Best-seller of the holiday season in 2007 for Playstation 3 as Xbox 360, Assassin's Creed has not sunk in hemoglobin to the rhythm of his hero missions. It has also been much discussed. Thus, between the players completely excited about the last title of Ubisoft's Montreal studios and detractors debate was lively. Today, Altair is therefore on the scene for a gaming PC adaptation Ubisoft has subtitled Director's Cut. The French publisher did find that this "technical" to attract shoppers or is it truly compensate the weeks / months delayed version yet announced along with its counterparts?


The killer shouts and the caravan passes ...

Probably a little lazy, but also out of respect for the work done by my colleague Jean-Marc, I will not repeat all the elements it has already moved ahead with its test of Assassin's Creed on next gen console last November. We therefore refer primarily to a very good article and invite you to come back here this procedure ... Now you know all of Assassin's Creed? You know that we control a murderer too presumptuous time of the Third Crusade? You know that he was demoted to the rank of mere novice and should make more or less proven by performing a mission just for the master of its own? We can move forward.

On the PC, no real surprise: the game is very close to the console version with an interface very similar in appearance, even if manageable keyboard in addition to the joypad, and a realization almost identical. On this last point, it is important to clarify that the game is not as heavy as we could fear. It will of course count on a powerful, but not the monster envisaged. Thus, we played a very acceptable 1280x1024 with a simple "dual-heart 3 GHz and a 7800GT However, no mystery to go higher in resolution, maintain a maximum level of detail and even attempt the antialiasing options, we must seek bigger: Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz and 8800GT seem indispensable.


In any event, Assassin's Creed is not an optimization model, but while the problems of Ubisoft on the matter were particularly troublesome one year ago, the evolution of the PC market today makes things a slightly less dramatic. But let us get to the game itself which, in the same mechanisms consoles. Therefore, the owners will almost joypad feel to play on Xbox 360, while fans of the couple keyboard / mouse will be pleasantly surprised with the result. In both cases the other, Altaïr is always assigned a mission that will carry through a (fast) investigation. Here are three methods: espionage, informants and sometimes aggressive questioning.

These methods, though somewhat repetitive over time, will be applied with great freedom and reality because this is one of the highlights of the game, Altaïr is dropped in the cities of the actual game without tags. Of course, it has very specific tools to guide him through Jerusalem and Damascus in particular, but its tasks, it executes a little as he wishes. It must first identify its target and, as appropriate, to choose between a posture "passive" or "active". The first group consisted of attitudes to slip into the crowd without arousing the attention of the guards, or even to hide in the middle of religious cassock. Postures level "active" here is the big show.


Altair is a real acrobat and it is with the "active" that we will all realize that to guarantee the enjoyment of the player, Ubisoft has managed to ensure that orders are very simple ... almost too much in fact. Thus, in most cases, a "beast" pressure on the right mouse button will be enough to see Altaïr run in all directions, reaching the highest ridges, play the tightrope, and everything you need to escape guards which have tended to get lost too quickly, again it is a flat that we, as a title also focused on the realism of the situations, the opposing troops were not sighted.


Note in this regard a small advantage to play on the PC because the mouse can play much faster with cameras and guide for more details. This is not essential, but provides little comfort, comfort that we lost but with the keyboard, directly accessible buttons on a joypad ... Tie, therefore the center ball! The PC version is also distinguished by the appearance of four new types of missions (running on rooftops, archers killings, destruction and escort mode display). If these actions are quite nice, they run very fast and the gadget does not ultimately change much in the adventure that follows fortunately we always enjoy.

Play pickpockets, beating a type somewhat stubborn, cross swords with the guards, performing a variety of targets are limited to actions that will need to achieve its goals and find the names on our list valuable. We do not deflowered scenario, but let's just say they reserve some surprises rather welcome, although still very good ... We are in a video game after all, and not in a film by David Mamet! Infiltration, murder, use of the environment as well as the capabilities of Altaïr give the game a special dimension that allows us to compare it to a kind of Splinter Of Persia ... A blend very well studied that it eats without restraint and so has nothing to be ashamed of its passage on a PC.


Conclusion

In good player PC, I have had some doubts about the excitement that surrounded the release of Assassin's Creed on the consoles. As a result, I vowed to take the necessary before testing the PC version of the title of Ubisoft Montreal and I wanted to omit any of the defects that could bring down the brave Altaïr. We must talk about issues such as artificial intelligence difficult to avoid in a game as ambitious, but very real. Nor should we forget the concept itself, which remains a model of repetition and the relative lack of openness to a world that we would have liked to have more interest to visit. Also criticize the "contributions" of the PC version, which are more of a gadget than anything else ... But now, even having done a tour as exhaustive as possible to its negative points, the beast is a frank success. The splendid achievement is not only there to grandstanding, it supports the full immersion in this remarkable world record. More than the freedom of action (finally limited) is freedom of movement and the attitudes of natural Altaïr to impress and allow you to completely take the game to the point of losing any time reference ... What? It is already 4 am! The characteristic of large sum games.