Hostile Gamers

Assassin’s Creed is a third person action adventure game devolved by Ubisoft- Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Assassin’s Creed was released worldwide November of 2007 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and April of 2008 for Windows.



Assassin’s Creed had the potential to be one of the best games of 2007; unfortunately, Assassin’s Creed was plagued by repetitive game play elements, poor AI, and a seemingly linear style of game play that became tedious as you progressed through the story.

Assassin’s Creed takes place during the Third Crusade in the Holy Land in 1191 A.D. You primarily take on the role of Altair, a member of the Hashshashin (Assassins), a group of Assassins that existed during the 11th and 13th centuries. Assassins Creed is teeming with historical facts. The three main cities (Damascus, Jerusalem, and Acre) are well researched and recreated historically accurate. The assassination targets in the game where all in fact murdered during this time period. In short, Assassins Creed is one of the few titles that actually make an accurate representation of a historical time period. Where it not for some minor issues such as language, and AI personality, you would have no reason to question whether or not these places looked as they do in game.



Assassin’s Creed is a very story heavy game. Although the story may seem cut and dry for the first hour (go here, gather information on this target, kill him, and then do it all over again), the real story reveals itself not too far into the game and your whole perspective of what is really happening will change. It is no doubt that the story of Assassin’s Creed is interesting but there is very large twist that unfortunately is revealed far too early! In fact, it is revealed in the first five minutes of the game. The decision to reveal the biggest, and really the only surprise in the whole game so early was detrimental to Assassin’s Creed as a whole. The moments where Altair’s story is progressing flow very well, but then come to a standstill when outside elements come into play.

As far as characters go, most of the characters in the game offer a truly interesting performance with differing personalities and viewpoints. Each character seems to offer their own extraordinary take on the current situation; however, Altair, arguably the most important character has some of the worst voice acting. Altair’s personality, while it may seem to fit the traits of an assassin (brooding, mysterious, somber), is generally shallow and two dimensional. The personality of the mass of meaningless AI you meet will generally be the same in all of the cities. As you run through the cities you will hear the same lines repeated again and again in the same voice.



Although there are some bad things about this game Assassins Creed still brings to the table many new and revolutionary ideas. The use of the environment is absolutely fantastic, greatly resembling Prince of Persia where climbing, jumping and other environment scaling techniques come into play. The controls are not too bad. Although some controls may feel tedious at times, generally they operate well. The most amazing part of Assassin’s Creed is the roof top sequences. Running along roof tops requires nothing more than entering into a high profile mode and running from building to building. Altair will automatically jump from one building to another while you hold the trigger and the A or X button, depending on your console. Altair’s jumping direction does not always align the way you might want it to, and you may find yourself jumping off into space, and falling towards the streets. Scaling buildings and towers is rather enjoyable and an easy task. To scale buildings you will be using the same controls you used to run along roof tops, only now you will be using the thumb stick to adjust hand location. Something Assassin’s Creed does very well is using the architecture to dictate exactly where and how you will scale a building. Nearly every crevice, crack, window, and ledge can be used by Altair to ascend to the roof. There are many exceptionally tall buildings in Assassin’s Creed referred to as “viewpoints”. Ascending to the “viewpoints” will provide you with a beautiful panoramic view of your surroundings. These points play an important role in sequences as you have to scale them to spot other missions and points of interest. For each assassination there are minor missions you have to do that include pick pocketing, eaves dropping, interrogations, and informant missions. While these may seem like normal assassin behavior, repeating these tasks over and over again for each assassination can become tedious and boring.

The major assassination missions are very well thought out and always include an interesting cut scene before the actual assassination takes place. Almost all of the assassinations offer a chance for either a stealthy approach or a direct approach which usually involves fighting a dozen or so guards and chasing down the target. After the “kill”, there will be a short cut scene in which the target will try to convince you of “hidden motives” eventually leading Altair to second guess his actions. Afterwards, the town will be on full alert. You will have to return to the assassin’s bureau undetected to complete the sequence.

Combat is something Assassin’s Creed did right. It’s not overly complicated, with you usually just holding down a button or pressing buttons in a sequence for animated kills. Combat is very rhythmic and flows beautifully. In short though, you will either love or hate the combat system. I personally enjoyed it.



In general, Assassin’s Creed has beautiful animation and watching the fluid movements of Altair in combat is always a treat. However, there are occasional frame rate issues that can break the movement of the game and in some cases be a major annoyance. If you manage to wade through the repetitiveness of Assassin’s Creed and make it to the end, you will be treated with a few annoying fights leading up to an interesting final boss. The ending sequences of the game are amazing. For big history and conspiracy fanatics, it is extremely interesting with a predictable cliffhanger ending, leaving you ready for Assassin’s Creed 2.

Closing thoughts

The first mission of Assassin’s Creed makes it seem like a game that could keep you interested, and seems to draw you to want to continue playing. But as you continue to progress through each assassination, the linear storyline and repetitive missions will start to make Assassins Creed dull. The major surprises in the game are revealed far too early, and the missions become old too fast. The only saving grace to Assassin’s Creed is the conversations with the assassination targets. If you managed to make it to the fifth or sixth missions, chances are your praying for Assassin’s Creed to be over. However, if you manage to complete Assassin’s Creed you will be treated to a very interesting ending that is sure to force you to buy Assassins Creed 2.

Overall Assassins Creed gets an 8/10.

The presentation and atmosphere really helped Assassin’s Creed. Unfortunately, the repetitive missions were Assassin’s Creed biggest flaw, ultimately bringing it down.