So, just this/last month the rumoured Prince of Persia 4 or whatever you want to call it was announced, trailers, screens, all that jazz. However do you remember around the same time 2 years ago at E3 2006 (if you weren't pondering why Nintendo called its new console the Wii) that the POP team's latest game was announced, titled Assassin's Creed. If my hazy memory recalls, it was "the next step from Prince of Persia" and from then on hype got the better of most people after seeing the trailers and screens. It looked like the POP Team weren't shitting us and we were looking forward to one of the better games of this generation. Then when it came out in late 2007, there was a big sigh and probably some fail pictures on the Internet. It wasn't as good as it was made out to be, most people seeing it as an Average game. Still, at least it didn't suffer from the review scandal of another disappointing game.


(How some may have felt after seeing a Assassin's Creed review)

Fastforwarding to April 2008 (no AC pun intended), I had just bought my 360, and my closest friends asked me what games I'd like to borrow from them. Since all of them had Assassin's Creed, i thought "Well i might as well as play this without paying for it" so the Cheapskate in me borrowed it to play and still to complete. After playing it for a while i wanted to waste some precious life and voice my own personal opinion and this mixed opinion of the game.


(Here goes nothing)

First the engine, which i actually think is overall better than Prince of Persia. Altair (seriously even for Crusade times, who would have a name like that?) can run, blend, kick some ass and pretend to be Ms.Croft/Link, and it all feels very nice to control. The Controls are easy to pick up and owning some Soldiers/free running can be very satisfying. That being said there are some flaws. It is a little too easy in terms of fighting, in that you can counterattack your way to victory every time. On another note, where the hell is the wall jump and run? The Prince could do it, and since an Assassin needs to be skilled, you'd think Altair would have learned how to do all that Parkour jazz. On a lack of, Altair also suffers from "Every GTA bar San Andreas, Vice City Stories and 4" syndrome in that he'll die as soon as he touches a pool of water. Guess Masyaf didn't provide swimming lessons in the 12th Century.



(Every 12th Century Assassin's worst Nightmare)

But then, for most it wasn't about the engine that made them slap their own faces in pity, but the craptastic story and repetitiveness. The whole time that Ubisoft was rolling their hypetrain, it looked like the game would just be about an Assassin sent out to kill enemies of the public in the age of the Crusades. But then when people first played it, they were treated to some guy being held by stock Crazy Doctor and his non stock Assistant (in that she wasn't a hunchback or just plain weird) and he was wait, being forced to relive his ancestor's memories from the 12th century to find not the lost Ark but some object with a name that i can't remember. So then you actually get to play as Altair, and you think "Oh well now things will get started" and your happy with that after you've done your first Assassination. But then you do the whole thing again, but in a different city and with a different target. Ok you think, Every castle in the original Super Mario Bros had the same Toad telling us that the Princess was in another castle. But then you do the same, again, and again, AND AGAIN. By the 4th Assassination you just can't be arsed, and like me you may have ended up just going around killing enemies and doing all the Optional Objectives.

Back in the Modern Day, you eventually find out that the company that Dr.Wily works for is the god of all Technology and has made every life changing device in history. I lost interest soon after.

To sum this up, Assassin's Creed is not a bad game, it just suffered from Hype, Repetitiveness and a story that would make the story of any Uwe Boll movie look like Oscar material. My Advice is, either take the cheapskate root and borrow it from someone money-wasting soul, or buy it, but only if it's £10/$20 and under. Or you could just love bad stories and repetitiveness and buy it anyway. Since it looks like there will be a sequel/ a dead horse after all the money the game raked in, hopefully the issues listed above may be fixed but then i wouldn't be surprised if they weren't. The Prince is still superior.