Assassin's Creed - Directors Cut Edition (PC DVD)

Overall a good game, there is fun to be had by simply moving around the gameworld. Action gets quite repetative though, you will find yourself using the same moves again and again, and the sandbox appearence hides an essentially linear game. The storyline is a little cliched, but to be fair, if you're going to find a secret Templar conspiracy anywhere, it'll be in the holy land at the time of the crusades.

I would strongly recommend playing this with a gamepad (the xbox 360 usb pad for instance, though my Xbox pad with a modified cable worked well) as this is very obviously a console game; the controls and menu system haven't been optimised well for the pc.

I did finish it, and overall I had a good time, but it's worth considering forking out the extra for the sequel. If you've only played the sequel and are considering this for backstory, be aware that backstory is pretty much all you'll get; you will find the game much more limited.

This is on of the most anticipated games to be ported to PCs. For this, the Director's Cut edition was produced, adding some content over the console versions (mostly roof-top action missions), and care was taken to make the gamepad-to-keyboard/mouse-transition as seamless as possible. For the most part it was successful.

This is a TREMENDOUSLY BEAUTIFULLY GAME. The first thing that grabs you is how REAL the city environments feel. The graphics are just OUT OF THIS WORLD! You will need a very good PC to enjoy their full potential (minimum requirements provided below), but real skies, dynamic shadows, facial expressions and realistically flowing robes are only beginning to describe it! Run on a roof and the other citizens will gather around and comment on your crazy behavior! Throw someone on a vendor's cart and he will come after you complaining about his ruined produce! And the city is alive well beyond your character. If only BIOWARE could take some lessons for its next BALDUR's GATE...

Adding to this is the wonderful sound! From the crowd murmurs and the NTCs cries for help, to the whistling of the wind and the well-chosen background music, a good sound-card and speakers set is recommended to truly enjoy this game. If you have a 5.1 speaker system (I do not) I can imagine the experience to become even more immersing.

As to the gameplay, you control Altaïr ibn La-Ahad ("The Flying One, Son of None"). He is a member of the Assassin Brotherhood that sides, well, with both...sides, during the 3rd Crusade. In a story twist, he is also your ancestor, the game being your/his flashback memories. This is a twist I could do without, but I would guess it lays groundwork for the sequels.

The Third person perspective works beautifully and will never loose your interest. Most missions require sneaking and murdering in the shadows. Others will have you eavesdropping for passwords or pickpocketing documents to gain access into target buildings. Some will have you sharpen those sword skills. Still, the game does not avoid its share of stupid "keep this...suicidal character from getting killed" missions. Keep in mind though that ASSASSIN's CREED is rather a strategically thinking action TPS, not a hack&slash fast-paced one.

Controlling your character with a keyboard/mouse takes a lot of getting used to as you have to manage running, climbing, fighting as well as modifying your actions from low to high visibility. The keys are remapable but their complexity will never let you forget you are playing a game. Now for some bad news.

These are the official MINIMUM Requirements:
* Pentium D 2.6GHz (YES, Dual Core!) (or AMD equivalent)
* 1GB RAM (WinXP) or 2GB (WinVISTA) (3GB RECOMMENDED!)
* nVidia 6800 (or Shader Model 3.0 compliant or ATI equivalent)
* Dual-Layer DVD-ROM (or BluRay disc)
* 12GB HDD Space (although my install folder was no larger than 7GB)

As one can see, this is worse than CRYSIS! What I cannot get is how on earth ASSASSIN works on only 512MB of RAM of the XBox, yet it is recommended to have...3GB of RAM on a PC! Sure, the extra content is nice but who did the porting, unpaid interns? Has ANY PC optimization been attempted at all?
Keep also in mind that (as with CRYSIS) in order to fully enjoy the game, barely meeting the minimum requirements means you will barely experience the game. I refuse to deal with WinVISTA so, obviously, this review pertains to DirectX-9. The game is also DirectX-10 compatible, something I cannot comment on though. And now for some good news.

UBISOFT has been recently hit with a $5million class-action suit for hardware (OK, "allegedly") damaged by StarForce bundled with its games. Since, they have announced to be abandoning its StarForce partnership - so let's all rejoice: unlike other UBISOFT games, ASSASSIN's CREED does NOT sport StarForce! Instead, a much milder SafeDisc is used.
It is a pity it took litigation to finally listen to their own customers (suing StarForce would make much more sense, but try finding them in Russia!), but let's count our blessings.

So, overall, this is a well made and beautiful, immersing (although quite short) game that needed more work in PC optimization (where it looses 1 star Overall) and character control (where it looses 1 star for Fun).

As Altair himself would have put it: "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."
Well, not everything - and certainly NOT StarForce.

For over a year, this sat in a cabinet. I'd gotten to the second proper mission in my first major city. Controlling Altair - the game's main character - was a nightmare come true. I was using keyboard and mouse, and controlling the game's swift, agile freerunner of an assassin was like dragging an elephant through setting toffee. It felt like I was constantly fighting an imposed speed barrier and then having to fight to get him past obstacles. Worse, the myriad combinations of keys that you needed to remember to press all at once made it like trying to prep a plane for takeoff. It was, in short, utterly unenjoyable.
So it languished until I decided to get a gamepad to play racing games and remembered this was in my drawer.
It's a stellar difference.
At heart, Assassin's Creed is a console game, so naturally it only plays the way it should with a pad.
The limited number of buttons make performing the wide selection of moves far easier, and with the pressure-sensitive sticks controlling Altair becomes far more natural. Even better, since he's far easier to steer the freerunning comes into its own, and soon you're racing across the tops of buildings, skimming across beams over 50 foot drops, and plummetting safely down into stacks of hay from the many high vantage points you have to climb in order to get an eagle's view of where the missions are based.
The graphics on PC are also gorgeous. Desert canyons gleam golden yellow in the sun, the clothing looks almost real, and the enjoyably ancient looking cities bathe in the desert sun with the occasional ripple of cloud across the streets.
The game allows you a degree of freedom in which 'investigation' missions you complete to find the info you need to go after each main target. These vary from enjoyable stealth assassinations of guards or informers through to breathless parkour races across the rooftops and over buildings to meet up with a source in time.
As disgraced assassin Altair, you also feel a strong sense of character. It really does feel like you're playing a secretive and dangerous man trying to blend in as everybody around you goes on with their daily lives.
When the game was released a big deal was made of the 'end of game twist'. This was a bit misleading as it's actually given away the second you play, and recurs in brief interactive sessions throughout play. I won't give it away here in case somehow you've remained oblivious. It's a little silly, and could have been executed better, but it adds to the title's rich mythology and gives it background, context, and the chance of a sequel.
There are very few flaws once you're playing the game with a pad.
Perhaps most obvious is the over-use of limited dialogue - you'll hear the same bullying guards and beggars spout exactly the same lines in every alley of every city - probably nearing 100 times by the end of the game.
The game also has a habit towards the end of pelting you with multiple attackers at once (up to 10 or 12) and expecting you to somehow guess a strategy in the three seconds before they start battering you to a pulp. It can be intimidating and frustrating. However the game guides out there on the web are very useful.
The bad guys are pretty good, and vary in their attitude and crimes, and Altair's Assassin's brotherhood master and colleagues are all interestingly distinctive. The voiceover of Altair himself makes him come across a bit bratty and arrogant, but that's easy to ignore and eases towards the climax.
The combat is also exhilerating and there are many fluid evades and flashy combat moves you can pull off that really do make you feel like a super-assassin, whether it's pouncing on the back of a fleeing target like a cougar, or slickly side-stepping an enemy's attack only to impale them on a sword. It's also possible to create almost your own 'minigame' out of hurling troublesome guards off a rooftop to clear a route or distract the enemies.
With multiple weapons, multiple routes and tactics, and a variety of gorgeous locations, this is a genuinely exciting little gem that will give action junkies just the fix they've been looking for.