I never really understood the appeal of the ‘Assassin’s Creed’ series. The third person stick ’em all looked great at its release and the climbing animations in combination with the resulting view were astonishing. Then I realized that that’s basically all there is to it so I very soon tossed it onto the mountain of shame (it was actually just a very big pile back then) and because it happened in the dark ages I sold the disc, which saves me from having to talk about the first entry of the series any further. I can’t sell any of the other ‘Ass Creeds’ I bought. Damn you, digital distribution!
The series stayed very popular among the masses so I was wondering whether I might have misjudged it back then (because you can always trust the masses), or whether it just became a better game through it’s many incarnations. I read that ‘Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’ was supposed to be among the better entries of the series so when I had the chance to grab it for cheap, I did. Damn you, curiosity!
The thing I had completely blocked from my mind was the insanely stupid and fun destroying premise. In ‘Assassin’s Creed’ you don’t play as an assassin of the olden days. No, you play as Desmond Miles, a very French looking American who through the miracle of fictional science can access the memories of his ancestors, who all happen to be assassins. Through replaying their memories Desmond repeatedly saves the world. The only thing that could have made this feel more meaningless is the classic “It was all just a dream.”-ending. I find it incredible that they held on to this premise. For me, knowing that I’m just reliving someone’s memories takes a lot away from the game. It doesn’t matter what I do. It all already happened and the result is fixed.
Now, that the mood is set, let’s talk about the actual game at hand. ‘Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood’ takes place in Renaissance Rome and the first thing you notice is how awfully bad everyone’s Italian accent is. The game obviously had very high production values, but they couldn’t hire people who were able to do a convincing Italian accent? Don’t get me wrong, I found it to be hilarious and it didn’t bother me, but I doubt it was an intentional move. The second thing I realized was, it’s ‘Assassin’s Creed’. It all felt so familiar. It’s the prototype Ubisoft open world game and after I played through the prologue and did my first assassination I felt like I had seen everything there is to see. Run up the wall, jump on a guy, repeat!
Adding to my unwillingness to continue playing this game is knowing that there are two more ‘Assassin’s Creeds’ waiting in line. I think I’ll skip the next one (Assassin’s Creed III) and and head straight for the one after that. I have heard a lot of good things about ‘Assassins’ Creed IV: Black Flag’.
Conclusion: I don’t care at all about this game. If you like the other games you certainly will like this one, because to me they all feel the same. It’s like reliving your own memory, again and again.
Info: The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and released in 2011. It’s available throughout the internet.
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