Finally playing 'Assassin's Creed'

Finally finally finally after looking at the game sitting on my shelf for nearly three months, the last few nights I've started playing "Assassin's Creed."

It's not that I didn't want to play it — because I was really anticipating its release for months — but the combination of a lack of free time and some poor reviews really killed my will to clear time for it.

And, since I have yet to weigh in on this game officially, I figured I would give my impressions for those of you still yet to pick it up.

Unfortunately, though, this is not one of those cases where the reviewers exaggerated the problems in a game. The wrap I read on "Assassin's Creed" was that it gets repetitive. There are nine official missions (plus a shorter training mission), and so far they do all seem exactly the same.

You enter an enormous chunk of a city and climb a tower to get a bird's eye view of what's going on. Your surveillance will then reveal other towers to climb for additional views of the city. With each tower you climb, you see more of what's going on, like citizens that need saving (and will help you in return). Your surveillance also reveals places where you can get information on your mark, like people to eavesdrop on, people to pickpocket, people to roughup, or people that may serve as informants.

Personally, I don't see how you can tell all this just by climbing a really big tower, but I'll believe it for the sake of the game.

Now, as I said, the wrap on this game was just how repetitive it is. Every time you save a citizen, it's roughly the same number of thugs attacking, and in the same formation. So after you've learned it's easiest to sneak up on a rough and kill one of the thugs early with a concealed blade, everything is easy. Every time you pickpocket, it's the same sort of pattern. Every time you need to rough someone up, they turn down the same type of dark alleys. And every time you eavesdrop, you always just sit down on a bench.

And on my fourth time eavesdropping from a bench, I thought to myself, why do I have to be on a bench? Why can't I perch on a roof and listen in? Or why can't I turn my back to the conversation and look at a merchant's shop, while listening to the conversation behind me? Why do I have no freedom of how I personally prefer to eavesdrop?

That's the true problem with this game. There's no Grand Theft Auto-esque freedom. Every time you execute a task, you have to do it the same way. The game's nine missions would not have such a been there-done that feel to it if you could do it your own way. There are plenty of ways to rough up a scumbag. There are plenty of places to listen in. But not in this game.

And it's a shame, really, because I am loving the freedom of movement in this game on rooftops and walls, as well as the stunning visuals. I am really loving walking around a town and just plugging guards in the back left and right with my concealed blade.

But despite all I'm loving, I sincerely doubt I'm going to bother making it to the end of this game. I think this is the first RPG-type game I've ever played that I know I probably won't care about finishing it. And that's the sign of a failure game.