The face buttons are used for everything from interacting with characters, to combat and sprinting. The L Button is used to quick center the camera, and when held down, in conjunction with the Face buttons will control the game’s camera. Climbing and Running is done by holding down the R Button and moving forward. Gameplay wise, the game feels exactly like the first Assassin’s Creed, even down to the combat and locomotion. In fact, the sparsely populated streets actually help with gameplay, as you don’t have to worry about bumping into countless citizens when fleeing guards. Small gripe, and by no means game breaking. It’s a shame that there are times when you won’t see any human characters anywhere in the vacinity. The only complaint I have about the visuals are that the streets aren’t nearly as populated as the console counterpart, but I never expected them to be able to match such a feat on the PSP. Character animations, in particular for Altair, are especially fluid, and seeing him run and hop across the various zones in the game is just as exciting as it’s big brother. The character models are solid, and environments detailed. Visually, the game is rather fetching, looking very much like Assassin’s Creed shrunk down and simplified.

It won’t win any awards, but it was certainly more than I expected to get from what is essentially a sidestory to the core Assassin’s Creed lore. Outside of that basic premise, the game attempts to bridge the links between the series protagonists, Altair, future boy, Desmond Miles, and newcomer Ezio Auditore di Firenze (that’s even a mouthful to TYPE).ĭespite the simple setup, the game is filled with lots of shady and untrustworthy characters, including a female Templar who is forced to make a shaky alliance with Altair during the quest, and plenty of twists and turns. The game is set on the island of Cyprus, which house the last remnants of the Templars, whom Altair is determined to destroy. The story continues the tale of original game’s protagonist Altair, picking up a few months after those events, but, naturally, long before the events of Assassin’s Creed 2.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised when I fired up the game, and discovered that, yup, it’s Assassin’s Creed, but in mini form. Being a fan of the original Assassin’s Creed, I couldn’t help but wonder how well the franchise would translate to the PSP, especially after the interesting experiment that was the Nintendo DS version. When I heard that Assassin’s Creed was making it’s way to the PSP, I was simultaneously excited and trepedatious. Developer: Ubisoft Montreal/Griptonite Games

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