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\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n <\/p>\nI\u2019ve always been wary of action games, because I tend to think too much before acting, and was concerned that my reflexes wouldn\u2019t be up to the task. However, as time went by, the ‘you won\u2019t know until you try’ credo grew on me, and I decided to expand my game collection with new genres. One of my friends pointed out that I couldn’t own an Xbox 360 and not try out\u00a0Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em>, and since the premise of the game already intrigued me, that finalised my decision.<\/p>\n \n\t\t The overall verdict\u00a0is a favourable one. But I must say that both the storyline and characters left me with dual impressions. Incarnating a skilled Assassin is great fun, and Alta\u00efr is undoubtedly one of the biggest highlights of the game: the sleek moves, the sneakiness, the arrogance, the taciturnity, the beauty and symbolism of the name. Even the missing finger. There\u2019s just one problem: why can\u2019t he swim? I know the sequel cooked up a dubious retroactive explanation, but it still seems a bit absurd. I’ve run into enough mishaps trying to make him cross bodies of water to make this a particularly annoying trait. But that\u2019s just about his only\u00a0drawback.<\/p>\n \n\t\t However, since Alta\u00efr isn\u2019t the ‘real’ hero of the game (pfff, as if!), that leaves us with Desmond, Alta\u00efr\u2019s descendent in modern times, as the main protagonist. And he has the charisma of a wet sock. Apart from the odd sarcastic quip, there isn\u2019t a single interesting thing about him.\u00a0Sure, he looks identical to Alta\u00efr, but looks alone do not a compelling character make. Sorry, Des, you should have gotten yourself a personality instead.<\/p>\n \n\t\t The storyline suffers from the same duality.\u00a0The gist is that there are two opposing factions, Assassins and Templars, who have faced each other throughout history. In the near future, Desmond, who is an Assassin by training, gets captured by a Templar-led company named Abstergo. They have a machine, called the Animus, which allows Desmond to relive the memories of his ancestors (which are somehow hardcoded within his DNA), a process Abstergo needs to locate something. So off goes Desmond into the skin of Alta\u00efr, a Syrian Assassin from the XIIth<\/sup>\u00a0century. This\u00a0Medieval part of the game works very well, and some of Alta\u00efr’s assassinations are truly memorable. Garnier de Naplouse, the Hospitalier leader, springs to mind: very convincingly unsettling, and the setting for his episode was well-nigh perfect. On top of that, I like the sonorities of his name, for some reason. Anyway, I\u2019m sure all this would\u2019ve constituted enough material for a game on its own.\u00a0The modern-day part just feels tacked on and uninteresting. Perhaps because it features Desmond. Perhaps because it\u2019s simply innately boring.<\/p>\n \n\t\t Since this was my first real action game, I apprehended the combat.\u00a0The stealthy stuff, such as making\u00a0Alta\u00efr creep up on an unsuspecting victim and swiftly stick a knife in their back, came naturally enough (take that as you will…). But open combat took some work.\u00a0It was simply a matter of getting used to it, and it won’t pose any particular challenge to action game veterans, but I did have to give my reflexes a bit of a shake to get used to blocking and countering, which is, by far, the most efficient way of fighting in this game. Still, once I’d come to grips with the technique, it became a treat to watch Alta\u00efr stabbing his way through hapless soldiers who had no idea what hit them. I must really commend the combat choreography, by the way. In the hands of a skilled player, it looks like some sort of deadly dance.<\/p>\n \n\t\t The sandbox aspect of the game does its job well, and if you’ve played any of Ubisoft’s\u00a0Prince of Persia<\/em> games, you’ll be right at home with Alta\u00efr’s acrobatics, even though he’s less of a gymnast than the Prince. Playing Spiderman among the rooftops is thoroughly entertaining.\u00a0Scaling minarets and belfries to get an overview of the area and then swallow-diving\u00a0off them (into haystacks…which should<\/em> be lethal, but who needs realism, right?) is a novel way to fill in the area map, and the views themselves are impressive, especially for someone who\u2019s afraid of heights, like me. The leap from the cross of the cathedral of Acre\u2013the tallest building in the game\u2013was a particularly intense moment.<\/p>\n \n\t\t Other positive aspects include graphics and…language. Despite some of the textures seeming overly sharp (I’m not sure how else to describe it), the game looks good. An added peculiarity is that each of the three big cities Alta\u00efr visits has its own unobtrusive, but present colour palette: Acre has a bluish hue, Damascus red and Jerusalem green.\u00a0As for the linguistic aspect, it’s noteworthy for its accuracy. Historical facts may have been doctored to make for a more exciting experience\u2013most of Alta\u00efr’s targets were real historical figures, but they weren\u2019t quite as\u2026colourful as in the game\u2013, but the language is spot-on. Ubisoft is a French company, so it stands to reason that they’d know their stuff, but hearing a proper<\/em> French accent in an Anglo-Saxon game is a rare enough occurrence to be noteworthy. Even random soldiers who spoke entirely in French (\u201cJe vais t\u2019\u00e9triper!\u201d) were perfectly fluent. Same for the German, as far as I could tell. Details, I know, but they help the immersion. The only thing that could\u2019ve made it better would\u2019ve been if Alta\u00efr himself had an accent.<\/p>\n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n\n \t<\/a>\n\t\t <\/div>\n \n<\/a>However, there are also negative elements. To start with the anecdotic,\u00a0the beggar women who plague every city are the devil incarnate (\u201cI\u2019m poor and sick and hungry!\u201d); if you don\u2019t know what I mean, play the game, and you soon will. Secondly, and more importantly, a lot of people complain about the game\u2019s repetitiveness, and while I found the context of each assassination episode to be interesting enough to make up for the fact that you essentially had to do the same thing every time, I can certainly concur. You’ll definitely get a sense of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/em> after a while. And it will only<\/a> get worse if you decide to go flag hunting: I’m really wondering why the developers felt the need to put so many of them in the game. There are also quite a few glitches (think random\u00a0non-playable characters\u00a0in gravity-defying positions on rooftops), which give the game a bit of an unpolished feel. The music is adequate, but nothing more. And, last but certainly not least,\u00a0the ending is terrible. I understand that the developers likely wanted a tie-in with the sequel, but they probably got a tad overzealous. It\u2019s\u00a0as if\u00a0the game didn\u2019t end at all.<\/p>\n \n\t\t