Assassin’s Creed, developed by Ubisoft Montreal (in Canada), the same people who developed classics such as Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia, so it’s only fitting that they should develop a stealth assassin game with an Arabic theme, and be able to keep it looking and feeling pretty authentic. But that’s not all they took from their experience…

When I first received the game, I played it straight away, but I was a little confused at the beginning, so much so I ended up looking at the box just to make sure I was playing the right game.

At the start of the game, you play a bartender who was kidnapped and strapped to a machine called an ‘Animus’ in an unknown location.

You’re told that the Animus can read DNA which somehow apparently stores memories of past lives with extremely vivid detail, and that some of the memories they are trying to recover are blocked.

After the kidnapped bartender agrees to participate to unlock these memories (despite being forced in the first place), you’re thrown into what I can only describe as a rip off from ‘The Matrix’ where you receive your training on how to become an assassin and escape enemies in an artificial virtual world. You’re also taught about doing things that are socially acceptable and that doing things that aren’t socially acceptable will attract unwanted attention from guards and citizens.

After the tutorial, you’re thrown right into the middle of a mission, playing an assassin called Altair, and this is where the game gets fun.

Aside from the Animus storyline, the game part of the storyline is actually somewhat accurate with some degree of fiction, since relatively little is known about the assassins of Masyaf anyway.
It is set in the year 1191 AD during the Third Crusade, where King Richard (Richard the Lionheart) attempted to reclaim the holy land from Saladin.
If you don’t know the details, it happened at the same time as Robin Hood (which should be the sequel game or at least a spin off. We haven’t seen a Robin Hood game, and I think this game engine would definitely suit it).
Lack of any back story means it can take a bit of time before noticing the actual events that are taking place within the game are not entirely a work of fiction.
Assassinations taken out on some key targets were purposely picked as some historical figures who mysteriously vanished, or had unexplained murders, which further adds to the fictional side of the game as something that could have happened, but most probably fictional.

The game play itself is perfect down to the T with beautiful animations for everything Altair is capable of doing. Walking, running, stopping, turning, climbing, even the small details such as stopping and pressing hands against the ‘wall’ (I use 'wall' lightly, since this can also be used to describe an area you can’t get to, but Altair will still hold his hands up against it like he’s just been arrested) rather than running constantly into objects that will just never move, which is more than I can say about the non-player characters.
The NPCs are, whilst very intelligent and cleverly designed, stupid.
Walking into walls should be a thing of the past, but unfortunately, these things still occur, along with repetitive dialogue, and predictable actions.
For example, walking down an alley you spot several people. Depending on how they look, you can tell whether they are going to push you, or nag you to death for money (until you assassinate, or beat silly one or the other). There’s never any real variation in some of the NPCs, except for the filter NPCs who are just there to get in your way and make the place seem busy.
The jar carriers all look the same and the same people get harassed by the guards, and after saving them they say the same dialogue.
In my opinion, this feels like a step back into the last generation, especially when you compare it to the dialogue churned out by some of the characters in Mass Effect. Most of the time, it’s fresh and new, and every situation gives nearly new dialogue (although the game does suffer in other departments, but that’s another review all together).

Fighting guards has always been a crowd pleaser for this game, for both the player and the NPCs who take ring side. A nice little feature of the AI is that the crowd will immediately scream and run off the moment a guard is impaled through the chest with a sword, and not a moment sooner. Stealth kills attracts attention with citizens shouting the guards because there is a murderer about, but the interactivity between the AI is something that I felt should have been included, since it doesn’t matter what anyone is shouting, whether they shout “you’re a murderer, guards… GUARDS” or “There’s a murderer around here”, the guards ignore them all the same until they discover the corpses for themselves and investigate (and the praying begins so you’re not narrowed down from 1000 people to the only person who could possibly be the assassin).


The sword fighting is amazing, although it lacks any real difficulty after you’ve mastered or even developed your own strategy for taking out the enemy, and learnt the combos.
The game likes to emphasize your ability to stay stealth, but stealth just means you’ll be walking around massive cities doing things that are socially acceptable so that you’re not attacked for being different (different being running, and hitting people), and considering there’s a hiding spot every few feet, it’s not that difficult to hide from guards when they notice you, should you decide not to just kill them (which automatically makes you anonymous, so all guards start ignoring you again) and carry on running.

A stealth tactic they teach you is called ‘Blend’ which they may as well call ‘Pray’ since the only thing that changes is that your character walks even slower than usual, holding his hands with his head down, as if to ‘blend in’.
And if you’re not ‘blending in’ when another guard notices the mountain of corpses that surrounds you and the other 400 people in that area, you get singled out as the murderer, and attacked again. So why was I being singled out as a murderer, but ignored if I’m the only person praying? (It could be a race thing, I’m pretty sure that Altair isn’t Arabic. I’m not particularly any good with accents, but he sounds quite American for someone living in the Holy land. That or the missing ring finger is a dead give away that Altair is an assassin.)

More often than not, it’s easier to kill 20 guards that surround you than it is to escape and find somewhere to hide, since they all take it in turn to hit you, making the situation always 1 on 1, despite how many guards are actually around you. Holding the shoulder button and immediately tapping X when an enemy lunges at you will quickly (and beautifully) end the guards life without so much as a scratch or even drop of blood on Altair’s white clothes.


One of the less noted combat features in this game is the horse back sword fighting, whilst is nice to look at at first, the feature only dampens the fun had, since you rarely find anyone worth killing, and when you do, most of the time you miss them and you end up running into a wall, making things more difficult in the long run. There is still some fun to be had of course, upon entering Jerusalem, you can knock over lines of people and create a Mexican wave of falling civilians. Anyway, I seem to be rambling, so back on topic.


The most notable features of the game were the ability to climb up any building. This is probably one of the most fun features of the game, since you can climb to the top of a tall building, and then dive off the top and land into a pile of hay as a quick way to get down. Whilst this quick way of getting down is fun at first, you soon notice that every tall building has a pile of hay at the bottom, and you soon begin to hope that Altair would miss the hay and crush his bones on the hard floor. Unfortunately, it never happens.

Scaling high grounds enables you to get a beautiful scenic view of the area that surrounds you, and also adds that region of map in detail, which helps you to complete side missions, including saving people and assassinating people for some informants in exchange for some information.

The sounds are very subtle but they definitely add to the realism of the game and the game atmosphere, but I do have a lot of problems with the voice acting. Characters are randomly generated, but they all share the same voices, coupled with poor voice acting. Considering the developers went through the hassle of making thousands of faces, hair, clothes, you’d think they’d add some variation with the voices, or at least the dialogue. Throughout the game, you’re required to save civilians from the brutal arms of the guards, and each time they tell you one of two or three lines.
It’s the small things that make the game seem somewhat rushed or unfinished, but in so many other aspects other details make the game more complete.


The graphics are phenomenal. The animation is very detailed, and the scenery is beautiful. I took a look on the Internet at some photographs of Masyaf, Jerusalem, Damascus, and Acre, specifically churches and other buildings from the Second and Third Crusades, and there is a lot of accuracy in the designs, so I’m impressed that Ubisoft did their homework to ensure authenticity. Whilst there isn’t a great deal of information to go by, Ubisoft have made an excellent recreation which makes me wonder what the Historians who specialise in the Third Crusade would think of both the game and the landscape.

I’d definitely say this is game is one for Christmas.
The game is easy to get into, and always brings you back for more.
Lack of any selectable difficulty level is a downfall, as the game does get incredibly easy after the combos have been unlocked.
There’s no shortage of side quests, as you can save civilians, collect flags, and view all of the view points in the holy land, on top of the primary assassination and information gathering missions.
The game does have a life span, being a single player title it only lasts through one completion (the usual problem with free roaming games) meaning after you’ve completed the game, it’s easy to put the game back on the shelf.

Storyline – 7/10: I’d have rated it more if there wasn’t the Animus storyline, but I suppose that’s there for continuity into the proposed trilogy (which is rumoured to be cancelled). A good theory approach to the history of the Third Crusade has been taken, but not enough back story was given… Just, kill this guy, kill that guy, and find information.

Graphics – 9/10: The graphics are amazing. The scenery is beautiful, the animation is fantastic, and the character models are nearly flawless. Buildings are detailed and styled for the era with great accuracy.

Game Play – 9/10: A faultless fighting system and the ability to climb buildings is enough to make Spiderman jealous. Stealth is key, but it’s easy to kick that aspect of the game out the window and just run around killing people like a mad man, and hide when there’s a job to do.

Sounds – 4/10: The ambient sounds and sound effects are fine, but the voice acting (which makes up for most of the games sound) is poorly done and repetitive.

Lifespan – 7/10: The game lasts until it’s completed, but not much further. Large terrain makes it lengthy to travel and collecting flags to expand lifespan is anything but fun.