunately for Assassin’s Creed, when it is looked back upon for developing reference, it will be where it went wrong, rather than what it did right.
