Assassin’s Creed Review by The Game Reviews

Much of Assassin’s Creed Gameplay revolves around avoiding the unwanted attention of guards so that you can complete objectives away from prying eyes. Draw too much attention and a battle will ensue, requiring players to choose between fight or flight, forcing you to re-attempt the mission. Bump a person carrying a bundle of sticks or a woman with a pot on her head, and they will drop their wares, bringing down a cadre of goons. Altair can face them or run and hide in a nearby bail of hay, bench, or rooftop garden, and the sensation of outmaneuvering your relatively clumsy foes is an exhilarating rush that never gets old. However, despite his maneuverability, it’s desirable to avoid the ruckus altogether when in a crowd by holding down the B button, which allows Altair to gently push pedestrians out of his path without alerting any nearby sentries.

Fighting mechanics are quite solid, and players will be able to handle large groups of foes with ease. In addition to his assassin’s blade used for 1-hit kills, Altair has a long-sword for maximum damage in group battles, a short-sword that is faster and better suited for large groups, but does less damage, throwing knives, which are great for taking out distant enemies, and his fists, which are only helpful when performing an interrogation. You can collect a handful of flags and kill 60 Templars scattered throughout the game-space, but these side tasks are only appropriate for those obsessed with accruing achievements, as they have no impact on character progression, story, or game play.

Altair can hop from beam to beam with ease, making speedy getaways an attractive tactic.

Although you can get by with fighting most of the time, mission objectives often require players to complete tasks on the down-low. This becomes challenging because performing combat or acrobatic moves require players to switch to high-profile mode, which allows Altair to execute badass maneuvers like scaling sheer building faces, shoulder tackling pedestrians, and jumping from rooftop to rooftop. Unfortunately such abilities come at a price: anytime you need to hustle, you hold down the high profile button (R Trigger) and will become much more nimble but also more noticeable to the many guards scattered all over the maps.

Each assassination is broken up into stages, some of which are great, others not so much. Once you travel to the location via horseback, you begin your search for your target by climbing tall structures within the city which reveals the surrounding area on the player’s map and highlights places to investigate. Once atop a building, you can jump off and dive spectacularly into a pile of hay on the streets below, which looks incredibly cool and never gets old. After unlocking various sections of the map, you can begin your investigation of the target, which has players eavesdropping, interrogating, pick-pocketing, saving citizens, or helping other assassins by gathering flags or performing a series of contract kills within a time limit. Finally the player initiates the assassination phase by reporting their research to the local assassin’s bureau and compile the information they have gathered to fulfill the contract kill.

Although the climbing and informant missions can be fun, since the crowd dynamics and free running involved capitalize on the game’s strengths, the eavesdropping, interrogation and pick-pocketing aren’t the slightest bit challenging and often yield only marginally helpful information. Saving citizens is somewhat more exciting, but sadly you will hear the same dialogue repeat each and every one of the 50 or so times the game will ask you save someone, and this gets old fast. It’s generally worth saving these citizens though because they will either unlock scholars, whom you can use for mobile cover, or vigilantes, who will fight for you should the guards come after you, but it would have been really nice if rescuing them didn’t occur in exactly the same fashion every time. At the very least, the dialogue should have had far more variety… it’s never good when you can know what an NPC is going to say verbatim.