2. Assassin's Creed
New Year's day 2008. It was over 40 degrees in Melbourne (that's Celsius) and you couldn't step out of the house for fear of your shoes melting. Inside our house, the cooler was working overtime, and so was the Xbox. My husband and I were having an all-day Assassin's Creed marathon, taking turns with the controls and generally having the best time ever. I have to admit, that may be one of my fondest gaming memories (aww).
You play Desmond Miles, a modern day bartender who has been kidnapped by a sort-of-evil corporation called Abstergo. Desmond is chucked into a machine which extracts his genetic memories, making him relive the experiences of his ancestor Altair, a Syrian Assassin from 1191 A.D. Abstergo, which is run by the Templars, wants to use these memories to find the Pieces of Eden, relics which would allow them to control minds. I know, 'what huh?', right? It's pretty convoluted, and I didn't even get all that until I looked up Wikipedia.
What makes this game so much fun is that you spend most of your time playing as Altair, the hooded free-running assassin whose sense of balance is rivalled only by the Prince (of Persia, that is). Ubisoft bestowed on Altair the incredible acrobatics which they perfected in PoP, and allowed him to roam the streets and rooftops of Damascus and Jerusalem. Honestly, the storyline, though really cool, isn't the star of the game - you basically get assassination contracts in different cities and you have to go about fulfilling them. Although the missions are a little repetitive, it is so fun (there's that word again!) running around rooftops, walking through the streets trying to blend in with the monks, and fleeing for your life when you get spotted by guards.
The game is absolutely gorgeous, as Ubisoft games always are, and the costumes are amazing. My favourite parts of the game were scaling the many view points strewn across the cities (you know, to generate the city map, because that's how you do it) and then taking a Leap of Faith all the way down into a strategically placed bale of hay. I absolutely love how the sounds of the city fade away as you climb higher and higher, to be replaced by the call of a circling eagle. Once you're at the top, you can almost feel the wind blowing. Trust me, this game succeeded in giving me chills on a hot summer's day.
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| Altair viewing stuff from his view point |
Assassin's Creed 2 came out in 2009. This time, you play Ezio Auditore, another of Desmond's ancestors, this time from 15th century Italy. The gameplay is pretty similar, except Ubisoft tried to spice things up a little by giving Ezio smart mouth (Altair was really cool, but pretty much had the personality of a pancake). They also threw in a couple of fun mini-puzzles and increase the story's complexity by a factor of lots. Conspiracies are everywhere, you beat up the Pope, chat with some ancient gods, and by the end of it pretty much the only correct response is 'wtf'. And they know it. But hey, it's okay because your good friend Leonardo da Vinci is there to build you flying machines!
While Ezio was real cute, I kind of missed the dark broodiness of Altair. Also I'm pretty sure they made the game easier - the chase scenes were less intense and the game in general didn't give me the same sense of satisfaction that the first one did. I did like the fact that they tried to set up a whole mythology and that there were lots of entertaining side missions. Here's hoping that they manage to find a happy balance in the next game! Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood comes out next month. It's a direct sequel to the second game, but what I'm really looking forward to is AC3. May it bring with it a whole new old world and many more bales of hay.
Next up, SimCity 2000!
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