Aug 21, 2008

I’m a big fan of this game.

It is set in an extremely immersive world and honestly, simply running around a very beautiful rendition of the medieval Holyland is extremely fun. The fact that you can climb on nearly anything, hide from people and confront nearly any character in the game simply adds to the enjoyment. There are many ways to complete the tasks set before you, and its the openness of the game that really draws you in.

The game itself follows a fairly straightforward plot with additional weapons and abilities being bestowed upon you as you complete tasks for your master. There are no choices at each level up, but completing side tasks can help you gain stamina to last longer in a fight.

The basic plot is that you wake up to find yourself in a laboratory with some people who want to put you in a machine that allows you to live out the memories of your ancestors - one of which happens to be an assassin.

In the memories, each of several cities (Acre, Jerusalem, Damascus) are broken up into 3 sections, each with a plot to uncover and ultimately a target to assassinate. There is also Masyaf, the assassin stronghold to explore and the space in between the cities that is called “The Kingdom”.  A lot can happen there too…

You play the silent hand of power in the larger struggle of the Crusades of 1191- the English king, Richard the Lionhearted wars against Saladin the Saracen for control of the Holyland. You assassinate members of both factions, doing the bidding of the Assassin’s master. In each section, you can either quickly do some basic research and get on with killing your target, or you can take the approach of doing everything there is to do in that section. The more you do, the more you “synchronize” with your ancestor’s memory of what happened, and the more hitpoints you essentially receive. If you do decide to do everything, you’ll probably feel like it is a bit repetitive, as the tasks aren’t really varied at all from city to city - just the same 7 or 8 basic jobs to do.  Still though, I found it enjoyable.

There is also plot to be uncovered outside of the memories, though a lot of it feels very stifled compared to the openness of the memory portions. I suppose that could be intentional, as you are supposed to be held against your will.

Having been to the Holyland a few times, I was endlessly fascinated by the digital recreations of cities that I have seen only in the context of a modern city sitting squarely atop their archeological pasts. Regardless of how inaccurate the representation may be, to run around through that past in somewhat of a first person perspective was extremely rewarding in and of itself.

With such a good setting, the other excellent aspects of the game were greatly enhanced, and the few flaws of the game were effectively minimized.

Some may be offended by some of the games theological musings, but I took that all with a large grain of salt - just as I did the ability of the character to suddenly “disappear” from 20 armed guardsmen by jumping into a pile of hay for 2 minutes.  Seems like they would look a little harder for someone who just killed the ruler of the city.

Overall, it was an excellent balance of “realistic” confrontation and action with a fairly palatable dose of required “suspension of disbelief” to keep things going.

The voice acting of the main character is fairly horrible early on - it either gets better, or I got used to it. Donno which.

I highly recommend this game for anyone that wants to run around and have their way with medieval history in the context of an excellent thinking man’s action game.

Assassins Creed, PC Games, Ubisoft