10 Video Games That Were One Critical Flaw Away From Greatness

5. Assassin's Creed

Critical Flaw: The lack of mission-variety. It's actually pretty staggering if you go back to the original Assassin's Creed just how completely different it feels. Where now we've got one uber-protagonist dispensing death in all directions as fast as you can prod the counter button, the first AC was very much preoccupied by making sure you knew you were actually a hidden-bladed assassin instead. Each main mission was exactly that - an assassination - and you'd spend the previous handful of story-related ones gathering intel on your intended target, before attempting to sneak in and take them out without anyone knowing. Whether or not the stealth in the earlier games lived up to this idea is suspect at best, but at least it was trying to at least embody its name. Sadly this was all AC had going for it outside of some fancy visuals and a pretty badass concept in general, as we all ended up doing the exact same handful of missions over and over again. Hearing repeated lines of dialogue and playing out things like saving civilians from some rough-housing guards does little to engage when you know exactly how it's going to play out, and even though the series obviously found some positive reception overall - particularly with part two - this premiere instalment is a bit of a misstep.