Assassin’s Creed is a game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. For me, it is possibly the best game in 2008. It was released in November 2007 in PS3 and XBox 360 and in PC version later during April 2008. I finished the game roughly a month ago, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. It is so impressive that I could hardly forget the game.
Assassin’s Creed features one of the best game’s graphics but its system requirements can be a problem as it is originally a next generation console game. Such consoles can easily support Assassin’s Creed with maximum graphic settings, but not my poor laptop. 
Although my settings is between low and middle, the graphic still impresses me and I kinda drool when thinking of playing it in a console with a FULL HD LCD TV. :D:D
The game takes place in Holy Land during the Third Crusade. You play as an assassin called Altair, a member of The Assassin Brotherhood. Due to his arrogance, he caused the death of his friend and angers the whole brotherhood. His penalty is to be demoted to the lowest rank and lost all his skills and weapons. You will start from scratch like any other game’s main hero. Accomplishing missions given by the Brotherhood will let you slowly recover your skills and weapons, aiding you in your journey ahead.
Altair has superb agility and reflex, making him like the male version of Lara Croft (can even win Olympic’s gymnastic gold medal 
). You will be jumping from buildings to buildings, climbing towers or jumping from ledges to ledges during the majority of the game to avoid guards or any suspicious eyes. It’s kinda like Lara Croft jumping around, but this one is done in a busy city. Altair is excellent with weapons as he can take on 5-6 guards without any problem. This seems to kinda spoil the game because in such a stealth game, I was hoping that being discovered by guards will have heavier consequences like in Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell, where you MUST avoid guards instead of killing them.
The game’s environment is the best I ever seen in a game beside BioShock. You will explore cities like Jerusalem, Acre, Damascus and Masyaf, with Jerusalem the most impressive of them all. Lots of people walking around carrying their goods, merchants selling their products in stalls, beggars begging for coin (very annoying), and also drunkards pushing you around (the most annoying type of civilian, I basically just stab them when they push me :D). The environment blends together wonderfully and you will feel like you are really walking in Jerusalem during the Third Crusade. Although to fully utilize this, you will need quite a beefy PC.
As the name suggests, this game is all about assassination, and I hope any assassination-based game in the future would refer to Assassin’s Creed. Unlike the old games, you don’t just rush into the place and start killing everyone there. This game goes for realistic and stealth instead of one man action. Before you kill a person, you will need to obtain information about your target. You shall start by climbing towers (other than Olympic gold medal, he can also climb KLCC if given the chance :D) and look at the surrounding area to locate people that might have useful information about your target. The visual at the top of the tower is insanely beautiful and surely you will be impressed when you see it. There are many ways of forcing them to talk. Some is through the traditional way, interrogation. You just follow him to an alley and starts beating the shit out of him. Some is through pickpocketing (our hero can also join Ocean 14 soon :D). Some is through eavesdropping. There are around 7-8 ways of obtaining information although some of them are a bit boring. Their information often includes how to get near your target, where does the target go, or how guards are stationed around, etc.
Assassination phase begins after this, where a few cool cutscenes will be shown in the process, slowly revealing the plot of the game. The cutscene shown when you finish off your target is very cool and lets the soon-to-be-dead person speaks his last words. The game also features some very exciting sword combat, with some very brutal finishing move as well.
Although the game sounds excellent, it does have some flaws. The major flaw would be the repeatitive gameplay because you need to do the same thing over and over again for every target. The ending is kinda confusing and will only be concluded in its sequel. This type of ending seems to be the trend now as Crysis, Halo 2, and Rainbow Six Vegas all have such ending. It totally leaves me hanging
Overall, Assassin’s Creed is an excellent game and highly recommended for everyone, especially people with strong interests in the Crusaders era. If you have a high end PC, go get it NOW!!!!
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By Travis
