Assassin's Creed: Altair's Chronicles

 Review

Common Sense Media says

Less bloody than console but still violent.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

Not yet rated

Kids say

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this game's protagonist is a righteous assassin who kills anyone who gets in his way as he carries out what appears to be a just and important mission. The sword-based combat is bloodless but still quite brutal thanks to the game's impressive 3-D graphics and character animations. You will see your character forcefully plunge a blade into a foe's chest. Plus, you are occasionally instructed to stealthily attack enemies from behind, giving the violence a murderous twinge. The game's events are framed within the context of the Third Crusade, and a basic overview of the conflict that raged between the Crusaders and the Saracens is provided. However, the story stops short of providing a proper history lesson, electing instead to focus on the concocted mythology of the Assassin's Creed universe.

  • Your character is presented as a good guy, but he is also an assassin. The morality is gray at best. One of the minigames has you acting as a pickpocket.
  • You play as an assassin, and in that capacity you'll kill countless enemies with your sword. There is no blood or gore, but the animations can be surprisingly vicious. For example: upon knocking an enemy to the ground, Altaïr often spins and forcefully plunges his blade into his foe's chest. Plus, you are occasionally instructed to stealthily attack enemies from behind, giving the violence a murderous twinge. One of the mini-games is about torture where you interrogate enemies by touching pressure points on a drawing of a human back.
  • Not applicable.

What's it about?

ASSASSIN'S CREED: ALTAIR'S CHRONICLES for the Nintendo DS is a prequel to last fall's Assassin's Creed released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game provides preamble to its forebear's dense and complex story by expanding upon protagonist Altaïr's quest to find and destroy a mystical object called the Chalice. The game itself is vaguely similar to its predecessor in that players once again get to explore beautifully recreated 12th-century Arabian cities by climbing walls, jumping from one rooftop to the next, and regularly getting into frays with local guards. However, while the original allowed players to explore the game world in whatever manner they wanted and complete missions in their own particular style, Altaïr's Chronicles is much more linear, forcing players to follow a set path through each level.


Is it any good?

 

At the start, most players will likely be impressed by the striking 3-D environments and characters, which are easily counted among the best yet created for Nintendo's two-screened handheld. It's a gorgeous game full of detailed buildings and accurately scaled people who move with motion-captured fluidity and grace. Indeed, controlling Altaïr as he moves around city environments is like playing in a giant urban jungle gym -- a video game version of parkour. The problem, as is unfortunately the case in many action/adventure games designed for the DS, is that the system's minute screen is just too tiny for what the developers wanted to do. For starters, we can't really see more than about 10 yards in front of or behind of Altaïr, which means many of our jumps are made with blind faith that there will be a platform for our hero to land on.

Aside from jumping, climbing, and fighting, the only other activities in Altaïr's Chronicles are little mini-games that make use of the DS' touch screen. One sees players interrogating enemies by touching pressure points on a drawing of a human back, while another involves pickpocketing other characters by looking at a close-up of the contents of their bags and using the stylus to drag the desired item through a clutter of objects. Both are somewhat silly and unrealistic but can be surprisingly challenging. Still, they get a little tiresome after the first couple of times you play them.


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What families can talk about

Families can talk about the Crusades, what they were, and how well or poorly the game handles the subject matter. Do you enjoy games that attempt to root themselves in history? Do they make you more interested in learning about history? Did you feel like you learned something while playing this game? What do you think of the notion that an assassin could be someone fighting on the side of justice? Is it possible, or is it just a contradiction?


This review was written by Chad Sapieha
Adult
April 9, 2008
 
Addictive
The game is fantastic. Near the end though they start using d-mn and h-ll frequelently. This game will addict you and you will play 3-6 hours a day.

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Teen, 18 years old
April 9, 2008
 
Not so good for the ds.
If you get Assassin's Creed you should either get it for thee exbox 360 or the ps3 you should not get this game for the nintendo ds.The ds does not have great graphics at all.Anyway its a really intense stealth type game incredible action i loved it. Get this game!

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Teen, 15 years old
January 4, 2009
 
ew
This game is awful for the DS. You'll ask yourself: Why did I even get the DS this sucks.

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Teen, 14 years old
December 7, 2009
 
bad game
assassin creed for ds is a bad game. do not buy this game. the violence is not bad at all. assassin creed for ps3/xbox/pc is way better. overall it is a bad game

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Kid, 13 years old
February 17, 2010
 
good game is hard to beat.
i really like it, but this review is only for the itouch version you are supposed to kill people, but only a little blood is seen. even though you are a good guy, your charachter is a pickpocket, a theif, and an assassain, which mans he is a really bad role model. if you are not sure, let you kids download the lite version.

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Kid, 11 years old
March 6, 2011
 
iPod touch version review
This is just the app. It has some bloody violence.

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Kid, 13 years old
June 12, 2011
 
Ages 10+
A light Teen. The game is not that bad. You cannot kill innocents, your enemies are evil and kill and threaten innocents and women. You fight for the side of justice and help protect a women.

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Parent of 12 and 14 year old
December 10, 2009
 
Not bad (sort of)
This game is not bad, in the sense of violence. The game itself is bad, trying to be a free roaming game on the DS which doesn't work, although I've heard that Assassins Creed II Discovery on DS is good but I have yet to try it

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Kid, 14 years old
November 20, 2011
 
11 and up
sweet game not much violence no gore or blood so i say about 11 and up

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This review was written by Chad Sapieha
Platforms:Nintendo DS
Available online?Not available online
Genre:Action/Adventure
Developer:UbiSoft
Release date:February 5, 2008
Price:$29.99
ESRB rating:T for Violence

This review was written by Chad Sapieha

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About our rating system
ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
Learning ratings
BEST: Really engaging, great learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
FAIR: Somewhat engaging, OK learning approach.
NOT FOR LEARNING: Not recommended for learning.

 

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