I have seen the hype for this game for several month’s now and after my Daughter’s rave review of the game on a friend’s PS3 I decided to take the plunge and buy it for my PC. I generally like playing fantasy RPG or strategy games, so this was a slight deviation from my normal game, but with the reviews I have read, and the screenshots and video I had seen it looked like it was an enjoyable game

Installation

Normally I would leave the ‘installation’ part of the review until the end, as it often isn’t a major factor in deciding whether the game is good, however, with my own experience of installation I felt it important to include this first.

In small print on the box you will notice ‘Video Card: 256MB Direct X 10.0 – compliant video card or Direct x 9.0 – compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 higher or equivalent. Now I bought my PC about 2 years ago – it was top of the range at the time, but the installed video card that came with the PC would not work with this game. Luckily I upgraded my PC with a 512MB ATI Radeon X1500 last year – while this is not listed as a supported card, it does run the game, so before you buy the game check out the video card specifications.

In a yellow box on the back of the case there’s also another notice “This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives” – pretty innocuous I thought – how wrong could I be! I have dual DVD drives – one is a DVD writer, the other a standard DVD/CD reader. I first tried to install from my main DVD drive. After about ten minutes I suddenly receive an error – something about Newfeatures1, and the game essentially didn’t install. I tried it again after cleaning the DVD – no luck. AHA google – so I trundled over to Google, searched for the error message and started to cry. According to most ‘blogs’ and other sites, the only way to fix this was to get a replacement!

Ahhh but I am not that easily dissuaded, so I decided to read the documentation…hmmm nothing in there…the ubi support site is a mess and it took me ten minutes to find anything to do with this error…hmmm….replace……undeterred I then noticed the aforementioned little yellow box. EUREKA!!! I switched to my secondary DVD drive and the game installed…..

So be aware that in some cases you may not be able to install the game!

Tutorial

OK so most games have a tutorial that teaches the fundamentals of the game. Now I’ve been playing games for nearly 30 years so I decided to skip this….hmmm….OK how do I do that? Son of a beeswax…I couldn’t do it….I had to go through a couple of minutes introduction, then go through a ten minute tutorial….AHHHHH with the installation problems….and this…it actually took me about an hour to actually get into the real game!!!!!

I should note that the Tutorial was actually pretty good and did go through some important elements of the game such as sprinting and hiding, silent combat, getting noticed etc….so I begrudgingly accepted that the Tutorial was OK.

The Game
Ahhhhh finally. Well like most people I don’t normally read the manual – I had to skim through it to try and get the game installed, but generally the manual seemed very sparse. The tutorial went a long way to help me understand the concepts of the game, so I was fairly happy to dive right into the game. The first ‘memory’ as they are called involved following a couple of assassin buddies to retrieve treasure for my boss. Before doing anything I went into the options and changed the graphics setting to maximum….two minutes later I went back and changed the graphics settings back to what was first presented to me…..looks like my computer isn’t powerful enough for full graphics mode, despite meeting all requirements – looks like you’ll need dual graphics cards (cross fire) a high end processor and oodles of memory….well even at the lower graphics level the game still looked pretty awesome…

The character movement is fluid and very realistic…the people you encounter move well although the reaction to bumping into them etc is a little mechanical for me…my first real problem with the game is the speech synchronization…it was like watching a bad Japanese movement…the voice would play nicely and then the mouth would move for several seconds after…this may be because my graphics card isn’t quite up to the standard specs…or maybe I have an old graphics driver, but it was a little strange to say the least…

Ok…so I jumped into the game…followed the assassin and promptly fell down a hole and killed myself….AHA……me thinks I need to take more care….luckily the game seems to save often…

Second time around I read the helpful instructions and soon found myself jumping over chasms on to beams….as I did this it became clear to me that the controls were pretty intuitive…you have to press the right mouse button at times, combined with the space bar at others…but this seemed to come easily to me. I particularly like the way you climb…..it’s not a simple case of hitting the up button, but you almost have to move your body to reach the next ‘step’….it feels quite different to any other movement system I’ve tried and really is fun.

Finally I come to the room with the treasure in it and lo and behold, the Assassin Guild’s nemesis is there already and aims to thwart your plans…thus starts the game, introducing you to the main characters, while also slowly introducing you to the game conepts…

…my next memory involved running through a city to find my boss to tell him I had failed….

This is where I have my second criticism for the game….you are given a GPS that shows you where the next ‘goal’ is….problem is that it’s not always a straight line, you have to move around buildings etc…nothing wrong with that I hear you cry, but I found the manipulation of the map together with the GPS to be less than easy…and this was surprising given my experience with the control of the character…ohhh by the way…I forgot to mention that you aren’t actually the assassin in medieval times, but are a modern assassin attached to some funky machine for a couple of scientists who want something from the past…..hmmm that cleared everything up for you then eh!

OK…so after my initial excitement at playing the game, and trying to get everywhere very quickly, I decided to slow down and actually look at the game!

Well this is where I say WOW! Even with my inferior PC and inferior Graphics card the game is stunning. The world you are in is a living breathing world – not only is the attention to detail incredible, with souring towers, fantastic buildings and scenery that is simply awesome, but the people around you seem to be almost real. The world bustles with activity. Your actions affect what happens in this world – if you simply sprint everywhere, you end up running into people, causing them to drop jars, etc. The world also seems to have a life of its own. People seemingly have conversations with each other, Guards menace people, orators ummm orate…well not only is the world amazingly stunning, but so is the social interaction pretty diverse and amazing.

Although initially your world is limited, perhaps to give you time to get used to the controls and your effect on the world, you’ll find that after several hours of gameplay you’ll begin to see more and more, and realize the size and sheer beauty of the game. Just simple things like shadows add such an amazing touch that you’ll find it hard to realize it is simply a game. The textures all around you are immaculate – it seems that there is so much detail in this game.

As I briefly mentioned before, the animation of the humans is incredible….I particularly am impressed with the way you climb..but the fighting sequences are just as good…as I mentioned before there are a few glitches and some of the reactions of the public feel a little contrived, but overall the animations are very liquid.

I note here that the game costs $50 – but in reality it’ll probably cost you more. Seeing the visuals on my lowly machine is sorely tempting me to go and buy a far better ‘Quad Core’ PC with dual graphics cards – this will set me back a whopping $2000 – is the game worth $2050 – probably not!!! From reviews I’ve read, a high powered PC makes the game look better than the PS3 and XBOX 360 – but at a cost!

And then there’s the sound…you hear the bustle of the streets, the birds singing, dogs barking…people making remarks when you jump down from a wall…again this is very well done and adds hugely to the atmosphere of the game I note that some of the sounds are so realistic that my poor dogs are getting very very confused. The music in the game was also good – subtle and nice – doesn’t add much to the game, but it was OK – probably be strange if it wasn’t there. I note that I had a few glitches with the sound - most notable the lack of synchronization of voices to mouths – now this is supposedly problems with my Realtek HD Audio card….so you may need to buy a new sound card too!!!

Storyline

Hmmm story? Really? Yes there is one. One thing I did feel was that although there is a quite detailed plot, the way in which the game breaks up into memories made it a little disjointed….apparently there are nine public figures that require assassination….your boss gives you all the information you require on where to kill them….but as you move through the scenarios you begin to learn more about why your modern day assassin has been ‘forced’ to relive the memories…

This plot does seem interesting, but I found myself ignoring most of it and just following the tasks set to achieve the goal….this was perhaps the worst part of the game…and really does detract from the overall game…once you’ve got past the stunning graphics and sound, you really want a meaty plot and I feel that Assassin’s creed failed in this aspect.

Now as you progress through the game, you do realize that it is more open ended than you would expect. You can explore the vast world finding your own fun. Many of the quests you do test your different abilities. Stealth is used to follow people, or listen in on conversation. Combat (hmm oh yeah forgot to explain that didn’t I…..very simple…pick one of four weapons…click a few buttons and voila…..pretty easy or so it seems) missions involve various skills…not imply killing….you have to stealthily creep up on the archer on the room…and throw him off…at times you have to avoid pursuit…you can hide in haystacks or blend in with a crowd of monks…these are perhaps the more interesting and complex quests…involving multiple skills…well don’t forget you are an assassin after all…so killing is the ‘meat’ you like!

Overall

The box claims this to be a true ‘next-gen’ game. It’s not far off the truth. The graphics and sound are exceptional and add a huge element to the atmosphere of the game. The gameplay is varied and interesting, and the sheer size will keep most players happy for a long while. The fact that you can almost go anywhere in this rendered world, and that the detail everywhere is simply outstanding is staggering…it really is like being immersed in a total world…and did I mention, the climbing is realllllly fun………..



Recommended: Yes