#rpg?

Release Date: November 13, 2007

Period/Era: Third Crusade, 12th Century - 1191

Summary:

Desmond Miles (the modern-day protagonist in 2012) is kidnapped by Abstergo agents and forced to relive the early years of his ancestor Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, using the Animus. The animus is a machine developed by Abstergo Industries which allows the user to access their ancestor's genetic memory as it is projected into a three dimensional virtual reality output. Desmond learns that Altaïr was member of the Levantine Assassin Brotherhood during the Third Crusade in the middle east. Due to his arrogance, he fails his mission to retrieve an artefact from their enemy, the Templars, breaking the three tenets of the creed:

Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent

Hide in plain sight

Never compromise the Brotherhood

Al Mualim, the mentor of the Levantine Brotherhood, demotes Altaïr back to the rank of 'novice' (lowest rank) and orders him to assassinate nine men in order to work up the rank and regain his position as master assassin.

After each target he eliminates, Altair learns more about how all these men are secretly members of the Templar Order and their mission on retrieving the Apple of Eden, a relic of the first civilisation, before humanity. He finds out that Al Mualim was working with the Templars in doing this, and that he eventually betrayed them as well to keep the Apple for himself. Altaïr confronts his mentor, who uses the Apple to create illusions to battle him. However, Altaïr manages to defeat Al Mualim, and in attempt to destroy the Apple, unlocks a map that reveals the location of other Pieces of Eden around the world.

Desmond then leaves the animus and we're back in the modern day as Abstergo, the Templars, now have what they need and are ready to kill him. However, Lucy Stillman, who is implied to be an assassin mole, convinces them to keep him alive for further testing. Using his 'eagle vision', Desmond discovers strange drawings on the wall foretelling a catastrophic event that will wipe out humanity.

Gameplay:

It's an open-world action adventure game played from a third-person view. What the player is seeing is ultimately what Desmond would be seeing when he's exploring Altaïr's memories. The player can travel by horse freely from different cities like Jerusalem and Damascus, but each need to be loaded in as it is not one big map that connects these cities. Each city has a bureau, a safe house, where the player must go to receive information about their next target. These cities have viewpoints in which the player must climb up to the highest points of the map so that Altaïr can map out his surrounding and also let Desmond synchronise as well.

This missions leading up to the main assassinations are tasks such as eavesdropping, interrogation, meeting with informants and gathering important items. There is a mechanic that shows how noticeable the player is to guards via a Social Status Icon. To perform many assassinations the player must consider the actions that suit their of profile. Low profile uses stealth and is obscure, high profile is more noticeable. These actions can raise an areas awareness until it goes to high alert, at which crowds scatter and guards take chase of the player. The player must then break their line of sight and find a hiding place. If the player can't escape they can fight back using swordplay manoeuvres.

The player's health represents synchronisation between Desmond and Altair. If Altair takes damage it is viewed as a deviation from the actual events and if the health bar depletes you will be reset to the last checkpoint. When synchronisation is full the player may use eagle vision which reveals characters through walls and marks them as allies, enemies, neutral or target of the assassination by the colour of their outline. The player may experience glitches due to the nature of the memories which helps the player identify targets, or can alter the viewpoint during in game scripted scenes.

Is it an RPG and does it work?

No this game is not an RPG. Although you rank up and gain new weapons and gain new skills, this can only be done as you complete the assassinations of nine men. The game only allows you to progress by playing stealthy and a lot of what you can do in the game is only to help progress the main missions, there's not much outside of this.

This works though, the idea is that you're looking through the memories of someone in the past, who's already made their own decisions, have their own skills and backstory, a fleshed out personality, and the player is meant to be observing and taking in the story and their surroundings. The cities are really cool and could've done with a few more side missions because it would be interesting to explore them more and see how the cities affect the people in a more personal level. This is, you could say, set in the early medieval ages, I could see why the aesthetic of this period and it's history makes it tempting to have had this game as an RPG, since many other games are inspired by it too.

It may be repetitive in it's nature but a simple game can be better than a longer and more complex game, because it allows it's sequel to add new elements to improve from the first game and be looked forward to. This is a great start to the franchise, although it may not have aged well mechanics wise, if you can look past that, it has an interesting concept and a really good story. (I'd recommend reading the book if the mechanics of the game are too old for you).

Credit and Sources:

Help from Abraham Jidah - Gameplay Notes