Recently, I've been having lengthy discussions with mine good buddy Alex and his two friends, Robbie and Kanada. Or at least, I yammer and they politely listen whilst plotting my evisceration so I'll shut up. Topics can include most anything really, but after that mind-boggling post last time around, I've found myself asking questions of things in popular media and pop culture.
Mostly, "What makes this popular?", "Why is this popular?", and "If it could be improved, how?"
The other day, we discussed reviews and reviewers on the internet; more to the point, the *vast* differences between "Critical review" and "Sheer opinion". It's a tricky line to walk, no doubts about it. But the thing is, how many 'reviewers' out there are doing unbiased reviews and how many are simply gushing their opinions as if they were fact? My initial assessment of Skyrim, as some readers may go see, was horribly opinionated and extremely biased...especially since I'd never played the damned game. Sure, it's funny to say "IT SUX," but not very critical or informative. So, in an effort to write more intelligent and intelligible journals and to push my writing and mental skills, I've got this little idea I'm going to be trying out today.
Ladies and Gentlemen...and Alex...I give you, OverCrit. Short for 'Overly Critical', I'm playing off the idea of forcing myself to take a good long critical look at games. Now, a couple of minor housekeeping rules. No, I can't call myself the one true voice for whether a game is good or not. No, I am not being paid for this and so have no real standard to go by. NO, I will not try to be epic or awesome or truly righteous. The name of the journal is simply a play on words, not an attempt to differentiate myself from other 'reviewers'. I *will*, however, be following a few industry guidelines that I've seen come across in very useful published reviews and will be making every attempt to keep my opinions at a minimum.
OverCrit will follow a basic system consisting of:
-Game and what it's about
-Graphical Presentation
-Sound Presentation
-Controls
-Gameplay/Replayability
-Closing Statements and My Opinion (or at least, an attempt will be made to keep it there)
((Opinion stuff will be double parenthesized to make sure you know my thoughts from my critical look.))
Also, you should probably settle in. These journals could be long.
So! AssCreedRev (hereafter shortened to ACR) is the last in a trilogy of games by Canadian/French/Not-Too-Sure developers Ubisoft. Starting at Assassin's Creed II, going through AC: Brotherhood, and finishing off with Revelations, the game follows the story of 15th century master assassin Ezio Auditore (Et-Zee-Oh, by the way) and his trials of battling against the corruption of the Templar order and their attempts to make war to achieve a unified peace. You play as Ezio seen through the eyes of a semi-slacker everyday Joe named Desmond Miles through something called the Animus System, which uses the DNA of it's user to bring forth repressed memories of the user's ancestors. ((The whole thing is really convoluted if you haven't been playing since AC1, so I'm going to just move on now.)) In a strange, Inception-like idea, Ezio finds himself reliving memories of the protagonist from Assassin's Creed (1), Altair (pronounced All-tie-EAR) to bring his own discoveries to a close in the later years of his life.
Graphical Presentation:
Given that we as gamers have entered a phase of life on the consoles (and newer versions have been hinted at if not announced), graphics have been pushed to newer and newer limits with each passing year. ACR does very well in this respect as the game plays out in 15th century Constantinople. While some may argue that a fair amount of guesswork could've gone into what the city looked like back then, ACR does well to give you a big play-field from which to perform your stabby deeds. Lots of rooftops and plenty of things to climb up ((a staple the game series is known for)), and it's all loaded in with no down time or loading screens past what initially takes you into the chapter/sequence you're playing at that moment. It flows well and there are loads of NPCs to interact and move past with no visual slowdown noticeable ((at least on the X360, which is what I usually play for gaming)).
Characters have moderately expressive faces and generally emote well. Subtle touches come in here and there, such as Ezio idly pouching his lips while he peruses a book he found, or shock and awe on dead faces of assasinated targets. It's not perfect by any means, but given how far we as gamers have come ((the head-bobbing, non-lip moving of Metal Gear Solid is a good example)), it's very well done and comes across as a solid effort.
Sound Presentation:
The musical score of ACR is just as well done as its predecessors were, even building off themes established in prior games and giving moments their own shine. Running from Janissary guards brings in heavy percussion while having a delightful picnic with a beautiful woman gives lighter tones and strings. The orchestra does good work and it does what it should to enhance the overall experience.
Voice acting is top-notch and returning actors of the series give another solid performance. Desmond's character remains somewhat bland but is given more chances to emote this time around in a spectacularly fresh DNA sequence involving his life story and the events leading up to the first AC. It's refreshing to finally get that in this series and heralds good things for when the series inevitably lets him star as the person bringing death to evildoers.
Finally, sound effects are crisp and clear, bringing the necessary impact to combat. Bombs give off a dull *whump!* or a sharp *CRACK!* depending on what ingredients went into them, blades whirl and *shink!*, and the crowd of NPCs are always remarking on the goings-on. These drive the necessary immersion to sink a player into their role of the primary protagonist and in this game, have been given a good polish. It all seems to fit together nicely ((and honestly, as a musician, I *do* find it difficult to find much to say that is negative about the sound here.))
Controls:
Controls for the 360 were mapped out well and synced up with what you would expect if you have been playing the entire series. Much remains the same ((and really, if it's not broke, don't fix it)), and what was clunky is streamlined. Moving the assassination handy Eagle Vision to the L3 button (clicking the control stick) is fairly easy to deal with and frees up a button to devote to your secondary weapons. New concepts are introduced in ACR (which I'll go over in the next part) and the controls are pretty easy to understand what goes where and what does what. As well, having dropped the game for about a week, I found relative ease in picking the controller back up and sliding back in to where I left off. ((To me, this is a shining star for controls being tightly tuned)).
The camera is largely unobtrusive and, in some cases, helpful to a degree to give you an idea of where you should move next. Granted, by doing this, it removes some of the difficulty of figuring that out on your own, but I found it to be a welcome concept and not a moment to sigh and say, "Yeah, I get it." The game doesn't scream it at you, just shows you, "Here," and lets you go about your way to getting "There." Even in some of the more action oriented moments where one-use control schema come up isn't too difficult to grasp quickly and the game is largely forgiving of your mistakes should you make them.
Gameplay/Replayability:
This game focuses around, shockingly enough, assassinating people in varied and interesting ways. It gives you plenty of old standbys from the previous entries (aerial drop-down stabbings, using a crossbow for range) and adds some new flavors (the new hook blade allowing you to climb much more rapidly and use zip-lines to do pretty impressive kills). To be fair, I hadn't followed the game's press before it's release and was surprised to learn that the new bomb system played a large part of stealthing and killing, but it fit right in and, even better, has a lot more variety to it than I had guessed. True, you can stick to a core set of three bomb types and finish the game using those, but there are alternatives if you wish to go back and get 'creative' about your objectives. Games that encourage both "safe" and "experimental" gameplay generally have a lot of replayability in seeing just how you can go about blowing up that big ring of guards waaaaaay over there.
As well, the missions and recruiting/training of new assassins comes back with a mini-game of sorts that you might find lingering on your mind when you least expect it. Taking over Mediterranean towns and the constant upkeep of keeping them liberated was more depth than the last game's version of 'do this and get money'. ((I didn't find it to be too annoying or anything, but I did worry about it when the game took away my ability to keep tabs on my assassins in the field for a whole chapter. Needless to say, I rushed to the nearest den when I was allowed to and breathed a sigh of relief to know that things weren't as bad as I had thought.))
Replayability comes in the challenge of doing missions for the Full Synchronization option (or how the designers say Ezio would've completed that mission). Full Synch unlocks nifty cheats for replays and the aforementioned Mediterranean Defense has potential to gleefully waste a lot of your time as you armchair the hostile takeover of that part of the globe. The main campaign, as well as Desmond's story, all get their point across and set up well for the next game without overstaying the welcome you've given them, and having the story actually *go* somewhere this time is nice. The added character of Subject 16, a character from previous games, was something of a head-scratcher. ((I found myself wondering why he was there or what part he had to play, but it never grew to be a problem past going "Huh...weird."))
((Overall Opinion)):
I've enjoyed the AC series from start to finish. Ubisoft continues to improve it with each game and while stumbles are made here and there, the next game usually shows them ironed out and turned into a positive. More game companies could use this kind of thinking instead of just cranking the same thing out over and over again. I admit that I don't want to play Gears of War 3, but that's pretty much because the game, having seen it online and in Youtube playthroughs, doesn't improve at all from its predecessors. ACR, on the other hand, introduces new ideas and concepts and brings things to a resounding close on the Ezio chapters of the overarching storyline. I'm excited to see where the series goes from here because now that we've closed both Altair and Ezio's books, Desmond himself is all we have left and given how the resolution for his character is handled in this game, he looks to be ready to stand and define himself as a proper assassin.
All in all, it's a very enjoyable game (and series), and you'd hardly be wasting your money by picking up used copies online of the whole series and taking some time to enjoy the simple catharsis of punishing bad guys by shoving a blade through their face. It's a fun game and you wouldn't go wrong in playing it.
Now, I refuse, absolutely REFUSE, to score games using some arbitrary system. That, to me, screams of lacking perspective and a point, so I'll just go right ahead and give this game a solid recommendation. As well, do keep in mind that I'm new to this and am feeling my way through critical thought vs. bland opinion, but I'm not new to being a gamer. I've been immersed in video games since I was five years old (and music for even longer) and I would like to say that I know a little bit here and there about what makes something fun and what doesn't.
I'd like to, but again, this is simply my opinion here given as intellectually as I can. I'm probably not very good at it and if you have critiques, by all means, leave them below.
Thus endeth my first OverCrit. Thanks for reading!
Special thanks to Robbie, Alex, and Kanada for unknowingly giving me the idea to do this. You poor saps.
