Review by icepho3nix

"Treasure to some, Garbage to others..."

Assassin's Creed is the newest game from Ubisoft Montreal. This game feels like Prince of Persia, except this game is a lot more innovative and interesting. Assassin's Creed takes place during the Third Crusade, in the year 1191. Armed with deadly weapons and crazy agility skills, you will travel through cities eliminating your targets. If you are unsure weather Assassin's Creed is worth spending $60 on, then keep reading.

Story: 8/10
You are Altair, a member of the Hashshashin, the original clan of assassins. You start out as a master assassin, but you basically screw up on your mission, and is given a chance to redeem yourself by assassinating 9 Templers, who are spread throughout the cities Damascus, Jerusalem, and Acre. As you progress through the game, you will regain your weapons and abilities and will soon discover a conspiracy...

Graphics: 9/10
It's definitly some of the best looking and fluid graphics I've seen on the Xbox 360. From jumping from rooftops to rooftops, or traveling in districts filled with NPCs, the game will not cause framerate issues. I've only seen one time where the game lagged for a millisecond, and it was when I was about to enter another city.The buildings look very detailed, some of they have holes and cracks. Speaking of which, nearly every building you see is climbable. As long as you see a step, ledge, or some kind of object, you will be able to climb on it and scale up tall buildings. I find it amazing how all the textures are interactive, and Altair's animation will still remain fluid. There are parts of the game where the screen seems to become very pixelly ( I can't say where, as that'll spoil the game), but I think that is what the developers intended to do, or maybe it's just me.

Gameplay: 9/10
Freerunning, assassinating, fighting, escaping, horse-back riding, what more do I need to say? Like in Prince of Persia, you could run up walls (not across walls, however) and do crazy acrobatics to evade the guards or just for fun. For example, you could swing and jump your way through all the poles in the market district and Damascus with freerunning, and it's an awesome thing to do and to watch. Assassinations take place when you do the main missions. But before doing the actually dirty work, you will have to evasdrop, pickpocket, interrogate, and more, to find out more about your target. But when you do the actual killing, it's fairly simple. You find a way to get to your target, either by fighting, or by sneaking. When you get to the target, you will have to use your hidden blade to kill them. After that, you will have to fight a few guards, or just escape. Find a place to find, and lay low for a bit. Some people think that doing some of those missions are repetitive, but I find them fun, and not as repetitive as they claimed. Horse-back riding is mainly used to get from city to city, and sometimes it does take a while. People complained about how there is no fast travel, so this might be some of the little things that you will not like about Assassin's Creed.

Controls: 9/10
The control scheme is fairly simple, and well thought out. Basically, your face buttons control different parts of Altair. Y button controls his head, X button controls his weapon arm, B button controls his free hand, and A button controls his legs. When you hold on to the Right trigger, Altair goes into his "Uber Mode". All the actions will be altered, and will be more assassin/aggressive style. For example, which the R Trigger, A lets you blend in. But when you hold the R Trigger, you can do freerunning and excute arcobatics. When climbing buildings, you just need to move the analog stick to a direction you would like to climb to, and voila. This control scheme might take a bit of time to get used to for some people, but I got used to it right away.

Sounds: 8/10
I'm not very good at judging the audio, but overall, I think it's well done. From the sword sounds to the NPCs' voices, it all sounds pretty perfect. One complaint I have is that the main character just doesn't sound as good as the other characters (Note that I said main character, not Altair).

The NPCs are interesting, as they all have different actions. Some will go around carrying jars, others carry throwing knifes which you can pickpocket. Some people will react when they see you do things like freerunning, and say things like "What is he doing?" or "Stop acting like a child". The missions are fun, but some people may find them to be repetitive. There are flags and view points scattered around the game map, and you could find them all for some achievements. However, this is one of the issue which bugs people, and it's the lack of replay value. But I highly recommand this game, as it is very innovative and unique in it's own way. So if you haven't gotten this game, go out and get it as soon as possible. At least give it a rent if you can't buy it.

Asssassin's Creed = Highly Recommanded!!



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