Assassin’s Creed has been a household name since it’s inception in 2007, and since then the series has sold over 100 million copies (as of September of 2016) which makes it one of the highest selling video game franchises of all time. Now with the original Assassin’s Creed being nearly 12 years old, it’s time to take a look back at one of the most iconic and influential series in games history.

Assassin’s Creed is a third-person open-world action game that chronicles the adventure of the assassin Altaïr and his fall from favor in the assassins order, as well as his quest for redemption during the Third Crusade in 1191. The game also details the story of Desmond Miles who was kidnapped by the Abstergo corporation and is forced into a device called the “Animus.” The Animus can tap into the DNA of his ancestors and see their memories, allowing Abstergo to find secrets hidden within.

The modern-day story is your usual tale of a shady corporation who’ll stop at nothing to get the power they seek. It’s a tad bit generic and a few of the twists are so telegraphed you’d see them coming a mile away. The story shines a bit more during Altaïr’s portions, though it can feel a bit fragmented and fails to create a world or characters you root for or care about.

Altaïr is a paper-thin protagonist and is frankly a bit boring as well; he just exists to move the plot along but does little to add any extra intrigue or exciting elements to Assassin’s Creed. Philip Shahbaz’s acting is devoid of all emotion even when he is supposed to show compassion or anger. He always sounds the same and the performance just falls flat along with the majority of the other voice cast.

Townsfolk actors sound bored and the same phrases are repeated so often that I would find myself turning off the game and hearing the NPCs in my sleep; which should normally be a compliment when a game can seep itself into your subconscious but in the case of Assassin’s Creed, it is very much a flaw.

You’ll be doing a lot of fighting in Assassin’s Creed but you’ll dread it every time you get in a large group fight. In these fights, you just stand guarding (holding L1) waiting for an enemy to strike you so you can counter. Most enemies can be taken down with one counter-attack and prove little challenge till the end of the game. During a certain point of the story, enemies start becoming hyper-aggressive and will attack you on-sight or for even tapping them slightly. Suddenly you are surrounded and are left to spend 10 minutes running or endure a frustrating fight.

The open world still looks good and the stunning 12-century architecture is really put on display when you climb to the highest viewpoint and just look above the city. However, that beauty ends when you start to move and the frame rate drops to a crawl. Sadly there is constant screen tearing from what I experienced on the PS3. The characters all look the same with slight variations to clothes and a slight stutter to character movement especially while riding horses.

Another big issue I personally had with Assassin’s Creed was the audio mixing; character voices would be drowned out by the background noise and would make story beats hard to hear. I would go into the options menus and would mess around with the audio settings and that only made things slightly better. With no subtitle options available it really put a damper on my experience.

Assassin’s Creed is the king when it comes to parkour in games, and here in the original Assassin’s Creed it still manages to be the best part of the game. Somehow the developers over at Ubisoft made a traversal system so fluid that even all these years later still feels great and make you feel like a real assassin. Yes you will accidentally jump off a wall or slam into a ladder when you try and climb it, but this system seemed to be the main focus during development and it really shows how much time and thought was given here.

Going back to the beginning of the franchise was definitely an interesting experience as I love to go back and revisit older titles. Assassin’s Creed was a difficult one to see all the way through due to its technical issues, poor combat and mediocre story. There is enough here for a first timer to really enjoy it, but for a long time fan, it’s better to just avoid this one if you managed one playthrough already.

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Assassin's Creed

$13.72 USD

6.5

Score

6.5/10

Pros

• Fluid Parkour
• Unique setting

Cons

• Technical Issues
• Mediocre story
• Poor combat

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