[Review] Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut

Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: PC

Well, I suppose we may as well come out and admit it before we go any further – this review really was a long time coming. Yes, we know, we’re a little bit behind here. Fortunately though, it doesn’t matter all that much since Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut is essentially a PC conversion of the console smash hit.


That’s good for us then; it frees us up to spend more time looking at the graphics and the new content rather than at the usual stuff.

Oh, and if you’re wondering why exactly there was such a delay with the game, then it is very simple; it’s your fault. We didn’t think ahead and accidentally gave away all our copies of the game. That, combined with a few distribution problems, put us on a slight delay.

Don’t worry though, we’re not the types to hold a grudge – we just want to get on with the review.

Alt-Eye-Ir

In brief, just in case you missed all of last year’s hype, this the story for Assassin’s Creed. Your name is Desmond and you are a bartender who is kidnapped by a pharmaceutical company that wants to explore your genetic memory using a device called The Animus. They are specifically interested in an ancestor of yours who was an assassin involved in the Third Crusade; a man named Altair.


Who exactly this company is and what they want is all very shrouded in mystery, though you’ll find out more as the game continues. Don’t expect all the answers straight away though – this is the first in a planned trilogy after all.

Regardless of plot-twisting details, the basic premise and gameplay is simple. As Desmond is coerced into exploring his genetic ancestry to locate a specific piece of information for the doctors, the player will switch back and forth between time periods.

On one hand you’ll be Desmond as he tries to find out what the hell is going on and how he can escape. The rest of the time you’ll be the disgraced Altair, trying to work your way back up through the ranks of your guild after a mission gone-awry and unknowingly bringing Desmond closer to the information he needs.

It’s a fairly unique and interesting plot then, in other words. Best of all, though you might be worried that the mixing of the whole sci-fi and medieval stuff might be a little forced, the reality is that the two concurrent plotlines actually work quite well together and make a curious and not entirely unsatisfying blend – though there are a few jarring things that ruin the involvement somewhat. We'll get to them later though.

One might question that the story is diluted somewhat as there are essentially two storylines. That's a fair point – and the fact the futuristic is always trying to override the medieval doesn't help all that much. On the other hand, since the game is part of a planned trilogy (which seems to be the fashion this year, with Mass Effect and Crysis doing the same) it's really hard to tell how much the two plots should lean on each other. Only time will tell.

Of course, at this late stage the story probably isn’t the major drawing point. Jaw-dropping graphics are probably at the forefront of everyone’s minds, so we’ll come back to the new content and gameplay stuff in a little bit.

Right now, it’s graphic analysing time!

DejaVuDog Day

When Assassin’s Creed was first launched on consoles it had a very mixed response. Some people felt the game lived up to the enormous hype around it, while others (including us) were a little disappointed by the repetitiveness and constant breaks from Altair’s narrative.

It seemed you couldn’t go more than a few steps in the game without helixes flashing everywhere and pseudo-science pictograms dancing across the screen while you desperately tried to plunge yourself into the mindset of a medieval assassin. It’s unfortunate that many of these elements remain in the PC version as we would have loved Jade Raymond a lot more if she’d toned down the flashing lights in the PC version.

Thankfully though, there are some things that have been changed since the console version of the game and the developers have at least heard the most cited complaint about the game – repetitiveness. The fact that each mission was structured exactly the same and involved completing the same missions really detracted from the overall freedom the game otherwise presented.

In fact, they’ve done more than just hear the complaints – they’ve gone a way to addressing them too by giving players a few more investigation types. If you’ve not played the original game, then let us explain how assassinations work; first you are given a target, second you investigate the target by running errands and completing tasks. When you’ve got enough intelligence from performing these missions you can then head for the main assassination.

The problem with the original Assassin’s Creed, though, was that the side-missions were pretty repetitive after the first few battles, so for the Director’s Cut the developers have added in some new mission types to help break the back of the boredom.

The result however is a bit mixed. On the one hand, yes, these new mission types do help make the game a little bit different from the console version and do help to alleviate a lot of the tedium. On the flip-side though, none of them are especially inventive and generally just involve running about as you normally would.

For example, the Rooftop Race Challenge mission makes up one of the four new missions available to PC players and, though it sounds fun, in reality it’s little more than a checkpoint race for bored players. Nothing too inspirational there then, and the other three new missions unfortunately follow suit. Assassin Escort in particular is very lament-worthy and is little more than taking an NPC for a stroll. Joy.

Still, it’s hard to be too made at these new investigation types – they do at least help break the monotony a little and give the player some more varied objectives, even if none of them are truly new as you’d probably be doing them all anyway as you sprint through the cities.

Conclusion

Viewed from one angle Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut is honestly a little disappointing. The PC version doesn’t really add anything all that new, doesn’t make the most of the platform and carries over many of the flaws of the original game. The Director’s Cut doesn’t offer any new content except for the new investigations, and these aren’t really all that great.

But the game is still quite good.

The thing we really like about Assassin’s Creed is how good it is for creating player stories. The open sandbox style means that players can make their own tales in a way that makes the game great to talk about.

There was the time I killed the Mad Doctor of Acre by climbing some scaffolding, assassinating an archer, and climbing down in to the courtyard of the hospital. I leapt from a nearby chandelier and plunged a knife into his throat, escaping through alleyways with the aid of some vigilantes and scholars. It’s wonderful and deliciously emergent, going a long way to address complaints of repetitiveness.

In a nutshell, the verdict lies in a balance of these two opposing viewpoints. Is Assassin’s Creed good? Undoubtedly – but the Director’s Cut isn’t a massive improvement over the original. You may well love the new version more than the original, like we do, but the route of that preference won’t be because the game is markedly better on PC. It’ll be because your PC is markedly better than a console.