This game showed up in our mailbox early last week and we saw some of the initial reviews for the game and they ran the proverbial gamut. Some sites gave the game a 10 of 10 and some a 7. Usually, the gaming media comes to an ultimate consensus but this time was an anomaly. If you ask five different people, you will get five different opinions. We decided to play the game at a reasonable pace as opposed to rushing through to give a review ahead of everyone else or basing your opinion on hype and trailers alone. Loot Ninja has decided to throw their hat in the mix. Read on my friends.

Presentation & Graphics: There are few games you can sit back in awe in and realize that someone created this. Assassins’ Creed has some of the best background visuals I have ever seen in a game. Yes, better than Gears of War. When you sit atop a Sync point and look out among the vast city that lays before you, you really are in awe. The details in the small aspects such as faces and clothing are not as sharp and it does seem that the devs put their energy into the background as opposed to the minimalistic aspects. Nevertheless, this game looks insane. No one has questioned this games visuals really and if you play it on a HDTV, you will see. The “glitches” format is fantastic. The game has this like Matrix feel to it which is really interesting. The menus are slick as hell also. I do not want to give away any plot details, but they are essentially easy to navigate through. The game shines here, not in every aspect, but when you do a Leap of Faith on top of a cathedral, you’ll know. 4.5 of 5.

Sound & Music: This is an area of the game that I do have some issues with. First, the music is very well done. You sort of get that operatic feel that Hitman did so well. The game is set obviously in the middle ages, so don’t expect any techno music. The voice acting is great is some aspects, decent in most, but pretty shoddy in most. In general, you can make a case that it is top notch for MOST of the main characters. For the NPCs that roam the cities, you will hear some repeating of both voice and content, but that is too be expected. The voice for Altair, however is forgettable. Imagine like a cross between all of the B movie stars you have heard. For such an interesting character, the voice is a total letdown. This by no means a deal breaker, but it would have been nice to maybe lock down an A lister for a game that has been hyped this long. 4 of 5

Gameplay: This is where the great debate begins. I will start with the combat system. At first, it seems awkward as you can imagine. The more you play it though, you will start to enjoy all of the sweet combo kills that will occur. You can use your sword or daggers and the kills are very different for each. I also liked the incorporation of a legitimate blocking and parrying system. The majority of combat is through swords, so some technique is definitely needed. This is NOT a stealth game by any means and I do believe this threw some people for a loop. In many cases, its beneficial to use covert tactics, but not really needed. You will have to blend in your surrounding sometimes, but Splinter Cell this is not. You can fight your way through almost anything or only kill those you must and get a similar result. I liked this approach because I do not like trial and error stealth games. The game does give you wide open choices to make and that is a great thing.

The game can get repetitive though and this may be the biggest downfall of the overall gameplay mechanic. You need to do certain tasks in order to get permission for the boss kill, sort of like Mercenaries. These tasks though are either insanely easy or controller throwing hard. The eavesdropping is basically pointless. You just walk to a bench, look at a guy, press Y, listen. That’s it. I would have liked a lot more creativity in the side quests.

There are plenty of flags to find throughout the game although really unneeded. If you want the achievement, go for it. There really is no benefit in doing so. The 60 Templars is worth it because it takes some skill in finding them all over the world and does give you a reason to explore. 4 of 5

Lasting Appeal: No multiplayer was expected. There is little reason to play through the game again unless you want to stealth kill all of your targets. Its a single player game, but with one difficulty… I don’t know. If you rushed through it and want another go through, maybe. Tough to pay 60 bucks for maybe 12 hours of fun. 3.5 of 5

Final Word: The $64,000 question is, “Did the game live up to the hype.” Short answer, no, but this is by no means saying that this is not a very good game. Without spoiling anything, this feels like there will be at least one more game and there have been talks of a sequel. This franchise shows great, great promise. There are some aspects they can change and if another installment comes along, you can expect it to be a monster. This time through however, you can’t help feel at least a little disappointed.

Overall:4 of 5