I certainly felt engrossed in the Assassin’s Creed universe when I was playing.Īs one of the later-life PSP games from a major western publisher, Bloodlines is a brilliant looking game for the hardware it’s running on that still looks great on Vita – despite a few rough edges. A lack of civilians present on the streets (a hardware limitation) is explained by fear of going out under oppressive Templar rule buildings have that familiar Mediterranean feel and the way the story progresses gives you a good overview of each area you visit.

It isn’t helped that nearly all the side characters and even bosses are poorly fleshed out due to the title’s rapid plot progression.Īt least the world-building is handled better, with the two Cyrpiot islands used feeling like realistic places. You’ll uncover bits and pieces of important information along the way, but overall this isn’t one of the more exciting plots the series has produced. You’ll engage with the local people who have a variety of mundane problems while slowly working towards infiltrating the Templar Order by picking off bosses one by one. The story as a whole is fairly standard fare, though.

While Altair himself is a fairly bland protagonist, he’s much better when paired up with Maria. Initially presented as a prisoner of the Assassins, she slowly grows to trust Altair as their fates are forced together and the way conversations shift from antagonistic joking to more friendly exchanges are fun to watch unfold. Most interesting the relationship between Altair and Maria, an antagonist from the previous game whose life he spares. PSP had its fair share of watered-down titles with no relevance to their console counterparts, but this definitely isn’t one of them. It depicts a logical series of events following the conclusion of Assassin’s Creed and even expands on it in interesting ways – with more revealed about the Templars and their goals, as well as Altair’s personal story. Surprisingly, Bloodlines neither feels like a pointless spinoff nor does it detract from the original game. From here, he assists in freeing the repressed island while continuing to find our more about the mysterious Templars. Following on directly from the end of the first Assassin’s Creed where Altair defeats the Templar leader Robert de Sable, Bloodlines chronicles Altair in his pursuit of the remaining Templars who have fled to Cyprus under the rule of a new leader – Armand Bouchard.

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