Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #105 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: UBI Soft
• Released on: 2007-11-16
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Platform: Xbox 360

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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

Manufacturer's Description:
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 Reviews

Brilliant
this game is by far my favourite game ive ever played. The graphics are amazin even better than games like COD4 and GTA IV. The best part of the game is the story baring in mind you have to be relatively intelligent to understand it. Then the free running and the freeness that the game gives you is like nothing i have ever experienced before. finaly the ending is brilliant it completely guaranties you to bye the sequal to it which is supposed to come out late next year.

The worst game I've ever played
Games are supposed to fun and challenging. This neither.

All positives the game may have are eroded by the time you get to the second assassination when it dawns on you all the reviews are correct and you are playing the most repetitive game ever made.

It's just pure laziness on behalf of the developers and a total insult to anyone with an attention span longer than a goldfish.

Combat is nullified when you are granted a special dodge-attack after the first assassination. This reduces combat to simple one-button block-dodge-attack, making you almost invicible.

Apparently getting into a fist-fight is okay though, and climbing buildings is fine, but accidentally nudge the wrong person or get pushed around by one of the infuriating idiots in the crowds and the whole city goes on alert sending hoards of soliders after you! On many occasions has my cover been blown simply for walking past soliders!!

You will die a little inside every time you get to a new part of a city and you realise, yes - I do have to save 10 citizens, climb 9 high points, pickpocket 2 people, eavesdrop 2 people and interogate 2 people AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN.

Avoid the like the plague.

Groundhog Day In The Holy Land
There is no doubting the fact that this is one of the most stunning looking games ever, but it quite possibly has the most boring repetitive gameplay ever. I suppose it would be like having a beautiful, but highly boring boy/girlfriend, great to begin with but ultimately very unrewarding in the end. I probably completed 80% of this game but could just not summons up the effort to complete it, and believe me when it comes to finishing games I am totally anal.
If you can get your hands on a copy of it for £5 or less the buy otherwise rent or borrow. There are many more reviews on here that put the case far more eloquently than me and I advise reading them before purchase.