Assassin's Creed

Jerusalem, 1191 AD - The Third Crusade is tearing the Holy Land apart. You are an elite Assassin sent to stop the hostilities by suppressing the powers on both the Crusader and Saracen sides. But as you carry out your missions, a conspiracy begins to unfold. You find yourself tangled up in a conflict that threatens not only the Holy Land, but the entire world. Experience the power of a feared Assassin. Your actions can throw your immediate environment into chaos, and your existence will shape the events of this pivotal moment in history. ESRB Rated M for Mature

Assassin’s Creed is the next-gen game developed by Ubisoft Montreal that will redefine the action genre. While other games claim to be next-gen with impressive graphics and physics, Assassin’s Creed merges technology, game design, theme, and emotions into a world where you instigate chaos and become a vulnerable, yet powerful, agent of change. The setting is 1191 AD. The Third Crusade is tearing the Holy Land apart. You, Altair, intend to stop the hostilities by suppressing both sides of the conflict. You are an Assassin, a warrior shrouded in secrecy and feared for your ruthlessness. Your actions can throw your immediate environment into chaos, and your existence will shape events during this pivotal moment in history. Key Features Be an Assassin: Master the skills, tactics, and weapons of history’s deadliest and most secretive clan of warriors. Plan your attacks, strike without mercy, and fight your way to escape. Realistic and responsive environments: Crowds react to your moves and will either help or hinder you on your quests. Action with a new dimension - total freedom: Eliminate your targets wherever, whenever, and however. Stalk your prey through richly detailed, historically accurate, open-ended environments. Scale buildings, mount horses, blend in with crowds. Do whatever it takes to achieve your objectives. Relive the epic times of the Crusades: Assassin’s Creed immerses you in the realistic and historical Holy Land of the 12th century, featuring life-like graphics, ambience, and the subtle, yet detailed nuances of a living world. Intense action rooted in reality: Experience heavy action blended with fluid and precise animations. Use a wide range of medieval weapons, and face your enemies in realistic swordfight duels. Next-gen gameplay: The proprietary engine developed from the ground up for the next-gen console allows organic game design featuring open gameplay, intuitive control scheme, realistic interaction with environment, and a fluid, yet sharp, combat mechanic.

The first time you play this game you are going to love the immersion, the cities are full of life, and the main character has great attitude, but there are several problems that hurt the expirience 1) the AI is really dumb 2) technical issues like clipping and pop-ins 3) every mission is the same 4) investigations do not affect the outcome of your goals 5) zero replay value Conclusion == Rent it.

Realy a great game The graphics are almost perfect & the story is so great Will give it 5 stars

I just purchased this game a few days ago (finally got that PS3 for Christmas) and thought I would do a review of my own. Many people here have been concentrating on all the cons this game has, or just saying that it's awesome. Here's what I have seen so far. Also, this is going to be a long review. Bear with me, but I hope that it is informative and not boring or useless. *May contain spoilers, depending on how much you know about the game* Pros: 1) The cities are huge and beautifully detailed. Walking around looking and listening is very fun (at least for a while, I admit it does get a little old). There are some interesting characters to interact with (I've started punching the beggar women and the drunks who have shoved me into the water at Acre's port too many times for me not to retaliate). You can climb virtually any building, too, and near the end of the game, all areas are open to you. 2) The music is great. Each city has its own signature song, but it isn't long and overly played. The instruments and melodies used are also what you would expect for a game set in the Middle East, but there are also times when you will experience a full Latin chorus. The song for Damascus reminded me of The Mummy, and Masyaf's signature song is just great. 3) Maybe it's just because I like horses, but riding through the Kingdom on my way to the quests was a lot of fun. Altair is as good on a horse as he is on his feet. 4) Sidequests: There are hundreds of flags to find (100 in each of the following three cities) in Damascus, Jerusalem, and the Kingdom, as well as a significant amount in Acre and Masyaf (63 [?] for Acre and 20 for Masyaf). And don't forget about those Templar Knights. There are 60 to find; I've only managed to take care of 22 so far, and I'm at a high enough level where I feel confident to actually go searching for them. They can be difficult enemies, too, especially in the beginning stages of the game. 5) The fighting. Oh, the fight sequences are so much fun. I've started provoking guards just to practice my moves. It's so realistic, and I think the game gives the player so much control over Altair and what he does. You have to be quick, too, in order to react, and you have to know which move to perform, as well as getting the right timing. Mashing buttons isn't going to work with this game; in fact, it can get you killed. Altair is an extremely good fighter. He is skilled and proficient, as the mini cutscenes show when he performs a counter attack or combo kill. These are fun and awe-inspiring to watch if you're a nerd like me...make sure to try out counters and combos with all weapons to see Altair's different moves. (Also pay attention to the guards' faces and what they say when/after he performs them, too.) His weapons are what you would expect for a 12th century fighter, too. He has a sword; a short, curved blade he keeps on his back; five or ten throwing knives, depending on your level (EDIT: I was just upgraded to 15 knives); his fists; and, of course, that really awesome blade in place of his ring finger that is retractable and is used for stealth kills. (FYI, the throwing knives are also good for stealth kills, and almost preferable, in my opinion.) He doesn't have med packs that save his health, and he doesn't have unlimited ammo for the knives. Adds a little difficulty to the game. Along those same lines, the way the game handles "death" is innovative and interesting. Desmond is a character who is Altair's descendant; he is experiencing Altair's story as a "genetic memory". The sheer fact that Altair is his ancestor means that Altair could not have died during the time the game takes place (unless he had some kids beforehand). So each hit Altair takes is seen as a deviation from the actual memory of what happened, and when the memory is too far deviated, the memory is lost and must begin again. Pretty cool. 6) The freedom the player has. You pretty much get to choose what order you want to complete assassinations in. You decide if you want to use stealth and the roofs to sneak up on your target, or if you want to go in for a full-frontal assault. If you want to go straight back to Masyaf after completing an assassination, the game gives you that option, but you can also say "No" and take a horse ride through the Kingdom instead. If you want to go find some flags or Templars before completing a side-quest, knock yourself out. The game doesn't force you to do anything. Cons: 1) Repetitive. This is something that I'm sure everyone who has played this game has noticed. In each city, there are tall buildings called "view points" that Altair must climb, and from there he is able to pinpoint some necessary sidequests. Saving civilians from guards is a lot of fun. Not only does it give you a reason to fight some guards, but your reward is either a group of men who will literally restrain guards who chase you, or a group of scholars you can blend with. You can also interrogate (follow someone into a secluded area, beat him for information, and then kill him), eavesdrop, and pickpocket letters and maps from people. Assassination missions never change, either. You have your target, you find him and kill him, and return to the bureau. It is never changed with time of day, weather, or anything. As much fun as it is to carry out these missions, they do get old after a while. 2) The guards. Altair is supposed to be this crazy awesome skilled assassin. He can climb up buildings, run easily over rooftops, dodge through big crowds...so it was really disappointing (and shocking) when I was chased for the first time and realized that the guards were keeping up with me and could catch up if I made even the smallest mistake. Also, the AI of the guards can be obnoxious at times. Even when they're in yellow mode (I believe this is called "Suspicious"), they won't react if you climb a building right in front of them, even though they are supposed to be on the lookout for an assassin (especially true during the later missions where the assassination targets are well aware they are being hunted). If they did react, it would limit the player's ability to do whatever he/she wants, but it takes away from the game a little bit. Also, in the Kingdom the rival guards (basically any that aren't a part of the Brotherhood) are always on "Alert" which means they will attack if you show the smallest indiscretion. This includes jogging on foot or trotting the horse. So it gets really frustrating to have to walk very slowly by all those guards when I'm pretty sure they would already have noticed the guy in the white robe carrying weapons who is the only one they will ever encounter in that region riding a horse. (Everyone else is on foot). 3) Altair's voice acting. It lacks emotion at all times. Plus, he speaks with an American accent. Everyone else around him has an accent from a Middle Eastern region, or one from England and France (Acre) and some sort of Germanic language I've also noticed. Someone told me this is because the machine Desmond uses to experience Altair's memories translates all languages into English...but I'm not sure if that even explains it. If anyone has any theories or knows the actual answer, please comment on this review and tell me! 4) Some of the sidequests you have to do for informers can be ridiculously hard, especially when you have a time limit. Stealth killing five soldiers in a crowded street in five minutes is almost unfeasible (and I thought I was getting good at the game). Well, that's what I can come up with. Sorry it was long, but I hope it was helpful. Maybe I'm hyping the game because it's my first one for PS3, but I really enjoy it. The repetition of the gameplay will undoubtedly turn many people off, but when you think about it, there's not a whole lot more for Altair to do. He's an assassin. He has jobs to do. He's not going to take a vacation to an oasis somewhere and be sucked into missions there. If you're a history lover, a gamer who likes combat better than storyline, or someone who has always wanted (secretly or not) to be a kicka$$ sword-wielding, death-dealing assassin, you will probably enjoy this game. Luckily it's a greatest hit now and is a little cheaper than new PS3 releases, too. And hopefully the sequel that will supposedly be released in 2010 will fix this game's "cons".

If you want a game with good graphics, playable and interesting story; I think this is a good option.

To me, where this brilliant videogame went astray was it's story. No, not the exciting assasination gameplay. I loved the fact that you're playing a Muslim assassin/ninja working your way up to killing the chrisitan templars. If that was a day-job I'd be the first to apply. I even thought the story of Altair discovering his own humanity through the killings of each person pretty compelling. No, where the story went wrong was it's futuristic-your playing a guy-playing a videogame crap. For me, the sci-fi elements TOTALLY took away from the immersive (and much more compelling) Altair gameplay. I mean, if you WANT an explination for your HUD display and powers/abilities what's wrong with adding a little mysticism? Or at least something else that wouldn've blended better with the medieval setting. Dont' get me wrong, this game is still VERY worth playing (especially now that it's a Greatest Hits). The graphics (in Altair's world) are STILL breathtaking. The gameplay and combat is repetative, but looks so good and is sooo much fun you won't care most of the time. I just wish UBISOFT hadn't tried to be so clever with the sci-fi story.