The Premise
So what's it all about? If I had to summarize the game in three words or less it'd be: "Communist Sci-fi GTA".Yes, I cheated by using some abbreviations, but still, that sums it up quite nicely. The game starts out with you meeting your brother on Mars, sometime in the not so close future. Mars has been colonized by Earth, and is controlled by a military group named the Earth Defense Force (EDF). They maintain control and security because at this point in the future we've ravaged Earth's resources, and we have to get our metals from Mars.

Of course, the game wouldn't have a plot without strife, and naturally the EDF has taken a turn for the totalitarian regime. This regime manifests itself in the typical ways, forcing workers to work long hours, illegal search and seizure, and, of course, executions. Naturally this angers you in the bottom of your 'just wanted to come and earn a living' soul, and you join up with the Red Faction. Red Faction being the stereotypical worker uprising, complete with pick-up trucks for APCs, mining tools for weapons, and cheesy lines on the underground radio broadcasts designed to uplift the huddled masses.

The Game
Enough about the background, you'll learn all that and more in the opening cut-scene, how's the game play? I liked it... a lot. I'd even go so far as to say I loved it, if in a guilty-pleasure kinda way.

Controls
The controls were for the most part intuitive and par for the course for a PS3 game. A few tidbits caught me, such as having a more accurate look at your targeting reticle be a toggle, rather than just a mode you'll drop out of after releasing the button. My biggest concern was the variance found amongst vehicle controls. In a normal car R2 goes forwards and L2 goes backwards (mostly). If you get into a car with a turret and shoot, it'll track to the nearest enemy... sorta. But, let's say you get into a tank? Now left thumb stick moves you forwards and backwards, right thumbstick is turret control, and you shoot with L1/R1. Oh, you're in a walker? Well if it has jump packs you'll be using the X button, though if it has rockets those will be L1/L2... ARG!

A unified control scheme there is not! Thankfully, the 3rd person perspective was as I'd expect, and most ordinary vehicles behaved correctly, most of the time.

Physics
In a word, "fun". If I got two, perhaps "non-so realistic," but I'll stick with "fun". This game uses the Havok engine, which allows for a lot of fun stuff, such as an almost completely destructible environment. You can't impact the ground, but just about every building, vehicle, and sign can and will go kerblooey if met with sufficient force.

The buildings react fairly correctly, as far as I'd know having never taken down a building using det mines and a well placed dump truck. They teach you throughout the game how to take down buildings using more and more elaborate means, but basically if you find a building supported by anything, take out the anything and it'll crash down. They crash in the direction of the supports you removed, and if you're quick enough it'll come straight down.

Vehicle physics... not so good. Throughout the game I had issues with vehicles. I couldn't figure out why, but backing up in a car seemed it or miss. I always had to gas it a little forwards, then switch into reverse to get moving! Plus, you can climb many, many surfaces that you shouldn't be able to... things that are 75% grades that let you drive up them, for instance. Sure, "it's Mars" but still, all you ever had to do if you were stuck, was turn your tires slightly, and hit the gas. This technique, plus a dump truck, levels most buildings in fairly short order. Further, there were times I'd somehow ramp a vehicle over a small bump and find myself achieving darn near escape velocity, in my opinion. That said, it was awesome the time it happened on my way into an EDF camp and I smashed through a few buildings before coming to rest.

Overall, the physics were fun, and I'd say the quirks actually added to the fun, rather than detracting from it.

Environment
The graphics weren't at the level of some games that can, say, load a new level before you drive across a continent, but they were quite good considering some of the vistas you can look at. Mars is fairly well done, lots of red, lots of dust, and, uh, somehow a breathable atmosphere. You can even stumble across the Mars rover if you go hunting for ore deposits, and no... it's not destructible .

The buildings are not very varied. After you destroy 5-10, you'll know exactly how to take them down in 30 seconds or less.

Plot
The plot was kind of a typical Sci-Fi deal... you have colonists, oppressive military, easily predictable twists, but enjoyable overall.

Combat
Combat I'm torn on. On the one hand it was fun once you started building up a repertoire of weapons. My typical load out for most of the game was my sledgehammer, det mines, grenade launcher, and an assault rifle. That let me deal with infantry (rifle/sledge, and yes, you'll use the sledge the entire game, and no, it never gets old), armor (mines/grenades), buildings (see previous), and buildings (all of the above). The controls for combat made sense, although felt a little simplistic coming from a lot of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

My big issue was the difficulty. I played through on 'Normal', but even then I was dying a... freaking... lot. What's more, I got the feeling the game was designed that way, as the death penalty was measly in my opinion. Not that I'm bothered by frequent deaths, but when the loading times after a death were 30 seconds or a minute, I'd keep a book on my table just in case.

And the last level? Let me just say this flat out: Take your time, do it right, it's designed to kill you.

Missions
One of the game's strong points to me. There are a few main types of missions (Raids, Defense, Convoys, Couriers, and Heavy Metal). Heavy Metal was my favorite, and a great example of the diversity in the game. The basis is just "Kill X amount of Y EDF," where X is a number between 25 and 150, and Y is a vehicle or soldier. Sounds simple, but every one is different. In one you get a rocket turret, in another a tank, in a third a combat walker. They never get old. The same holds for raids, where you go in to either blow up a building or kill all defenders so they can blow it up. In some missions you'll hit an office building, or maybe a garage, or maybe a warehouse type building. Bottom line is while, yes, you can easily solve them all with one well placed theremobolic rocket, you'll need to adapt to the situation as you reach it.

Overall
Overall I'd recommend the game off of Gamefly or used. I'll probably keep playing through (after beating the game they unlock a harder difficulty, and reopen all the missions to replay), so I'm glad to have my own copy. I can easily see this game becoming repetitive to some, and others getting annoyed at the vehicles and their controls, so maybe don't buy it right off.

There's a lot I didn't touch on for brevity's sake, and I need sleep. Salvage that you blow stuff up to get to upgrade your gear for instance. But then, some needs to be left up to the reader to find out.

Oh, and if you're looking for a multiplayer game, keep looking. I've spent a full two minutes in the lobby queue without enough people to start a game.

Plot: I won't spoil the surprise, somehow it remained one for me even after reading a few reviews. The basic plot ties into the Third Crusade, with Saladin fighting King Richard (more or less). The historical context here is that assassins rose into being during this time as a means of fighting back, with the word assassin coming from the Arabic "hashashin", meaning, well... hashish addicts. Specifically a Muslim sect during the Crusades that may have controlled their assassins with drugs and promises of heaven. Others that don't want to acknowledge possible negative connotations of the word claim it to have come from the leader's name "Hassan" (where Hassansin would be a follower of Hassan). In any case neither word is used in Arabic for assassin any more, so I don't think it should have any charged feelings either way.

The only reason I point out the etymological root of the word is because at one point your character is told that the Crusaders "Control their killers with magic herbs" and had to laugh. In most other respects, however, the designers did an amazing job with the plot.

The game does attempt to address some religious and political ideas but, with one exception, its nothing excessively in your face. The exception somewhat ruins the plot, so I'll hold my tongue further.

4/5

Cut scenes: I enjoyed each and every cut scene in the game, and boy are there a lot! Around the first 45 minutes I started getting bored until I realized I could control the camera and minimal assassin movement which means that you can be your own director! Walk in, announce a kill, and during the ensuing conversation pretend you're in the Godfather. Another great touch is being able to change camera angles on the more important scripted 'boss' conversations, where you can get close ups of the guy speaking, or the innocent victim he's about to kill. Really gives it a good cinematic feel.

All I could ask for is, well, an option to skip them just in case they do get a bit long.

4/5

Graphics: I absolutely loved the graphics in the game. Assassin's Creed has clearly upped the ante for games in the coming year, giving both superb sweeping vistas and decent indoor areas (though indoors wasn't emphasized). The first time I climbed the Citadel in Acre and looked out over the city it hit me just how much work went into this game. It actually reminded me of my time in Tunisia, captured quite nicely in my TV. Running around Jerusalam gave me the same feel, while standing on the Dome of the Rock. Add to that the nice little particle graphics they add in when you find flags, or save citizens, and you'll be wowed no matter what game ya come from.

The combat graphics aren't great as well. When your character performs a kill combo or a reversal it jumps into a cinematic mode and shows one of a dozen (maybe more) moves being performed. As late as the 7th assassination (of 9) I was seeing new moves.

I came into the game assuming the cut scenes I'd seen weren't in game footage, but was greatly surprised to see the whole game looks that way!

5/5

Gameplay: I'll start by saying I really liked the control system. The first five minutes of button bashing made me think I'd make a mistake purchasing the game, but after familiarization (the tutorial is required, but extremely helpful) the controls felt natural. What they boil down to is the four buttons on the 'shape' pad. Triangle controls your head, Circle your open hand, Square your weapon hand, and X your feet. So in the context of walking, Circle is a gentle push to move people out of your way, Square shanks someone, and X makes you blend into the crowd and go unnoticed. When you move into conspicuous mode, those turn into a tackle, uber-shank, and sprint, respectively.

Once you get used to those controls, it makes it pretty easily to do exactly what you want to, such as slink along a rooftop, drop down into a group of guards assaulting a citizen, and shank two of them before they realize what's going on. Along those lines, the combat is very fun. Its fairly easy once you get down all the moves, but by the time you do that a fight can easily pull 10 guards at a time. While its easy to win, if you miss a break and let them get around you its also easy to lose. The combat feels very fluid, and using the short sword gives you a very nice whirling dervish look.

As far as replaying the game goes, I just "hurriedly" (took me a good week and a half doing it hurriedly) played through a lot of this game and yet still have a lot to go back and do. For one, each area has flags hidden in it, hundreds of them, and I've got, oh 50 total. Another fun thing to find is a large number of Templars that you need to kill. Finally, if you didn't do full investigations the first time, you need to go back and actually complete all the annoying flag finding missions for informers. Also its just darn fun running through Jerusalem and seeing how many guards I can get on me. Its like making my own action movie.

5/5

Openendedness (oh yes, that's a word... now): On the one hand you're forced to follow an approximate order of assassinations. However that's a very small hand, as most assassinations let you chose which city to do first. More than that, you can jump between cities if you like, and do the investigations as you want (each investigation being 3 of 6 missions consisting of pickpocketing, interrogations, eavesdropping, or informer assignments). I never once felt like I was forced into a path to chose, nor felt the game 'stop'. After an initial 10-15 second loading period, the entire city was at my disposal and by the end that equals a large area. I could run all over the city I was working in and only have to stop when 50 guards kill me--- erm, when I decide to.

There, again, is an exception that might be a plot ruiner, but at the end of the game I forgave all of it.

4/5

Ending: I loved this ending. At one point this afternoon I jumped up and said in a not so calm voice "Heck yea!" It was an appropriate ending, it fir the period well, and man are the fights leading up to it epic. I said before that knowing all the fighting moves makes fights 'easy', and for the most part this held true. Of course with the numbers you're up against, its darn easy to die quickly as well if you let them start landing blows. And with the final boss fight I died at least three times before getting him, and the fourth was darn close. And then, just before the credits, a lovely plot twist that actually had me come back and do some scenery watching for 10 minutes.

4/5

In the end, this is a game I recommend for anyone that enjoys a little sword play. Its only Single Player, but it does that so well I have to forgive it. You won't be disappointed with this game, even at $50.