Whilst November last year saw Ubisoft moving on from Altaïr's exploits on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, on the PSP players were given the opportunity to learn more of Altaïr's fate after the events of the first Assassin's Creed. Developed by both Ubisoft Montreal and Griptonite Games, Bloodlines sees the first appearance of a control system, and graphics, similar to the next gen consoles on a handheld game from the franchise.

Set a month after the events of the first Assassin's Creed, Altaïr arrives in Cyprus to investigate the goings on of the Templars that appeared to have taken a sudden interest in the island. However, Altaïr is not the only character from the original game present. Maria, the female Templar that Altaïr spared in the first game, is also along for the ride after finding herself in an uncomfortable alliance with Altaïr.

Altair vs Mustache Bell Whip Guy. Who wins?

The game goes far with experimenting with the PSP's graphical capability and ekes out every last drop of what the available controls can accomplish. And it is in the controls where you begin to feel that the developers were asking for far too much from the system. Without a second analogue stick available to do things such as adjust the game camera, Bloodlines relies on the player holding down the L button and then using the Triangle, Circle, X and Square buttons to adjust the level and tilt of the camera. A quick tap of the L button brings the camera back behind Altaïr. However, being able to change the camera on the fly as you force Altaïr to free run across the architecture of ancient cities is something that is not available due to the amount of buttons you would need to press.

Fights see you preoccupied on concentrating on the correct buttons to press in order to dodge, counter, grab or attack your opponent. So you must trust in the game camera to automatically keep itself in a position that facilitates you being able to fully witness what your opponents are doing around you. Often, though, it lets you down and suddenly you find yourself staring at a wall whilst Altaïr battles for his life on the other side. You'll try to quickly reposition the camera as five guards try to slash him to death. The worst instance of architecture blindness, and an example of the game's myriad of glitches, was during Memory Block 5. As the camera readjusted itself to finally reveal the site of the fight, both the guards Altaïr was fighting - and Altaïr himself - disappeared from view, (only their grunts and sword clashes were the sign that a fight was taking place), and slowly the fight's surroundings began to fade into the pale blue beyond.

Look mommy! It's Spider-Man!

If only that were the last of the serious glitches. Memory Block 6 left me with a guard that I could not kill, not even with throwing knives. During part of a main mission, Altaïr was ambushed by a group of guards that he then had to kill. This would have been fine, had it not been for the fact that one of the guards fell off the edge of a nearby building, did not have the decency to die from the fall, and was then outside of the fight area and thus immune to all attacks due to being unreachable. Sure, a quick reload from the last auto-save fixed this, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.