My biggest expectation for this year was an initial PS3 exclusive, and a supposedly revolutionary game called Assassin’s Creed.

The people responsible for it were the studio behind Prince of Persia, and that’s obviously seen in the game.

So in the game you are an Assassin in the times of the second crusade. Your task is to kill people. Sounds like fun, eh? The biggest innovation of this game is the platforming system. Basically, the concept is that you can come up to any vertical structure and seamlessly climb on top of it with using only the directional pad.

That system definitely works and it’s the first thing you’d want to try out in the game.

Second is the _merge_ system, that lets you fit into the crowd and attract less attention. This works too well. You’ll be able to assassinate a guard next to another guard, then merge and avoid any consequences.

So imagine a GTA-like environment with 4 major cities and a small village that is your home. The mission structure is that - get a task from your master, go to one of the 4 towns (same path EVERY single time, you just choose your destination at the end), go to the local Assassin’s Loft, get info, go climb all top spots of the city to get more info (this unlocks a destination), go to destination to get even more info on the target, go back to the loft to get permission and assassinate the target.

This might seem like fun - the first 2 times. On the third time you start to realize that this is the only mission structure there is. On the fourth time I got way too frustrated and started killing everyone, which was a lot more fun.

I just can’t understand how Ubisoft could screw this one up. Even the combat system is just hilarious. So 10 guys surround you, and just swing their swords waiting for their turn to strike, while you fight someone 1 on 1. And once you unlock the counter-attack feature, it’s just a matter of pushing a single button at the right time. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?

If it’s GTA, you should have the option to lose your enemies, right? Yeah, that’s the case here. When you are exposed, you first have to break the line of sight and then hide. But wait, can’t you just run away and lose the guards WITHOUT hiding? No, you can’t. Even if you’ve ran across the whole town, you still have to hide to lose the exposure. Ok, hiding in small gardens on top of buildings makes sense. But does sitting on a bench make any sense at all?

Aside from all the frustration, AC is definitely a one-evening rental, because the climbing system is in fact revolutionary. It just looks and feels so awesome to be able to climb anything and running across obstacles without having to manually do anything.

Then the graphics look awesome, for the first time ever in a videogame you will actually see clouds reflect on the buildings in real time, and the whole thing just looks damn good. The voice acting is just ok, but the pedestrians use the same voices over and over again, so it gets old fast.

Also, there is a HUGE twist in the beginning of the game that makes you want to play. I’d say you’ll have easy 3 hours of enjoyment out of this game before it becomes too frustrating and repetitive.

Due to exceptionally high expectations and a very frustrating end product, this is definitely the biggest flop of the year.