| Review: Assassin’s Creed – High Art killing |
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| Written by Mike Bantick | ||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 16 December 2007 | ||||||||||||||||
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For as the curtain falls away from the Matrix like loading screens, instead of the expected middle eastern vistas depicted by many images of the game, the player is confronted with a modern-day clinic setting, and a player character, Desmond Miles the bar keeper. Okay, turns out that the story of Desmond is that he is a distant descendant of Altair, a master assassin living during the Third Crusade. Because of this link, a shadowy (aren’t they always?) researcher company, Abstergo Industries wishes to tap into Desmond’s genetic memory for their own, undoubtedly, devious purposes. In order to achieve their goal, Desmond is subjected to a series of sessions under the Animus machine, a kind of mind reading device enabling the researchers and Desmond to synchronise memories with that of Altair. Without giving too much away, the parallel story of Desmond undergoing his memory synchronisation with his 12th century ancestor is a major highlight of the game. So easily could it have sunk into crap DaVinci Code clone, but instead rises above to a satisfying conclusion involving the Knights Templar, machinations of warrior leaders and valuable treasures. The concept of ancestral memories locked in an individuals DNA links the twin story lines brilliantly. As the Animus unlocks further memory blocks within Desmond, the game-play mechanisms of training missions and character development – along with player death (memory desynchronisation) are automatically achieved in a video game logic not previously achieved. The action parts of the game take place predominately as Altair, and boil down to a series of assassinations throughout a beautifully depicted middle east, featuring three major cities and a gorgeously rendered countryside in between.  Altair traverses the land on horseback and by playing out a series of mini missions such as pick pocketing, eavesdropping and interrogation, works out the movement of the current target. This is where the important element of Assassin’s Creed control scheme enters play. Altair’s movements are broken into two categories, low and high profile. Low profile moves keep Altair hidden from suspicious eyes, gently pushing his way through the heavily crowded streets, or joining a group of hooded and hunched scholars for even further camouflage. On the other hand, high profile moves give Altair his acrobatic moves, enabling the scaling of the [very] high towers, bounding over roof tops and bouncing off walls and cliffs. High profile moves are essential to break pursuer’s line of sight before diving into a cart of hay or similar until the alarm dies down. If escape is not possible then the blade is needed. Assassin’s Creed has been derided for the simple one button combat – the truth is though, there are subtle triumphs within the – yes simplified, but satisfying – combat system. Button timing, counter strikes, dodging and heavy and light strikes are all part of the cinematic combat sequences within the game. Sounds good, but Assassin's Creed does have its problems, click on to find out more. |
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