When a game is near completion, you’re fairly guaranteed that there is not much that will be changed or fixed before the final release. From this, you can get a pretty good idea of what the final release will offer. So while we can’t truly judge the game until we’ve ripped through its entirety, we can say this. Assassin’s Creed will be a great game. No longer are we concerned with whether it will be great, it’s only a matter of how great now. It looks like Ubisoft got it right here.
In terms of story, we’re going to have to wait till the final game to see what’s really going on. Sure, we know that it’s set in 1191 in the Holy Land during the Crusades. We also know that we’ll be playing as an elite assassin named Altair, and that Ubi have done their best to implement as many historical elements as possible. However, the whole ‘sci-fi’ element that has been spreading over the net like wildfire was, unfortunately, not revealed to us. However, we were told that it would become very clear to us once we actually got the game and that it’s not some gimmick. Mind you, we believe that we figured it out…
Pick your path.
Still, we did actually get to play the game, so we were very pleased on that front. In fact, it’s gotten us even more excited for the game then we were before. From the outset, Assassin’s Creed looked to be the true successor to Prince of Persia: Sands of Time – or at least a true evolution to the style of gameplay that was introduced. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be rewinding to correct your mistakes, as Assassin’s Creed is more about taking the athletic side of things and evolving them. Where as in PoP, you essentially had the one path, that required you to figure out where to go, AC essentially allows you to pick your own path.
AC is the very essence of how you’d expect games to evolve from the previous generation to the current one. The control scheme is unique and requires a little while to get used to, but becomes incredibly intuitive when you are proficient. It’s pure magic when you watch someone experienced play the game. Basically, Altair has three modes of movement. Pushing on the analog stick will make Altair walk. By holding the right trigger, he’ll start running. Furthermore, by holding the A button, he’ll go into free running mode. That is, go climbing, running across rooftops and whatnot.
If you can see it, you can go there.
There are two things that set AC apart with this. Firstly, the game somewhat takes away the notion of pressing buttons to perform actions. When Altair is in the right ‘mode’, he’ll move and react according to the mode and the direction that you’re moving him. For example, in free running mode, you’ll automatically jump and run across rooftops, so long as you move in that direction. In a rather nice touch, without pressing any buttons, you can walk up to ledges and Altair will look down below without jumping off. In fact, there are numerous such touches that a littered throughout the gameplay mechanics.
Secondly, the game played incredibly fluidly. Realistically, for a new player it will take a little bit of time to get used to the different abilities at their disposal. However, not only was it phenomenal to watch an experienced player, but then came the realization that you could do those things as well. Indeed, while there were still a few awkward moments, the fact is, you have three cities that are almost entirely open to your exploration. If you can see it, chances are, you can go to it. The potential for some wonderful acrobatic sequences is through the roof, literally.
Fun or frustration?
Running across the top of rooftops however isn’t the only thing that you’ll be doing in the game. There are rather strong stealth, combat and exploration elements to the game. Not to mention, from what we’ve played, Assassin’s Creed looks to be one of the few games to really allow us to tackle the path however we wanted. For example, upon entering one of the game’s cities, our path was blocked by guards. There were three distinct choices (with the possibility for more). One, fight the guards. Two, sneak around the side and monkey your way in. And three, assassinate someone discretely and amble in when the guards run over to see what’s wrong. Hopefully, this kind of player interactivity will persist through the whole game.
In terms of exploration, players will have three very large cities to explore: Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus. In between, there is a whole ‘kingdom’ for players to explore (possibly on horseback). And we must admit, the game is turning out to be incredibly massive. Unlike PoP, the world here is almost entirely open. The stealth in the game is treated rather interestingly. You’ve got a choice between discrete and rather obvious assassinations, as well as taking out players from a distance with throwing knives, but that's not even scratching the surface. Again, while it did take getting used to, once a player knew what they were doing, they were really acting like a proper assassin. Once you knew what you were doing, a lot of the clumsiness that is usually associated with stealth game starts to fade away. You've got a choice of playing with or without a HUD, though the developer informed us that without the HUD was originally how it was intended.
Game of the year? That's a leap of faith from us.
Now, how about the combat? Well, it will probably be one of the aspects that impatient players will not appreciate. It’s heavily dependent on blocks, counters and parries. During our playtime, we didn’t quite get the hang of it and even the experienced players were getting beaten at times. Still, after witnessing some of the crazy counters, we’re quite confident that we’ll get used to it in time. During our playtime, it was also explained to us why the enemies would stand around and seemingly not attack. Well, if you were in a block stance, they would be cautious. Get out of the block and you’d be hammered ruthlessly. While it isn’t quite enough to completely alleviate our AI concerns, the overall impression was solid thus far.
So far, Assassin’s Creed is displaying some incredible gameplay and design achievements. For arguably the first time, the benefits of the ‘next-gen’ are being reaped. However, the technical side of the game is just as proficient. Okay, so aspects such as animation, detail and the like are all in order, but Assassin’s Creed is easily one of the smoothest running games looking to be released so far. The nearly finished build ran better than 90% of the games that are currently available on the market. Yes, there were a few minor blips on the way, that look even more out of place when things look so good, but when you’re standing on top of the cathedral in Acre and observing the world around you, you won’t care in the slightest.
So in case you’re still wondering why are we so excited about Assassin’s Creed, well, it puts together the some of the best elements of Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell, throws them into an almost open and unique environment and takes out a lot of the frustration. Furthermore, the gameplay, design and technical aspects are some of the first to show off the true benefits of this so-called HD era. If not the first, they’re certainly doing it the best at the moment. So as we mentioned above, there is little doubt in our mind that Assassin’s Creed will end up being great. It’s merely a matter of how great.
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