Game Review: Assassins Creed

Ok so I know I am a bit late jumping on this bandwagon but I bought this game for about $20 for my desktop computer but it didn't work. So I tried it on my laptop and to my suprise it worked. I finished the game in about a week (thought it would take longer). So now I thought I would do my first game review.

First a little plot telling:
Desmond Miles has been kidnapped by a company called Abstergo Industries, a pharmaceutical company. They plan to use him in a machine called the Animus which can read a persons DNA to recall ancestors memories. The memories Abstergo are after are that of Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, who is a member of a league of assassins during the year 1191AD. After going on a mission with fellow assassins and making a decesion that risks the life of him and his fellow assassins, Altair is demoted losing all his weapons and skills (how one loses skills I don't know). But his master Al Mualim tells him he must kill 9 people to regain his rank as he had before. His mission takes him to Acre, Jeruselem and Damascus. Each of these 9 gives him an insight into why they did what they were doing and Altair discovers that they are all members of The Knights Templar. As Desmond and Alatair are exploring the memory they discover the hidden truth behind why Abstergo wants Desmonds memory of Alatair and why Al Mualim wants Alatiar to kill the 9 people.

So thats the plot I didn't want to spoil much. The game starts is spilt between the two controlable characters of Desmond and Alatair. Although all Desmond can really do is wonder around the Animus room of Abstergo, go to bed, hack into peoples email accounts and talk to Lucy (Animus operator with a secret of her own....insert dramatic music here). So mainly its up to Alatair to gain all the information. Too kill the 9 you must first discover the map of the three towns by climbing on tall buildings and "syncronising" with them to get a feel for the world around. This unlocks different missions to which you discober where and when the assassination target will be. This includes pickpocketing letters, interrogating people who rant about the target on the street, helping an assassin who supplies information or simply eavesdropping on someones conversation. After this you gain access to where the target is and must report to the assassination bureau of the town to get a feather (this feather as proof of the kill with the targets blood wiped on it). The idea is to be stealthy for these missions but I found this to be quite difficult so i found myself running to kill the person them running away to a point and me chasing after them and getting in a big sword fight with them and about 20 guards and make sure i was the last man standing. Probably the most difficult I found was one of the earlier ones (i was still trying to be stealthy) It was a doctor accused of drugging his patients with a drug allowing them to be controlled. So you go into this hospital and I am being all stealthy but there were these rabid patients who kept pushing me. One happened to push me into a guard and the guard attacked me....so i had to kill the guards kill the guy and get the hell out. Then I couldn't find the exit. I got out eventually and hid in a haystack.
It is stuff like this that makes the game difficult. As the game progresses the guards get more suspicious and to get from one place to the other you have to walk (running apprently causes to much suspicion, so what running was outlawed in 1191?)
Like I said before the game wasn't as challanging as I thought. There were a few times I died but after trying it one or two more times doing exactly the same thing I found myself passing it. Using my laptop was a bit difficult as the game uses the traditional WASD for movement while the arrows are used for camera, and the mouse pad for attacking. I got quite annoyed because for some reason the game never opened in full and i still had the windows toolbar down the bottom and often found myself clicking out of the game mid stab. But this is a computer problem not the game I guess. I have often been weary of playing games on computer with the WASD controls I didn't mind it, the only thing was to run fast whilst knocking people out of the way I had to press W, left mouse button, shift, spacebar and of course to run diagonally you had to press WD (or any combo of W-S with the A-D) buttons and this got difficult.

All in all though it was a good game, with good story lines and gameplay (except the issues I mentioned. But that just means I need a PS3 :-P ) although the game felt reptetive at times with the sub missions in order to reach the assassination it was the assassination that drove you to hang in there. With a cut scene before the assassaination of the target talking it allowed you to figure out a plan. For example one of the guys was an executioner and was onstage. As you can move around during the cutscene. I got up the front as close as I could and my plan was to once I could just one on stage. I managed to kill him before the guards came...ADAM WIN. then the guards chased after me and I had to run like a pansy boy...but I killed the bad man so ADAM STILL WINS. Also the good things about the cutscenes were that they had "Glitches" these glitches flashed up and if you pressed the mouse button it showed an alternate view.

I give the game 4/5 and now I have to wait till March till the number 2 is on computer :-( or buy a PS3/Xbox 360 before then....I will go with the first option