REVIEW: Assassin’s Creed (PS3)
- Scribbled on December 18th, 2007 by JBonner71
- Filed in Action, Game Videos, Reviews, Sony PlayStation 3, TheCritics.TV
Assassin’s Creed is the latest title from industry giant, Ubisoft, who are known to put out high quality software, by and large. Assassin’s Creed does have all the trappings of a “AAA” game but, the more I played it, the more its’ cracks began to show. And, unfortunately, there are some pretty big fucking cracks here.
The good: this is a drop-dead gorgeous game with exceptional animations, especially when the main character, Altair, does his thing. There are also three fully realized, ancient cities in this game that truly seem alive as you stroll through them. It is also exceptionally well-written and performed, and the ambient, musical score is nothing to sneeze at, either. The production values on Assassin’s Creed are second to none and rival the best of what Hollywood has to offer.
The bad: Well, unfortunately, all those top-notch production values go right out the window when you pick up a controller and actually play the game. There are some noticeable frame-rate drops and clipping/pop-in issues. The learning curve is steep, the move set complex and does nothing but fail you in sticky situations. There are some sublime moments when you pull off a sweet, leaping stealth kill and you think, “Hey, I’ve got the hang of this,” and then you get stuck on a wall or gate while you’re trying to escape from the 800 bloodthirsty guards that are chasing you throughout the city.
Also, the checkpoint save system implemented in Assassin’s Creed sucks because you can’t save anywhere you like, which would’ve been handy here as a good deal of the gameplay (especially in the later, more difficult levels) is trial and error. Nothing pisses me off more than having to replay a section, or watch the same cut-scene, over and over and over because I can’t save when and where I want to.
The ugly: the PS3 version of Assassin’s Creed freezes pretty frequently (it happened to me, like, six or seven times during the course of the game) and you have to reboot and all that. Once when this happened, it corrupted my save file and I had to start all over again. Most uncool. Supposedly, there is a patch coming to fix this problem, but it still wasn’t live as of today, so consider yourself warned if you play this game on the PS3.
I so wanted to love Assassin’s Creed. It was one of the titles I was totally looking forward to this year. It is beautiful to look at but actually playing it is an exercise in frustration. I liken it to meeting a hot chick at a club, dancing with her, buying her drinks all night - but when you get her home you find out “she’s a man, baby!” It is just that shameful, depressing and maddening…all at the same time. I can’t help but think that this one could’ve used a little more development time but was hustled out the door to cash in on the lucrative holiday season.
FINAL RATING: 
(out of five)
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December 18th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I don’t know what bars he is visiting but my Assassin’s Creed is still “a girl”, and despite it minor flaws I really enjoyed my stay in the 12th century, and played the game for hours on the weekends without a single freeze, even before the patch was available.
And who is running from the guards? *sinister grin* If you mastered the combat systems they usually hold their hands in front of their eyes when you take their buddies out one by one, and even flee the scene after the tenth or so guard suffered from spontaneous blood loss due to pointy metal thing
December 18th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I guess you’re just better than me, then. :^)
As I said, I really wanted to dig AC and it has its’ moments…BUT as a cohesive whole it disappoints more than it thrills, in my humble estimation.
And I didn’t even get into the repetitive nature of the missions, which didn’t bother me as much as it did MANY other reviewers.
December 18th, 2007 at 7:34 pm
The only problem I really had with that game was when I climbed around the city and Altaïr decided to look up instead of reaching for the ledge directly above of him, and it only took a tiny step to the left or right to make him climb … which sadly happened more than once when I started to explore the cities for their high points to synchronize. But after some time you get used to it, at least I did, and you know what is quickly climbable and what’s not.
And I wouldn’t call the missions repetitive at all like most reviewers did, too. Sure most of them involved killing guards and other enemies of Masyaf, but you had missions like the flag runs across rooftops and the pickpocketing, compared to games like Crackdown Assassin’s Creed had a lot more to offer.
But yes I can see why some gamers are disappointed when looking at the whole package, because it has its undeniable flaws and for some the freeze issue. But for me the game’s back story was working, the atmosphere was there and the dialogs driving the story were well done (even though some considered them to long) … I’d give it a 4 on your 5 star scale.
December 18th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
I hear you…and you make some valid points.
My guess is (if Ubisoft Montreal get enough time…) that AC2 will be the awesome game that I was expecting here.
December 18th, 2007 at 11:15 pm
I hope they find some free time in their busy schedule, because I want to explore some other ancient cities and find a few answers to the questions raised in this game. Possible spoiler ahead, so if you haven’t played the game dear random reader I suggest you stop reading right now! I wouldn’t mind them fast forwarding a couple of centuries and let Hikoboshi (Altair in Japanese) help his clan to stop the Templars from converting 16th century Japan to Christianity, which would at least somehow explain the Kanjis flashing before Desmond’s eyes every time he went to sleep. The game mechanics could work for a stealthy ninja blending into his surroundings as well in my humble opinion.
December 19th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Yeah, I had similar thoughts about the inevitable sequel. We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess… :^)
January 7th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
yet another let down for the ps3 isnt their a pattern forming here ? lets fade it sony has had all our pants down