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Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines fills the void between Assassin's Creed I and II. For people who haven't play Assassin's Creed before, Bloodlines will let you have a little taste of what being an Assassin is like. But only a little. Moving on top of rooftops to avoid guards and patrols (who all happened to have their backs facing your target, by the way) to assassinate your victim is about as close as you can to being an assassin in this game. Assassin's Creed Chapter XII: "Choose the right victim -- There, the one who has all his underlings' backs faced to him." Other missions include tailing people and interrogating them, stealing things and swashbuckling with guards and pirates. While I enjoyed the missions and hopping around rooftops and randomly silencing guards in the middle of a busy district, all of that started to get boring when you realize that that's about all you get to do in Bloodlines.

Altair (the protagonist) has three favourite weapons (four if you count bare hands as one): the hidden blade, sword and dagger. Each weapon has their own uses and advantages and the variety of weapons adds a little flavor to the game. You can choose to remain undetected and assassinate everyone from behind with the hidden blade, treat people like dartboards and hurl daggers at them or abandon your identity as an assassin and bash right in like a real man to contest your swordsmanship with all the guards in the area.

If there's one thing in the game that persuaded me to complete the game, it is not the plot. The storyline in Bloodlines is extremely unexciting, so let us not bore ourselves with the lame stuff. Most of us are collectors and like to collect things. And if a game scatters coins throughout its maps and offers upgrades as rewards, you will want to seek out each and every of the coins even if you have to spend half an hour jumping to and fro repetitive white buildings searching for that elusive last Templar coin. As a bonus, the coins can be transferred to Assassin's Creed II for more additional rewards via the connectivity mode in the game. "Coin-collecting" seemed to be my greatest purpose in the game and not completing the stages or beating the bosses or fulfilling my missions. For one, the AIs in the game were easy. And for two, so are the bosses...

Level 99 Mage's Verdict: Spend your gold on a good wand instead.