Prince of Persia (PS3)
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)

In an adventure game like this where freedom is everything, the storyline must be cohesive and addictive, yet cleverly gelled together to keep players hooked and wanting to carry on rather than generally exploring at their will ignoring the concept of the game and causing havoc. Sadly, Assassin’s Creed falls apart pretty much from the get go. The medieval story of the Assassins war with the Templar, where forts and castles bring the landscape to life really explodes on the screen. It’s interesting, has some historical fact and overall brings at least some emotion to the game meaning for some parts character sympathy or even possibly player relation can be seen. It’s got a pretty good script, staying true to the times and positively enhances the realism of the whole game.

It’s pretty hard to criticize the game’s graphics when they are so aesthetically pleasing with fantastic lighting effects used to create a world so vibrant yet so raw. It makes a brilliant atmosphere that has no concept of technology, just land that seems to endlessly go on and on and on. 3D rendering is accurately modelled to create yet more realism and an added depth to things which just means things flow smoothly together. Buildings are wonderfully crafted together to create towns and villages and it uses a superb array of different shapes to keep things varied and different.

Taking a leaf out of the Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia series, animation works rather well here for this sandbox title with swings, jumps and leaps all looking perfection with very little glitches and careful detail added in for extra appraise. The whole body is used when performing the death defying gymnastics which again gives the game a whole next gen look. I assume real body motion detection was used in creating the style, which is not only high budget but pretty impressive in terms of execution because it looks and feels of very high standard. The only little annoying thing I found was the efficiency of the animation when riding a horse tends to be less vivacious with stops and starts when jumping over road blocks and obstacles.

One of the things noted from many critics was the brilliant voice acting that ‘sets the storyline on fire’. Sadly I disagree. Maybe I’m too cynical, but I found it stereotypical, at times daft and mostly mediocre. Altair’s broody voice seems too out of setting with the rest of the game and mostly resembles a moody teenager whilst the master’s voice is at best a copy of Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Guards are often too formal whilst women in the street seem too hysterical, you wouldn’t be wrong in thinking that it seemed like an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess. With little grunts and groans mixed in with general comments from the general public such as ‘Huh, what is he doing that for?’ and ‘Quick somebody call a guard before he hurts himself!’ seem way too funny and far too English for that matter.

Pictures of Assassin's Creed (PS3)

Assassin's Creed (PS3)

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The problem with all this wandering around is that it becomes way too repetitive way too quickly which abruptly becomes boring. At first it is a novelty, after a few times it becomes a useless way at extending the gameplay and calling it ‘freedom’ to do what you want as a player. Sometimes you wish things would move around at a faster pace because what it ultimately does it slow down the gameplay and forces you to play along at the developers speed. This may be an adventure game but at times it certainly lacks a strong element of action that is often needed in today’s games to offer a wide variety to a many different selection of gamers. Using the ability ‘eagle eye’ is worthless too, a sort of sight enhancement means different types of people are shaded in different colours, green, white and blue all have different meanings.

When you are seen however, you are given the chance to either flee and hide or to stand and fight. Fleeing is an option early on in the game when you haven’t got many weapons, but that just becomes pointless after a while because they seem to follow you everywhere. By diving into haystacks and rooftop balconies you can evade them, but it seems too much like Metal Gear Solid really to have any real effect. Combat isn’t much better either with a one button system meaning combos and hits rely on you hitting the same button over and over again. This isn’t meant to be a button basher so why act like one and the enemy A.I is ridiculous at times with a whole swarm surrounding you but only one attacking at a time. Simple, easy, call it what you like but it has been done awfully.

Overall, Assassin’s Creed for me was way over hyped with little substance offering too much style with its great looking visuals, smooth flowing animation and addictive rooftop crawling antics, but sadly drowns in bad voice acting, little progression in terms of gameplay and a combat system taken straight from a child’s game. The storyline is just way too overlapped causing confusion with its conflicting time periods and not even the originality of the whole tone of the game can pull it out of that pit I mentioned earlier. It’s disappointing really because it has potential, but instead of taking the risks at creating a game that is high in replay value, it just acts like a stain in the PS3 history.