Currently Playing: Assassin's Creed

I've spent a couple of hours on Assassin's Creed (referred to from here on in as AC) and so I'll offer my first impressions. Whilst it's a new IP you can feel the influence of a lot of other titles in the way it looks, feels and plays. There's the washed out desert, almost medievil, feel of Ico. The way stealth is at the heart of the game feels very Metal Gear. You start the game with all your weapons and powers and then get demoted, lose them all, and have to earn them back Metroid style. And lots more besides.

The 'twist' as such isn't really a twist at all (I wont however reveal it here) as it's part of the set up of the game. As a twist to be revealed at the end it would've been wanky. As it is it allows for some of the gameplay mechanics to be reasonably explained and works in practice better than it might have sounded.

The first 'powered up' section is rather disjointed as the game alloys you to play for a while 'tutorial style' and then fast forwards. My other complaint is that at first the control scheme seems rather fussy. Altair normally moves in a kind of civilian mode where he attracts little attenion. A press of the 'A' button allows him to blend in with the crowd. To access his action mode requires a press of 'RT' and then another button to actually carry out said action. So for instance to sprint requires the left stickl to be pushed forwards, Right Trigger and then a press of the 'A' button. Perversely once actually engaged in some free running, such as scaling a building, it's rather over simple because you can let go of 'RT' and 'A' and move Altair around with just the left stick hopping from ledge to outcrop as he ascends. It doesn't give quite the same satisfaction as Crackdown did. It's a flexible system however helped by an icon in the top right of the HUD that allows you to see what you can do at any one moment.

A lot of thought seems to have gone into how an assassin might actually operate. On your first mission you first have to evedrop on a conversation, Follow up the lead by trailing a suspect, beat a confession out of him and then return him to your superior for sentanceing.

It's become difficult this gen to describe how things look because to be fair most of the big titles look pretty stunning. AC does indeed look stunning but this has lot to do with the architecture as much as the HD loveliness of the graphics. The first time you see the walled city of Damascus is quite a sight.

Having reached the city and gained enterance to it by blending in with a band of wandering monks allowing me to walk right past the city guards I decided to call it a night.