(Review archived from November 18, 2014)
After completing Assassin’s Creed II, I went back in for 100% completion on all the collectibles. The trouble is that while I still wasn’t quite ready to leave the world of Assassin’s Creed behind, I also wasn’t ready to dive into a full length AC adventure yet either. So I picked up Assassins’s Creed: Bloodlines as a way of taking on a somewhat more manageable pint-sized adventure set in the AC universe. Better yet this one returns to the middle east (specifically the island of Cyprus) where you step back into the role of seminal assassin Altair. So the big question then, is how does Assassin’s Creed survive the transition to PSP? Well … Ok … I guess. I honestly think this game suffers a bit from unfair expectations. I mean, of course it’s not going to match the lofty heights of it’s console brethren in terms of grandeur and scale despite having the AC moniker. The trouble is that, well … it feels like you’re just sort of going through the motions of playing an AC game; that the developers kind of just went down a checklist of what should constitute an Assassin’s Creed game, “Interesting historical locale? Check. Assassinate and chase missions? Check. Climbing and free running? Check. Side Missions and collectibles? Check.” I mean all the elements are there, it just doesn’t feel inspired. Further it lacks a lot of the historical immersion seen in the console games. The difficult part about all of this is that it’s a perfectly fine PSP game (despite some bugginess and control issues), it’s just not a great Assassin’s Creed game. Despite lacking a bit of pizzazz, I actually did enjoy playing this, and it does fill in an interesting gap in Altair’s story that’s referenced directly in ACII. I also need to make special mention of the voice work done for Altair which I actually enjoyed here more than in the first Assassin’s Creed game (here he has a bit more personality). So if you’re looking to fill in some missing pieces of lore in the AC universe this is a fun little romp, or if you’re looking for a decent historical action title on the PSP this game certainly has it’s moments, but if you’re looking for a ‘triple-A’ Assassin’s Creed experience, you’re probably better off sticking with the Console titles.
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