Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut

DejaVuDog Day

When Assassin’s Creed was first launched on consoles it had a very mixed response. Some people felt the game lived up to the enormous hype around it, while others (including us) were a little disappointed by the repetitiveness and constant breaks from Altair’s narrative.

It seemed you couldn’t go more than a few steps in the game without helixes flashing everywhere and pseudo-science pictograms dancing across the screen while you desperately tried to plunge yourself into the mindset of a medieval assassin. It’s unfortunate that many of these elements remain in the PC version as we would have loved Jade Raymond a lot more if she’d toned down the flashing lights in the PC version.

Thankfully though, there are some things that have been changed since the console version of the game and the developers have at least heard the most cited complaint about the game – repetitiveness. The fact that each mission was structured exactly the same and involved completing the same missions really detracted from the overall freedom the game otherwise presented.


In fact, they’ve done more than just hear the complaints – they’ve gone a way to addressing them too by giving players a few more investigation types. If you’ve not played the original game, then let us explain how assassinations work; first you are given a target, second you investigate the target by running errands and completing tasks. When you’ve got enough intelligence from performing these missions you can then head for the main assassination.

The problem with the original Assassin’s Creed, though, was that the side-missions were pretty repetitive after the first few battles, so for the Director’s Cut the developers have added in some new mission types to help break the back of the boredom.

The result however is a bit mixed. On the one hand, yes, these new mission types do help make the game a little bit different from the console version and do help to alleviate a lot of the tedium. On the flip-side though, none of them are especially inventive and generally just involve running about as you normally would.

For example, the Rooftop Race Challenge mission makes up one of the four new missions available to PC players and, though it sounds fun, in reality it’s little more than a checkpoint race for bored players. Nothing too inspirational there then, and the other three new missions unfortunately follow suit. Assassin Escort in particular is very lament-worthy and is little more than taking an NPC for a stroll. Joy.


Still, it’s hard to be too made at these new investigation types – they do at least help break the monotony a little and give the player some more varied objectives, even if none of them are truly new as you’d probably be doing them all anyway as you sprint through the cities.

Conclusion

Viewed from one angle Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut is honestly a little disappointing. The PC version doesn’t really add anything all that new, doesn’t make the most of the platform and carries over many of the flaws of the original game. The Director’s Cut doesn’t offer any new content except for the new investigations, and these aren’t really all that great.

But the game is still quite good.

The thing we really like about Assassin’s Creed is how good it is for creating player stories. The open sandbox style means that players can make their own tales in a way that makes the game great to talk about.

There was the time I killed the Mad Doctor of Acre by climbing some scaffolding, assassinating an archer, and climbing down in to the courtyard of the hospital. I leapt from a nearby chandelier and plunged a knife into his throat, escaping through alleyways with the aid of some vigilantes and scholars. It’s wonderful and deliciously emergent, going a long way to address complaints of repetitiveness.

In a nutshell, the verdict lies in a balance of these two opposing viewpoints. Is Assassin’s Creed good? Undoubtedly – but the Director’s Cut isn’t a massive improvement over the original. You may well love the new version more than the original, like we do, but the route of that preference won’t be because the game is markedly better on PC. It’ll be because your PC is markedly better than a console.