I have never played any of the Assassin’s Creed titles that are already present on the PS3 and 360 and I have to admit that I am not really a fan of adventure style games, but I decided to take a look at this seeing as I heard nothing but great things about its older cousins.

In terms of storyline, you play as an assassin named Altair, whose job it is to eliminate his Templar enemies whilst chasing around Cyprus.  Altair is exceedingly nimble and it is great fun to scurry along the rooftops to evade guards who are out to get you.

The game gives you a nice training section to complete before you are thrown into the main adventure and I found it quite useful, as it explained the controls well and gave me a good idea of the stealth that I would need to do in the main game.  I have not really gelled with an adventure game since the likes of Tomb Raider and I was not really expecting much from this game either, but I was quite surprised because it is enjoyable despite its numerous faults.

The storyline is quite engrossing and definitely keeps you playing so that you can see how it all pans out and Altair, as a game character, is quite cool.  There are times though when you cannot help but smile at Altair’s antics at the unfortunate expense of his enemies.

Sadly, the game is quite linear.  The storyline simply involves running from point A to point B in order to progress the story. Along the way you can participate in additional missions or look for hidden Templar coins that can be used to upgrade your abilities at the end of each story chapter.  The missions are all the same type and usually involve going to another location and back, while the main storyline has nearly all the same objectives which involve finding safe houses or assassinating guards.

Combat itself is something of a mixed affair.  You have a map of each area that shows guards, which reminded me of Metal Gear Solid.  Each environment also has innocent civilians, though, and it is frowned upon in the assassin community to murder innocent people.  You can choose to stealthily murder guards or simply attack them outright.  At first I tried the stealth approach but quickly found out it is basically a gimmick and does not matter to the game’s outcome except when the game requires you to be stealthy in order to progress the storyline.

Most of the time you can simply attack guards one on one.  This is something of a sluggish affair and instead of being free-flowing swordplay it turns into a three button press sequence and that is all you need to kill every guard.  Altair pulls off some flash and gory finishing moves which are nice to watch a few times but get boring when this is the only real means of dispatching enemies.

Killing stealthily is more fun. Although this shows how bad the guard AI can be.  You can often walk up to a guard in plain sight and plunge a knife into them which kills them instantly and counts as a stealth kill.  The game rewards you for a certain number of kills as you progress and this rewards you with more Templar coins as explained earlier.

It is also devilish fun to go on a civilian killing spree if you wish.

The game’s camera performs well most of the time, but I found that there were times when the camera was completely useless.  At one point the camera went through a wall making Altair invisible and then the character remained stuck until I managed to guide him back.  At other times the angle was so bad that navigating walls and rooftops became a chore.  Despite all this, it is good fun to navigate the rooftops and it flows quite well and shows how agile Altair can be.

The story itself is quite short and if you simply run from objective to objective and throw stealth to the wind, you can complete it rather quickly. I managed to beat the game in under a week.  There is also not a lot of replay value either.  The environments are typically desert-themed and not much different in terms of each location and even though it is nice to see civilians and such, I cannot help but think that the environments should be more busy.

Graphically the game is very adequate although the draw distance and pop-up lets it down when the action gets hectic. The voice-over is quite good as is the music and some of the boss battles or set pieces.  It is rare that I gel with an adventure game and despite all its flaws, I rather liked this game.  Sure, it is lacking significantly compared to the 360 and PS3 versions, but as far as PSP games go this is a good start.  Here’s hoping the PSP sequel improves on this.

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