Expectation can be a terrible thing. Although any developer wants to ensure its product attracts a certain amount of hype, it’s essential that the game is good enough to back it up. If it isn’t, the fallout will be devastating.

Before we shake the very foundations of your existence, a word of praise first. In terms of the engine Ubisoft has put together, Assassin’s Creed is amazing. Altair moves seamlessly regardless of what obstacles are put in front of him and it’s near impossible not to enter a hypnotic state as you watch him in action – the brains behind his animation deserve heaps of praise. The same can be said for the environment constructed. Gazing out onto a city, be it Jerusalem, Damascus or Acre, never fails to impress. You can see out for miles; every building is scaleable in some way and the sheer extent of the metropolis around you is breathtaking. Free-running, while slightly basic, could probably be enjoyed on some level for the rest of your days and the combat system in place is a damn sight better than anything Prince Of Persia served up. Unfortunately, all these points are mere polish on top of a distinctively average, and in some respects, poor game.

At the core of Assassin’s Creed beats a heart that has decided organic gameplay and free will – two aspects Ubisoft promised continuously were the basis of Creed – should be ousted in favour of a rigid structure and constant handholding. You’ll play through the first assassination, excited about the depth the game is sure to take, only to realise that you’ve already seen everything it has to offer. Let us paint a quick picture for you: once you enter a city you’ll need to head for the Assassin’s Bureau to receive some information about your target. After receiving the clues, it’s off to the mentioned locations, climbing a tall building of sorts, ‘synchronizing’ (which simply updates your map) and then carrying out three of six tasks. Once success has been achieved, your target’s position will become known to you and off you shall trot to kill him. For an opening level, this would’ve been acceptable, but the same process is stretched over a total of nine murders to the point where the only emotion that can possibly be left inside is one of boredom. Assassin’s Creed is fundamentally a single sequence repeated numerous times, with absolutely nothing to differentiate between them. Why aren’t we allowed to play the part of detective and carry out our own investigations to gather evidence about the best way to do away with our potential victim? Sure, you can stumble across an interrogation, for example, but any essence of freedom is destroyed when you’re forced to press the left trigger and watch a cut-scene before going about your business.

What’s worse is the same damn thing happens when it’s time for the elimination itself. You can place Altair in the perfect position for a kill, only to be forced into a predetermined spot to activate yet another clip and only then can you do the deathly deed. Such decisions have only resulted in making you feel like anything but a killer. Instead, you’re simply a man working his way through an awful narrative who is not given any liberty aside from the fact he can come and go from each area.

Assassin’s Creed doesn’t even seem to realise when it’s actually onto a good thing. Two targets are particularly fun to hunt down and stab – they require intense, emotional chases allowing the triumphant attack to be all the more satisfying. Without wanting to spoil too much of the story, you’ll skip impulsively across rooftops, leap majestically through a dock, hoping to pick the correct path across numerous moorings, until noticing that your prey is ready and waiting. The art of the chase has been replicated with true class, but Ubisoft never really capitalises on it. The bulk of executions either rely on ridiculously huge battles – that are neither fun nor in any way rewarding – or pithy, easily achieved stabbings that resemble a night out in Luton rather than a skilled technician making his way through the Crusades.

If we had more space we could go on, but safe to say that even the most obvious of elements haven’t been included. Bodies and weapons can’t be picked up (a videogame staple from the days of Metal Gear Solid, for goodness sake) and the idea of relying on stealth is irrelevant – guards will decide you’re trouble even if you accidentally knock into someone!

There is an argument that the reason we’re so upset with Assassin’s Creed is because it fails to live up to the ludicrous publicity it set for itself, but if we’re honest, that’s a minor justification; overwhelmingly, Creed simply isn’t a good game. It’s repetitive, fails to implement hardly any of the ideas promised and is just a boring mess. The jury will never reach a true verdict, but Assassin’s Creed could be the most disappointing game of all time!

Simon Miller