Assassin’s Creed, made by Ubisoft for the Xbox 360, is a game of incredible movement and wonderful environments. Its detailed gameplay requires a sizable time commitment for beginner gamers who wish to master the game, but it’s well worth the effort.
This game is rated M, meaning it has been deemed unsuitable for anyone under 17. This rating is due to an abundance of violence and some gore, which is unsurprising when you consider that the game’s protagonist is a trained assassin in the ancient Holy Land.
In this game you, the assassin, must seek out and eliminate a number of targets in three different cities. At the beginning of the game your weapons and abilities are stripped from you and must be earned back. As you eliminate your targets you regain various weapons and skills, enabling you to jump farther and to climb and fight more effectively.
One of the main points of appeal in this game is the movement. As an assassin, your character can climb up the sides of buildings and jump across open spaces, using the cities’ rooftops as quicker and less crowded pathways than the streets below.
Another strong point is the environment of the game. You will be given missions in three cities: Jerusalem, Damascus, and Acre. Also open to you are your home base and the lands in between all these locations. Research has been done to make these environments as accurate as possible to the actual places and times they portray, and the results are stunning. Detailed country and cityscapes are open for exploration. And as you progress through the game, new areas open up.
A third strength of Assassin’s Creed is the detail of the controls. This may also be a trouble spot for beginner gamers. There are a fair number of controls in this game, and it is essential to your success that you learn them all. Although this can be a bit difficult at first, the game does provide fairly thorough tutorials each time a new control is introduced. There is also plenty of opportunity given for practicing new moves.
The plus side of these detailed controls is, of course, the variety of movement they allow. For example, as you progress through the game you are taught new combat moves. This makes the fighting (and there is lots of fighting) far more interesting than simple button mashing. As a player you are given a huge amount of control over your movement in combat. Different weapon choices will also affect fighting style.
What will really appeal to new gamers about Assassin’s Creed is the freedom. Each new mission is actually a collection of smaller missions within one particular city. You do not have to complete every one of the smaller missions in order to progress to the main goal, which is always an assassination. A minimum requirement must be met, after which it is up to the player whether they wish to continue with smaller missions (which may help them practice and improve their fighting, climbing and jumping skills), or move on to the assassination.
You are allowed to progress through the game at your own pace, almost never forced to do any particular thing at any particular time, free to go at whatever speed you wish.
This is helpful since gamers unfamiliar with the Xbox 360 and dual analog controls will need some time to learn how to use the two control sticks effectively.
Overall, Assassin’s Creed is an engaging and visually stunning game that, while it is geared towards hard core gamers, may interest a somewhat broader audience.
 |
