Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut (PC)

While not a perfect adventure, this console port is extraordinary fun.
4/11/2008 1:53 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2

After selling more than 5 million units in six months, Ubisoft is letting PC gamers get a taste of its highly successful new franchise, Assassin's Creed, in an exclusive "Director's Cut" edition of the game.

Even if it were a straight port from the console versions, the game is worth introducing to those who prefer a lean-forward (opposed to lean-back) experience, but the savvy developers at Ubisoft Montreal have also added new missions, tweaked graphics and an optional mouse/keyboard control scheme for those who don't want to use a gamepad.

In case you haven't yet laid your hands on the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 game, Assassin's Creed lets you play as a retired assassin who is sent back into action in the late 12th century, when the Third Crusade is raging across the Holy Land. You assume the role of the mysterious Altaïr, whose task is to suppress the hostilities on both sides with stealth and precision.

How you stalk and approach your target, perform the task at hand, and exit the scene safely will vary from player to player. This is because the authentically recreated cities you'll be visiting -- such as Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre -- are open-ended and bustling with citizens. At the start of the game you'll learn how to blend in with crowds, scale buildings and end confrontations quickly with a concealed dagger.

When it comes to assassinating targets and remaining undetected, should you do the deed when he's giving a speech to a bunch of onlookers? Take out the guards first one by one? Cause a distraction on the street before subtly making your way to the target with dagger in hand? Approach from the rooftop behind him, drop down, and then try to run away after the deed is done? Try throwing a knife from afar? You get the idea. This also adds to the game's replayability.

Despite its name, Assassin's Creed isn't only about killing, though -- other missions include pickpocketing, escort challenges and racing across rooftops. In fact, the PC version introduces four new investigation missions (adding to the five in the original game), which means less overall repetition now that you don't have to complete the same secondary objective twice before getting to the bloody good stuff.

Specifically, the "Director's Cut" introduces an archer assassination challenge, where players need to stealthily take down all the archers in a city zone without being detected. Another one is the rooftop race, where you must get to an informer in time to get information about a new target. Another mission objective later on in the game is to destroy a specific number of merchant stands on the street. These extra missions are OK but not fantastic, though they do break some of the monotony experienced in the original game.

Visually speaking, you will no doubt be amazed the first time you find yourself perched on a rooftop, staring at a sea of people making their way through cobblestone streets. Interestingly, in crafting the high-definition world (presented in widescreen), the savvy artists opted for a mix of pale, earthy tones and grayish hues, perhaps to capture the essence of this historical period. The game also boasts smooth character animation, which is exactly what we expect from the creators of Prince of Persia and Splinter Cell (see below). Equally as impressive is the game's audio, with high-quality dialogue (including a female character voiced by "Heroes" and "Veronica Mars" star Kristen Bell) and Hollywood-style music soundtrack (composed by British Academy Award winner Jesper Kyd), which changes depending on what's happening on-screen.