Official Assassin's Creed PC Review

Nice review, i enjoyed playing through AC even though it has it's flaws. To Joe, what's with the ranting towards console game(r)s? Not everything is dumbed down for console and pc isn't always superior, both platforms have their share of hits and misses. Try some Ninja Gaiden if you think console = walk in the park or Mass Effect if you want something immersive with character development(just some examples). You're entitled to your own opinion of course , i just felt like sharing mine.

 

I've loved console games also. I used to play tonnes of timesplitters 1/2/3 weekend after weekend with my step brother. It was heroic fun.

But assassins creed was designed as an experience. To draw the gamer in. Not to let him remember he's playing a video game.

I don't mind being reminded of it with the silly big heads in timesplitters. It's fun, and it's the social interaction that made it fun, or the social commentary, or humour.

AC isn't those things. It should be deeper, less gimmicky, more complex, harder, more interactive, endlessly replayable. But it isn't.

It's like comparing Timesplitters to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

If they'd redone stalker in a humorous half arsed way, with total linearity and repetitive ****, no input virtually at all, nobody would love it.

 

I love this game

 

After putting a decent amount of time in it i have to say I like it, its far from perfect, but I consider it a top tier game that should be a must try if you have the hardware.

 

Im done with 2 towns so far and the game is fun... but very shallow.

I understand it took a ton of programing time and debugging to get all the crowd interactions down, the environment interaction for places you can and cant climb ect.... but if all 3 towns are nothing more than saving some people, a few small missions then a main assassination and then its game over I will be very disappointed. Its already super repetitive doing the same things over and over and for the love of god why cant they make people have different dialog?

When you have to save 13 people in a town, if your going to spend so much time and money on a game you think you could cover the very basics like dialog so the game feels more authentic and less repetitive.

 

Agreed.

I just beat the first few missions, and can safely say that it isn't as great as I had hoped. Very repetitive and some parts are kind of boring. Aside from that, great game I suppose.

However, this one should have just sticked to the consoles IMO.

 

I have read a few walk-thrus for the game to kill time and looks like I have nothing to look forward too, its the same thing alot more times, infact it gets worse because the fun of being sneaky and stealthy jumping around town gets near impossible near the end where guards spot you if you do anything.

I'll probably try to finish the game but just stick to doing the minimum to get my assassination missions and run thru the story not worrying about the side stuff or collection quests.

The story is interesting enough and they have something to work with for the sequel.

 

You're right...there was so much more potential in this game! My main critic is that it's just to easy. Jumping and climbing requires you to hold 2 buttons down...what a challange. Same with the fights, even against 20 you can't really lose. Everything is just too automated. Same with the story: Climb ten towers, save 10 citizens etc. etc...

Another thing you didn't mention is the level design. If you stand on one of those towers and look down to the city, it looks just wonderful. But the problem is that you don't really get to know the city and it doesn't have enough unique buildings in each city that really makes you remember it.

Plus for an "Assassin"-Game, there are just too many things missing:
Where's the night?
Where's the sneak?
Where are the "sneak into the building and steal that thing/kill this person" missions?
Where are the tools, weapons and animations? Some stones to throw to distract, some dust to blind, more assassination animations than just 2?

If the sequel includes just a few of those things, there's a huge potential for one of the best game ever.
Assassins's Creed does already a lot of things perfectly, e.g. the animations, they're just stunning!

That's also why it isn't a bad game, it makes a lot of fun actually but it just isn't the game you play for 4 hours and completely forget yourself in it.

 

Just a question, anyone remember the game Thief? Is AC kinda like Thief?

 

Thats why we will have Assassins's Creed 2

 

got the game yesterday... i absolutly love it the controles needed some time to get used to but once you get the hang of it its great.

Just wished the game had more varity in it its mainly the same all trough the game i killed 5 enemys now and it mainly goes the same everytime you climb some churches pickpocket someone and talk to a informant and then kill a "boss" very easily mostly just jump on him with you hidden knife and then run out. They could atleast tried to get the process of getting information diffrent for each kill. But overall i still love the game simply because of the climbing and awesome fighting system.

Btw my pc is alrdy outdated its a c2d E6400 OC at 2,8Ghz with 2GB mem and X1950Pro 256MB also OC video card but i can play it at high. So why do i read everywhere the game demands so much from your system

 

True, when i first read the specs required, i was pretty shocked. Now i'm playing on 1650x1080 mostly on high

But i have to start it with the DX9 shortcut, since the DX10 somehow crashes when i get to the room with the professor and want to continue the game. The screen is just totally bright/white and the action just stops (no problem with the sound..). Someone got any idea?

 

AC is like Thief 3 (i.e. third person and whilst fun, dissapointing).

Actually, thief 3 was deeper and better than ac; better AI, harder, deeper - All AC has is the free running.

 

and style...

 

I got it today and have tried it... It works really sluggish on acer aspire 5920g - T8100, gf 8600 512mb ddr2, 2gigs ddr2 667mhz, nothin oc'd on vista. Im runnin in 1280x800 all settings to 3/4. Works almost the same in both, dx9 and dx10 mode, fps is between 16 and 24-25 (when im faced to wall or smthin like that). Im using 174.74 disp drivers. Any1 know reason for sluggish preformance? Any1 recommend better drivers?

 

guys anyone suffers random "this application has stopped working" crashes? i m on the first assasination and this has happened twice already!!!! i m started to feel really pissed cuz i spent the last hour recuing citizens and eagle wathcing and if my progress was not saved................

 

Well I just finished my 8th assassination, looks like one more to go...

After your 3rd or so mission you stop bothering to complete everything in the city and you just do the bare minimum to get done. It's fun but just horribly repetitive.

Acre in general gets the best frame rates, followed by Jerusalem and Damascus rich districts, then medium districts. Damascus' poor district is the next to worst, but Jerusalem's poor district has by far the worst, it has a crapton of ground fog and dust which kills my frame rates.

 

Look at my specs and its so choppy when it does the 360 at view point. My 8800 is OC @ 700 core,1000 mem. I notice altair has no ring finger, is that part of the game story or just a graphic flaw.

 

****ing ending pissed me off.

SPOILERS IN THIS BOX:

 

He cut his ring finger off in order to replace it with the hidden assassination blade, take a closer look pretty cool detail imho!

 

I was looking it up in google when I saw this:
http://www.xboxgazette.com/i/pic_assassinscreed_art_16.jpg

Im not sure if that is official but his ring finger has nothing to do with the hidden blade. It's his pinky that activates the blade.

 

Yeah but he had to cut off his ring finger so that he could use the hidden blade. Since the blade goes through that part of his hand.

 

You sure about that? I'm fairly sure he uses the blade with an open palm.

 

great game, running it on max at 1920x1200..however...they said they rec. 3gb of ram for vista..i got 4....but i dont even go past 2gb with this game..anyone notice that? it does kill the dual core though

 

Works great on the 6831fx - everything max except AA (1/3). 1440*900.

Almost done (started playing last night) but this is my second time through.

 

I'm having my ass handed to me in the third assassination. Anybody can help?

 

Uhh... hold down counter and press attack when you see a baddie start to move towards you. Once you thin out the grunts you can chase after Talal. It's basically the same thing you do for every other assassination.

 

SPOILER BELOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




When you get deeper into the game, The girl (forgot her name) reveals she's an assassin by showing you her lack of ring finger. I beat the game, and overall verdict is good, not great. I wish the sci-fi bit was left out, no animus or crap like that, they could have kept it realistic all the way through and it probably would have been better for it.

Question, is it worth the effort of collecting all the flags, or would it be just a huge waste of time?

 

Who are you having trouble with? There really isnt a set order.

The fat guy is the easiest by far, just stealth kill him. Think he was my third kill, cant really remember

 

oooph... I made it. but my fingers ache now. Had to do a lot of counter attacks and then running after that guy Talal, and after that almost died to the city guards returning. A lot of adrenaline pumping.

Even had to change the mouse from left to right hand mid-play. Lucky me to be ambidextrous and the mouse wireless

Thks for the suggestions, guys

 

If you thought that was rough just wait till you get near the end of the game.

 

The flags are an achievment if your into that kind of stuff for xbox 360 but for PC big wast of time

I am on #5 now and... I dont think I will finish the game, I have more fun assassinating the lepers that push me and beggars while I travel thru town then I do with the actual assassinations or missions. Combat didnt get harder just really annoying you pretty much have to use counter attack as your only way of fighting, trying to attack almost always gets yourself countered or hit in the back.

 

so true
i also like the guards on the rooftops...

but i'm in the third city now (jerusalem) and i've pretty much seen it all.. i'll just rush through the main missions now.
Some great potential wasted here, let's hope for a better sequel!

 

Yeah, I agree I just finished the game for two reasons. The review and just because I wanted to see how the plot turned out though it was a bit predictable.

 

I just started playing it.
So far the story seems nice enough, but I hate playing a character too full of himself. Besides,those damn peasants keep making me trip lol

 

Nice and comprehensive review; would certainly give this game a try when it comes out. Question, how does the game play at 1280x800 with your graphics card set to default clockspeeds? No anti-aliasing? My laptop has a a similar GPU has the DDR3 version of the 8600GS and I suspect it to be at least ~90% as fast as the DDR2 GeForce 8600GT. The reason why I'm asking? Albeit having somewhat of an interest in playing Assasin's Creed, the game I'm truly anticipating is Bioware's Mass Effect. They both use the same engine right? They both should be equally as graphically demanding correct?

 

cy007 im running on the notebook in my sig (8600m GT DDR2) at the resolution you posted with lowest graphical interface and is playble except running with the horse is hard ( very dissapointing that the horse runs wrong in general ) but I think I could probably raise detail or quality one or the either one notch after that it becomes unplayable.

 

Playing it with the notebook in my sig on 1650x1080 mostly in 3 out of 4 graphic quality without any problems... isn't the HD2600 comparable to the 8600gt?

 

1) Your HD2600 is DDR3 not DDR2

2) Your processor actually fits the system minimum requirements

 

1) I know, but it's definitely comparable...so probably play on 2/4 instead of 3/4?

2) He hasn't written anything bout the processor, has he?

 

Just try different settings on it until you find smooth gameplay.
It`s what I always do.

 

Mmmmhmmm, Mass Effect!

 

Actually no, since ddr3 hd2600/8600m GT have a rough performance gain between 10% and 30%. And far more with any OC.

 

Nice review. I can't wait to get the laptop im saving up for to actually play it (desktop is pretty much outdated haha)

The review was comprehensive and covered many angles. I am impressed. Keep up the good work.

 

This is simply ridiculous.

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It's very ridiculous, but at least ALT-F4 works.

 

Haha nice vid. You can also just use alt+ f4 once your game is saved.

Edit: aww too slow.

 

I pretty much got used to it...

 

You shouldnt need a secret combo key shortcut to quit the game.....and thats not being nitpicky, the current setup is just plain stupid, simple solution, you hit the exit tab, a box pops up asking quit to windows or quit to main menu....and done.

 

I swear , i`m gonna flip.
I can`t do the damn break defense thing, where you step and hit. I just can`t do it and the last assassination is messing up my nerves. I just can`t defeat them all, I run as far as I can, defeat all the guards, and the last boss ****s me up good. Even when holding up the defense mode,she(sounds like a woman) still breaks my defense and hits me, and then poof, an archer finishes me.
Like how do you break that damn defense? (step+hit?)

EDIT : Nevermind, I slain the damn witch
I still can`t do a defense break though...