Assassin's Creed

My GamerScore is getting some time off as I'm trying to complete Assassin's Creed, that is the original one, not the sequel.

AC1 was one of the early PS3 games out for the system and it shows, no trophies because they didn't exist, and heavy tearing from the poor conversion from XBox. I'd given up simply because it was getting so repetitive.

Ride to city, Infiltrate said city, Pickpocket guy, Save Citizens, Eavesdrop on conversation, Assassinate target. Rinse repeat with new town and each time having to ride back to HQ at a snail's pace because travelling at anything above a trot attracted the attention of guards.

However after Prince of Persia the game started to gel for me. They both used the Scimitar engine, although PoP handles things better, and that shows in the acrobatics and fighting. Heck you even use the same control system for combat.

So back I went finished off a task, enjoyed clambering up the buildings to get an eagle's eye view, even the combat felt better. Then I performed my third assassination in Jerusalem, then had an interlude, found myself back in my base ready to head out to another death by interrogation.

Ran down to the gate, hopped onto a horse and galloped out to the world 'gate' and up popped a box asking me which (if any) city I'd like to visit. Ping placed straight there. Damn now if you'd done that from the start...

I mean sure you want to explore, but you shouldn't be made to explore. Also had fun working out the controls (second-hand game with no manual) and found myself quite happy to gallop past soldiers and attract attention because I was long gone past them. The only time that's a problem is I want to explore for collectable flags. Likewise I'd always had trouble blending. When moving normally and you want to drop suspicion you can press and hold X to blend. However you can also do this in certain groups and when doing this I always used the same mechanic - press and hold X. Turns out you don't need to hold it, it's a toggle.

It's silly little things like that which put me off, and now it's as I'm rediscovering the game. However without a manual it was difficult to get back in at first for reasons I'll vent about in a future entry.

Anyway it's still annoying to have no trophies, the game had achievements for the XBox so it can hardly be a challenge to slot them in; I mean FFS even The Force Unleashed got them in the end. I suppose the attitude from Ubisoft is "Sod it, we're not making any money off it so shut up" fair enough, but it's something to think of for future releases from them.