Ubisoft's first foray into this whole assassination business which has pulled in serious cash for them over the years was three things: hugely hyped, critically acclaimed, and just not as good as we like to think it was. The hype is understandable - Ubi had a lot riding on Altair's debut outing, since any new IP is a substantial risk in this age of never-ending blockbuster sequelisation, especially so soon in a new hardware cycle. But it was a gamble which paid off with Assassin's Creed earning a bevy of big scores from the gaming press and opening the doors for countless sequels of its own. One of the prominent franchises born in the last generation, this was a game which started off with a fantastic gameplay premise, an enthralling setting and a huge sack of promises. Promises which slowly started to dissipate once we had the game spinning happily in our disc drives. Promises which probably should have triggered a bit more skepticism in the first place. The immense freedom we were expecting was a bit of a stretch, as was the intuitive quad-limb parkour-flavoured gameplay that has us all in a blur of excitement pre-release. Many of us didn't even stop to wonder quite how this revolutionary new control mechanism would be possible within the parameters of a standard gamepad and the limitations of having only two thumbs each. Still, we stormed the gates of out local game boutiques on release day and were shocked down to our pointy Templar boots at the splendour of it all - the stunning landscapes; the intriguing story laced around mysterious half-truths from history; the guilty joy of stabbing street urchins and dragging their corpses into the dark corners of Jerusalem's dusty streets. It was immaculate in many ways and still ranks as one of the most memorable games of its time. The party ended early though. Once the initial excitement of clambering up church steeples and hopping into hay carts had faded, many gamers grew tired of Assassin's Creed's repetitive nature. What started off as a unique, gripping experience decayed into a bit of a grind, with Altair stuck in a Groundhog Day loop of near-indistinguishable mission objectives. The headline assassinations we all looked forward to also proved to be nowhere near as free as we had expected, misled by stunningly atmospheric pre-release trailers. We were forced to look beyond the widespread critical acclaim and accept that Assassin's Creed simply wasn't the consummate free-roaming stab-em-up we were told it was.
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
