‘Assassin’s Creed’ for Nintendo DS, first impressions.
This morning, courtesy in equal parts to the people of nintendo spain Y Ubisoftwe have been able to attend the exclusive demonstration of the first playable version of this title with the texts in Spanish.
As you know, this new version, titled in the Spanish market simply as ‘Assassin’s Creed’is a prequel to the previous installments, in which we will discover what were the events that made Altair fall from grace before his mentor.
It is clear that, as a game, it cannot compete with desktop games, but will it live up to what is expected of a portable title?
Altair in portable version
The approach of the game is very similar to that of the desktop versions, since it is based on searching for targets and eliminating them. Therefore, all missions lead to finding and killing a specific character. However, along the way we will have to interrogate some characters, or steal objects from others, in order to advance in the adventure.
The development of the game is that of a three-dimensional platform, although with predetermined routes. This means that most of the time we will spend on the roofs of the city (which are the same as the desktop version) collecting orbs (shiny spheres that mark our path) and dodging all kinds of obstacles.
The game could be defined as a portable ‘Prince of Persia’, since it basically consists of chaining one jump after another, with the occasional combat in between.
In this sense, the combats are also very simplified, and compared to the sets with several opponents of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, here, although the enemies surround us, they will attack us one by one on most occasions , as if it were an old kung-fu movie.
Graphics and development
Graphically, the game lives up to what one would expect from the Nintendo handheld, with well-recreated three-dimensional settings and recognizable modeling of characters. The graphic section is, without a doubt, one of the best points of the game.
Unfortunately, the good work in this aspect is undermined by the linearity of the scenarios (very similar to each other and with predetermined paths) and by a lack of framerate that makes the game move more abruptly than desired.
The problem is that the development of the game is quite linear, since there is no possibility of exploring the city freely, but rather that at all times the path to follow is marked by arrows that indicate the predetermined route.
Thus, the only difficulty in the game will be to execute the jumps correctly (some of which are quite complicated) and eliminate the enemies that get in our way.
From time to time, we will have to face a small minigame. On this occasion, control passes to the touch screen and we will have to face different tests.
In the version of the game that we were able to test, one of them consisted of stealing from one of the enemies, for which we had to drag a key out of the bag without touching the rest of the objects contained in it.
The other minigame we could see, the torture one, consists of touching certain points on the body at the right time (in true ‘Elite Beat Agents’ style). In general, these mini-games are not difficult to beat, but they cannot be said to be particularly outstanding.
As for the control of the game itself, which is done entirely with the buttons on the console, it generally does its job. The battles usually consist of hitting the attack button, although there are a series of special movements based on combinations of buttons that we will learn as we advance in the adventure.
Jumps, on the other hand, aren’t as easy to time as you’d like, though Altair’s ability to grab onto and climb different surfaces, which we’ve tried to keep in this game, makes things a lot easier.
conclusion
Those of you who expect to find a reduced version of the desktop version, you are facing the wrong game. Not that this handheld ‘Assassin’s Creed’ is a bad game, but it’s nothing like its big brother.
It is, as I have already said, a platform with parts of fights and some skipped minigames, whose development basically consists of advancing along the set path, making the correct jumps without falling, and reaching our goal.
The game will be on sale in our country from the day April 15.
