Assassin's Creed: Bland-lines

Game: Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
Release Date: 17th November 2009
Genre: Action Adventure/Historic
How long I had it: Since Nov 20

Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines

This game epitomizes the word "Disappointment". The game was announced months ago and I've been eagerly anticipating the release since I loved the concept of Assassin's Creed I. Yet months later, the signs were painfully obvious. There was little coverage of the game, only one trailer for the game, and clearly no hype. Ubisoft definitely didn't care much for this title and were promoting their sequel a lot more: Assassin's Creed 2. Nevertheless, as a true fan, I bought the game on whim and in hindsight, should have just rented it. It now sits on my shelf waiting for a prospective E-Bay customer to take it from my hands.

For those who've played the first Assassin's Creed before, this should be second nature to you. The gameplay is nearly similar and involves loads of assassination of Templars and carrying out missions.In fact, this feels like a poor man's Assassin's Creed 1. As for those who've never played it before and don't wish to be spoiled, you play as Altair, an assassin from the....Assassin Order and the game is set in 1191. An age where the Knight Templars stomped their authority about hapless peasants. This is a truly intriguing game with many historic sights and buildings which you get to explore. Obviously, the focal point is to assassinate some key figures in this time period and this is achieved through sneaky unorthodox means. Sounds like fun? You bet.

Graphics and Audio: This does not disappoint. The graphics are excellent and well detailed and you will love everything you see in 1191 from the eyes of Altair. The view is brilliant from the highest building and you will have to resist the urge to jump off for sadistic purposes. Audio-wise is good, but can be better. I cannot really describe it well as you really need to play the game to experience it. Nevertheless, this receives a really good score from me.

Gameplay: The gameplay receives a moderate score, and for good reason. In your first hour of playing the game, you would be hyped up and all excited as you scale buildings, leap dangerously from rooftops to rooftops and perform recon before killing some unfortunate baddie. However, as with Assassin's Creed 1, it starts to get boring after awhile. Basically you enter a new town, do some scouting, meet up with some contacts, beat up or eavesdrop on some poor soul then go round killing whichever nasty person to make the year 1191 a joyous year. The true selling point of the game is its environment which is wonderfully detailed and the buildings where you can perform many scaling and jumping reminiscent of Spiderman. However, due to its repetitive nature, you will be putting down this game after awhile to do other stuff. Game length wise, it is a few hours short and there are no multiplayer or bonus dungeons to do after completing the story. Bland indeed. In addition, the controls are stiff, difficult to maneuver and troublesome.

Creativity: Well, the game is creative in its own way since it has some nice assassin action going on in 1191. Everyone loves a sneaky ninja-like Assassin and the icing on the cake is when it takes place in 1191 where you can't just shoot the target from afar and make it anti-climatic. In fact, Altair really has to get up close and personal to knock the daylights out of the Templars. However, if you compare the creativity to that of Assassin's Creed 1. You'd be in for a nasty surprise, they're essentially the same and AC: Bloodlines is inferior to AC 1. (Well duh, AC 1 was on Xbox 360) Yet I can't help feeling let down by Ubisoft for their apparent negligence of this title.

Fun: Yes, it gets fun since you scale buildings you'd never be able to in real life, you have a great view of buildings in 1191 especially if you're into history and you get to meet prominent Templar villains based of actual people in that time period. You also get to revel in that sadistic nature of yours as you perform multiple kills on your opponents and laugh gleefully as you stab them from behind and then scale up walls to evade pursuit. However it gets boring after awhile and you will want to put it down after 3-4 hours of the same repetitive action. Story-wise is pretty boring and I find myself not bothering about the story at all and instead focusing on completing the missions ASAP.

If you are looking to buy this, DON'T. It just doesn't warrant a worthy purchase with its price. Save that money and get Assassin's Creed 2 instead, that is one game where Ubisoft poured their heart and soul (and money) into. Instead rent a copy and you will find yourself finishing this in a couple of days or so. An average game which you won't feel like playing again anytime soon. A harsh verdict but true.