Dave and Jay - Crazy Web Entrepreneurs

Jay has led the charge in changing the shift of the blog a little bit, and has started talking about gaming somewhat frequently. Since gaming is a fairly big part of our lives (and Faith’s too), I thought I’d chime in with my thoughts about a game we’re playing through right now.

Faith and I have been playing through Assassin’s Creed the last week or so, and the game’s locale and visuals are absolutely stunning… and maybe I’m a bit odd, but the stealth wrist blade just doesn’t get old!

Assassin’s Creed is supposed to be a stealth / assassin game (duh), and it can be played that way. When it works, the game can be very satisfying. Nothing beats sneaking up behind a guard and sticking him with your knife blade, then sneaking through a door that was guarded until the guards left their posts to investigate their recently fallen comrade.

The problem is, there is no motivation to play this way. There is absolutely no penalty for running around in a very un-assassin like manner, killing every guard you see without thought of stealth or the sneakiness that is supposedly part of your creed. Out of curiosity (and desire for more Gamertag points), I decided to see how far this extends… and unfortunately, it seems that you can literally kill every guard in the city by any means (often taking 10 - 20 on at a time), and then run around unhindered.

This would be alright if there was any sort of difficulty involved in fighting large numbers of guards, but it’s easy enough that I could teach my grandma to do it. Any health you lose will quickly regenerate back during combat, and dispatching your foes in open battle is as simple as timing a single button press to your foe’s attacks. As the player, I’m supposed to be controlling an expertly trained assassin, but it often feels like I’m controlling Arnie in an 80’s action movie, where it’s me vs. an army and they don’t have a chance!

Don’t get me wrong, Assassin’s Creed is enjoyable to play, and there is “fun” to be had. The problem is, this is a sad case of what could have been a classic game, reduced to a merely good one. I think part of the problem was the scope of the game… they just planned a little bit more than they could pull off.

This is apparent when you look at some of the minor game decisions that seem to be rushed or just slapped in. For example, you play an expertly trained assassin, but apparently they don’t teach you how to swim at the academy, because a two foot drop into water will kill you… what?

Assassin’s Creed is a fun game that sadly could have been so much more with a little more development time, or more man-power. It’s a nice diversion, but don’t expect a challenging game unless you have the discipline to force yourself to play it as the stealth / assassin game it should be.