What was the Hype?
Contrary to popular belief, Ubisoft was not selling hottie Producer Jade Raymond to gamers, but actually an ambitious open-world title so awesome it pretended to be a PS3 exclusive. Well, at least until Ubisoft realized it was a wee bit ironic that a game about a badass assassin wouldn't do so hot on a system that wasn't exactly making a killing at retail. Jokes aside, this was the next, natural evolution to the Prince of Persia series, now complete with next-gen graphics, and presumably game design. On the menu, huge, detailed worlds that capture and contain the chaos and clatter of Altair's Middle Eastern habitat.
How did it Fail?
It forgot it was a, uh, game. Yeah, Assassin's Creed sports some slick graphics, but the actual gameplay consists of doing one thing: killing a bunch of old dudes. Sure, you can collect random flags, but it's obvious that Ubisoft spent way too much time building a cool playground without a second thought of what do actually do inside of it. It's a sandbox game, sure, but there aren't any toys in that sandbox. Similar to having 200 channels with nothing to watch on TV, Assassin's Creed offers huge cities with nothing to do in them, kind of like San Francisco. Not that you can't have loads of fun with Assassin's Creed, but beyond the occasional slapfest, mission objectives are boring and repetitive, the mission tips are dumb ("Here is what I can say: you must use cunning. That is all I can say to help you"), and the combat straight-up sucks. Press X to win, basically. If any modern game failed to live up to the savior-like praise it received pre-release, Assassin's Creed is the poster boy. Woe to those who bought this drastically unfinished game.
Turkey Time Moment:
Every mission objective in every city asks you to do the Same Exact Thing: Save citizens, climb towers to reveal more of your map (and find objectives), pick pocket, interrogate, eavesdrop. A recipe of inspired gameplay? No! A recipe for lazy, digital disaster![/b]