Disclaimer: This is a critical review. If you like this game you will cry and rage. Eat it.

Assassin's Creed is like watching the Miss Universe contest.
It starts out hopeful, as you more and more enjoy the eye candy,
but after a while, the novelty party tricks or talents, and vapid shreds of wisdom blend together to form one boring repetitive mess until the eye candy is so over-run by sheer repetition and stupidity that you just have to turn off.

Now Assassin's Creed is hampered by hundreds of faults that become obvious after about an hour of play. The main fault, as such, is that the game is ridiculously shallow. Just like a Miss Universe contestant,
it all starts out well, but as soon as the game goes further than just pretty graphics and a cool, tactile environment (*ahem*) you run into trouble. Well, specifically, you run into nothing. And that's just it. Once you're past the amazing graphics, the beautifully constructed cities complete with bustling citizens there is absolutely nothing deeper. Every aspect of the game, when placed under the magnifying glass, falls down due to poor design decisions and amazingly, stunningly simplistic gameplay.
I was mistaken and fooled by the name. I thought that Assassin's Creed would focus on my being an assassin. How stupid I was. To be honest, I thought I was looking at a medieval Saint's Row in which I would use my environment to pull off amazing assassination feats as I decided who should live or die. How wrong I was. I want to state now that Assassin's Creed is the furthest idea of the traditional assassin - and again, not in a good way. I'll explain why;

The gameplay in Assassin's Creed is hinged solely on the ability of your character - Altair - to climb over and on every environment object in sight. The environment is the main event.
You can tell - it's done fantastically, as your seamlessly swing from beam to beam in an adrenaline packed parkour (or freerun) trip across 3 ancient destinations of the Holy Land.
This amazing environment - the sense of freedom as you roam the kingdom, is completely directionless though- with non of the beautifully constructed towns outside the cities having any significance other than to provide just another Templar, flag or viewpoint to complete. Actually, the only thing in the game that rewards you aside from the assassinations themselves is just that - killing Templar's, collecting flags and reaching view points.
They are also your only real point of interaction with the world outside of cities. But don't get your hopes up!
Cities themselves are almost more boring and repetitive, as you scale marked viewpoint after viewpoint to gather "information" on the city around you. Now this sounds cool, but in reality, you may as well replace viewpoints with the
pulling of a lever in order for several portals to appear, each containing one of 4 mini-games in which you basically do exactly the same thing with a very few exceptions. You're almost always going to end up fighting as well. You have no choice as to the path you take and the game seems stupidly limiting in your experience as an assassin. Whenever you reach one of 3 target cities, you scale a viewpoint, contact an informer, pickpocket someone and eavesdrop and off you go - taking your useless, ineffectual information and somehow trying to apply it to your assassination. It doesn't work. Non of it does.
In fact, it's almost laughable at how un-cool the whole process is. Climbing a viewpoint is good fun, as it has a practical outcome of helping you find your bearings in a new city, but after the 35th time, when all you're doing it for is to tick it off the map, it becomes stupidly tedious. The other minigames you're put through in order to gain enough information on your target is to contact an informer and complete a task. Now again, this is a really cool, practical idea, but it's absolutely ruined by the idiocy of the design department. Some flash games have better quests. Here I am in ancient Damascus, as master assassin, and I have to retrieve - no, not gold or jewels, but flags stolen by a local merchant, who has conveniently placed them in a race format across a series of roof tops in the surrounding area. I wanted gritty, deep quests complimented by otherwise simplistic fight gameplay and a tactile environment. I didn't want some ridiculous sort of flag rally better seen in The Simpson's game than a product with the word "Assassin" in the title! It would be okay if this was a one off, but every single task you must complete is exactly the same - repeat poorly designed task to have it book ended by some inanity. You get to the stage where you'll cut off previously saved rape-victim-to-be as she bleats some pre-recorded (and already heard) message in order to mark the next rape victim on your map until you've saved every rape victim or typical helpless scholar in Damascus and subsequently been rewarded by having the streets even more cluttered by almost pointless "helpful" groups of scholars or vigilantes. Note to city guard - groups of 5 scholars or more are suspicious. These groups are almost never used, or if they are it's in a very specific situation, as travelling over the rooftops is by far the more enjoyable prospect that suffering the packed streets.

The AI in Assassin's Creed is really quite fun - for the most part. While the city around you bustles with life - the guard AI is really very lazy.
If I was Al-Mualim, head master assassin, the first target I'd assassinate would be the city gym instructor, because they sure do a good job!
The AI's ability to follow a crazily fit killing machine as he bounds from light fitting to 50 ft beam is commendable, but also ruins any sense of uniqueness your abilities as an assassin. So many times I've run up a wall, bounced to an awning and back onto a beam only to turn around and watch as guards fearlessly follow my exact footsteps in Jet Li style. Apart from their strange acrobatic abilities, the AI is great to watch as each citizen grumbles and makes contextual comments as they go about their daily lives.

The combat system in Assassin's Creed is limited in the sense of an assassin, as you stab or throw your enemies to their death. And that's it. Aside from different types of perforation - be it with long, short, thrown or hidden blade - the only way to kill you enemies is to throw them to their death or punch them into unconsciousness. Just like the small tasks set along the road to an assassination, this starts out fun but after a while it becomes tedious in the extreme. I was expecting situational forms of killing, only suggested through the information gathered as part of the required tasks to unlock the assassination. I was expecting to poison the glutton or drop a heavy awning support on the black market dealer, only to make a stealthy getaway. It turns out every assassination is again, just like the rest of the game. You'll approach the target, not at your own choosing, but at a time designated by the information you've gathered - which essentially means having to approach the target just so he can give a long winded example of why he is a badass and why you should kill him. After that, you'll end up stabbing him or chasing him then stabbing him (you rarely have a choice), triggering a glitch (cutscene) in which EVERY single victim confesses of some higher, noble purpose.
This whole process of being locked into a cutscene completely breaks any planning you may have had, as you're forced to react almost immediately after. Fifty percent of the time, this action results in some sort of whole sale street brawl in which you butcher the target and make your getaway until you're safe, only going back to read the information you gathered and realising how it never would have helped you as there is actually no real indication of any effect of such information or help in the game world.

The storyline of Assassin's Creed is terrible to say the least. The problem lies in the bizarre sci-fi element that surrounds your work as an assassin. In reality, it appears, you are a very slow walking (you'll see what I mean) bartender named Desmond, taken captive in order for a large corporation to drill your memory for some past knowledge. Needless to say this would have worked well in a later title or a sci-fi game, but in Assassin' Creed it only helps to distance you further and further from your role as Altair. Mind you, playing Altair is a strange experience. It's as if an atomic bomb had a moral compass. The tale kicks off by revealing how much of an arrogant jerk Altair is. He drawls (in a strange American accent) that he "doesn't make mistakes" as you proceed to butcher anyone you please with little care for the world. He delivers Schwarzenegger worthy lines as he dispatches helpless and terrified interrogation victims who you've spent the last minute beating to a pulp - generally making you hate both your lack of choice and mercy as well as Altair. However, in another strange choice by the developers, Altair's moral compass only wavers as he cradles dying assassination victims (who you've been made to hate) in his arms.

There are so many bad points in Assassin's Creed that the list could go on and on - the stupid flag collecting, the minute "weapon upgrades", the way in which everything is so formulaic and linear etc. The positive aspect, as mentioned above, is the beautiful, tactile environments you can leap, bound and swing over. Just about every other aspect is a boring, inconsequential mini-game that precedes a limiting experience of an actual assassination, interspersed with clips of an over-confusing sci-fi storyline decked out with a fresh set of unlikable characters.

6.5/10

This is a tolerable rant (I've seen both slightly better and a lot worst) peppered with occasional moments of sheer brilliance.

My advice would be to lower the whole 'in your face' rantiness down a touch. It's limiting you as a writer.

Assassin's Creed is my guilty pleasure

I know it's boring, but I still love it.

I enjoyed Assassin's Creed. I'm still not sure why, but I did.

I don't see why people are so hard on it. There are a lot worse games out there, they just don't have as good graphics.

Simon_TR:
I enjoyed Assassin's Creed. I'm still not sure why, but I did.

I don't see why people are so hard on it. There are a lot worse games out there, they just don't have as good graphics.

If another game is bad, it doesn't make this any less sucky, just better than the other bad game.

Anyway, I've always wanted to do a review ripping this to shreds, but my main gripe was how the story was used to make an open world game incredibly linear.

I guess Hitman is still the king of Assassination games.

Very nice review, I remember the first time i played through it, when i finally finished it felt like i had played through 5 times already 0_o

Keep up the good work.

yes it is annoying to travel from here to there via the scenic route and having to eves drop pick pocket and all that when you already know where the guy is and exactly how you r going to kill him. however the moments when you get the perfect kill with the hidden blade or counter five guards in a row leaving a mess I'm glad I don't have to clean up, makes up for the games flaws.

Surreysmith:
yes it is annoying to travel from here to there via the scenic route and having to eves drop pick pocket and all that when you already know where the guy is and exactly how you r going to kill him. however the moments when you get the perfect kill with the hidden blade or counter five guards in a row leaving a mess I'm glad I don't have to clean up, makes up for the games flaws.

Ah! The crimes against grammar! IT BURNS!!!!

I enjoyed the review, it's the right kind of criticism as far as I'm concerned. Not that it's going to stop me buying the game when I eventually have money again...

The review is pretty good. It has it's moments, and at other times it's kind of dull, but if he could create a review entirely of the good parts of this review, it would be a fantastic review indeed.

Good review. It's what I've been trying to tell everybody about this game.

yeah this game was decent but after a while of playing it started to feel more like work instead of actually being fun. it's never good if you're actually relieved after beating a game, just felt as though it was over so now i could actually move on to something useful, maybe sunshine or girls.

I enjoyed the review and agreed with most of your points. Personally, I think that the mini-games are what ruined Assassin's Creed. If they took those out and put more emphesis on...I don't know...being an assassin and doing assassiny things (such as choosing the way to kill your target, as you said), then the game would be brilliant. Still, it's always fun to just jump from rooftop to rooftop in boundless glee.

Thanks for the nice remarks guys. I'm refining my review style and this was a bit of a quick knock up. More to come soon.

Loved it for the photorealism (PS3 hardware, baby) and the business of assassinating key people of the Crusades and the undenied freedom of movement.

HATED it for the sci-fi bullshit that completely ruined the experience for me (especially in the cutscenes).

I personally don't understand all the hype about this game, and while I'm on that what did Yahtzee mean by the hate the game had earned? (As he mentioned himself)

The thing about Assassin's Creed is that the Assassination's themselves weren't that free-form due to the guards attacking you for stepping on bumblebees, there were really only one or two ways to accomplish the assassinations, and for that reason it will never beat Hitman.

Also, one of my friends thinks that Assassin's Creed has bad graphics,(and he was playing it on a PS3) I suspect he was dropped on his head as a baby.

I quite liked Assassin's Creed, and it's a game that really polarises people: either you love the game because of its free-form parkour and move past the other faults, or you hate it with a passion due to its many design flaws. I myself fit into the former category, but did find myself about to snap my controller around the end...

Which brings me to my next point: the combat sucked. I know you touched on this, but there's more to it then uncreative assassinations. The base combat, the combat you use through the game, is extremely clunky and boring. After the 10th time, I found the special camera angles taken after executing a counter-attack to be annoying, and was wanting to make the combat end so I could go back to the fun platforming. Add to this that, when the gaurds are alerted to your presence, it's best to just use the counter attack option, you find the combat, well, I can't describe it; it's that bad.

The saddest part is that the developers thought that people would enjoy the combat, and made the ending solely focused on combat. I hated it because it was impossible to use the hidden blade in open combat, which was necessary in some fights, and the controls were somewhat unresponsive to begin with. It made me longing to get back to my platforming, which never came. It was a shame too, since the developers had demonstrated that they could make some really interesting fights revolving around platforming, such as the final boss fight in Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones.

All in all though, excluding the end, the actual game was pretty fun because the platforming was fun, and I felt that you somewhat cheapened the entertainment it could bring. The redeeming factor in many people's eyes was the platforming, so you really should've talked a bit more about it.

I both agree and disagree with you. I enjoyed Assassins Creed, running around the massive cities, wiping the floor with guards, throwing beggers and mental people into walls, and diving off buildings and nailing guards in the face with the hidden knife. I do agree that the little tasks do get incredibly boring. You do have some good points that anyone who is considering this game should think about. I would call this one a rent.

my only complain its that altair cant swim..!!! besides that i liked the game... i liked to get the flags and then kill the templars... is not a bad review but i can read the hate between the lines

^stompy^

I enjoyed the combat. It was a little repetitive, but using the hidden blade in combat was by far the easiest way to speed up combat. If you were competent enough with the counter attacks, and watching for opponents dropping their guard, every attack was a 1-hit kill. I found, using the other weapons, I'd counter, then still have to hunt them down because they weren't dead. With the hidden blade they all died pretty quickly.

My biggest complaint with Assassin's Creed is just the investigation missions.

@Wallet:

You're right. At some point it certainly does start to feel more like work. But then I'll go another 4 hours not going to the bathroom or to bed to "work" through it. And when I'm not playing it, I'm thinking about how much "work" I have to do next, and planning how exactly I'm going to go about tackling the problem. Which doesn't make any stinking sense because it is, after all, a game. But I get that way about all games I consider really wonderful, Civ III, Half-Life 2, SimCity, Total War. So maybe when a game becomes serious to you as business, that's a sign that it's a very good game.

Or that you really, really need a girlfriend. Or boyfriend. Or, heck, any kind of friend at all. To play Rock Band with. :D

i really like this game, i don't see why everyone keeps insulting it.

sethzard:
i really like this game, i don't see why everyone keeps insulting it.

because it's short, it has a side storyline that seems to not fit at all with the main storyline, the investigation missions are boring, and the combat can be at best mindnumbingly easy and at worst mindnumbingly retarded

that being said, I loved it.

I expected to hear at least one
OMG U SUK ITS THE BEST GAM EVAR!!11

Yeah I'm waiting for it. One thing I didn't add, is that if you have an ounce of intelligence, you can counter attack every move because only one guard attacks at a time. I booted it up yesterday and made a video (I might youtube it) of me taking on as many guards in Acre. I killed 200 after a 2 hour backstep around the city. Wasn't fun, only 8 or so counter attack animations - did it purely because that's how petty I am.

the game does have it's flaws, no-one who's actually played it can really argue that.

But, a lot of people enjoyed the game despite those flaws, and there's nothing wrong with that, just like there's nothing wrong with pointing out all those flaws and wondering why people enjoy such a flawed game.

I happened to enjoy the story of the game, and enjoyed the assassinations enough for me to mainly see past the bad stuff, and I got 1000 gamer points on this game, twice.

It looks beautiful, handles ok, but suffers from lacking 'omph'

I quit after I got to Damaskus. I was chased by some guards when I decided to duke it out with them, and ended up killing ALL the guards who tried to get me. I think I must have killed like 25 of them. After that, being chased by guards was boring as I could easily kill them.

I really hated the story as well. I found is annoying to run around on that white screen just to be able to play, and the bits where you are in the future was pointless and crap.

I'm glad I borrowed it from a mate in stead of buying it.

yes its repetitive and a little boring but i still finished it and dont regret buying it. not so sure about the sequel though, might skip that one...

Altorin:
^stompy^

I enjoyed the combat. It was a little repetitive, but using the hidden blade in combat was by far the easiest way to speed up combat. If you were competent enough with the counter attacks, and watching for opponents dropping their guard, every attack was a 1-hit kill. I found, using the other weapons, I'd counter, then still have to hunt them down because they weren't dead. With the hidden blade they all died pretty quickly.

My biggest complaint with Assassin's Creed is just the investigation missions.

Hmm, I probably hated the combat because I was sore with the ending. It seemed like the probability of getting a non-lethal counter was infinitely raised at the end, and killing someone with the hidden blade was a hassle for me because Altair believes that, regardless of how many times I press 'hidden blade', he wants to switch to the sword.

Perhpas it was me, but I really though the upfront combat was incredibly annoying. Stealth combat was alright, and jumping around was awesome. I also share the hate of investigation missions... it's always best to look for the eavesdropping one.

Though, my most hated thing (besides the combat), were those fucking beggars. Damn them!

While I know that the game does have it's flaws, I just love it for its good and fun points. I just can't get tired of having fun in swordfights and running on the all over the 3 cities (having a swordfight no less).

The one thing that I hate is traveling between each city. You haul your high horse back to your hometown, sit through another 5 minute speech, only to finally grab onto a horse to ride through the countryside. "Wow" you exclaim, as you see people walking along the road for their pilgrimage to a great city. But it's all put aside by chasing guards unless you go at a quarter of a kilometer an hour. I'd just prefer to gallop along the countryside to get to my destination without being hampered thank you very much.

But I can't stop loving it for what I like about it!
Nice review.

stompy:

Altorin:
^stompy^

I enjoyed the combat. It was a little repetitive, but using the hidden blade in combat was by far the easiest way to speed up combat. If you were competent enough with the counter attacks, and watching for opponents dropping their guard, every attack was a 1-hit kill. I found, using the other weapons, I'd counter, then still have to hunt them down because they weren't dead. With the hidden blade they all died pretty quickly.

My biggest complaint with Assassin's Creed is just the investigation missions.

Hmm, I probably hated the combat because I was sore with the ending. It seemed like the probability of getting a non-lethal counter was infinitely raised at the end, and killing someone with the hidden blade was a hassle for me because Altair believes that, regardless of how many times I press 'hidden blade', he wants to switch to the sword.

Perhpas it was me, but I really though the upfront combat was incredibly annoying. Stealth combat was alright, and jumping around was awesome. I also share the hate of investigation missions... it's always best to look for the eavesdropping one.

Though, my most hated thing (besides the combat), were those fucking beggars. Damn them!

everysingle time I played through the game (which was 3) I did EVERY SINGLE investigation mission.

and yes, you do have to manually change to the hidden blade when you enter combat mode, and yes, it's annoying, but if you get good at counter attacks and watching for enemies taunting/cowering, you can kill every single person in the game except the last boss (and even then, you can use the hidden blade exclusively, except to hit him while he takes away all your life, then you can hidden blade kill him in one shot.

but yes, it can be tedious if you aren't good at counters (regular hidden blade attacks are useless against non-cowering/taunting enemies, and you can't guard with the hidden blade, your guard just sets you up for a counter)

I think the point is; why use the hidden when you can endlessly counter?

maximilian:
I think the point is; why use the hidden when you can endlessly counter?

the key word being "endlessly"

if you counter with the hidden blade, every single hit is a 1hit kill

which means that it doesn't go on endlessly.

Eye candy? It's like grey on more grey with grey (with a little gray thrown in for color).

When it's not grey, it's brown or other dreary colors.

I'm not saying it should be rainbows and puppies... this is the middle east in the middle ages... but jumping jesus... all the washed out colors'll give you eyestrain...