At first, the game seems like it could be the best title to come about in years. But it loses its appeal rather rapidly.
Story
-----
One could argue that the plot behind the game is easily one of the most original and astounding stories to ever grace a game in a very, very long time. At first glance, everything looks as though it's just about an assassin during the medieval times, and though that is somewhat true, there is another story which leads into the life of Altair. It is the year 2012 (unconfirmed what month). You are Desmond Miles, a former assassin (who is now a bartender) who was literally abducted by a corrupted corporation by the name of Abstergo. He was brought in to be the subject of an experiment which reaches into the farthest reaches of a subject's DNA to retrieve and watch memories of the subject's ancestors. Why they want to do this and why they chose Desmond is not explained until further in, and I won't go into any details in order to prevent myself from giving anything away. It is explained that Abstergo wanted to simply drop Desmond into the particular memory they wanted to retrieve information from (which serves as the final level), but Desmond's subconscious wouldn't allow it, so the corporation was forced to place Desmond into a much earlier memory. Thus the story of a skilled yet very young assassin, by the name of Altair Ibn-La'Ahad (simply called Altair) begins.
This second story takes place centuries back, in 1191, during the Third Crusade. This story opens with Altair killing an innocent man within Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem as he and a few intern assassins are searching for the Ark of the Covenant. They find their treasure, but fail to retrieve it when they are confronted by Robert de Sable (pronounced "ro-bair de soblah"), the Grand Master of the Knights Templar. Robert forces Altair to abandon his interns in order to escape (he causes a wall to collapse, which isolates them). After being told off by the Grand Master of Assassins, Al Mualim, and repelling a Templar assault on Masyaf (the Assassins' headquarters), Altair is punished for disobeying the Assassin's creed by being "killed" and reborn as an intern. Basically, the game pulls a Metroid Prime and gives you a taste of all of your skills before they are all taken from you. The rest of the game has a very nice story that has a nice twist by the end, and features some good character development, even if the range of characters which are developed is limited. All-in-all, the stories (both of them) are great, and are easily the strong point of Assassin's Creed.
-----
Graphics
-----
The graphics are amazing. The only time they fail to impress is when the camera is too zoomed in to something and you can see some blockiness. The animation is almost unparalleled, and if not for the occasional texture pop-in and graphical glitch and blockiness of certain parts of characters, it'd be hard to tell if this were a movie or a video game.
-----
Gameplay
-----
Using a phrase which I used in my Batman: Arkham Asylum review, this is where the game both succeeds, and fails. If you are a fan of action/adventure games, watching just a few minutes of the core gameplay will make you want to steal the controller from whoever is playing it. The game cleverly makes you believe that you ARE Desmond lying down on the Animus, giving the illusion that the memories within the Animus are a video game being played by Desmond.
On the Xbox 360, the controls are quite simple. The left trigger is used for locking onto a target (be it an enemy or an assassination target), the bumpers are pretty much useless, the control stick is used to move around, etc. There are two modes, which are switched between when you hold down the right trigger or not. Holding down the right trigger changes the use of the four main buttons into actions that are typically not socially acceptable, whilst not holding down the trigger opens up means to stealthily traverse the cities. Furthermore, holding down the right trigger makes you run as you walk, and pressing A as you run makes you run faster. The tutorial explains that the Y button controls Altair's head, though it is pretty much only used for Eagle Vision, an ability that allows you to see who is your friend, who is your foe, who is your target, and who will provide you with information. Eagle Vision is something of an inconvenience, as you cannot walk around while using it, and it is only available when you are fully synchronized. The A button controls Altair's legs, and is used to make Altair pray in stealth mode (which works wonders when the guards are on high alert) and run even faster in combat/agility mode. You also need to hold down A while holding down the right trigger to climb buildings and jump across gaps. The B button controls Altair's "empty" hands, and is used to gently push people away in stealth mode (so you don't cause a public disturbance that alerts the guards) as well as for grabbing and hanging onto ledges/features on a building, and used for grabbing guards in combat mode. Finally, the X button controls your "armed" hands, and is used to attack in stealth mode (making it a stupid idea for staying socially anonymous) and attack/counter in combat mode.
The strongest point of the gameplay is the sandbox elements and the illusory freedom you have. Being extremely acrobatic, Altair can climb the tallest buildings and jump between them as well. Ironically, the level design is divided when it comes to how great it is: the streets are very well-crafted and richly detailed, making you feel like you are actually in medieval times in a medieval city. But, with the sole exception of Acre, the design of the rooftops is painfully bland. Sans a few tall towers here and there, most of which serve as Eagle Viewpoints, every single building is the same height as its neighbor, and almost all of them have the exact same flat roof. Traversing the city via the rooftops is the quickest way to reach the other end, but it does get tiring after a while. As stated, however, Acre can be considered an exception; the whole city is basically a bunch of inhabited ruins, and as such, the rooftops are mostly unique from one another. But it is sad that this is the only exception out of four different cities.
The most blaring flaw in this game is the repetition. At first, the game is amazing, but gameplay-wise, after a certain point, it is basically repeating the same thing over and over and over nine times straight. There are only about five different types of side-missions, which you play to get information on your assassination target to prepare. But most of these side missions offer pointless exposition and information you will find no use for in terms of gameplay. Some of the objectives of these side missions along with the reasons behind doing these objectives are laughably preposterous (mainly eying the informant side-missions with that remark) and seem to be just fodder to utilize every aspect of the core gameplay for the umpteenth time. The only thing that will make you want to trudge through the game in its entirety is the story, in which an argument could be made that it is worth the endless repetition of the gameplay. If the story was completely bland, this game would not get any more than an overall score of 7 from me.
The combat is nice, but as with everything else in terms of gameplay, it gets boring. It also becomes completely fool-proof after you've regained the counter ability. With this ability, performed by holding down the right trigger while directly in combat and pressing X right before an enemy hits you, you can fend off entire armies, especially considering the illogical approach of the AI; every guard takes their turn, but they almost never consider attacking all at once. I guess this was so that combat against large swarms was possible, but there must have been a better way to do it. The counterattacks differ between weapons (the only weapon unable to counter is your fists) and are amusing to watch, one of the few things in the game which do not get tiring at a rapid pace.
Then there are numerous inconsistencies with the AI and the logic of the guards. If you kill someone, the guards go over and constantly demand who is responsible for the kill. While that actually makes sense, it won't take long at all for the guards to magically know it is you, unless you find a hiding spot immediately after the kill. It doesn't matter how large the surrounding crowd is, the guards will find you if you don't exploit a hiding spot soon after a kill. Then there are instances where guards magically know you are an assassin, just because you are jumping around and climbing stuff. Sometimes, it won't take any more than simply walking around for guards to pinpoint your identity, regardless of if you have been in that particular district of the city before.
And then there are the retards/drunkards (retards in Damascus and Jerusalem, drunkards in Acre) who push you, and only you. Everyone else is untouched, but they deliberately push you around, which somehow alerts the guards. It is the people like these who make many informant missions hair-ripping frustrating, as they are extremely populous during those missions somehow. Then, there are the beggars. I swear, Ubisoft must have included these in the game just to annoy the living hell out of the player. Basically, they are women who run up to Altair (and of course, ONLY Altair, no one else) and block your path, begging for money and claiming to be sick. That's all fine and good, I suppose, but the fact that they ONLY pester Altair and the fact that there's NOTHING YOU CAN DO to shut them up short of violence or patiently exiting their spawning area (you can't give them money since there is no economic system in the game), they prove to be an unnecessary nuisance, and in my opinion, the worst aspect of the game coupled with the retards/drunkards. Not to mention, they sometimes will throw rocks at you when you try to escape them by climbing a building.
The stealth aspect of the game is alright, but certainly not the best of any game ever. To begin with, when tackling any major assassination it is often suggested that you try to be stealthy. While this is possible with a few of the major assassinations, at least half of them don't give you such an opportunity and force you to fight a swarm of guards while also fighting the target. This is what further cements the idea that freedom and non-linearity in this game is just an illusion.
-----
Sound
-----
The sound is pretty ugly. The sound effects are great, but the voice acting is very amateurish outside of main characters and major assassination targets. The bad voice acting of the generic citizens and guards is grating to the eardrums, and the fact that non-cutscene chatter sounds like it is voiced on a phone doesn't help at all. Not to mention how Altair has a bland, almost American accent in the midst of the Middle East (despite that he is very obviously Middle Eastern) while literally all other characters in the medieval timeline have fitting accents. However, the modern timeline's voice acting is great. The music is largely fine, if not a bit unnoticeable.
-----
Length/Replay Value
-----
The game is fittingly long. It'll eat about fifteen to twenty hours of your time to complete. I can't guarantee that you'll want to come back to the game later, though. Due to the immense amount of grating repetition in nearly every aspect of the gameplay, it's good for maybe a playthrough every two years or so.
-----
Fun Factor
-----
As has been stated in this review as well as reviews by a large number of other people, the game is extremely fun. At first. But it all goes down the crapper less than a quarter of the way through.
Overall: 8/10, great. The repetition will certainly turn many if not most gamers off after a while, but the gripping story should serve as enough of an incentive to play through the entire game. I would suggest a rent, or even a borrow from your friend or someone, but don't outright buy the game unless you're really confident that you'll thoroughly enjoy it from beginning to end.
Ultimate Ridley out.