Assassin's Creed is one of the most intriguing, fresh, fun, and absolutely impressive games to come to the Xbox 360. This game is a beautiful and exciting experience that you'll remember for years to come.
Altair the Assassin
Altair, the hero of Assassin's Creed, is a master assassin turned loose in the most vibrant medieval cities of the Middle East. Altair is as interesting and memorable a character as Ubisoft's other stars, Sam Fisher and The Prince of Persia. Altair is highly agile, meaning he can leap from rooftop to rooftop, scale buildings and generally run across anything. Altair can also extract information from strangers, protect pedestrians from being mugged, and slaughter guards. Altair's stylish combat moves and graceful acrobatic steps make him a most formidable assassin but the missions can get a bit repetitive.
It's in the free-running that you'll find the game's most original and satisfying gameplay, tearing across cities as medieval hitman Altair. Once you start free-running, gameplay becomes about maintaining a perfect line of motion rather than hitting the jump button at just the right time. The game is split into gameplay sections, which essentially play the same from beginning to end. There are no cutscenes in the traditional sense; every bit of story exposition and dialogue flows smoothly from the gameplay and takes place entirely within the game engine. While playing, the gameplay can instantly transform from careful, measured movement to a heart-pounding escape with a dozen city guards on your trail. The only concern I had is that the game uses physics, so why not allow you to pick up random objects and chuck them about (like most other games), which, not only gives you more gameplay alternatives, but again makes the world feel that much more real and interactive.
Combat is largely optional, as is fitting an assassination game. Thankfully, Assassin's Creed is endlessly entertaining in that it features a fine mix of stealthy exploration, tight platforming, and exciting combat. But if you do learn to master the combat, it is rewarding to use the advanced techniques you acquire after successfully completing each assassination. Despite a combat system that largely makes use of one button exclusively, combat in Assassin's Creed is a cinematic and often brutal affair.
As you guide Altair through his missions, the game transforms you into a true assassin; mastering every control scheme and cinematic camera makes every kill feel significant, and every leap of faith a triumph. Before you can kill your target, you have to complete a few "investigation" missions around the city to gather information. Most of these missions allowed you to sneak in through some alternate route and get a stealth kill without any guards ever knowing you where there. Using the information gathered from the missions, like maps of best approach and guard positioning, makes getting the stealthy kill easier.
The graphics were amazing and I loved the ability to climb the walls and have free range within the city. Set in the ancient holy lands, Assassin's Creed is a single-player, multi-path action game that pushes the boundaries of next-generation graphics and gameplay.
