I have come to learn why no one in the Assassin’s Creed fandom talks about the handheld games of the series. They are bad… I got Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines from the PSN Store back during one of their AC sales. I believe I got the game for $9.99. I don’t quite remember.
Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines takes place shortly after the first Assassin’s Creed. Altair learns that the remaining Templars have escaped to Cyprus and goes to infiltrated the stronghold in Acre. He doesn’t succeed but he manages to capture Maria Thorpe from the first game. Altair and Maria go to Cyprus and once there, he learns of Armand Bouchart who has taken the role of Grand Master. So naturally in a typical AC game, kill a bunch of Templars and work your way up to killing the Grand Master. Oh, and here’s the love story of Altair and Maria. Have fun.
For a PSP game, I wasn’t expecting anything good. Especially in the graphics and camera movement department. The graphics were not pleasing at all. I couldn’t tell where the eyes were on a NPC and half the time I couldn’t figure out if those were ears or potatoes the sides of Markos’ face.
The camera was awful. It made movement nearly impossible. In a AC game, one wants to have fun climbing building, have fluid movement while running, and be able to see who they are attacking. This was not the case in Bloodlines. I ended up screaming at the game for it’s terrible camera. The PSP was known for having the most awful camera in games. I actually glitched the camera in place in Memory Block 4 while getting the keys to open the Witch’s cell.
The controls were terrible and the combat was bad. In the main series, I never had a problem with the combat (except for AC1 but that was the first game so I give the benefit of the doubt). But this game… Oh this game… I just want to murder enemies. I hardly ever counter in the main series but this game I had to! In games I’m always on the offensive. Here in Bloodlines, having to counter felt like I was on the defensive. It’s not my style.
Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines was a game that didn’t really need to be a game. It could have been a book in the AC book series. I didn’t walk into this game with great hopes so I wasn’t disappointed. I knew that since it was a handheld game it would have many flaws. Overall, there is no need to buy this game. Just save your money and find a walkthrough of it on YouTube.
Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines Score
2/5
