It’s easy to see why there was so much fighting amongst the console manufacturers to try and make this game a format exclusive. Where early launch titles may have disappointed this game not only looks like a next generation game but it plays like it too. Taken at face value the story casts you as an Arabic fighter in 1191, out to assassinate the nine Western leaders of the Third Crusade. There is more to the story than that though making it more than simple historical adventure it first seems.

Since it’s developed by many of the same team behind Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, it’s no surprise to find the game using many of the same ideas. With the bold claim that you can climb on or over anything in the game world that sticks out more than two inches, this allows incredible freedom of movement, with a style of acrobatics heavily influenced by Parkour/free running. The game also innovates in terms of combat, with each of the face buttons controlling a different area of the body, rather like a marionette. As such one button controls the feet, one your open hand, one your weapon hand and the other your head.

As an assassin stealth plays an important role in the game too, but here it’s often a case of hiding in plain sight as you mill around inside large crowds of people. Everyone will react to you realistically though, so if you go around pushing people out of the way, or even killing them, the crowd will react and report you. With stunning graphics and genuinely innovative gameplay this is destined to be one of the most important releases of the year.
HARRISON DENT
Assassin's Creed is set in 1191 AD, when the Third Crusade was tearing the Holy Land apart. Shrouded in secrecy and feared for their ruthlessness, the Assassins intend to stop the hostilities by suppressing both sides of the conflict. Players, assuming the role of the main character Altair, will have the power to throw their immediate environment into chaos and to shape events during this pivotal moment in history.

Our story follows a disgraced master Assassin (ALTAIR) who embarks on an epic quest to restore his status within the Assassin Order. After failing to assassinate the Templar Leader (ROBERT DE SABLE) and recover the legendary Templar Treasure, Altair is demoted to Uninitiated (the lowest rank in the Assassin order).

SINAN, Leader of the Assassins, offers our hero an opportunity to redeem himself. Altair must venture out into the Holy Land and assassinate men said to be exacerbating and exploiting the hostilities created by the Third Crusade. In doing so, he will stabilize the region, allowing Sinan to usher in an age of peace.

When our game begins, Richard the Lionheart has just recaptured the port city of Acre from occupying Saracens. With a base of operations established, the Crusaders prepare to march south. Their true target is JERUSALEM – which they intend to recapture in the name of the Church. However, SALADIN, leader of the Saracen Army, currently rules Jerusalem. Stinging from his army’s defeat at Acre, he will now allow Richard to humiliate him again. The Saracens are massing at the ruins of Fortress Arsuf, intending to ambush the Crusaders and prevent them from reaching Jerusalem.

These war maneuvers have left the rest of the Holy Land wide open. While Richard and Saladin battle one another, the men left to govern in their stead have begun taking advantage of their newfound positions of power. Exploiting, manipulation, and provocation rule the day. It is into this chaotic mess our hero now finds himself thrust. He is ordered to assassinate those most active in their exploitation.

And so Altair begins his missions.

Along the way, however, he will begin to discover that his targets are bound by more than just a shared interest in personal gain. They seem to share membership in a secret society – a group all too familiar to the Assassins. And they are not simply looking for profit. The true goal, and how they plan to achieve it are secrets to be discovered during the course of our story.

Customer Rating:
Summary: The boredom factor
Comment: I fully agree with a previous reviewer. The game get harder as you progress. Lot's of annoying impediments to your main task. But is it perhaps the boredom factor creeping in. It seem's to throw everything at you in the first 2 missions and then it's the same again, but more frustrating. Unlike games like MoH, CoD, NOLF, etc where each episode is in a different environment AC puts you in exactly the same environment with identical NPC's, and identical tasks.

Buy it cheap and be prepared for only a limited amount of enjoyment.

Graphically it is excellent. But the gameplay is really repetitve.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: This is awsome!!!! Only one problem....
Comment: This is an awsome game but the only thing wrong was it needs really high spec, i bought it thinking it would be awsome as i just bought a new laptop, i installed if takes a long long time and the gamplay is extremely slow, all because of my new laptops spec!!!

If you have the right specs for this game buy it, if you have already bought it you can play it better with a smaller screen res. To do this you go into settings in the game..

Have fun!!

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: If you like making tea
Comment: Well, first the good news. Playing the game is good fun, it's very detailed, plenty of cities to visit and countryside in between. The Assasin plays well, he can run and jump and climb - and kill - in a very satisfying way, me and my son spent three days figuring out where to go, who to bump off, and how to sword-fight. Great stuff.
The bad news, yawn, INTERMINABLE CHATTER. After finishing the game I started a new profile just to time stuff. From loading the game and creating the profile 20 minutes of numbing 'cut scenes', redundant tutorials (lets learn on the game eh?) and stopping and listening to lectures.
For instance, the game starts in some hi-tech office with a mad professor and his bint who spend ages explaining what would become apparent after five seconds of play. Ah, on with the game - oops, no, tutorials. Ah, on with the game, but no, another five minutes lecture from the Assasin's boss, ah, on with the game, no, another chat with your side-kicks, then a tutorial game, then more chat - aarghhh! I can't tell you how utterly frustrating it all is.
And when you've done your missions and pack up for the night, you can look forward to the chatter all over 'cos you always start with 'Beardy' the boss - you can't esc key - you just have to go, make a cup of tea, do the washing up and maybe wash the car, you've plenty of time, he can talk the life out of an Assasin.
Other than that, this is sort of a cross between GTAIII and Tomb Raider, collect flags, for no reward I can see, collect viewpoints (good for the vertigo sufferers) and save citizens, do little escort missions - and knock over the coffee stands - er I mean the trader's stalls.
In a word, a great game, but WAY TOO MUCH plot.
2 out of ten, buy it cheap if you can (mine was bundled).
Finally, I have a quad core proc, Nvidia 8600GT card and 2Gig RAM, and on EVERY graphics setting the 'Kingdom' section judders. Oh, and no online version either. Pah.
For the record I've worked in graphics for 30 years, and CGI for twenty-five, working in games, commercials, television and film.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: Great fun
Comment: The graphics are amazing on directx 10 with everthing on full, and I'm amazed at how soothly the engine runs througout, and I'm taking console-like smooth. Not sure about the stealth aspect. Most of the time when playing it I feel like Sir Lancelot the Brave from the Life of Brian, hacking through anything that comes across my path, including any inccocent bystanders that happen get in the way. Some of the fights also become comical-which is great: on one occasion an enemy was just about to stike me with his sword, when another enemy archer cut him down by accident from range. Now all that needs to happen is for Bioware to use the same graphics engine in their next RPG epic.

Edit - I've also just found out that alot of copies of this game can crash when you try to enter Jerusalem, due to three corrupt files, which mine just has. Whilst there isn't an official patch out yet that will fix this, you can download a torrent containing the workng files.

---

Customer Rating:
Summary: A role playing game which isn't bad
Comment: I hate role playing games, walk here there & everywhere, mix this potion that potion, blah blah, when I realised I had bought a rpg I was horrified, I gave it a go though & I quite liked it. Huge maps, great graphics, nice little tasks to do, nothing to bore you stupid, you can warp to the next location etc. Good fighting scenes, handy weapons, not bad at all. It is very monotonous you can't skip long drawn out chats at the end of each task or after each assassination, or when you leave the time machine thing, pretty slow at times etc but I just turned it down & walked away until it had finished rambling on & on. I did stick with this game & finish it, something I don't do that often as I get tired of the games with little to keep you with it, at the end of this I was struggling hard & nearly gave up but I saw it through & I'm glad it's done. As far as it being a console game I didn't really notice as I have done with all the 'other games for tight people who won't buy a pc' games I have played. Why game developers worry about £300 console owners over £3000 pc owners I have no idea, there are far more pc's in the world & their owners are far more seriuos about games.

---