Assassino! Revisited

If you remember back in October when I wrote about the game Assassin's Creed, I feel I didn't do the game justice as to how great it actually is. This time around, I'd like to discuss the gameplay and game elements that make it such a fun game to play with a short introduction to the actual plot of the story.

As I mentioned in the original post, the entire game is based around the life of a young adult by the name of Desmond Miles, a man that was born into the Brotherhood of Assassins and, thereby, an ancient war. You see, the Brotherhood had a grudge with another order known as the Templar, as they only wanted power and greed rather than what they claimed was a mission from God. In order to learn the proper skills and uncover the secrets required to defeat the Templar, he must relive the memories of his ancestors through a machine known as the Animus. His journey puts him through several trying situations including a kidnapping, escape, and even the death of certain people. The plot twists and turns in every installment of the series, but those are for you to find out.

The primary style of gameplay for the Assassin's Creed series is what is known as an open world or "sandbox" game where you are given set objectives with, for the most part, no set way to carry it out. This combines with the genres of action, adventure and stealth to create a game full of secretive missions to complete the objectives of side quests before continuing on with primary quests if one wishes to do so, or completing them later after they've completed the storyline. To carry out these missions, you must gather new weapons, armor and items to better prepare yourself for the coming dangers.

In the first installment, you must progress through the storyline to gain better equipment, which is free of charge and willingly given to you. While it was fairly efficient, as you didn't really need them until they were given or added the challenge of going without them, it didn't give much diversity or choice as to what could be used. This was fixed in the later games as items were bought rather than earned, different items still needing to be unlocked at the shops by going through the storyline. However, especially with the weapon system, it allowed players to decide what they wanted to use for their weapon and omit things that they might not use.

Another aspect they started adding on to was the various ways that his ancestors could carry out an assassination. In the first one, it was mostly the use of a hidden blade, sword, throwing knives or your bare hands. As the games got more complicated, they added a wider variety of weapons that encompassed swords, axes and daggers as well. But they didn't just stop there. Later games added new methods of assassination through poison, crossbows, a hidden gun, bombs with various uses and most recently flintlocks and tomahawks. They continue to improve upon the combat systems in other ways too, incorporating various defensive mini games such as defending Assassin dens and naval combat.