Stab into the past. Assassin's Creed

Name:  Assassin's Creed

Developer: Ubisoft

Year: 2007

Platform: Xbox360, Playstation 3, Pc.

Genre: Action Adventure

My year started real busy... and also really broke. So no new game for me yet. Instead, a collegue and a friend of mine who attended my new years party brought me a nice package I could borrow. Assassin's Creed 1,2 and Brotherhood. Since I was also kind of a Prince of Persia fan I thought I would like this, thus I started with 1.

Assassin's Creed is a game that takes place in 2 timelines. The first one you get to know about is the timeline of Desmond. This guy is part of some assassin's family and has been captured by a research facility. It seems our main character has dna which has the memories of his ancestors who were all Assassin's. One of his ancestors apparently has something they need and you need to play trough all the memories of your ancestor to find what they need. In order to acces that memory they use machine called the Animus.

Once you go into the Animus you play trough a specific memory in order to learn what happened during your ancestor's time and to get closer to the memory our doctors need. Once you control your ancestor, called Altair, you are an assassin with all it's skills and weaponry. With those tools you need to assassinate several people, in order of the Brotherhood. This Brotherhood says they do this in the name of peace. However, as you progress the game you discover a dark secret.

Once you are logged in into the animus you can see a few things on the screen. On the bottom left you see a small square with some symbols, these correspond to directions on the D-Pad. Up selects the Hidden Blade, a small weapon used for stealth assassinations. Right selects the sword, your strongest weapon during combat. Down selects fists if you need to beat someone up but not kill them yet. Left selects the short blade, a small weapon which is quick in combat but not quite as strong. Also, if you are not in combat, you can thrown small throwing knives to end a life from a distance. 

Next to this you also see a bar at the top right. This is your synchronization bar and shows how well Desmond is in synch with Altair. If he takes too much damage you lose your synchro and thus need to start from the last (auto) savepoint. Your health goes up if you do more missions and side missions. In short, it is just your health bar.

Finally left from the synchro bar you can see the Abstergo logo. When it is white, you are anonymous and can practically do whatever you want. However, the logo changes colour in different situations. When you are being chased or noticed by the guards, it is red. When Hiding it is blue and so on. 

Finally the bottom right displays the minimap where you can see all missions and sidemissions.

Graphic wise I think this is a great game. It takes place in the middle east and thus you don't see lot's of colours in this game. However, every person/ building/ environment has been made in great detail, almost showing no flaws in designs.

This game doesn't have any music. Instead ou mostly hear the murmering of every citizen of the 4 places you visit. At first it is interesting what every citizen has to say but it gets real repetitive after a while. Almost everyone has the same line and after 2 or 3 hours in game you know every line of what a citizen is going to say.

Overall this game is a nice way to spend your time. But if you are a completionist like me you are going to have a hard time. Not because it becomes impossibly hard to do all side missions but because everything is exactly the same. Only your normal missions include something new or important to the storyline. Next to that, there is no real reward in doing all side missions except for some lousy achievements on the Xbox version.

And last but not least, although it isn't hard to complete all side missions, you are annoyed to death by every drunk /beggar that walk around town that seem to only target their annoyance to you instead of every other frigging citizen. It just really ruins the overall feeling of this game

Fun Facts: Assassin's Creed...

... has some similarities with Prince of Persia, which isn't strange since it is made by the same team.

... takes place around 2010 and 1190 respectively.

... has main characters who are based on real people from around that time. Only a couple of people 

    are imaginary.

... has some hints about the apocaliptic year 2012. It seems the Templars will do something to us in 

    that year.

... beggar's should DIE!

Metroid Other M

Name: Metroid Other M

Devoloper: Nintendo, Team Ninja

Year: 2010

Platform: Nintendo Wii

Genre: Action Adventure, Puzzle

At first I wanted to write something else then ANOTHER Nintendo game. Yet due to my busy schedule today I am writing a smaller review. Metroid Other M.

Other M takes place after the events of Super Metroid which is seen in the beginning of the game, flashbacking the events of that game. After a short cinematic you are given the tutorial in which you learn the basics of the game. After that you depart on your spaceship where you will receive a distress signal. Following it you encounter your old friends on a bottle ship. With them you investigate where the distress signal comes from and what is happening on the ship. 1 Hint, Super Metroid wasn't the last game where you encounter Metroids.

In Other M (even though I finished the game I still don't know where the M stand for) you fight differently from the last Metroid games. Although it is a 3D game like the Prime series you do not fight in 1st person. Instead, you walk around in 3th person view. You can change your vision to first person view to aim better or fire missiles. In 3th person you auto aim at enemies although you have to look in their direction. The camera doesn't always give you the option though.

Because of the 3th person view you can also engage in melee combat. If enemies are weakened you can go into combat with them to deliver a devasting finisher. Some enemies can be jumped upon to deliver special attacks .

This game isn't all about fighting though. Trough the course of the game you can use multiple abilitie to go futher into an area. For example, you can go into morph ball mode. In this small mode you can only lay small bombs but you can enter real small holes to gain acces to new area's. The Screw attack (hehe) allows you to stay in the air for a long time. With it you can cover a cliff that open up the area more. Once you unlock an ability in area 1 you can go futher into area 2 where you get the ability to go into area 3 which brings you back to 1 etc. Not every opening is obvious though. You have to look around and experiment with everything.

The area's you explore are actually part of the ship, which is mechanical. However, since it is a ship which observes several bioforms they simulate the area's for the bioforms. You see several landscapes such as a jungle, a dark lava cavern or some icy plains, all in 1 Ship. Most of them are illusion though, which you can sometimes turn off to reveal the truth and a new pathway. The area's a brilliantly designed though and although  it is a bit too unrealistically  colourful sometimes.

The soundtrack is typical to the Metroid series. Active but in the background. It fits the mood of the area or bossfight. But the emphasis is never on the music itself. Most of it are some kind of techno music with a theme.

Overall Metroid Other M is a great action adventure game with some puzzle elements. Although it doesn't follow its predecessors' with the 1st person view it is truelly a great experience to walk around and see Samus from all angles. Also a thing to note is that you will hear Samus her voice for the 1st time. And this game has a lot of background story which the previous games didn't have.

If you aren't a Metroid Fan I wouldn't get this game if I were you. For fans this is a MUST have though due to the story and background information.  

Fun Facts about this game:

-Metroid Other M takes place after Super Metroid and before Metroid Fusion

-Samus talks in this game and so do other characters such as the famed Adam

-Samus DOESN'T lose her equipment this time. However, Adam restricts her from using everything.

-When you finish this game there is extra content and even a secret endboss!

-Other M could stand for Mother, as in Mother Brain, or Metroid.

Hero of Winds, The Windwaker

 

Name: The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker

Devoloper: Nintendo
Year: 2002/2003

Platform: Nintendo Gamecube

Genre: Action - Adventure

To start my review, I am going to talk about a game I am currently replaying. The Windwaker is one of those games I go back to when I have nothing to do. I guess the cartoony graphics and the easy gameplay are appealing to me. This is one of those games that I know by heart by now so reviewing this wasn't a problem.

The story starts with a small review about Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Some time after Ganondorf was defeated by the Hero, he returns. This time there is no Hero however and the people of Hyrule could only appeal to the gods for help. They replied.. .and sealed Hyrule under water. In time this legend was forgotten, but the story of the Hero lived on. Thus, when a young boy comes of age, they get a green tunic the resembles the hero's tunic. Once you get your tunic you see a pirate ship approaching your island, chasing a humongous bird who is carrying a girl. She gets dropped in a forest, and you go rescue her. When you get back, you are greeted by your sister, who kinda resembles the girl you just saved. The bird comes back though, and takes your sister instead of the girl you just saved. Horrified and angry, you chase the bird by pirate ship. A quest in search of your sister in the vast seas of Hyrule.

Got you interested? Good, because I am not going to tell you any spoilers. Instead, I will tell you about the gameplay, Which, if you played those, resembles the Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. You walk around with the control stick, which runs quite smooth. The A button is the standard action button and is used for talking with persons, using items or parrying once you get the opportunity. The B Button is used to swing a weapon, being your own weapon or something you pick up from the ground or grab from an enemy. These can vary from a deku stick till a huge lance. On the X, Y and Z button you can allocate items such as the boomerang or a bottle. Like all Zelda games, this game has lots of items such as the classic bow and arrow or the new picto box, which you can use to take pictures for several sidequests. You operate the camera with the C stick, Lock on with the L button and R is used to guard or crouch. Like I said before, this looks a lot like the gameplay from the Zelda on the N64 Platform, with some nice tweaks to make it a little easier.

Although the dungeons take place on the islands(or below the sea!) You also need to travel a lot by boat. Eventually, you will get your own boat which you can use to sail the seas. A mystical item called "The Windwaker" is used to control the winds, thus making it easier to sail around.

Get used to sailing though. You see, you will see the sea quite a lot. Which might make it a bit boring since you see blue all the time, This is blue haze is only disturbed by an enemy once or twice, but no real threats. The islands you visit are quite colourfull, on the contrary. The style used for this Zelda is absolutely not realistic. But this look is, like I said before, quite appealing. Even though some dungeons are dark and creepy, the setup makes it so that you feel in a happy place, laughing about Link every now and then since he looks quite funny.

The music in his game are about the same as the graphics, simple, yet catchy. Every town has it own music that kinda fits the theme. Although the dungeons could use more work. You have to listen very carefully to even hear music sometimes!

All in all, a great game to play even if you are not great fan of Zelda, give it a try. Perhaps it puts a smile on your face. Definitely if you try the new game+.