Assassin's Creed (Xbox 360) > Reviews > Fun but repetitive, needs that bit extra

Author's product rating:   

Playability & Enjoyment	A good game - playable and enjoyable
Addictiveness	Very hard to stop playing
Graphics	Excellent
Difficulty & Complexity	A difficult game - needs a lot of patience
Value for money	Satisfactory - it’s a reasonable game

Advantages:	Fun, stunning graphics, long storyline
Disadvantages:	repetitive, not very replayable, slow and glitchy sometimes

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I borrowed this game from my friend, after hearing all the hype but not wanting to shell out another £30 for a game. And to be honest I am glad I didn't buy it. Don't get me wrong it's a fantastic game, but once I'd completed it I had a feeling of; "Is that it?" it is very unlikely I will play it again.

First, the storyline. I'll try not to give too much away. You are an average Joe, whose grandfather was a master assassin back in the crusades. Some scientists kidnap you and use your memory to relive you grandfather's assassinations.

Well, personally I think the story would have worked perfectly well, without having to keep coming back to the present only for an update on the story, which to be honest is a bit rubbish. The time you are in the past though, that is something else, well crafted and not too slow, this works perfectly. It is very realistic, and very accurate (I am told).

Graphics

One word. Stunning. I have a 42" HD plasma TV and the graphics are simply amazing, the cities are really brought to life and you can see so much detail on peoples faces. The only criticism I have is I have to shut the blinds during the day time, as sun reflection really affects this game.

Game play

After scanning the manual, I thought, "How am I going to remember all of this?" But the game has a good tutorial and you pick up the controls fairly quickly. It took me a while to get used to where the buttons were, for example I kept assassinating people rather than pick pocketing them, but I think that's more my problem. One thing I didn't like was that when sprinting away from pursuing guard, if I ran near a climbable wall I would start climbing it, leaving me easy pickings and forcing me to fight hand to hand.

The controls work really well for hand to hand fighting, and it is my favourite aspect of the game. The fights can be repetitive, but as the difficulty increases you do not notice as much. Climbing and free running, though unrealistic are also extremely good, but again a little repetitive.

Overall, the game play is very well done, very fluid, although my Xbox has frozen on two occasions.

The Game

There are heaps of things to do, there are 9 main missions, but to unlock these you need to do at least 3 of 6 fact finding missions, such as eavesdropping or pick pocketing etc. To find these you need to climb high places, and so the build up to these missions can get very repetitive.

There are also side missions such as finding high places and saving citizens (fun as well as helping your health/sync bar) and finding flags (pointless and not so fun).

Overall, while it took me a long time to complete, and I enjoyed playing it immensely, I cannot see myself playing it again.
Personally I would recommend hireling, borrowing, or picking it up second hand, as once you have completed it, you will be satisfied, but not raring to repeat the process.