Assassin’s Creed was a ‘love it or hate it’ type of game—but it sold like money-filled hotcakes. Success at the sales desk brought plans of a new game to the DS, but instead of a rehash of the original game, we are given a prequel called Altair’s Chronicles which shows you the back-story to the original…which is a great idea in theory.

Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of depth here. For starters, like its console brethren, it’s a single player only game. While the linear play of the game makes it understandable, it’s still disappointing that you can’t attempt to assassinate your friends over wireless play. It’s not a feature rich game either; there’s a combat tutorial but it’s tough to imagine anyone needing a tutorial to press a few buttons. There are three difficulty levels, but it’s not enough to increase replayability.

The storyline is rather interesting: your role is to find a chalice that holds too much power for any one person to have – so you must destroy it. You’ll go on a quest to find out where this chalice is located. Usually you’ll find one person, they’ll give you a clue and then you’ll kill them, then you’ll climb/swing/jump/run around to find the next person, who will then give you another clue and another person you have to kill. Yeah, it’s a little repetitive but it does hold your interest.

You’ll be in heaven if you enjoy jumping or using grappling hooks or doing the tried and true “hit the movable platform at the exact right time or die” challenges. It’s like old school Prince of Persia.

The gameplay is extremely linear; you’ll go where the game tells you to go. It’s nothing like the 360 version in this respect. The “explore” mechanic is missing completely. You can get to a specific rooftop check point in a roundabout way, but there’s no real reason to do it unless you enjoy slashing a few more bad guys. You are also tasked with collecting orbs located throughout the game environments. Once you collect 100, you are able to upgrade your health or sword for more power. Upgrading to the next level requires more orbs. Throughout the game you are given more abilities, but you won’t be using them on a regular basis. The game could have relied on these special abilities a bit more to make a more engaging game.

The most enjoyable part of the game is interrogating a suspect through force – basically you’ll get behind an opponent and have to touch pressure points on his back. The gameplay in this mood is reminiscent of Elite Beat Agents. The actual ‘assassinations’ are not fun – the gameplay consists of getting behind your opponent and pressing A. You would think that a game that is based on assassinating people would provide more entertainment for the actual, you know, killing, but one button press? It’s a shade anti-climatic.

Weird money shot aside, you’ll always be doing something; sometimes you’ll have to solve puzzles by putting boxes on weight bearing platforms, jumping from rooftop to rooftop or grappling between platforms. The actual fighting sequences are lacking because there is no player lock system and when you’re facing three ninjas it’s hard to figure out who you’re attacking. Basically those attacks boil down to a press a combo of “X” and “Y” buttons until the bad guys are eliminated. It is relatively easy to defeat the opponents and even with the ‘boss’ guys, the patterns are obvious.

Graphically the game shines for the DS platform. It looks good and has a wonderful 3D effect even though the framerate isn’t as high as it should be. When the game zooms out to show you more of the environment, your player is reduced to a tiny pixel. The audio is excellent – the music and the attack sounds are very well done. Unfortunately, probably as a result of the limitation of the console, you’re scrolling through a lot of text and there’s no voice acting.

The game is short; you can easily complete it in an afternoon—even if you aren’t a seasoned gamer. Without any other modes or options, the replay value is very short. It has its moments but it’s a tough sell for $30. It’s definitely worth a rental; especially if you have enjoyed the original game as it tells the story of how the characters got to that point, and frustrations and limitations aside, the time spent playing the game is enjoyable – it’s just over way too soon.