Fat Ninja

Ever heard of Assassin’s Creed? Of course you have! What gamer hasn’t? Given the hype surrounding UbiSoft’s latest franchise, you may also be raising an eyebrow over the rather lukewarm reception the game has received on the game review circuit. I wanted to put a review of my own together, mainly because I think some of the reviews out there are effing ridiculously off-the-mark. Please note that I haven’t beaten the game, so my review is relatively incomplete. However, I have played it enough to form an opinion of it. Naturally, my opinion clashes jarringly with that of the gaming journalist community at large, but I’ve lent them my ear and heard their complaints; and I feel it’s time to fire back at some of the more common gripes I’ve seen. So, have at you!

I’m sorry, but the “repetitious” argument just doesn’t fly with me. Show me a game that isn’t repetitious. Seriously. Show me one. I mean, how many bots did I have to hack in BioShock? How many Middle Eastern malcontents was I forced to kill in CoD4? Games are, by their very nature, repetitive. They are designed around a specific gameplay mechanic, and that serves as the crux of the entire experience. Sure, you can add a few little distractions to break rank with a game’s core mechanics, but it will ultimately rely on that single element to carry it.

I personally love Assassin’s Creed, but I’m sure that will come as no surprise to anyone that knows me and my predilection for games of the stealth variety. Nonetheless, I would caution many of you to take my endorsement of the game with a large bag of salt. I’m not going to say that the game isn’t without faults, because it does have some issues. For instance, there’s just not enough variety built into the chatter that you hear coming from the townsfolk. I can honestly say that’s the one thing that has bugged me the most. I have, on occassion, struggled with the game’s fluid control scheme, but those issues have evaporated as I’ve grown more accustomed to its nuances.

These flaws are easily consumed by everything else that I love about the game. I’m not sure what it is about the Crusades, but the subject has always resonated with me and really sparked my imagination; which is, in and of itself, strange, considering I’m not really religious, but I digress. The pains taken to recreate the Kingdom and simulate it in Assassin’s Creed alone are enough reason for me to love it. I don’t think a game has so thoroughly steeped me in its environs before now. There is just so much ambient detail around every single corner. There are moments when I quite literally have to stop just to take in every polygon and marvel at the game’s sheer scope and sense of realism

I am taking my sweet time and savoring the experience of Assassin’s Creed, so I haven’t put much of a dent into the storyline thus far. What I have seen, however, has been thoroughly engrossing to me, so the complaints I’ve read about it come to me from quite a ways out in left-field. I love the historical element that the game brings to the table, and I honestly believe that Assassin’s Creed is one of those games that truly redefines the nature and potential that gaming has. I never would have imagined that’d I’d see a day where a video game was also teaching me a little something about history by engaging me in it.

As for gameplay, there’s really nothing that I don’t like about Assassin’s Creed, beyond the issues I’ve mentioned before. I love the free-form controls and the way they interact with the game’s incredible sandbox world. It’s exhilirating finding new and interesting ways to traverse the skyline of a Third Crusade-era Jerusalem. I can’t tell you how many guards I’ve stalked and shanked in a crowded Damascus street just to revel in getting away with it, nor can I tell you how many Crusaders I’ve provoked into combat just because I was spoiling for a good fight. It’s a perfect blend of open-ended and directed gameplay. It leaves me to my own devices, but at the same time it never lets me stray so far from its central storyline that I lose a sense of purpose.

Assassin’s Creed just works for me on so many different levels that I can’t help but love it. Of course, I won’t venture to put something so arbitrary as a score on paper for you. Numbers just mean too many different things to too many people for scores to be an effective method for evaluating art. If, having read my impressions, you feel that Assassin’s Creed has something to offer you, then follow your instinct. It is not, by any means, for everyone. It’s a game that relies heavily on your imagination’s ability to plunge into storyline and gameplay and “live” the experience. It is escapism at its finest, relying on the historical roots of its narrative and an incredibly capable graphics engine to steal its audience across the span of time.

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