"You don't understand I have nothing!"

Assassin's Creed. There has been a great deal of hype and excitement around this game and I think rightly so. I must confess that though I was at PAX last year, I didn't make it to Ubisift's demo and had to go off my friends commentary, nonetheless, I was intrigued. We have all heard our fair share of promises about "fully interactive environments", but I think on this one they've come through. Though the realism or difficulty on getting caught or arousing suspicion from guards is not on the level of, say, MGS that actually pleases me. I have no doubt that this series has it's fans and they are well justified in their enjoyment of the titles; I'm just not one of them.

First of all the idea of hiding in plain sight appeals tremendously to me. I think that this is a better way of going about things in terms of infiltration. Making no claims to the groundings in reality if I am asked, as a player, to assault a nigh impenetrable fortress with armed guards placed in the best traditions of sphere packing, I expect to be given sufficient means to affect such a mission. Which, in my preferred play style, is a reasonably powerful weapon and enough ammo to pump one in the head, two in the chest and eight in the wall behind. This is nothing more or less than an expression of preference on my part. In the case of Assassin's Creed I'm quite content to have a variety of bladed weapons and an approximately god-like grace and ability to wield them.

Before I continue on to the analysis of the free running in the game, which will not so much be a critical analysis as the elated sequels of a giddy fan boy, I'd like to talk about the skill and weapon progression. While I recognize the need for plot devices to justify certain blatant progression mechanics, I'm a little tolerant of paper thin ones like "you are an expert assassin, the best of us all. However now that you have disgraced us I'm busting you down in official rank so you no longer remember how to be awesome. Also, though your arsenal will be limited until you prove yourself worthy, your familiarity with their use will not improve till I say it does. So here's your sword, but if you see an opportunity to counter, don't you dare or I'll have your balls. You let it hit you, till I see this guy in Damas dead." Or something like that. Maybe there is some plot element I missed like the old man having some kind of mind control juice he stabs you with. If that's the case they didn't make it obvious enough. This was one of those moments were immersion was backhanded and the player was near explicitly told what the game mechanics were. This is something that could have been avoided with a bit more creative writing. That said, I'm not saying the weapon progression is bad. I enjoy the power up as you go style of play pioneered by so many of our ancestors. I just wish they had put a little more thought into it. The current incarnation has me wishing for a sudden electrical surge shorting out all my power suits nifty weapons.

Ah free running, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Though, as far as we know, free running wasn't invented until recently, it has been so well integrated into this game that I feel the historical facts were rightly ignored, or gently pushed if you will. Often systems like this will feel chopped up or overly scripted to the point of kicking your suspension of disbelief's ass. My experience has been a good one all around on this. It's fun, reasonably intuitive and keeps in mind a level of abstraction that's important for good game play. Stated plainly; the character doesn't trip or get dizzy when nearing a ledge. Why? Because he's a master assassin and knows what he's doing, even if you don't.

Now on to the guiltiest of my recent gaming pleasures. I was having trouble finishing one of the informant missions to discretely get rid of a series of marks. This was my first experience running into the "blockers" of the game. They are incredibly effective and I must tip my hat as I was completely fooled on both counts. A lady came up to me to ask for some change. I brushed past, thinking nothing of it acting like many do and just ignoring them. She asked me again more pointedly. I brushed past, then she got in my face and physically stopped me, rebuking me for my insensitivity. I have no idea if this is historically accurate but it was a thought provoking experience. What would you actually do if a panhandler/beggar/bum physically stopped you in the street today? Now a less benign case. What if a clearly disabled person physically shoved you. Well I know what I did. I'm not going to get into the right or wrong of putting this in a game. I will however give props to the devs for having this even be possible. I'm generally a fan of anything that pushes the limits and tries out something new. It's how we learn and discover and it takes some stones. I'm also interested to see if my rampant disregard for the first tenant of the creed has long term consequences in the game.

Now that I have a couple postings up I feel I should address a few of my concerns that have come up about how my posts are likely to play out. Firstly the more comprehensive posts I give will be largely positive as I don't play games I don't like. The odd one may come up and I'll be sure to state my case in a level headed and comprehensive way. The reason I'm praising these games, and ones I post about in the future, is not because I'm being paid off by game companies or am hopelessly tolerant of crap games. I've just been playing games for over 18 years so I've learned to spot the ones I won't enjoy and I avoid them. This sort of brings me to purpose of the site. I believe games are a new form of story telling and art which, as the years go on, may well become the preferred way of many to experience fiction. When I see something I like on these lines or am graced by some insight about the social ramifications of a game I'll throw that in. That's also likely, aside from the comics, to be the main draw of the site. You'll also notice for the time being that I do not have any contact info posted. This is partially laziness and partially because I don't want to be flamed for my views. When the site gets bigger I'll likely add a forum.

I respect that other people have views on the moral impact of games that differ from mine. Over the years I've found I'm largely uninterested in their concerns because they're so rarely well thought out and expressed rationally. I've also found that when these views are rooted in a religious dogma, my attitude asymptotically approaches a state of pristine indifference.

My main goal for this site is to have a place to publicize my ideas on gaming and have a creative outlet. There are a lot of review sites out there and I have no interest in competing with them. I see my role as a commentator who has seen this industry grow up from it's very beginnings. Indeed, I've grown up with them and I think that makes me loosely qualified to catch the things that those with other agendas miss.

My thanks to those who have been reading. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I do writing it.

- Rovon

Feb 8, 2008

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