A cheesy, colourful, sllck, sci-fi/action epic.. think a third-person Halo crossed with a stripped-down Mass Effect - this game was obviously inspired by the former in many of its designs, gameplay and vehicles, and I think it may have heavily inspired the latter in its story, themes and character powers. Also, there's visual stuff that reminds me of Evolva in there too. Anyway, lots of frenetic fun to be had, some nice music, great creature designs and beauitful vast vistas to behold - for a 10 year old game I think the graphics have held up quite well due to the texturing being quite subtle and smooth, and the style being very cartoonish. Unfortunately, the game is marred by some really annoying bugs, involving a dozen or so CTDs in my playthrough, and some finnickety keyboard controls. Also, the boss fights are very, very tough, even on easy. And the most annoying thing is this was the first in a trilogy that never got any sequels. A shame, because I quite enjoyed this and would like to see more. Well worth the asking price.
It has its detractors, and I can understand why, but I for one love the first foray in to the Assassins Creed universe, and it is the only one in the series that I have played more than once - in fact, I have completed it 5 times across 3 different systems. Though admittedly not as characterful, cinematic and engaging as its sequels and widely derided because of its repetitive nature, it nevertheless has a purity of gameplay and a strong focus and compelling fluidity that the later games lose due to their ever-increasing feature creep, bolted-on mini-games and over reliance on jarring expositionary cut scenes and copout quicktime events. Yes, it is somewhat clunky at times, and the modern day sections of the game feel a bit flat and even turgid, but the core gameplay of exploration, investigation and assassination in a very well realised virtual world set against an appealing backdrop of history, conspiracy and morality is highly addictive and very satisfying. You can explore as little or as much as you want, and it can be as easy or as hard as you make it, though bear in mind that if you do not perfect your combat skills, the last sections of the game can be annoyingly difficult, almost impossibly rage-quittingly so. But aside from the issues and arguments for or against this game, there is nothing quite like it for its basic ambience and attractions... Free-running across rooftops, hiding among crowds and completing a kill can be both exhilarating and relaxing, whilst climbing to the top of a minareted tower and synchronising a viewpoint with the cries of an eagle in your ears, then taking a leap of faith safely into a cart full of straw... That's what makes Assassin Creed special to me. Not the endless collecting and crafting and curating and other assorted confusing craptrap that mire and bog down the later games in the series.
This game was slated on release when I bought it, coming in the big-budget shadows of Oblivion like it did. It was clunky, cheesy and somewhat silly. But I rather enjoyed its Eastern European charms, and in some ways it surpassed Oblivion, especially when it came to inventory, crafting and magic. On the whole it was a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed eploring Antaloor, even if the much-hyped dragons they boasted about turned out to be rubbish. However, what really defines this game for me is the epic soft-metal menu music. It rocks. When I first heard it I laughed my socks off. Surely it was a joke? Or at least a very tongue-in-cheek nod towards musical fantasy tropes. Seductive warbling vocals mispronouncing every fifth or sixth word leading to hysterical shrieking, with multipart progression from gentle fantasy synth to heavy rock guitars and back to gentle harp - it had it all, and you could imagine the singer standing in shiny golden armour at the top of a hill, a long flowing purple cape waving in the wind as she surveys a battlefield below a dark blood-red sky, singing her expressive heart out and waving her lithe pale limbs like a latter-day Kate Bush goddess-figure. Hilarious! But then it grew on me until I realised it was just fantastically awesome in every way possible. Eventually I nearly always listened to the entire track upon entering the game. I love it. I played the sequel earlier in the year, and, though a lot better in many ways, I really missed the atmosphere of the original game, which I played on an Xbox 360 I no longer have. And it didn't have anything to match the epic menu music of Two World. I saw Two Worlds in the Gog sale for the price of a cheap cup of coffee, and thought I might like to play it again. But even if I don't get round to it (thanks to a gaming backlog of about 250 titles) at least I can fire it up and list to That Tune again.
