In 1187, the Christians of western Europe looked on in disbelief as Saladin and his Muslim armies stormed through the Holy Land, reclaiming Jerusalem. As you can probably imagine, pope Gregory VIII wasn't best pleased with this turn of events and did what religious leaders do best: he went to war.
He immediately ordered a campaign to regain the Holy City for the Christians. Known as the Third Crusade, it was to last from 1189 to 1192. The period, in fact, about which Gameloft's
Assassin's Creed tells its story. This is an ambitious platformer for the mobile, with a variety of hacking 'n' slashing, intricate jumping and stealth gameplay thrown in. And, best of all, it works.
From the moment the loading screen appears and the moody and mystical score kicks in, expectation levels for the game skyrocket, and the graphics in-game bear the promise out. Indeed, on looks alone, we'd say that
could well be one of the best-looking 2D games we've set eyes on.
As Altair, you are one of the finest assassins in the land. Inexplicably shunned by the assassins' order, you've taken it upon yourself to sort out the problems in the Middle East, in the hope of being welcomed back by your brethren.
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So, with the advice and name of the target from
your master ringing in your ears, you get to work on making your way through the excellently designed, gorgeous looking levels.
Control of Altair is responsive and assured; he's a quick fella with fantastic agility. He can run, crouch, swing, role, and step half way up a wall and jump to otherwise inaccessible areas. He's absolutely full of tricks.
But, don't worry, the game takes over for the harder stuff. Gameloft has wisely implemented a one-button control system to take the frustration out of manoeuvres that would otherwise be intensely fiddly.
The game gives advice as you travel through the levels, too, and informs you of which button to press for the more complicated obstacles. For example, it tells you, a double-tap of the thumbstick to the right (or '6') will make Altair dash. Likewise, in the early stages the game pauses the action for a second and reveals that you must press up or '2' to jump across a chasm and grab onto the platform.
This effectively means action such as diagonal jumping is made easier with simpler button presses, making it more to do with timing than fine control with the thumbstick, say. (An unforgiving process on some mobiles.)
Technically, as mentioned, the game looks great but the scrolling and speed is pitched perfectly, too. It's great fun sprinting and jumping across a chasm of spikes, then rolling through a small tunnel, before coming face-to-face with an grumpy guard who draws his sword.
The ability of
Assassin's Creed to offer so much diversity and continue to surprise you is astonishing. One minute you're using ladders to get yourself out of a tricky situation (Jackie Chan-style), and the next you're taking aim on a mechanism with your crossbow to deactivate a trap.
Speaking of which, as you make you way through the levels you pick up new weapons to add to your standard sword, such as a grappling hook, the aforementioned crossbow (each taken from the still warm hands of beaten end-of-level bosses, no less) and bombs, which you use like medieval grenades.
Although, there's not as much sneaking around and throttling guards involved as we expected (although what's there is a welcome break from the main action) it would do
Assassin's Creed a massive disservice to call that up as too much of a negative.
Because, when you take the experience as a whole, this is an exciting, imaginative and hugely playable platform game which we encourage you to download as soon as you get the chance.
