A medieval Sam Fisher in Assassin’s Creed

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

WHEN it comes to game complexity, developer Ubisoft almost always lands on top of the list. Nearly all its action-oriented games require a considerable learning curve just to get through the controls. This is common in its Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter series wherein every aspect of the Xbox 360 controller is used. Nonetheless, these controls become essential to the entire gameplay. The company’s latest game is Assassin’s Creed (designed by no other than my favorite game developer, Jade Raymond), which melds together a lot of gameplay elements from Splinter Cell, God of War, Elder Scrolls, and Prince of Persia.

Just as the gameplay is complex, so is the storyline; the plot is set somewhere near the future. Desmond Miles is a bartender but is a direct descendant of a long line of assassins from the days of the historic Crusades nearly 1,000 years ago. Miles is kidnapped and experimented upon by scientists of the Abstergo Industries, which has a machine called the Animus that pulls out memories of long-since dead people as long as their DNA structure remains intact with their descendants. Desmond holds the memories of Altair, one of the Assassins who knew the location of the “Piece of Eden,” which seems to be an artifact that can cause mass hypnosis. Abstergo scientists want this artifact. In between the plot, as they say, thickens and the player might get confused with the integrated story between Altair and Miles. The story, while linear, is so complex that players can start their adventures just about anywhere in the map and still be able to continue the story.

More than 90 percent of the action happens during Miles’ usage of the Animus. The player/Miles becomes the Assassin Altair upon entering into a dream-like state then the adventure begins. The world is set in the year 1191 during the Third Crusade that saw the war between the real-life King Richard the Lionheart and the Muslim warrior-king Saladin. While the two kings battle it out, the secret society of the Assassins are facing off against the Templar Knights. Altair, having failed to kill the Templar Knight Grand Master, is stripped of his weapons and skills by the Assassins’ leader Al Mualim. As such the player will have to complete tasks set upon Al Mualim to recover parts of his skills and weapons. Likewise, the missions will lead to the discovery of the “Piece of Eden” as well as a conspiracy set by Richard the Lionheart and Saladin. The plot can be likened to a video game version of a Tom Clancy novel and is surprisingly well implemented in a video game.

As earlier mentioned, Assassin’s Creed mixes a lot of gameplay elements used by past successful action games. The most prominent is the third-person camera use similar to Splinter Cell. Altair’s movement can be controlled by the left thumbstick while the right thumbstick is used for camera movement. The rest of the controls will be for fighting, throwing, weapon selection, running and jumping. As in Splinter Cell, the game also requires the player to remain as unnoticeable as possible. Any untoward movement, such as bumping into pedestrians, accidentally fighting other people, running around and unsheathing weapons will draw suspicion from armed guards. If the worst happens, Altair must do two things: find a place to hide and do it without being seen, or fight the enemies. Hiding is pretty easy and there are lots of potential hiding places, such as haystacks or small tents up on roofs. But if fighting is unavoidable, Altair will have to use his weapons (a short sword or a wrist blade) and ward off the enemies. If fights happen early in the game, the player will have difficulty killing the enemies. Altair does have a countering ability, which happens to be a mini-game similar to God of War but this can be acquired after the second or third mission. Eventually, Altair will receive his entire arsenal of fighting techniques and weapons and he can be a formidable enemy. Among his strongest opponents are the Templars that are fully armored and have almost the same countering ability as Altair. Only a well-timed slash or counter attack will hurt a Templar and it’ll take quite a number of attacks to put down one.

Still, the majority of the game requires the player to conduct his missions with utmost stealth. The missions are spread across several historical cities, including a sprawling Jerusalem. Missions involve looking for specific persons that have been part of a plot against the Assassins and these are pointed out using a compass, which indicates main missions, side quests and specific areas of interests. He also has  “eagle vision,” toggled by pressing the Y button on the controller. This is a sort of third eye wherein Altair can identify his targets, ordinary bystanders and enemies. Completing the missions involves eavesdropping, picking pockets, and interrogating/terrorizing suspects. If caught or found by Altair’s quarry, the mini-mission is reset and Altair can continue finishing the mission. This is perhaps one of the very few drawbacks in the game as careless players can always go back to the same mini-missions to finish the game, taking all aspects of challenge. Still, some of the mini-missions are quite difficult to finish and may take several tries to get right.

The game features a lot of platforming, much as in Prince of Persia. Altair also has some acrobatic skills allowing him to jump or climb walls, shimmy up on ledges, walk on thin platforms, and swing up overhangs. Luckily, only a few parts of the maps are actually high enough to kill Altair and so the Assassin can just run about after a bad fall and recover some lost “health” in the form of a synchronization bar.  Altair does not need to acquire health packs as the synchronization bar recovers after a brief moment. He does not even have to collect anything in the game, except information that he gathers from his targets.

The game has dozens of side quests, some of which require Altair to climb up steep towers and use his eagle vision to complete a portion of the map. Trust me when I say this is very much needed as all the stages are huge and the only way to go about is to complete a map. Special missions also require Altair to find flags and save innocents. The rewards vary but are not always necessary. The side quests just give players more reason to play the game again as it can be finished in about 20 hours by just following the main quests.

Assassin’s Creed fully utilizes the Xbox 360’s graphics engine with lighting, object physics and particle rendering all lending a visual treat. Loading time is also quite quick for a game of this caliber. Music is not altogether noteworthy but does give a sense of thrill especially when Altair is about to, and successfully finishes an assassination.

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