Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Almost, but not quite"

I will start by saying that this game is absolutely gorgeous to look at. The animation on Altair is first rate and the surrounding backgrounds are incredibly beautiful.

I started playing this game and thought WOW, however this swiftly changed to crys of frustration. The gameplay is very repetitive, arrive at city, climb to high point, synchronise with area, save a few citizens, find bureau, get mission, gather information, kill target - rinse, repeat.

The fighting irritated the hell out of me. Prior to the counter attack ability I struggled with the fighting, however once I got it, the fighting system became ridiculously easy - there just didn't seem to be a middle ground. Fighting off 25 guards, no mean feat by normal standards, was a walk in the park with the counter ability - there was just no difficulty.

I also found that for a stealth game, there was no real emphasis on the stealth elements of the game, rather it seemed to steer you more towards fighting, then running and hiding on one of the many roof gardens. The crazy disturbed guys in the street who would push you in to a guard whilst you were carrying out a stealth mission made me shout loudly at my screen in frustration, and the fact you couldn't swim made me want to cry!

The achievements in the game are not quite right either. You get achievements for killing all 100 templars in the game, however there is no reward in terms of gameplay for searching for them - you don't get additional skills or weapons, and the same can be said of the 100s of flags that you have to find to get the achievements - the game just doesn't offer enough incentive to explore.

Having said all this, the game did hold me until the end. I played it solidly until I had finished it, and was pleased I had done so. I won't be playing again though, as there is just no replay value in it for me.