Rating:

Really you do. The environment, immersion (when it doesn’t switch abruptly),the art direction,the duality, the mission(S) are all beautiful and some things are an experience to have (not to mention a very cool concept). What ultimately matters is gameplay, and beautiful it definitely isn’t. I wont go over the story elements as most have gone through them and , by now you would have read many in depth reviews. So I will speak specifically.

The combat system, tricky as it may be is a bit clunky for a game that is repetitive. But it works and rewards you with cool animated kill moves. Let’s get one thing straight of the bat. A sandbox game a la GTA this isn’t. It badly wants to be one but Ubisoft made an okay game when they could have blown us away. Your missions and quests are very structured and you are free to roam and act like a monkey climbing all sorts of buildings, and there are side quests (also which happen again and again without great variation). No doubt, many would want to do this in an open format game. But it gets repetitive very fast. Not to mention, that if you wander aimlessly looking for something to do or how you want to do it, you will find yourself lost with nothing happening. For the first few hours, this game seems to be better then it is, and then reality sets in.

You are given 9 assasinations, the first one you will be jumping with joy, the 2nd one you will feel you are really getting somewhere, the 3rd one you might feel boredom setting in, the 5th one you will a bit upset cos the game doesn’t change, the 6th one…you will begin to look at the clock and imagine the things you could have done with your time not playing video games. If you make it to the 7,8,9 you will wonder why you ever got this game in the first place and question it.

The thing is: this game has zero replay value AND stops being fun a couple of hours in because EVERYTHING is so damn repetitive. BUT this is a game for patient people. If you are ADD, this game isn’t going to work for you.

I got through the whole game and I hate saying it , but after a while, it seemed like a chore to finish it. I should have listened to my friend. “Rent first the games you want to buy”

I blew a wad of cash just like that. Don’t make the mistake I did. Rent it, make up your mind then. This is basically a next gen platformer, nothing more.

Rating:

Once you learn the block/parry counter attack, the game is basically holding the right trigger and hitting the X button at the right time to dispatch pretty much all but 10% of your foes. Another 5% are dispatched with assassinations which look really cool. However, it’s kinda silly how oblivious people are in this game. I can kill a Templar from behind with guards three feet away and they won’t realize it for several seconds, by which time I have taken out at least one ore two more of them. And finally, there are about 5% more enemies that pose some sort of challenge.

Speaking of enemies…I find it annoying that if you gallop your horse too quickly, guards will suddenly yell, “That’s him!” and try to kill you. The whole “socially acceptable” actions thing is a cool idea but it’s implemented poorly here. It needs a lot more work.

This is the game in short:

1) Go to part of a city by horse

2) Defend a few people to get them on your side

3) Climb buildings for good views

4) Go to meet contact

5) Pickpocket for info, harrass for info, eavesrop for info

6) Kill target

7) Repeat

It’s a great idea for a game, and I see possible things that could be great. But frankly, this game gets to be almost more of a hassle than anything else pretty quickly as you’re stuck doing the same things over and over just in different places. It’s beautiful and the freerunning is fun. But beneath the pretty shell, it just feels empty.

Rating:

Pro’s:

Again, as it’s been said here, I really enjoyed the flow of the character and the freedom this game gives you. It’s a perfect blend of an open world without leaving you lost to figuring out where to go next.

The learning curve is high, but the game slowly introduces you to new moves within each mission, which are enough to complete them, but leaves room for improvement as you become more proficient.

The story line is good and I didn’t mind so much the sci-fi twist about which most are complaining. It’s a good break from the intensity of the game and it adds a personal connection to the ancient character through his descendant in the present.

The game saves are excellent. For the most part you won’t find yourself having to redo several missions in the event that you die. There are plenty of checkpoints throughout the game to keep the game flowing and non-repetitive.

Lastly, the world Ubi has created in this game is simply phenomenal! Hats off to the design team. The amount of detail is just outstanding on each street, building, market, character, and everything else you’ll find in this game.

Cons:

The idea of accomplishing side missions add a greater dimension to the game, but, unfortunately, they get repetitive pretty quickly.

Some of the things you can do are eavesdrop, pickpocket, or save a person from being harassed by the local guards (there are others), but once you get the hang of each one, they’re pretty much the same thereafter.

The fight sequences are fun and can be tense enough, but similarly lack a bit of diversity. I hope they get a little more challenging and technical as I acquire new weapons and progress in the game.

Now, to explain the title of my review (this is not a con, just an observation), I was a bit surprised with the main character Altair.

I got a feel from the previews, for some reason, that I would be dealing with a cool and calculated assassin who kills to rid the world in which he lives of evil people (a little theatrical, I know). However, my first impression was of a reckless, spoiled, somewhat-messed-up-in-the-head newbie killer who let his skills go to his head and now is forced to redeem himself.

Overall, I really enjoy playing this game and hope Ubi continues to produce other titles using this engine and creating such wonderful virtual worlds.

Rating:

Let me start off from the beginning. Yes there is a plot twist and it’s pretty bizarre. Just think that your watching a Michael Crichton movie and it will make sense. Playing in the Middle East several hundred years ago is a different idea. It’s hard to say what you could expect with this concept.

So what makes this game amazing. Lets start off with the landscape. It’s brilliant and beautiful…Really majestic. You don’t understand the scope of this game until you start playing. The world is surrounded by several small villages and three large cities. The only way to travese this open terrain with a horse. Fortunately they are about as easy to find as a car in todays society.

What also sets this game apart is the ability to do what you want when you want. There is no clock on you and your not stuck going into a mission. Everything is open based. The character is amazingly fun to control you can scale tall buildings and make amazing leaps of faith. Climbing up a building that is several stories and then leaping to certain doom is breathtaking excitement. This is what games should be about.

Beyond that is a mission based game. Similiar to Grand Theft Auto in style. You can accept simple missions like pickpocketing and protecting citizens to the more main based assasin missions. You can battle soldiers if you want as you have many enemies but it’s not really advised. Following the assasin missions can be complex and involve several steps that make the story very intresting. Obviously a lot of time was put into making this top notch.

For anyone who likes open based games with large environments then Assassins Creed is for you. From the majestic peaks to the clustered cities. This is trully a next gen experience. The storyline and incentive program will keep you playing for many hours. Definately a worthwhile gameplay experience. If you want something to keep you busy that doesn’t involve guns go out and get Assasins Creed.

Rating:

Bioware’s new offering is a role playing tour de force but at the same time is also the premier presentation of that development studio’s technical handicap.

Dragon Age: Origins is a solid RPG for the 360 that more than justifies the investment of a retail purchase for the RPG genre fan. The game provides a rich single player experience with a cohesive and engaging storyline in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring and George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones tradition within approximately 60 hours of unique playtime. Working out at more or less a (US) dollar an hour price this is an unbeatable deal for the RPG fan but maybe not be so for the non-genre fan. Those that place a premier value on cutting edge graphical presentation, action packed style or an expansive, durable and free multi-player experience will probably find Dragon Age to be tiresome, boring or limited in scope, respectively. BioWare has (barring the yet seen release of the new Star Wars RPG) played to death their current engine’s style. The engine used in Dragon Age is BioWare’s Eclipse. Those familiar with the Odyssey and then Aurora engines used in their previous titles such as Knights of the Old Republic will be familiar with the format. Unfortunately the bar has already been raised technically with Bethesda’s Fallout series and narratively by BioWare’s own Mass Effect series.

Dragon Age’s most immediately apparent shortcoming is its obviously lacking graphical presentation. While, as an RPG fan, I can say that the graphics were never a point of overt disruption to the actual experience of playing the game they were often a source of disappointment for an otherwise superb experience. The textures were painfully off in that materials that should have had a shine were dull and those that should have carried a flat color were heavily reflective. It is unpleasant to see men running around in boringly uniform and oddly shiny leathers while knights were entombed within heavy, dull plate metal. Many of the textures of the equipable items were reminiscent of PlayStation II or original XBox textures, robbing the player of the aesthetic pleasure of customizing their character’s equipment. This issue was aggravated by plainly awful terrain textures. The ground, sky, roofs, floors and hillsides are best left ignored, to pay too much attention only detracts from the immersion into the game.

With the most obvious visual shortcomings of BioWare’s engine put aside the remaining faults are non-technical. The format that the designers chose to relay the story to the player is an audio presentation navigated by an in-engine dialogue tree. This goes a long way of keeping the player immersed in the game by never removing them, graphically speaking, from the game but after a long period of time serves to lend a tired quality. The first third of my game was played with rapt attention to the dialogue and in-engine cut scenes. The remaining majority of the the game I turned on the subtitles and skipped through it as fast as I could read. By hour 30 or so the I felt as though I were trapped in a nightmare realm of a B grade “choose your own adventure” audio book. While the actual voice over work is excellent the stiff animations and limited graphical variety offered to the player greatly detracts from the ability of the game’s characters to relay the otherwise impressively written storyline. The fact that the array of options in the dialogue tree falls short of BioWare’s previous Mass Effect title only rubs raw during the initial stages of play. By the end I found myself inclined to forgo conversation entirely and simply simply skip ahead, desperate for more action and less stiff, unstimulating talk.

Regardless I feel obliged to point out these failings not because they break the game but because this is a tremendous fountain of entertainment that more than justifies its retail price but still carries significant blemishes. If you were to play Dragon Age everyday for four hours straight it would take you about two weeks to get through a complete single player campaign. There are six unique starting stories to choose from, each with its own flavor of play through (but without uniquely different experiences). This is not an exercise in filler but instead a meticulously designed story that received an obvious level of care from the design team. A certain system of tolerance is required by the older gamer who is already very well experienced with the traditional concepts of Tolkien and Dungeons & Dragons style story telling but the subtle attention to detail will reward most players. The last major fault with the game is the bizarre decision by the design team to attach a “skin” of gore to any character recently engaged in melee combat. It is very hard to take a character seriously when they calmly discuss Fereldian politics while looking like they just fell into a tank of tomatoes and suffered an epileptic fit. Note that this can be turned off.

The gameplay mechanics are solid with the only exceptions being that the combat is not as easily paused and therefor tactical as in prior BioWare titles and the difficulty level is wildly varied. At times the player will find themselves cutting though vast swaths of disposable enemies and moving through the story with little true opposition until they are presented with a seemingly impossible task or boss battle. These startling interrupts to the flow of play at times can require the ejection from the level to the world map in order to purchase more potions so one could “potion spam” their way out of that stage of play. This is a recurring theme that is barely justified by the fact that the game allows for on the fly difficulty adjustments.

Bottomline: This game is not a rental, it has enough gameplay hours to not simply justify a purchase but actually demand it. RPG fans will not have a complete library without this game but those who find extensive dialogue and substandard graphics to be tiresome should look elsewhere. If you want immediate action, consistent stimulation and endless hours of free online play for your gaming dollar then you are better served by pursuing on Modern Warfare 2. On the other hand if you desire an immersive, paced story and extensive narrative then Dragon Age is a great deal.

Major Pros:

*Immersive and structured storyline

*Full array of classes and skills

*Personal feel to character development

*”Just one more quest” gameplay

*Fulfilling moral decisions

*Branching story

*Excellent voice overs

*Non-linear world map

Subjective qualities and food for thought:

*Not an action game

*Zero free online play but pay-per-play downloadable quests

*J.R.R. Tolkien-esque storyline and Steve Jackson-esque aesthetic

*Demanding narrative

Major Cons:

*Simply awful terrain textures and equipment skins

*Stiff character animations

*Dated engine

*Overwhelming codex/inventory management system

*Often frustrating, ambiguous dialogue tree

*Silly gore effects