Assassin’s Creed: Altaïr’s Chronicles (DS) Review
Usually after a new franchise is established by a powerhouse developer, we are automatically acquainted to a prequel of said franchise, designed to reveal early wheelings and dealings of the characters featured. When Ubisoft released Assassin’s Creed last year to mixed reviews, several critics felt that some more back-story with the characters could’ve been implemented. With Assassin’s Creed: Altar’s Chronicles, developed exclusively for the Nintendo DS by external developer Gameloft, gamers are able to take a peek into what Altar’s life was like before the events of the original game. Does it do a good job? It’s hard to say.
Just like the original game, Asssassin’s Creed: Altar’s Chronicles puts players in the role of a more amateur Altar, who is still an assassin, though is only just getting started in the industry. Although Chronicles doesn’t do a lot to explain how Altar became an assassin, like originally promised, it does shed enough light on the previous events of the character himself. That being said, the events that occur in Chronicles don’t really have too much heavy bearing on the main storyline and aren’t essential nor worth checking out. The whole technological element of the original game has also been thrown out of the window – you are playing the game in Altar’s time period and NOT accessing someone else’s memories, as in the previous game, though this theme has been retained for the games GUI. With almost no likeable characters and a complete lack of voice acting and diversity, Altar’s Chronicles is somewhat of a letdown in terms of storyline and character development – the main components a prequel should explore.
The main problem with Altar’s Chronicles is that it simply doesn’t push the target hardware to its maximum potential, and since it’s (supposedly) designed for the system, it simply doesn’t feel like a DS game. The graphics in Altar’s Chronicles are bearable at best. Many who play the game will notice they run in an abysmal and choppy 30fps while also looking like a first generation Nintendo 64 game. The game allows you to travel to the original three cities that featured in the original game, though unfortunately there simply aren’t any defining features about them, and they all feel the same. On top of this, two extra cities are included though they look almost exactly the same as the previous three. Essentially, the game recycles several assets and feels like a game you’d play on your mobile phone, rather than your DS. This could easily be attributed to the developer’s primary platform being mobile phones, but when a game is developed for a system exclusively it should feel like it.
Altar’s Chronicles is a game that doesn’t really offer a lot in terms of gameplay. Gameplay takes the form of standard platforming segments interspersed with several touchscreen mini game puzzles. The typical platforming segments involve Altar running from left to right, jumping over several obstacles, until he reaches his target. Once Altar reaches his target, the assassination takes place and the remainder of the gameplay involves running away from the guards alerted via the assassination. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, although it sounds boring, actually playing through the game is boring. The developers also tried to implement some form of levelling system, in which the power of Altar’s sword and maximum health can be upgraded through the collection of orbs, though this really adds nothing new or ground-breaking to the game. Combat simply boils down to the mashing of any of the face buttons. There’s no depth to the combat system either, with Altar coming out on top regardless of the enemy you are facing. On top of that, several weapons not seen in the original game also feature, including smoke bombs, explosive bombs and the crossbow, an item not seen in the final release of the original game but initially included. Finally, the game doesn’t offer the same amount of free-running freedom featured in the previous game in the series, making it somewhat of a bland and uninteresting addition, essentially showing that a freedom based game does not translate well to a glorified arcade style side scroller, as travelling between cities has been removed and replaced with a simple loading screen which automatically teleports Altar to wherever he has to go to next. The game is extremely linear – and that’s precisely the problem.
As for the implementation of the DS’s functionality, Altar’s Chronicles does it’s best to cram as much in. The first obvious use of the system’s advantages is the second screen, which acts as a map for Altar, showing the locations of not only Altar’s target but also guards and citizens. Use of this map is somewhat pointless though; as the markers used to locate NPCs are so large and imprecise that it’s more of a “general” map than a proper one. Secondly, when Altar must pickpocket an enemy, the touch screen is used. Firstly, the player must scratch the screen in order to illuminate the victim’s purse. After doing so, they must drag out the key in an operation-style mini game without touching anything else in the player’s purse. Finally, the touch screen also becomes useful in interrogating citizens. Interrogation involves applying pressure to specific points on the victim’s body at specific intervals of time. The best comparison to make to these types of mini-games is that they are similar to Elite Beat Agents in mechanics – you press the pressure point when a closing circle hits it. All in all, the touch screen implementation is a nice effect and nothing too intruding on the gameplay.
Besides the whole experience itself, Altar’s Chronicles doesn’t provide a very diverse soundtrack. Although the quality of the audio included is of excellent direction, there are only about three to four unique pieces that play during the game. The first is the title screen music, the second is the “calm” music, the third is the “battle” music and the final one is the chime that plays whenever the player accomplishes something. As mentioned before in this review, the recycled materials coupled with the bland gameplay and graphical design make it feel more akin to a mobile phone game than a fully-fledged DS one.
Gameloft have done their best with the system they worked on. Altar’s Chronicles is a below average platformer that attempts to amalgamate everything that made the original game good, yet give it a portable spin. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work as well as it sounds on paper and as a result the end product suffered. It’s hard to recommend Assassin’s Creed: Altar’s Chronicles to anyone, unless you really consider yourself a diehard fan of the storyline, which, by the way, doesn’t do anything to explain the cryptic ending of the original game. Let down? I sure was.
