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| From: Ubisoft
Category: Video Games
List Price: $59.99
Buy Used: $23.00
You Save: $36.99 (62%)
New (43) Used (48) from $23.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  188 reviews
Sales Rank: 69
Platform: Xbox 360
ESRB: Mature
Media: Video Game
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 17 - 20 years
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 52339
UPC: 008888523390
EAN: 0008888523390
ASIN: B000P46NMK
Release Date: November 13, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
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| Customer Reviews:
 it didn't work April 28, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
i only got to play the game twice, after that it always froze on me. I couldn't even finish the game, i just got pissed off because i had to reset the module everytime it froze so i gave up on it.
No Subtitles, Don't Buy! April 28, 2008
2 out of 9 found this review helpful
I'd be tempted to buy this game at the now-lowered 50% off price tag if it wasn't for one thing-- the game has no subtitles!!! I've never played it and refuse to because of the laziness of the company not to add subtitles at least during cut-scenes. There was an article on IGN stating that the developer "just didn't have time" to put them in. That's a direct quote. This is unacceptable. Video Games are becoming the next great medium, much like movies were in the 20's to 70's. It's a multi-billion dollar industry. Deaf and Hard of Hearing gamers demand equal access to media, just like mandated closed captioning on TV. This affects hearing gamers as well. Imagine you're playing at night and need to be quiet so as not to wake others in the house. You're not going to have any idea what's going on. Or maybe you have loud roommates and can't hear the game too well. Welcome to our world. Deaf and Hard of Hearing gamers(and those who can empathize) unite! Boycott this product! Show developers that this form of discrimination is unacceptable!
 Assassins Deja Vu April 27, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Assassins Creed is, to flip a common phrase, five pounds of gameplay in a ten-pound sack. It has been repeatedly criticized for being repetitive but its repetitive nature is simply a facet of how its small amount of content contrasts with the grand stage on which it is presented. This isn't too surprising as it's the most common problem with 'open world' games. It's also the general result of people cashing in on a trend.
Do you remember lens flare? When lens flare was the big gimmick, everybody just had to have it. Sometimes they wanted you to notice their great lens flare so bad that they'd literally blind you with it. They even did it in first person. Disregarding the fact that the human eye doesn't lens flare like a camera, the problem with the lens flare fad was that it was a checkbox feature that hindered the gameplay.
The same problem can be seen with a lot of open-world games, like Burnout and Assassins Creed. In AC the open world is more often a burden than a blessing. You will spend more time getting to your mission area than doing your mission. And that time will not be fun.
You are given two choices in AC: either travel slowly and discreetly so as not to alert bad guys, or run. Walking is not a real option. You would never get anywhere. So you have to run but it still takes forever, made worse by the fact that you have to keep the right trigger down the whole time.
For some reason running tends to tick off soldiers. This is another source of aggravation in AC as the soldiers, all wearing full body armor while you wear a tunic, all run faster than you. They run almost as fast, on foot, as a horse in full gallop. Even more hilariously they will follow your acrobatic moves step-for-step. Makes you feel a little less special.
You can choose to fight them, but fighting is pretty much button-mashing. The best move is to wait for their attack and counter as it's usually an insta-kill. Once you get the patterns down it's hard to lose a fight.
That's another issue. You're supposed to be an assassin, not a T-1000. There's no incentive to be stealthy and sneak. And that's probably good, because really there's no way to be stealthy and sneak. You can just 'blend' with the crowd and walk in a praying pose. But there's no crawl. No corner peek. The game doesn't feel stealthy at all.
What stealth is present is auto-pilot. Press the button to sneak in to the fortified building through the front door in the middle of a group of guys all dressed differently from you. Push towards the bench to hide in plain sight from your pursuers. Dive into a bale of hay.
That's really the biggest problem with the game: that it never makes you feel like an assassin. I felt like a mass murderer, like a killer robot sent back in time with but one purpose: to do the same mini-missions over and over again.
Even with all the mentions I don't feel enough has been made of the repetition. It will drive you bonkers. It's not a matter of 'ADD' gamer versus 'patient' gamer. It's just the same five or six things over and over. In every area you have to climb some towers, pickpocket a guy, beat a guy to get information, eavesdrop, save some civilians, and off some figurehead. Over and over.
And the payoffs are always the same. The towers are all from the same small set of geometry. The pickpocket is just a follow-and-button-press, you get the item and the guy looks right at you and asks "Who did that?" and runs away. To interrogate you punch the guy a few times and he tells you another name, then you kill him. Eavesdropping just requires you to sit on the bench and look at the two guys who will wait forever for you to do just that, and you hear the conversation. The civilians will be harassed over and over with the same dialogue until you save them, at which point they'll repeat one of three 'thank you' speeches.
The assassinations themselves are incredibly lame. It is rarely an issue to get near the target, except for being pushed around by those idiotic grunting shirtless guys (seriously), and when you kill the target you and he soul clutch for like ten minutes while he tells you his boring life story.
Tying it all together is a wet paper bag of a story that has you randomly popping out of the real game to wander pointlessly around a futuristic lab and hear sophomoric dystopian-authoritarian speeches from some scientist gasbag. In this part of the game you will do exciting things like sleep! and listen to irrelevant conversation through your bedroom wall! and so on. The sad thing is that at times it's a welcome respite from the game-world story which is the most long-winded, overbearing, and pointless series of lectures and diatribes I've yet to see in a video game. And that says a lot, because I played Metal Gear Solid 3.
Whenever someone tries to tell me that games are just like great literature, I want to strap them down Clockwork Orange style and make them play games like Assassins Creed. Not everything works in every medium. That's why there was no Tom Bombadil singing his stupid song in the Lord of the Rings movies. You have to learn how to make something work in the medium in which you present it, or have the grace to leave it out.
The writers of Assassins Creed must have been paid by the word. The story is delivered in massive concrete blocks of thudding dialog and pretentious speechifying. And for each chunk you are locked in a little pen, only able to slightly move the camera, spin in a circle, and/or occasionally change the POV.
The game is also a little buggy and very unpolished in random areas. Things got off to a bad start for me in the first cutscene, in which for some reason one of the actors kept bouncing up and down while standing on flat ground and speaking. Animations and the camera routinely clip through objects. The camera constantly gets obstructed during key moments, particularly in fights. Altair and his horse have weird motion bugs that cause them to jitter on objects or teleport short distances. Your stays in 'the construct' can be incredibly long or very short, both of which have problems. The long stays are boring because you have nothing to do - it's just an empty room. The short stays result in the audio tips being cut off midway, right after the intriguing proposition, such as "In large fights where you are dying repeatedly, to win you can ..." and then the level finishes loading.
The controls are a little complex, but that's easy to master. What hurts is that they're spotty. Sometimes you'll end up bouncing off a wall to your death. I've jumped to my death off 'leap of faith' perches by accident, which is supposed to be impossible. And too many common items are modular - requiring the triggers to be down - resulting in hand-cramping sessions of gameplay. If developers are going to keep requiring triggers to be depressed the triggers have to have a lock position, like a gas nozzle.
So overall I can't say it's a bad game. It's just repetitive, dull, and easy, with a control scheme that fatigues your hands and a story that fatigues the rest of you. Now I understand why there are so many used copies available at every game store. There's just not enough game there.
 A spectacularly designed game with an odd story arch... April 17, 2008
Assassin's Creed (AC) is one of the great Xbox 360 games thus far. This is something that any fan of the genre and anyone looking to try something new should give shot.
The game is visually stunning and amazingly well detailed. Whether you're walking on the street or pearched high up on a tower looking over the cities, it is gorgeous.
The controls take a little getting used to but once you do, the chases and fight sequences really are spectacular. Even though this is really more of a RPG/Adventure type of game than a hack & slash...I found myself instigating fights in the later parts of the game just so I could use the fluid and beautiful fighting style.
Given all that was done well, I still need to give it two points of criticism. First is the voice acting. Everyone in the game does a great job except Altair. You'd think that the main character would be the one they nailed but the voice acting for him is pretty sad. The second piece is the overall story. I won't spoil it for you but having all this played out as the "genetic memory" of someone isn't really necessary. It would've been great just to go in as Altair with his backstory and motivations.
All in all I give it a solid recommedation.
All flash, no substance. April 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This game had so much promise, and I suppose it still does if you consider the sequel that I am sure is coming. The graphics are fantastic, although there is some pop in. There is a ton of detail in the textures and lighting. There really isn't much music in the game, or background sound for that matter. I have to give the game credit for at least trying to be historically accurate. The story line is alright, nothing special, it would have been way better if they didn't spoil the main plot twist in the first two minutes of the game. Although honestly, I would have preferred that they did away with all that science fiction stuff. Climbing and jumping looks and feels great, as well as sifting through crowds or blending in with monks. The combat, while many claim it to be intricate and detailed, just feels like button mashing to me. Some of your missions are pretty boring, while others are rather exciting. The voice acting is great, well except for Altair. His actor is very stiff sounding, and has an American accent despite coming from the middle east. I will say that I got more into the game the more I played, but being completely honest, i didn't have much fun with it.
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