Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines Review

I'm not 100% sure why I played this game. I do have some nostalgia for it since I recall playing it on PSP around the time of it's release, I recall not liking it at the time, but since I'm been on the Assassin's Creed binge and I felt somewhat nostalgic for it, I decided to play and finish it this time.

As a whole, I consider the game to be quite mediocre all though that just sums the franchise as a whole, however what prevents this game from being completely insufferable is the short length and how quickly everything moved by. If it weren't for this I would be much harsher.

Some good things about the game and this is going to sound weird since it's a PSP spinoff game based on a console franchise and a 3rd party one at that, are the controls. Surprisingly, the controls are not terrible and they felt reliable. I didn't even have to go into the PPSPP emulator settings to implement pseudo right stick controls. The vanilla controls I had an easy time getting used to. Whenever the game did feel awkward it was more due to the unpolished nature of the game or usual issues with the AC franchise than because of the default button mappings.

The camera as a whole did an okay enough job that I didn't need to actively turn the camera.

Music from AC1 is back and while it is lazy that they are just resuing the OST from that game, if I have to choose between possibly getting a forgettable original score or AC1's well made soundtrack, I choose the latter.

The "open world" is quick and easy to get around in and getting to mission objectives doesn't take that long. In fact it's almost like Thief Deadly Shadows' hub world minus the faction system rather than a traditional AC open world. Guards even get alerted when you enter the next zone if you are spotted in a previous one much like that game.

I do like how the game attempts to be a hybrid of AC1 and 2's mission structure where each memory block is an investigation but you do the missions in the latter game, it's an interesting concept.

The more linear missions leading up towards the assassination targets is quite nice since they feel like a journey of you slowly leading up towards the kill. They almost feel like Prince of Persia Sands of Time Trilogy levels on how there are establishing shots of the camera slowly showing where you are supposed to go before the guanlet starts. It's let down by the mechanics but more on that later.

This is where I get more negative, there is a lot of unpolish. I don't know how much of this is the emulation or the game itself but the climbing animations sometimes won't register, Altair will randomly stand for no reason when trying to mantle up the edge of a tall structure, there are invisible walls on objects close to him where he can't even touch them and how there are times where the near fall animation will activate when close to a platform and I want to jump but instead Altair will climb down when I didn't want him to.

The story isn't terrible but feels like a prolonged first episode of a 2nd season of the TV show where the plot doesn't truly pick up or get interesting towards the end. Maria has more character development and has more to do in the plot than Altair does. The part where Altair uses the Apple of Eden gets no build up at all. His philosophical monolgoues at the start of each chapter are interesting to listen to. The villains are mostly forgettable and never do enough to challenge or get in Altair's way to standout especially by comparison to AC1.

Biggest issues with the gameplay is with the series as a whole, sword fights are too easy since countering is the easiest solution out of everything and it's easier to wait for the enemies to attack and then counter them rather than you going on the offensive since you could get attacked from behind and lose health.

Bosses outside of The Bull and Bouchart are dull and can be beaten by blocking or countering. Bouchart can come a little out of nowhere since you can't damage him by countering and you need to dodge his strikes as well as his flame projectile later on. This might be the only part of the game where I had to sort of try.

Stealth isn't very good and despite many calling the franchise a "stealth series". You have no crouch button, no cover system, and no distractions or being able to bring enemies over to you. Trying to kill enemies up close is hoping their backs are turned or kill them from the front before the AI of nearby guards are alerted. This is AC before Unity after all.

You get caught? Well just get into the combat and start counter killing to your hearts' content, there is no consequences for being spotted unless if the game doesn't allow you to get caught for the mission much the console AC games.

There is unskippable cutscenes which is never good especially on repeated failures but that was during the occasional mandatory stealth.

Overall, parts of AC Bloodlines is impressive for a PSP game but is held back by unpolish and series flaws.