2008/03/02

Legacy of a Killer


Assassin's Creed was a game that I eagerly waited from the time the first shots/videos were released. I liked the Hitman series, and was enthralled by the medieval setting and the visual/audio quality. Of course, I was sceptic at first, suspecting a bullshot, but it proved to be false in the long run. While it looked revolutionary at that time, so did Crysis, and it didn't save it from being mediocre in all other elements.


Options? What options?
The game started with maximum settings, and a correctly detected resolution, the latter is quite nice, first time I don't have to bother with that. That said, main menu options are scarce, to say the least. No mouse sensitivity setting, poor controls, no audio setting (only some volume settings after a level is loaded, nothing else), no difficulty setting(as in: absolutely none whatsoever). Graphical options are almost OK, but not great.

Visual and aural glory!
Yes, these are two damn good parts of the game, that are visible from the start. Yes, after Crysis, graphics is only on "the top", and not "the best", but still. The music is charming, (hey, I even want the soundtrack!) sounds are nice, voices are good as well. Good point is that the game is still playable on maximum settings (except AA) on my modest rig (x1900gt / 4600 x2 / 3gig ddr1 / xp), and from the stats, it does not fully need even the dreaded 2 gig of ram....

The head does not know what the feed does....
Controls for the PC are a mess. There is no other way to say, what we got is a simple - too damn simple - x360/ps3 pad emulator on the keyboard+mouse. Take the example that "blend to crowd" and "sprint/jump" are on one inseparable button, only difference is a mode-switch other button. Quite a mess... On other controls, the camera is not quite the best, as it gets crazy if you stand too close to a wall (it can't and wont go beyond the actual line of the wall, etc).

We don't need no stinking s(l)aves!
No manual save, only autosave on mission/quest completion/checkpoints. Yes, you'll have to travel there again, if your game froze up (as of now, forums are quite loud of freezes) tough luck!

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