Game Review: Assassin's Creed

So I've decided by now that I'll alternate between anime and game reviews, unless there is something that I absolutely have to write about. Anyways, lets get started with this week's game. 

Assassin's Creed is a game that has been out for sometime (2007), but its still a great game that has developed into a great series as well. So I'll start out with some of the background story of Assassin's Creed.

The first AC (short for Assassin's Creed) was released towards the end of 2007 and its a historical fantasy/action game based around the Crusades with some science fiction elements added onto it. It sound weird to say that there is science fiction elements on a game that is based around the Crusades, but let me explain.

The story starts out with a man named Desmond Miles that has been kidnapped and he doesn't know where he is. He finds out that he has been kidnapped by modern-day Templar group operating under the name of Abstergo, which is a corporation running operations worldwide. At first he doesn't know why a secret organization would want him, but once he starts talking about his past is when we find out the truth.

Desmond was raised in a "Farm," which is a codename for headquarters of another secret organization simply known as the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is a group of assassins that have existed since ancient time, and they are tasked with protection humanity at all cost. But when Desmond was 16, he decided to escape before he learned any of this information. Since then, he had been living outside of the system and trying to not leave a trace of his existence. But he made one mistake, he decided to get a drivers license for a motorcycle and that's how Abstergo was able to find him. Desmond learns that he is a descendant of of a long line of important assassins in history, and that is why Abstergo wants him. 

Abstergo knows that there are items that exist known as Pieces of Eden that have the power to control humanity, and they want to use those items to control the world. The Templars have been looking for these items since ancient times, but the Brotherhood has always been there to stop them and make sure that humanity keeps its freewill. So in or to find these artifacts, Abstergo has developed a machine called the Animus which is able to extract memories from a person's ancestors through their DNA. This is where Desmond comes into play.

Throughout the game, Desmond will be placed in this machine to relive the life of one of his ancestors called Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad. Desmond will have to assassinate Templars in the time of the Crusades to be able to protect one of the artifacts that the Brotherhood had acquired. While he assassinates Templars that have committed "sins" against the people, Altair learns of the powers of the artifact and who he should actually be protecting the artifact from.

So that's the basic story behind AC. I liked the story of the game, but there were a few things that bothered me while I was playing. One was the repetition of the game. In most games you have to repeat things quite a few times in order to achieve certain goals. But they went a little over board on this one. In every assassination (nine in total) you had to do the same things in order to kill the Templar you were after. Let me explain.

You would get to a town, and the first thing you would have to do is talk to the head of the Brotherhood in that town. Once he told you who your target was, your job was to go around town and collect information about the target as well as doing some side quest in the process. Once you had all the intel you needed, you went back to the safe house and report on what you found. Then you would finally be able to kill your target, which was no easy task. It usually involved sneaking into a place that was heavily guarded. Once you killed the target, you had to rush and get out of that place before the guards killed you. You see what I mean? It doesn't sound too bad here, but try doing that over and over again for a few hours and it gets borring.

I liked the combat system, because it was set up in an open world kind of way. You had the option of using multiple weapons like a hidden blade (usually used for stealth kills), knifes, or a sword. There was a few glitches with the game; like if you jumped off a ledge, it would sometimes get stuck on something and Altaïr would just float in mid air. They released a patch later on, so it wasn't too bad.

Apart from what I mentioned, I enjoyed the game very much, especially the story. Like I mentioned at the beginning, this game has developed into a series and I plan to write about AC2 in 2 weeks (which is even better in my opinion). I liked this game, but I hesitate to recommend it to people because of the repetitive factor. But if you don't mind it, then its a great game. But you should still check it out, because once you get to AC2, its totally worth it.

Thanks for reading.