Altair's Chronicles is a prequel to the console versions of Assassin's Creed released last year. The game is developed by Gameloft, who have a lot of experience with mobile phone gaming. The first bit of bad news we have about Altair's Chronicles is that the game doesn't present the open ended gaming experience that the console versions did. In fact the game is a rather linear title that bears resemblance to Prince of Persia. Altair's Chronicles is actually a prequel as well and focuses on some of the earlier history of Altair.
Altair is back, reacquaint yourself.
The first half an hour of Altair's Chronicles serves as a basic introduction to the game. Most of the action in the game happens on the top screen, Altair can kick with A, perform light and heavy attacks with Y and X and block with the R button. It doesn't take Altair too long to get a sword and by collecting blue orbs players can upgrade their life bar and the power of Altair's sword. There is also a wide selection of weapons, which is rather impressive, meaning players will have the opportunity to use daggers, crossbows, smoke bombs and more.
Ultimately, the DS version of Altair's Chronicles is a rather straight forward action platformer. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as the game is challenging, upgrading your weapons is a fantastic touch and Altair has lost none of the athleticism he possessed in the console versions. Sure, the more closed ended game play is disappointing, but this is probably more a reflection of the limitations of the hardware, rather than the game.
One of the best features of Altair's Chronicles is the touch screen and bottom screen integration. As all the "action" takes place on the top screen the bottom screen is devoted to a mini map of where Altair's enemies are positioned. The touch screen is also used for several mini games. When interrogating a potential information carrier the bottom screen is used to target the vulnerable spots of a potential victim. When Altair is pick pocketing, the bottom screen is used to move the object required out of the pocket of the victim. Altair's Chronicles really doesn't go overboard with the touch screen integration, but the integration that is included works rather well.
Even though we went hands on with a preview copy of Altair's Chronicles we were a little bit disappointed to find that the game has load times. Now, we're used to load times on handhelds (ie. the PSP) but there are very few games on the Nintendo DS that load, so we really hope this is an issue fixed up in time for the game's Australian release. We also encountered a few glitches at times, where Altair actually became stuck within the environment, but once again this could be due to the preview nature of the code we played.
Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles looks to be a sufficient portable version of Assassin's Creed. Yes, the DS version is more restrictive and yes, we did encounter some glitches, but the extremely clever touch screen integration and easy to pick up and play game play practically ensures that fans of Altair's previous title, will be rather pleased with the Nintendo DS version.
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