PS3

Got one! Over the moon about it. A birthday present from someone special. Anyhow, I have been playing Assassins creed. Brilliant game. Breathtaking graphics and environments. Really, my breath was snatched from my throat. What is better is that ubisoft has stated that the cities of the game (Acre, Jerusalem, and Damascus) are historically accurate circa 1191. You have no idea what this does for me as a history geek.

Damascus has captured my heart. It was by far the most wonderful and beautiful city of the 3rd crusades. Since playing this game I have developed a before-absent enthusiastic appreciation for islamic art and architecture. Whilst christian art and architure is often quite austere and awe-inspiring, orbiting motifs of fear and wonder, islamic art and architecture seems to embrace instead beauty. Sheer capitivating beauty. The hypnotising calligraphy, intricate patterns and tessalations, and gorgeous medium selections. A flyscreen carved from wood is really something to be seen.

I am sorry to hear that, much like islam itself, Damascus has since deteriorated significantly since being the intellectual capital of the world in the middle ages. It is a shame, I would have loved to have beheld it with my own eyes.

Anyhow, apart from that, assasins creed is strong on graphics, scenery, and mechanics (they have put the euphoria engine to spectacular use with 'free running' wherein the character intuitively interacts with the environment in plausible and reasonable ways without explicit direction. Whilst 'free running' I will run ordinarily along a street, sramble a top a ledge, leap and grab an overhead beam, hoist myself up, balance along it to an adjoining rooftop, leap over an alleyway and grasp a balcony on my fall down, carefully lift myself up and hand-hold-by-handhold scale the building to it's rooftop before jumping over a city plaza to land on the top of a vertical pole, then atop a market stall, then to the ground with a graceful roll to break the fall, then swing through a stall by it's overhead strut, land, and dive through another....

All of this without pressing a single button aside from the free-run command. The AI animates itself without micromanagement. That being said, I can micromanage if I want to do something unusual , like leap from a roof top onto an assassination taget burying my knee into their back and my blade into their throat.

Positives aside, the game is short, the missions unimaginative and eventually monotonous. Due simply to a poor gameplay, the lifetime will suffer, because you can only appreciate the scenery whilst wasting time so much.

The story is a well executed blend of sci-fi and historical fantasy, and leaves you commiting seppuku for more with the cruel cliff hanging ending to the meta-plot (Which is well entwined with the aesthetic game plot, and thematic sub-plot).

Just fantastic. Despite a few glaring shortcomings, the positives of this game far far outshine them. I'd give it an 8/10.

History's great but gaming? I didn't know you were a teenager. Plus, to salivate over the game and then give it only an 8/10 you must be pretty retentive.

Philo wrote:History's great but gaming? I didn't know you were a teenager.

I, like the vast majority of gamers, fall in the 18-25 year old male bracket. The notion that gaming is for kids is a misconception dragged 2 decades from the 80's when it was true. Gaming is no more for children than movies or books. It is just another, and in my opinion superior, medium of entertainment.

Plus, to salivate over the game and then give it only an 8/10 you must be pretty retentive.

As I explained, the high points of this game are oh-so-high. Unfortunately a few glaring faults drag this otherwise celestial title back down to 8/10. I salivate over the positives of this title, must I award 10/10 for everything I praise?