Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360) > Reviews > ASSASSINS CREED : GOOD OR NOT!?

Author's product rating:   

Playability & Enjoyment	OK -
Addictiveness	Not exactly addictive but certainly playable
Graphics	Good
Difficulty & Complexity	Quite a simple game not too complicated
Value for money	Limited value

Advantages:	Great graphics and a great idea for a game
Disadvantages:	No multiplayer, Very Short, Not much Replayability

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

ASSASSINS CREED

Assassins creed had a lot of publicity throughout the gaming industry and from what they showed us at the various public displays it looked as though it was going to be an outstanding game that everyone would want. It looked as though it may sell out and that possibly it would over take other best selling games such as Halo 3. It was released on the 21st of November in England and due to all of the public hype and from what I had seen I really wanted a copy. Luckily there was still loads of copy's left. The game came as the standard box game or as a limited edition set with a different case and a figure of the main player. I purchased the standard edition as the Altair figurine did not warrant me spending an extra £20. Any way I got the game at home and below is the review.

THE STORY

In assassins creed you play as Altair and you will have to assassinate various targets around the three different city's. When the game starts you will have access to almost all of the attacks and ability's. However as the story progresses your player will lose all ability's and will have to start as a new assassin and work his way back up to the master assassin level again. To become a master assassin you will have to kill all of the key targets around the city's and uncover a secret that links all of them together. I do not want to say much more on the story as it may give away too much. The story is great however, but can be difficult to keep up with at times.

GAME PLAY

The sword fighting is difficult to get used to at first and you may find your self running from more fights than you had planned but as you progress you will get your ability's back as well as new weapons and the sword fighting will become easier and you will become more skilled. Eventually however I believe they made the ability's you can have to powerful and the sword fighting becomes too easy and even slightly repetitive.

The levels are stunning great to look at but are not as big as they actually seem. You will also find them very repetitive as each mission requires you do various tasks around the city to gather information on your main target. Once you have enough information you can begin the mission to assassinate the main target. The various tasks that you will have to do are basically the same each time and are very simple to complete. In fact they seem to just waste your time eventually and are there simply to prolong the game which otherwise would be over in hours.

The free running, although a great effect, is not what I had hoped. To climb obstacles and buildings all you have to do is hold a button and face your character at the obstacle you wish to climb. I think they should have gave the player more control over the character during the free running as it does not provide a challenge.

GRAPHICS

The graphics are great and the free running and sword fighting motion is very fluent. The only problem I have with the graphics are that sometimes the camera angles, Especially when fighting at street level, can be a bit trouble some and poorly chosen by the game.

CONTROLS

The controls are simple the master and most actions depend on timing rather than player control. I think that they should have made the controls more complex to allow the player more control over actions such as free running (where you simply hold down the "R" button and run at the wall/ building etc) and sword fighting (where Pressing "X" at the right time is basically it.) There are slight variances in the fighting controls such as countering (which I found is easiest and most useful way to fight) and blocking but these basic controls are as far as the fighting system goes.

LIFESPAN

With no online play or multiplayer of any sort you will find the game is very short lived. I completed the game in 3 days and even then I was only playing it a few hours a day. I did also complete all the side quests / missions so it is not as though I rushed it. I found that searching for all of the hidden flags scattered throughout the city's and other extras take more time to complete than the main story itself. it took a further 4-5 days to find all the extras.

SHOULD I BUY!?

It is a good game but it has not lived up to anywhere near it's intended hype. There is no multiplayer and the game will be finished very quickly leaving you wanting more. I don't want to give away too much but as the game is supposed to be part of a trilogy the ending for this game is very weak is you can even call it an ending rather than leaving it for the next games to complete. Hopefully UBISOFT will do more to improve the next games. The replayability is actually quite poor and so I found myself listing my copy of assassins creed on eBay a few days after finishing it to get some money back. So I would say do NOT buy this game, BUT it is worth renting it for a week or two to complete it and to get the story.