The Assembly

 Xbox One
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. TrueAchievements
    Jan 23, 2017
    90
    The way in which its story unravels alongside Caleb and Madeleine's motivations will fascinate you throughout the game and potentially even have you asking what's right and wrong as you progress towards the end.
  2. TheXboxHub
    Feb 4, 2017
    80
    I’ve had a great story experience with The Assembly. It’s got a wonderful central premise that it explores beautifully, with a world that is full of integrity and intrigue. The sections revolving around Dr Stone are the more successful of the two, with brilliant puzzles and superb conundrums. The game finishes way too early, just as it feels like it’s really starting to find its feet, but maybe that’s okay when you take in the price.

User Reviews

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User Score
6.0

Mixed or average reviews- based on 4 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 4
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 4
  3. Negative: 1 out of 4
  1. ericrendeiro
    Mar 9, 2020
    8
    This is an interesting/peculiar game. Drama, plot twist, puzzles seen like a fine combination for the story.
  2. SenorKoquonfaes
    Dec 29, 2019
    6
    It's a first person interactive story that's told through the perspective of two different characters: Caleb Pearson and Madeleine Stone whereIt's a first person interactive story that's told through the perspective of two different characters: Caleb Pearson and Madeleine Stone where you explore the subterranean medical research facility called The Assembly.

    The game's overarching narrative about exploring morals and ethics in medical research is interesting enough and it comes across as a game that we be preamble to larger scale disaster/survival game.

    The game's graphics are kind of hit and miss. There are some objects that have a low, pixelated texture quality, it's very clear they only made like two NPC models and just copy and pasted them throughout the game, only making changes related to skin and eye colour. The NPC all have the lower half of their faces obscured by masks and hair obscured by a balaclava that make them look like Scorpion or Sub Zero rejects from the early Mortal Kombat games. As such, facial animations are borderline non-existent except for blinking. This is in contrast to the lab's environment design being perfectly satisfactory and one particular section where Madeleine and Caleb's stories intersect for the first time. Madeleine is lead into a suspended laboratory above a chasm, a giant monitor on one side with a map of the world displayed and a series of computers on the other. The setup is very "Hollywood" and it really does a nice job of illustrating that The Assembly really is an underground secret medical lab.

    Oddly enough, this is where the game presents it's most interesting puzzle element. Sure, there are others before and after it, but they're almost insulting easy and barely worth mentioning. It's a classic doomsday, viral outbreak scenario where you, as Madeleine, need to parse out resources in order to keep loss of life below acceptable limits. It's the most though-provoking puzzle of the game and it's underlying message is all too real. This culminates into the game's peak for me and it's most memorable moment in my play through of this game.

    The voice acting is also kind of hit and miss. Madeleine's voice acting is perfectly fine in terms of conveying emotion and temperament, whereas Caleb's is a bit more monotonous. By in large, it works well, but there are some scenes where Caleb's voice needed to emit more emotions.

    Between the two stories, Madeleine's story is the stronger of the two. Her's features more traditional gameplay elements, an exploration of her backstory and better voice acting. Caleb's is more akin to wandering around rooms, opening draws and cabinets and then finding an object to progress the plot.

    The game apparently has four different endings and at a play time of roughly 2-3 hours, you can burn through the game pretty quickly.

    Overall, The Assembly is a half-decent pickup on sale but otherwise it's kind of lacking in both it's puzzle elements and story.    … Full Review »
  3. Broyax
    Mar 9, 2018
    8
    Un étonnant jeu d'aventure audacieux et inventif dans lequel nous incarnons tour à tour deux personnages : l'un est une candidate désirantUn étonnant jeu d'aventure audacieux et inventif dans lequel nous incarnons tour à tour deux personnages : l'un est une candidate désirant intégrer cette sorte d'entreprise secrète, l'autre est un employé de longue date qui découvre quelque chose de pourri dans ce royaume souterrain de la science sans conscience...

    Il y a clairement un petit côté "La Firme" dans ce centre de recherches en marge du monde extérieur au sein duquel les meilleurs talents du monde travaillent d'arrache-pied pour relever les plus grands défis de la médecine et de la biologie... Aussi bien avec Caleb qui remonte le fil de quelque projet pas très catholique, qu'avec Madeleine qui subit toute une batterie d'étranges évaluations et de tests, les questions se posent et la paranoïa s'installe.

    Parmi ces questions, la place de l'éthique y est centrale : le jeu est à cet égard remarquablement bien écrit et nous fait prendre conscience de la difficulté de la recherche en général, oscillant entre le pragmatisme forcené et la morale des expériences cliniques.

    The Assembly était un jeu de réalité gerbuelle à l'origine et cela se ressent dans son interface à grosses polices et icônes : il a même gardé le principe du déplacement par "clignement" (déplacement très optionnel ici puisqu'on se contente... de marcher en tant que jeu normal) : le clignement n'est qu'une petite téléportation afin de diminuer les effets de gerbe des débiles avec un casque sur la tête.

    Réalisé avec l'Unreal Engine 4, on pouvait craindre le pire, car l'on sait que le moteur distribué gratuitement ou presque par Epic est à la fois gourmand et pas très performant sur les consoles entre les mains de **** développeurs inexpérimentés et/ou avec de **** moyens. Or, nDreams a plutôt tiré les marrons du feu finalement, puisque si l'aliasing est présent, si les textures sont souvent nazes, leur jeu tourne à 60 im/s constantes. Et leur patte artistique très agréable fait le reste.

    Comme dans tout jeu d'aventure, on a quelques casse-têtes mais rien de casse-bonbon, bien au contraire ; ça parle beaucoup mais tout ici est doublé en français, un très bon doublage digne des meilleurs jeux triple A. La musique est tout aussi soignée d'ailleurs.

    Les points de sauvegarde sont un peu trop espacés et les temps de chargement quelque peu longuets (Unreal 4...) alors que globalement le jeu est indéniablement court !... mais d'une belle densité. Un jeu indé donc mais un jeu intelligent avant tout, souvent surprenant.    … Full Review »
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