Just as Assassin's Creed protagonist Altaïr overlooks the city below, we take a landscape look at the game

Editor’s note: We here at Silicon Sasquatch don’t think new games deserve all the attention. To illustrate that point we’re introducing our new Retrospective features: articles that focus an analytical eye on older releases in a non-review format. Our inaugural Retrospective takes a fresh look at Ubisoft Entertainment’s 2007 action-adventure game, Assassin’s Creed. This particular title made games press headlines at release — for reasons both good and bad. Scant details about Assassin’s Creed II have trickled out over the last month, and considering the goodly amount of time since the original was released, it seems like a perfect opportunity to look over Altaïr’s adventures with 20/20 hindsight. Enjoy.

Assassin’s Creed is confusing.

Developer Ubisoft Montreal manages to simultaneously offer a graphically beautiful game with very good, fluid controls while presenting an experience with enough frustrating pacing and banal mission structures to mire the player’s enjoyment in the muck.

I had never played the game until a few weeks ago, but being an astute follower of the gaming press and culture I know that the game’s reputation precedes it. From the barely hidden initial plot twist (SPOILER: It’s about two storylines, one modern and one during the Third Crusade) to the innovative free running exploration style and the controversy surrounding the game’s review scores — yes, I know about Assassin’s Creed.

Even so I’m surprised by how much I enjoy the game. The controls seem daunting at first, but fall into place quickly for experienced gamers. Further, the usage of the controls — holding down a button to switch between “high-visibility” activities like fighting and “low-visibility” ones like blending into the crowd — meshes well with the assassin, Altaïr, and his need slither about undetected while being ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

The game shines when the player must stay in the shadows — stealth kills are a rush, rewarding the player's patience

The problem I have with the game, though, is that it takes one fun idea and rubber-stamps it into a 12-plus-hour experience. You climb towers to fill out your map and ascertain your next investigation; from there you pickpocket, eavesdrop, intimidate or help out a fellow assassin to get the info you need. Gather enough information and you can attempt an assassination on the area’s boss. It sounds fine, but repeat the process nine times and it all becomes very…average. These activities in and of themselves are fun, but no remodeling of the established pattern causes the eyelids to droop — something that happens during the course of Assassin’s Creed’s plot, too.

The protagonist slot is shared between Altaïr, the Crusades-era assassin cover boy, and his 21st-century descendant Desmond, a lab-rat for a shadowy pharmaceutical company called Abstergo Industries. Both Altaïr and Desmond are tasked with completing their missions without knowing any of the background information or, really a reason why. Only as they untangle the mysteries do they begin to feel manipulated.

But as a whole it all feels a bit flat, and the motivations for both characters aren’t believable enough to prove too interesting. However, the way the distant relatives intertwine and mirror one another over the course of the game is very impressive.

I kept playing, though mostly because of my in-game wanderlust. Exploring the ancient cities of Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus is quite visually enjoyable. The graphics and game engine for Assassin’s Creed have aged well — the game looks gorgeous, there’s still a great rush from climbing a city’s high tower and taking a Leap of Faith swan dive. Even the combat engine is reliable. Fighting is hardly a highlight, though — the swordplay is a little stiff, and ranges wildly from making the player feel like a badass to feeling cornered and hopeless.

The animations used to bring Altaïr's climbing antics to life are impressive without relying on demanding control schemes

But taking a look back at Assassin’s Creed means looking at its spotty critical reception as well. The now-defunct Electronic Gaming Monthly famously panned the game with a three score-average rating of a 5 out of 10. Just above mediocre. IGN gave the game a 77 out of 100, which, when run through the IGN score filter, is also patently average. Edge gave the game a 7 out of 10.

One of the harshest critiques came from Destructoid, which gave it a 55/100 and called it “a disappointing, repetitive game.” However the review goes on to add, “Once you get past all that…there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t be able to have a hell of a fun time with it.”

Accusations at the time were whispers that claimed reviews which scored the game over a certain mark let the accompanying websites break the non-disclosure agreement’s review street date. It sounds good for Ubisoft in theory — if  all the pre-launch impressions of your game are positive, strong sales will likely follow. But it’s bad ethics in terms of principle, and the supposed pressure for “good” reviews backfired as other sites ran their own less-than-glowing reviews. Ubisoft was pushed into a corner: Would they admit they allowed positive reviews out first, or alternatively stay quiet and allow their NDA to be thoroughly abused?

In all honesty, the scores of 7s and the like seem about right. For all that Assassin’s Creed does right in terms of its gameplay, engine, graphics and design, it comes up short in a lot of other areas. Sometimes it tries too hard (the story), and sometimes it’s just uninspired (the lack of mission variety). The glowing reviews clearly came from individuals captivated by the scenery, while the negative reviews seem, to me at least, to strike a sort of middle ground.

Assassin’s Creed is neither groundbreaking nor a once-in-a-lifetime gaming experience. It’s certainly not a Game of the Year contender. Truly, it’s more akin to a movie like last summer’s Iron Man: A popcorn flick with artistic credentials that happens to do a damn good job of setting up the sequel.

If Assassin’s Creed II mends the shortcomings of the first game while keeping its solid fundamentals, Ubisoft may put out a title that won’t need manufactured positive press — it’ll make its own.

Well, PopCap, you’ve done it again.

I was all set to get the Backlog out the door so I could enjoy my weekend, and you had to stumble in out of the cold, like an estranged lover drawn back to rekindle a long-burning flame. All those hours we spent matching jewels, the dizzying ecstasy of our peg-filled Extreme Fevers…you’ve always been good to me, baby.

And now you show up on my doorstep with this new game, Plants Vs. Zombies — a clever and hilarious twist on a revered casual genre — and I can’t help but fall in love with you all over again.

Um. So yeah, that’s where I’ve been for the past three hours. Read on to see what the rest of the gang’s up to!

Subtitle: Except for this album cover. It's pretty shocking.

Nick: Aside from the freakishly addictive Plants Vs. Zombies, I’ve been trying to find good music I haven’t heard. And one of the best ways I’ve found for discovering new music is to check it out in Rock Band 2, naturally. There are two reasons:

1. I love playing Rock Band 2.
2. Harmonix has impeccable taste in music.

So I’ve been catching up on some of my favorite artists — Neko Case, the Allman Brothers Band, and, uh…REO Speedwagon. But the biggest gamble I made turned out to be a fantastic decision. I picked up Nothing’s Shocking, the debut album from Jane’s Addiction, and I’m shocked by how much I’m enjoying the thing from start to finish. The funky basslines, the intricate drum patterns, the awesome guitar solos, the…well, whatever Perry Farrell’s singing about, I like it too.

I’ve also got several games I’m pushing myself to finish in order to review them next week: Halo Wars, Resistance 2 and GTA: Chinatown Wars, primarily. But you can also look forward to another hand-picked iPhone game review this Monday, and I’m sure I won’t be able to stop blathering on about Plants Vs. Zombies anytime soon.

Aaron: So, this week I managed to download and explore the 10-day free trial for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. I’ve heard decent to average things about the game since its release, but after playing for a few days I’ll stick my neck out here and say this: Warhammer is more fun and better-crafted than World of Warcraft in terms of player vs. player content.

The Realm vs. Realm aspect of Warhammer is tighter and more fast-paced than Warcraft’s frustrating and sometimes inaccessible Player vs. Player feature. In Warhammer, players are in and out of battles quickly, they can queue from anywhere for numerous different battlegrounds and characters are even returned to their previous location, post-battle.

Even Warhammer’s quest system is more intuitive, though the myriad of “Kill this” and “Collect that” missions are pretty standard. I also enjoy how the minimap in Warhammer will lay a red hue over the area where your quest can be found, reducing the need for a multitude of add-ons just to find something, as is the case with WoW.

I doubt I’ll subscribe, as any MMO is a burden of commitment, but I’m quite impressed with what Warhammer has to offer.

Aside from all that online kerfuffle (there’s an antiquated word), I got back into some of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition and enjoyed it a lot. I’ve also been plowing through Fallout 3‘s three packs of DLC for our review feature, and I finally got around to Suikoden Tierkreis. Man, the voice acting in that game is absolutely horrendous.

Otherwise this weekend I’ll be watching some movies, enjoying the weather and the apartment to myself and probably reading. I’m a bit “gamed out.”

Doug: More of the same for me this week, as time-old traditions continue anew: Sports and racing games have dominated my gaming time this week.

Of course, my go-to has been FIFA 09. I’m hooked now on the main Manager mode, where I’m trying to guide Italian side Sampdoria to glory; I also have saves in that mode with my favorite soccer team, Arsenal, and an English side called Leicester City. The latter will be a challenge run, trying to build the team up from the third tier of English soccer up into a powerhouse.

Even better, word through the grapevine is that Sasquatch editor Nick Cummings is thinking of dipping his toe into the sports gaming world by giving FIFA a try. My evil plan, it is working! Seriously, soccer is almost the perfect sports game to start with: The sport is very accessible, the current (since the 08 version) FIFA engine has great flexibility with its control scheme so beginners can start with some very good training wheels, and it’s loads of fun. It’s not overly complicated and, much like a fighting game, the way you play is very tailored to the individual.

The other game I’ve been spending lots of time on is Project Gotham Racing 4. I picked this up with Assassin’s Creed a few weeks ago for cheap at GameStop; both games cost me less than $40. I honestly can’t believe I shrugged PGR4 off the first time because it is rather amazing and, fitting in with the theme, it’s a great racing game for somebody interested in the genre to start with.

It’s really also the ultimate evolution of the work Bizarre Creations started with PGR2 on the original Xbox: You’re driving fast through real-life cities and doing a variety of race types to not only finish first, but finish first in style. The controls are great, and while it’s not the most realistic racer in the world (Forza 2 beats it, and that gets stomped by myriad PC simulators in terms of realism) it has a heft and feel and gravity to the driving that just feels more hyper-real than arcadey. The feeling of driving fast and attacking corners in PGR4 is what car geeks like myself like to remember our real-life Sunday drives feeling like.

It also does weather effects rather well, especially the rain. The moment I knew that was driving in one of the wet cities and feeling both a rumble effect and a slight pull from a large pool of water on the street. Being a native Portlander, I know driving in the rain – and PGR4 nails that feeling really well.

I hope to take more chunks out of Assassin’s Creed and maybe my second Mass Effect playthrough this weekend; might hop into Rock Band 2 a bit, too. But don’t be surprised if I’m still on FIFA.

Berserker Barrage

Ah, blessed weekend. You couldn’t have arrived any sooner, particularly as I seem to be coming down with a decidedly non-porcine illness. Unfortunately, the workload doesn’t let up for Doug and me — we’re tackling that most coveted of challenges in fake-rockdom bright and early tomorrow morning. And not to be outdone, Aaron’s looking at a full course of superhero do-goodery this weekend. Let’s just hope X-Men Origins: Wolverine shapes up to be a bit better than its movie counterpart — any game where I can leap onto a helicopter, yank out the pilot and decapitate him with the blades is just dandy.

Nick: Look upon this symbol, ye mighty, and despair! The coveted Bladder of Steel is without question the most difficult achievement/trophy available in Rock Band 2, and nearly impossible for the incontinent. It’s awarded to any players who complete the Endless Setlist 2 — all 84 on-disc Rock Band 2 songs — without failing or pausing once. It’s roughly six hours and ten minutes of non-stop rocking, and it’s a needless, arthritic exercise — not to mention a waste of a perfectly good Saturday. But hey, bring a couple friends along and keep a couple alternates on hand, and it’s not so daunting.

Assuming I’m not wracked with crippling wrist pain, I’m hoping to finish up Halo Wars and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars in order to whip up a couple of reviews for next week. And my most recent impulse buy, Bionic Commando Rearmed, is giving me a run for my money.

Aaron:

It’s been another week of playing games I’ve reviewed, or am currently reviewing. Aside from Fable II’s Knothole Island and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows (review pending!), I put in some quality time with Left 4 Dead once more. As always, it’s best served amongst friends. Oh, and I certainly enjoyed Stevie Ray Vaughan in Rock Band 2. I treated myself to Texas Flood.

Now, here’s my videogame ordeal for the week: Battlefield 2.

See, one of my friends and I played that game absolutely to death for nearly two years post-release. A little over a week ago I heard of the new beta patch for the game, the first patch at all in about three years, and decided with its Vista and widescreen support, it was time for me to once again crash fighter jets into the ocean. My friend agreed to the suggestion, and I expected nothing less than kittens and rainbows to lead us to our glorious Battlefield 2 promisedland.

Unfortunately, after hours of installs, recovering old accounts, dealing with EA’s download manager and finally downloading patches (nearly two gigabytes worth), the game decides to crash everytime I try to join a match or change the audio settings. At least I see the menu screen, I suppose.

So, the remedy is to uninstall and do everything over but leave out the beta patch — the problem there is I don’t know if Vista will even run the damn game without it.

I swear, the one thing about PC gaming I simultaneously love and hate is its complexity.

Next week = Suikoden Tierkreis, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Assassin’s Creed, Fallout 3 DLC and, hopefully, Battlefield 2.

Doug:

Along with usual recent standbys Assassin’s Creed and FIFA 09, here are some things I’ve put just a little bit of time into this week…

I got the chance to go through a bit of a game that I loved when it came out last summer: Castle Crashers. When one of my friends sent a voice message asking to play, I sent him the Castle Crashers invite post-haste and man…man is this game fun.

I’ve played a metric ton of demos the last few days, both for Xbox 360 games and Xbox Live Arcade titles. Quick hits on some of these titles:

-UFC 09 Undisputed (Demo): Despite being based off the biggest mixed martial-arts championship out there, UFC 09 is not a fighting game in the strictest sense; rather, it’s an incredibly technical sports simulator. It’s like a fighter filtered through the Madden NFL series in terms of the tone and, especially, the control scheme of the game. I’m sure UFC fans will love how in-depth that means the game will get, but if you’re looking for something to move onto after Street Fighter IV, you might have to reconsider.

-Outrun 2 (XBLA): Completely unadulterated classic arcade action, updated to Xbox-quaity graphics. Doesn’t mean it’s worth $10 or $15 on XBLA, though.

-Skate: I wish I could get more into this. This is one of a few games absolutely suffering from the terrible old TV my Xbox 360 is shackled to at the current moment.

-Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram (XBLA): YESSSSSSSSSS. I wish I could justify spending the money for this, because it is, in baseball terminology, a fat meatball right in my wheelhouse. Sega? Check. Dreamcast generation? Check. Great old game that suffers a bit translated from two gigantic sticks and an arcade cabinet to an Xbox 360 controller, yes, but it still looks so good.

-X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Demo): Because I need more chances to lock-on and leap onto helicopters in my life. Much like the recent 50 Cent: Blood in the Sand, this isn’t made for discerning audiences; it’s the gaming equivalent of a popcorn movie. It’s nigh-on being a carnival ride, especially on Easy mode. It’s fast, fun, and really, REALLY bloody.

It feels a lot like that. (Photo by Bruce Ely/The Oregonian)

I’m slowly coming back into the fold as a Portland Trail Blazers fan after hearing some really exciting things. The thought of a mostly young team making such a strong effort this season has got me eager to see what the future holds.

Unfortunately, the Houston Rockets don’t seem to share my enthusiasm, as they’re currently making the Blazers’ lives a living hell. But hey, at least I can seek respite in my recently repaired Xbox 360!

Nick Cummings:

What can I say? I’ve been busy. Other than a few short-but-sweet play sessions on the newly-released Left 4 Dead survival mode (which Aaron was kind enough to review,) my gaming has consisted almost exclusively of games I was playing for review. Fortunately, Prince of Persia’s Epilogue wasn’t half-bad, and Galaga Legions was an awesome, albeit sadomasochistic, experience.

"Young Folks," by Peter, Bjorn & John

I’m looking forward to delving into Fable II‘s Knothole Island DLC this weekend, and maybe I’ll even give The Path another shot. But I’m most excited to bust out some incredibly awkward karaoke on my buddy’s copy of Lips.

Aaron Thayer:

At this juncture, my weekly gaming intake has been quite average.

I played a bit of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars to help with the DSi overview, which, while enjoyable, wasn’t what I really wanted to play — Suikoden Tierkreis will have to wait until next week (full disclosure: Suikoden is my absolute favorite RPG series, ever). Fearless fellow editor Nick and I had a blast for a couple of hours in Left 4 Dead thanks to its wonderful new DLC pack, and I romped through the first hour-and-a-half of the Knothole Island DLC for Fable II as well; so far it’s visually captivating and typically Fable, to say the least.

But the mediocrity will dissipate tonight, as one of my dear friends is coming for a weekend visit and we plan on getting some old buddies together to play the following in between bar-hopping and such: Rock Band, Guitar Hero: Metallica, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone 2, Resistance 2 and probably 20 other games. As you might have gathered, he has a PS3.

Doug Bonham:

Honestly, gaming hasn’t been at the forefront this week — I’ve been busy starting up a part-time job and going on wild adventures with the City of Portland’s parking bureau. I’ve played a little bit more FIFA 09 and Assassin’s Creed, but the only really great time I had was last weekend with Nick and another of our friends. We all played a bit of Rock Band 2 now and then — including at Ground Kontrol on Tuesday nights — but an extended play session was a long time coming.

We rectified that last weekend, playing for a good four or five hours. Hanging out and rocking out like that is one of my favorite things in all of gaming, ever, and it’s great to get to do that with people who have similar tastes in music and song choice. Rumor has it we may be tackling the Endless Setlist at some point in the near future, and I can’t imagine a better crew to play with.

Nick:

I wouldn’t call myself an achievement hunter, but I’m definitely playing through Prince of Persia once again for 100% completion. While it’s not quite as breathtaking as the first time I laid eyes on it, it’s still a remarkably enjoyable experience. If it doesn’t satisfy the hardcore (and we’ll see about whether the Epilogue DLC scratches that itch next week,) well, I guess I’m proud to represent casual platform gamers. Hey, I beat Ninja Gaiden II — I’ve earned some rest.

I’m hoping to wrap up the single player component of Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars as well. I’m still not finding much of a draw within the storyline, but I’m still holding out for a touchscreen-powered chainsawing minigame. Somehow, the scalpel in Trauma Center just didn’t quite cut it for me.

And finally, I picked up a ten-dollar copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance today. After a couple hours of bruising a cast of hallowed comic book villains with an ensemble of the big-name heroes, I’ve come to realize that comics really are as cheesy as they always seemed. I mean, what kind of name is Dum Dum Dugan? Seriously. I thought I was watching The Venture Bros. for a minute there.

Aaron:

This week, and by week I mean over a day and a half, I beat Mirror’s Edge. I’ve been postponing playing the game since its November release, partly because the demo didn’t wow me in a major way and also because GameFly is unreliable.

It’s a fairly decent title overall, and definitely a case where the experience of first-person free running is more fun for being unique than for gameplay-related purposes. I’m mostly impressed that DICE can do more than excellent multiplayer war titles. Mirror’s Edge was frustrating in some parts, and completely illogical at later stages with its “runner’s eye” gimmick of red-hued pipes and ledges. Plus, as I’m not into time trials and all that (except for Mario Kart 64), the lasting appeal really, well, didn’t.

The other day I put Fable II back into my 360′s (very loud) disc tray and found myself enjoying it all over again. This time around I’m trying to propel a fresh character to some undetermined place in the game world to justify purchasing the Knothole Island DLC. Unfortunately, I still don’t think I’ll ever complete the “Dollcatcher” achievement. So annoying.

Next week I look forward to some DSi action, which you’ll be reading about!

Doug:

I’ve been trying to make room for games I really want to play…and that’s gotten me sucked back into the world of soccer, like clockwork.

I’ve started Assassin’s Creed and gotten a few hours in. I’m really enjoying the experience – the controls fall to hand really easily, I like what the game’s story is doing so far, and the ambiance is really good. Now to get busy killing people – should be good fun.

Along with Assassin’s Creed, I picked up a game I missed until it was in the bargain bin – Xbox 360 racer Project Gotham Racing 4. I loved multiplayer in PGR2 back on the Xbox, and enjoyed PGR3 well enough when I first got my 360, but I just wasn’t enthused about this most recent title. Racing-game newbies would enjoy it, as it’s very approachable, fast, and fun. The single-player progression is very fair, too. I’ll have more on it as I wind my way through single player.

Lastly, I’ve been pouring more time into FIFA 09. Even more of my life has gone into Be A Pro, and I’ve also picked back up the “regular” manager mode. After comparing a bit with one of my all-time favorites, Winning Eleven 9 on the PS2, I have to crown FIFA 09 as the best soccer game I’ve played – at least, within the context of playing a match. FIFA still gets some of the ancillaries wrong, but the gameplay on the pitch feels oh-so good. Now I just need to justify spending the money to unlock the Ultimate Team add-on mode, which plays like a sports game crossed with a collectible card game…

[viddler id=72981230&w=545&h=349]

On the one hand, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits is reviving some of the best songs with full-band bravado from the earlier, better days of Guitar Hero. Ozzy Osbourne’s Bark at the Moon is getting its due. So is Killer Queen, and Free Bird, and Carry On Wayward Son…which was already in Rock Band 2, and…Through the Fire and Flames?

Yep. It’s Neversoft.

Bioshock 2 footage emerged from the depths. While it’s far too early to make any judgment calls on the game, it’s safe to say the sequel perfectly retains the look and feel of the landmark original game. Whether that’ll ultimately be to its detriment or benefit is, at this point, anyone’s guess.

Meet Ezio Auditore de Firenze, Desmond's next nightmare-bed buddy

The slow trickle of Assassin’s Creed 2 details has accelerated. Just earlier this week, Ubisoft launched a teaser site for Assassin’s Creed 2, complete with a clever webcam metagame that revealed images of the game’s new protagonist. Ezio Auditore de Firenze, a Florentine nobleman in the year 1476, is another one of Desmond’s ancestors and presumably the next persona he’ll pull a Being John Malkovich on in the sequel.