The setting is 1191 AD. The Third Crusade is tearing the Holy Land apart. You, Altair, intend to stop the hostilities by suppressing both sides of the conflict. You are an Assassin, a warrior shrouded in secrecy and feared for your ruthlessness. Your actions can throw your immediate environment into chaos, and your existence will shape events during this pivotal moment in history. Be an Assassin Master the skills, tactics, and weapons of history's deadliest and most secretive clan of warriors. Plan your attacks, strike without mercy, and fight your way to escape. Realistic and responsive environments-Crowds react to your moves and will either help or hinder you on your quests. Action with a new dimension -- total freedom Eliminate your targets wherever, whenever, and however. Stalk your prey through richly detailed, historically accurate, open-ended environments. Scale buildings, mount horses, blend in with crowds. Do whatever it takes to achieve your objectives.
Features:
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Master the skills, tactics, and weapons of history's deadliest and most secretive clan of warriors
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Stalk your prey through richly detailed, historically accurate, open-ended environments
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Scale buildings, mount horses, blend in with crowds; do whatever it takes to achieve your objectives
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Experience total freedom; plan your attacks, strike without mercy, and fight your way to escape
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Responsive environments; crowds react to your moves and will either help or hinder you
Average Customer Review:
( 13 customer reviews )
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18 of 22 found the following review helpful:
Fails to Live Up to OriginalFeb 16, 2008
By Lisa Shea
"medieval swordfighting enthusiast"
A prequel to Assassin's Creed, "Altair's Chronicles" explores the titular assassin's life before the events detailed in Assassin's creed. It also makes the rather clumsy transition from the PS3 and Xbox 360 to the Nintendo DS.
The story is much more simple in this game than in the original, possibly because if the events of this game were particularly ground-breaking the events of the original would not make as much sense. Altair is attempting to find the Chalice - a powerful artifact said to be able to unite many groups under a single banner - by the order of his superiors. If the Crusaders or Saracens should find it, they would use it to end the Crusades and dominate the holy land. Notably absent is the "modern day" setting present in Assassin's Creed - showing the use of the Animus machine to re-live past events and so on (though the main menu is meant to be the Animus' display).
The gameplay is meant to be similar to Assassin's Creed, but isn't quite as advanced. Altair runs, jumps, and climbs like he does in the original, though with slightly less grace. Attacking has been reduced to attacking, blocking, and countering, with a lot less of the subtlety that made it so fun in Assassin's Creed. The top screen usually displays gameplay, while the bottom screen holds a map showing where all the people in the area are. Certain activities, like interrogation and pickpocketing, have been turned into touch-screen minigames. The former relies on a timed sequence of point-pressing to simulate pressure points, while the latter involves dragging an item through a bag without touching the bag's other contents. Instead of the old system of getting upgrades after completing missions, Altair must now collect "blue orbs" - slightly out of place in the otherwise fairly realistic setting - to upgrade his health and weaponry.
The graphics didn't survive the transition to the DS very well. The attempt at 3d is grainy and blocky, with little of the detail shown in Assassin's Creed. The level design is especially artificial, contrasted with the occasionally improbable but still acceptable cities in the original. In Altair's Chronicles, the buildings seem much less sensibly constructed, with one village containing giant stone arches and pillars that seemed out of place amidst its otherwise low-level construction (of course, you have to follow the path up and across the pillars the continue). As a whole, they seem fairly obviously like an attempt to compress cutting-edge graphics into a portable system (see also the GBA Splinter Cell games). The sound is similarly disappointing, being barely noteworthy in any sense of the word.
As a whole, the game fails to live up to the original Assassin's Creed. Even on its own, it's not a very good game. Despite an attempt to use the dual screen function, it seems more like a gimmick than an actual gameplay point. This game just doesn't have anything that the original did; everything, from story to gameplay to technical things, is eclipsed by the original.
4/10.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Not badJul 08, 2011
By Kyuzosan Truly an amazing game from a production viewpoint. Not many games that were taken this seriously on the NDS. I'm sure it was meant for DS gamers wanting a more "mature" game. If curiosity of whether the DS version is superior to iPod version brought you here, it is a matter of taste. NDS version has rougher graphics, but a physical game pad. The iPod version has much smoother graphics and even voice acting(DS game doesn't), so it has higher production values. However, I preferred the DS game because (opinion) it plays better. Lengthy game for casuals, maybe short for gamers. Fun game, considering it's portable, overall.
6 of 9 found the following review helpful:
A side-scroller with some good elementsFeb 20, 2008
By DM The good: - Side scroller with Prince of Persia / Tomb Raider type of gameplay. Good level design and good graphics.
The bad: - Controls are just horrible. Altair hardly ever does what you want him to do. Jumping from the wall-rope anywhere is an exercise in frustration. - Wasted opportunity. Yes, this is DS, it does not have the graphics power of a console, but still... Is this the best they could do with this license? - Game is very short. Took us around 8 hours, but it can probably be finished even faster.
The ugly: - This game fails the #1 design rule: don't let the player move to a different area if the player did not complete all objectives! There are at least 2 moments in the game, where a big green arrow shows you to move forward, when instead you have to do something else where you are. If you move forward, you will get stuck and have to reload the level. An example of this stupid design decision is Level 10.1, where you have to blow up a column, before you should be moving forward. If you do not do this, you will reach a place with 3 pressure plates. An unsolvable puzzle, if you missed the 'unmarked', no-Green-Arrow objective.
Overall: Buy this only if you must ... I love the XBox 360 Assassin's Creed, but this DS game has nothing to do with that. I would recommend not to buy this game.
Great PrequelJun 26, 2011
By Offworlder If you enjoyed the first AC game and wanted to know more of Altair's backstory then this game is for you. The DS makes good use of its system's strengths and the stylis you have to wonder why it took this long for a game to take advantage of the touch screen.
Altair's Chronicles fleshes out some of Altair's history showing more of his life one year before AC1. This game is one of the better spin off games in a series.
1 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Better than expected.Jun 07, 2008
By C. Goff I got Assassins's Creed when it was on sale for $15 a couple weeks back, so if you can find it for cheap, than it is worth it, but i wouldn't waste $30 on it. After reading all the mediocre reviews, I had pretty low expectations for the game, but it defintely isn't as bad as a lot of people are saying it is.
I, too, have yet to play the console version, so i can't compare, hoeever, you can't really compare a handheld version the console versions, its not really fair. So far, i think it's a solid platformer, and I have yet to run into any of these so called glitches or anything. It's not quite worth 5 stars, but it does deserve a better rating than what it has now. Its probably worth 3.5-4. Heres to hoping Assassins Creed DS 2 is a little less of a platformer and more like the console versions.
based on 13 reviews
( 13 customer reviews )
