The story follows Desmond Miles, a mild-mannered bar tender with a secret past. Desmonds ancestors were part of a group called the Assassins, a group dedicated to keeping power out of the hands of those who would use it for evil. Their direct enemy is a group called the Templars, who seek out any form of power and exploit it to perform said evil. Desmond has been kidnapped and held prisoner by a company called Abstergo which is owned by the Templars. They are looking for something that one of Desmonds ancestors, a man named Altair knows the location of and they plan to have Desmond show them where Altair hid it by using the Animus, a machine that can access the deepest recesses of the subjects mind and pull from it the memories of its ancestors. You play the majority of the game as Altair, playing through missions leading up to the final memory with the occasional break to play as Desmond and learn more about the Assassins, the Templars and the current situation. Now that you are up to speed on the basic plot of the game, let's get to the review!
In terms of graphics, there is nothing special about this game when it comes to the character sprites but the environments are breathtaking. The environments are completely traversable with the use of free-running which has not been seen since the Prince of Persia games and utilizes it perfectly, you can use it effectively to evade enemies or simply get to where you want to go faster. The animus worlds are split into two sections, the main cities where you perform your missions, and the outer world which seems to stretch for an eternity and houses many hidden items and collectibles you will want if you are looking for your trophies or gamer points. The controls are nearly perfect in combat and navigation with the exception of free running, for the most part the controls make Altair go exactly where you want him but occasionally if you are not completely precise with your positioning you will end up jumping off a roof to your death.
Navigating the mission worlds is made easy with the help of a useful map that you can update by collecting viewpoints which allow you to see more of the map as you go through the game, revealing objectives and helpful side-missions. This map ordinarily shows you where to find those viewpoints but sometimes will run into blind spots forcing you to climb every tall building looking for one on your own, slowing down the progress of the game. The combat system is flawless, giving you several types of weapons as the game progresses to deal with any situation and any enemy, it is one of the first games to bring you a counter-attack option to deal with sudden enemy attacks. This game is a stealth game so if you are any good you won't need to engage in open combat, but if you're like me and you get bored of sneaking around and just want to cut off some heads, this game delivers on that as well allowing you to take on small armies of enemies at once once you have the right gear.
Overall, the game-play is excellent, the story is compelling and is one of my favourite series of games for the PS3. I urge any of you who liked Metal Gear Solid when you were a kid to give this game a try.
Out of a possible rating of 10, this gamer happily gives it a 9/10.
Feel free to let me know what you think of the game, leave a comment for me below and I will reply to it, make sure to check back regularly as I go through the rest of the AC series as well as some other games in the future!
