It's like a cutting edge, multi million dollar sports car without wheels. Pretty - but what's the point?
First and foremost, more attention seems to have been paid to climbing up tall buildings and jumping into piles of hay than actually killing your targets. I was expecting a host of imaginative ideas, like poisoning food, setting traps, hiding under various disguises, and sabotaging buildings. But I was disappointed on all grounds. There is one, and only one, way to kill your target, by sneaking up and cutting their throat. Actually, that's not fair. You can hit them from rooftops with throwing knives (no bow available) or just run up and slash them to death with your sword (I found that method most reliable).
There are a grand total of 9 missions, which I thought was pretty abysmal, when you think that GTA IV and Oblivion actually had MORE assassination missions, two games in which assassination is simply a side quest beat a game in which assassination is the main and only purpose. Research has to be conducted before each killing, a task I found mind-numbingly boring, but one which you can make longer by completing tasks which don't need to be done.
The game wasn't all that bad, though. I have to admit that the stealth killings look awesome, and the way that Altair (your assassin) can climb practically anything is also very good. The combat is a step forward from the usual button mashing action, each move is different, and all weapons have their own different attacks. It's a shame that there are only 4 weapons available to you, I hope that in later games, the choice will be increased slightly.
So, after a few weeks of playing, I reached a conclusion about this game. It has the potential to be incredible, groundbreaking. Built on cutting edge technology, with next generation graphics and gameplay, it has all the characteristics of a truly legendary game. Unfortunately, though, the makers have spent too much time on making the game look and feel good, that they haven't actually made it good. Take a game like Oblivion. The combat system wasn't fantastic, every move was practically the same. But there was a huge choice of weapons, limitless possibilities, the main storyline was but a tiny fraction of what the game had to offer.
It wasn't like that with Assassins Creed. The game lacked something, like a hotdog without ketchup, like a house without windows, something was missing. So much time had been invested into making the physics of the game cutting edge that the storyline was bland, repetitive and too short. And once the storyline was over, that was it. There were no side quests, no guilds, no loot to collect, no skills to raise, a very limited choice of enemies to kill, and nothing apart from a few easy achievements, most of which you will already have picked up over the course of the storyline.
My own Assassins Creed disk was mutilated beyond repair due to an accident with my 360, and I can't say I miss it terribly. I've heard that there is a new game on it's way, which is to follow on from the cliffhanger at the end of the first game. Rumor has it that Assassins Creed 2 will be set in the far east, perhaps Japan. That sounds interesting, and hopefully the people in charge will invest less time in attracting customers than actually keeping them.
This is definitely a game to rent.