Assassin's Creed fulfills all you assassin fantasies!
Assassin's Creed has a very strong potential to be among the top games today. Undoubtedly, its several features are very impressive. However, its developer, Ubisoft Montreal, wasted all its potential and made some wrong decisions for this action title. Numerous factors contributed to its downfall, including a mediocre story, poor software and repetitive sequences throughout all levels. Assassin's Creed would have been among the strongest contender of the decade, but it just became one more title in the roster of action games.
The hero played is Altair who is part of a group called Hashshashin. Altair was in-charge of dispatching nine men, all of whom disappear during the game. The setting is in the Middle East at the time of the third crusade. All the three cities were intricately modeled. The way Acre, Jerusalem and Damascus was recreated is very notable. Every minute detail has been considered and carefully integrated to make the cities appear very close to how it is in reality. If there were no irregularities surrounding the characters, there would be no reason to doubt that it is really how people and cities appeared in the past centuries.
Even if Assassin's Creed's genre is action, the narrative impacts it tremendously. The game is filled with stories, which becomes a hindrance after some time. If you haven't read it on the internet yet, the twist in the plot will totally blow you away. Unfortunately, this surprising turn of events is revealed on the earlier part, making it lose its charm. In the end, instead of the brilliant elements working for the title, it brought it down.
The voice dubbing for Altair is also below par, with his being the poorest of all the characters. The dialogue is almost the same for all the cities and can be annoying when heard for a long time. The background music is almost nonexistent as it was the developer's intention to make the setting take center stage. What the title's developers don't realize is that the most important factor in a game's success is its gameplay and not the narrative.
All the three cities are divided into three classes: the rich, middle class and poor. That means there would be nine assassinations. Following the standard procedure for video games, once a new order for assassination is handed, part of the city opens. It takes a while before levels are opened but it is forgivable since once inside, you can go from the darkest part of the city to its highest peaks.
While several factors took down the game, it could be noted that Assassin's Creed paved the way for a possible fantastic sequel.