Just yesterday, Ubisoft released the newest installment to the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Before you get too excited, however, I should also say that it is a mobile game. Assassin’s Creed Memories is a virtual card game for iOS that uses the AC universe as a basis for its aesthetic and gameplay. However, even if you own an iPhone or an iPad, is it worth another trip into the Animus?
Assassin’s Creed Memories is, first and foremost, a card collecting game. You are given your own assassin at the start and need to outfit him (no female option as of yet) with weapons, armor, and allies; all of which come in the form of virtual cards. You acquire new cards through going on Missions to attain animus fragments or sending allies on Contracts. The latter is the typical “come back x-hours later and get something” that you would expect from a mobile game; however the former is where you will be spending most of your time.
The Missions take you back to key events within the franchise, following the stories of Altair, Ezio, Connor, and Edward; in addition there is also promise of more Assassins and time periods to be released. For the most part, Missions are time sponges. You are given 10 energy points to use by tapping different locations on an overhead map, each tap costing one energy and awarding either some form of in-game resource (such as gold, animus fragments, or ability points) or a set of objectives to pursue. Objectives are ranked based on their difficulty with a success percentage. The lower the percentage, the greater the risk and reward (gold and experience). As could be expected from such a game, there is a way to give all objectives 100% success through using power-ups called “Hacks”. These cost real money and last for about five minutes. After getting through the initial easy-leveling section of the game, missions can typically take about two hours or so to complete thanks to the 30 minutes require for a full energy bar. At the end of each mission, you are given the chance to assassinate a target. This minigame essentially amounts to button mashing as you tap the screen as quickly as you can to reach your target and dispatch them. Success usually means adding the target to your “allies” roster, however I have found times where this isn’t the case.
The main meat of the game is the “Guild vs Guild” (GvG) battle system. Upon creating your character, you will be required to create and name your own guild; however, if leading a guild is not your interest, you can abandoned the one you have created at any time to join another. While this leaves the player with more freedom on how they play the game, I found it a bit awkward as it doesn’t explain joining another guild will remove you from your old one. The actual GvG gameplay is, by far, the highpoint of the game. Upon joining a session, you are randomly set against another guild to do battle. You are given a set of common skills which everyone can use, specific masteries that you foster over time, and ally skills which are granted based on the ally cards you have accumulated. What you are allowed to do is contingent on your Ability Points (AP) which must be replenished outside of battle. This makes gaining members for your guild an absolute must, but also makes GvG feel more like a cooperative effort and therefore more fun. There is a finite amount of times during the day in which you can participate, which makes coordinating with your guild-mates easier and lets you pick your battles. My only gripe about it is, at-present, the competition is a complete grab-bag.
The presentation of the game is good. There isn’t much in the way of moving pictures, but the visuals that are there have the same grade of polish that I’ve seen in the companion app for Assassin’s Creed 4. The card artwork is very cool and the visuals used for the missions is very reminiscent of concept art for the main series. My only hang-up is that the cards have a picture, stats and not much else. Coming from a franchise like Assassin’s Creed, you would think some historical facts or short biographies would be included, but sadly they are not.
Ultimately Assassin’s Creed Memories is decent. The GvG is fun and interacting with guildmates adds a bit of a social networking vibe to it. However, the Missions are little more than busy work and tend to repeat more often than they need to. I am happy to say that the game doesn’t hit a huge pay-wall or anything of the like. Any cards that you can get from using real money are still attainable through animus fragments (albeit with less favorable chances) and all the rest of the purchasable content is either unnecessary or can be gained with a bit more time commitment. All-in-all, I give Assassin’s Creed Memories a passing 7/10. It’s a good time waster and a definite must-try for anyone who loves Assassin’s Creed.
