In Love With an Assassin

I can thank Assassin's Creed for putting me into a good gaming mood again. I despair however, because I've been playing it non-stop and I'm so very close to the end. With only two more assassination targets to go, my journey as Altair will conclude and I know in my heart there won't be much incentive for me to return to ancient Jerusalem after the last throat has been slit.

Can I wax philosophical praise about this game? This is a fantastic, flawed action-adventure that has fell a bit short of the unimaginable hype surrounding it but in no way deserves the derisive criticisms it's received since its release last November. I'll start by spilling out my gut impressions and dispelling the many unfair criticisms that have been leveled against AC. This will by no means resemble a proper, professional review, rather just a gushing tirade for what I feel is one of the most overlooked games of the 2007 holiday season.

But was it as overlooked as I claim it to be? By last count, I do believe AC has garnered some impressive numbers so far in terms of worldwide sales. While the North American numbers do not even come close to approaching juggernauts such as Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4, AC has been enough of a success to justify the inevitable sequel. It warms my heart to know that a new IP that treads off the beaten path a little bit will not fade into obscurity and has the chance of growing into a healthy, profitable franchise.

Hit the jump for more.

Right, so I'm supposed to wax poetic about why I love this game, in the context of a point-counterpoint argument against some criticisms that have been bandied about by fans and the mainstream gaming press. Firstly, there are the controls for the game. Quite simply, AC controls like a dream. Much was made of the intricate, unintuitive controls during AC's showing at last year's E3 and I have to scratch my head a bit after revelling in the joy of controling a graceful avatar such as Altair. Part of the blame can be placed on the Ubisoft developers, who seemed to go out of their way to tout their new-fangled puppeteering system. That was an unnecessary move and it gave the impression that seasoned gamers would have to re-train their fingers to deal with a slew of complicated move sets and control paradigms.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, the control scheme for AC is quite different from the controls any other third-person action game. You should expect a learning curve of about a half hour to acclimate yourself to the various subtleties of handling an acrobatic assassin. A helpful tutorial and introductory level will also spell out all of basic abilities. As the game progresses, you will gain new combat manuevers and you will be always given an opportunity to practice their use in a training arena. In a nutshell, the control issues are woefully overblown.

As a protagonist in a stealth/action game, Altair is more than a one-trick pony. He can alternate between a slow, casual gait (when he's trying to blend in with his surroundings) or a full sprint when he's in a rush or making a frantic escape from the city guards. He's a also a practitioner of parkour, which means that no obstacle is beyond his grasp and he can navigate the environment with the grace and efficiency of a cat. Parkour and free running have been in the spotlight these past few years thanks to movies like Casino Royale and actors like Cyril Raffaelli. AC captures the beauty of this physical art like no other.

If you can imagine the marriage of Stranglehold's auto-diving mechanics, Prince of Persia's flashy acrobatic moves and the death-defying verticality of Crackdown, you have a pretty clear sense of the AC play experience. Getting Altair to dance across the rooftops of Jerusalem is only a matter of holding down the right-trigger and the A button, then steering him in the desired direction. His various moves are handled automatically, depending on his present orientation and the environment around him. At first this feels like cheating, as if the game was playing itself and robbing me the chance to initiate every leap and grab myself. Not so. While it's possible to just rocket Altair around willy-nilly, you'll eventually find yourself tumbling down great heights or tripping over the city denizens, taking much damage and drawing much attention to yourself in the process. No, controlling Altair effectively requires a keen awareness of your surroundings. The contextually sensitive controls will handle all of the dirty work, but you have to pick the best route and play the role of the navigator... a role this is harder than it seems when you need to make haste or find yourself in a pickle with a entourage of angry city guards on your tail.

The combat in AC is also a different sort of beast compared to your typical action game. While stealth is Altair's greatest weapon, I've been forced to bludgeon my through many missions and in fact, I could criticize the designers for not penalizing me more engaging in open combat. I'll explain: combat is all about timing. Timing and observation will save your bacon in a fight against 10 city guards more than your previously honed skills at hammering out mutiple button combos. Your opponents will block most of your attacks and are pretty relentless themselves at ensuring that you are surrounded and overpowered by their superior numbers.

Fortunately, you have at your disposal a very powerful counterattack move that will dispatch lesser enemies instantly, as well as a block-breaking attack when you're ready to go on the offensive. Fighting really boils down to 1 or 2 button presses at any given time. The real beauty of the system is that it rewards excellent timing and a keen eye. Observation plays a key role not only in reacting quickly enough when you see an enemy attack, but also noticing visual cues that will tip you off to when you should initiate your own attacks. For example, guards will sometimes lower their defenses to taunt you, or may even begin to lose their cool a bit after witnessing your butchering of their colleagues. I think the combat is thrilling to both play and watch. The unconventional system may be jarring for gamers raised on Golden Axe or God of War, but like everything else in Creed, the learning curve is pretty low and it didn't take me long master the fighting techniques to the point where I no longer feared the city guards (I would only run away to save time, because frankly, there is an unlimited supply of guards to fight).

This game is not perfect, of course, and there are numerous faults that left me scratching my head wondering why they didn't put in that extra 10 percent that would transform what is already a great game into an astounding one. An instant classic.

More of these criticisms will crop up once I've finished the game. I'm just one hit shy of completing it so I'll come back later and give a more sober view of this game.