Flawed as it may be, Assassin's Creed is one of the most immersive, unique, and memorable experiences you'll ever have.
Assassin's Creed presents a dual story, (in one of the most bizarre and memorable story presentations ever devised), where you step into the role of a young man called Desmond, who has been kidnapped by a group of researchers from Abstergo Labs to be a part of an experimentation with a nifty device called the Animus. The Animus allows a person to relive memories by examining their DNA, but as it turns out, your DNA also stores all your ancestors' memories, which is exactly what Abstergo is interested in. Desmond's ancestor they need information about is Altair, a member of an eltie group of assassins from the 12th century who fought the holy war against the Templars. Unfortunately for Abstergo, Desmond can't access Altair's relevant memories without first reliving previous events, so your memory recollection will start with Altair sent on a mission to recover an artifact of great importance (later in the game you'll learn just how important it is). This mission doesn't go as planned, thanks in part to Altair's initial arrogance, so as punishement he must redeem himself for having failed the creed by embarking on nine assasination missions against men that are all considered enemies of the creed.
As the assasination missions go, Altair finds himself confused by the motives of these men (who not always seem as evil as depicted) to the point where he ponders on the legitimacy of his actions. His faith keeps him going on however, and eventually many things will be revealed to him, including the importance of the artifact he was initially sent to recover. As Altair's memories are recollected, Desmond finds himself in an equally confusing situation, not knowing what does Abstergo really want for him, nor what will they do with him when they're finished. While the story may seem a bit convoluted, it's actually quite easy to follow, and the Animus twist makes up for any inconsistencies you may notice as you recollect your memories. Needless to say, the story will keep you hanging till the very end. Actually, it will keep you haging beyond the ending, because the game ends in a cryptic cliffhanger note. While some may take issue with this, I found myself loving the ending, since it offered enough resolution to make sense of most of your actions through the game as well as keep me interested for the next installment in the series.
The events recollected through the Animus take place during the 12th century in the middle east (the main cities being Jerusalem, Acre, Damascus, and Masyaf). And from the second you set foot in Masyaf, you will realize just how stunning this gameworld is. It's not just the technical quality of the visuals, but also the incredible attention to detail littered all across the cities. The cities truly feel like a living, breathing place. Hundreds of peasants will wander across the streets, all serving a different role (merchants, beggars, thugs, lunatics, scholars, etc.). And they're not there just for show, since they'll react to any of your actions, be it throwing rocks at you should you perform socially unacceptable behavior, or calling for the guards when they witness a murder. Beggars will constantly pester you asking for charity, thugs will join in on any ongoing fights, while drunks an lunatics will shove you around begging to be on the receiving end of a kick to the teeth. The cities are also greatly realized, with market stalls, fountains, temples, convention sites, harbors, etc. But above all else, it's your ability to freely move across any place in the cities that makes them feel like the real thing. You can leap across walls, jump from one rooftop to the next, or climb some crazy high stuctures to get a better view of the city, only to later take "leap of faith" and fall hundreds of feet into the ground (or better said, a stack of hay). The combination of all this factors makes exploration in Assassin's Creed a breathtaking endeavour.
And while you can let yourself loose in the gameworld for as much as you like, you must keep focus on the task at hand, or better said, assasination at hand. Gathering information about your target will make up the bulk of the gameplay. When you reach a city, you'll find several ways of acquiring knolewdge about your target: Interrogations, pickpocketing, eavesdroping on conversations, and informer challenges (which come in various flavors, some exclusive to the PC version of the game). You usually need to perform three of this missions to obtain the necessary information, but you're free to do any missions available.
There are also several view points (tall structures that can be climbed to obtain a better view of the city, which will be displayed in your map) that must be cleared, and side missions, such as rescuing citizens harrased by guards, collecting flags scattered across the cities, or killing templar guards. While a stealthy approach is the recommended one when performing most missions, sometimes brute force will be needed, be it because your cover was blown or because the mission demanded it (saving citizens for instance). And you won't want to stay away from combat too long, because the combat is a blast. It's a relatively simple fighting system, but one that is forever satisfying. Even when pitted against dozens of guards, you'll never feel like you're doomed, since counterattacks can save the day.
Assassin's Creed gameplay is refreshing and addicitve. Unfortunately, the game seems to follow the same pattern for every single assasination mission, which means that you'll perform the same types of missions over and over again. This is by far the game's biggest flaw, and some people may find the final chapters of the game overly tedious. I for one even memorized most of the lines used by citizens when you saved them (and at times it was irritating to hear the same phrase repeated over and over). Granted, since you're not required to do every single mission in the game, you may end up finding enough variety across the different chapters, but it's a shame the development team couldn't come up with more ideas to spice things up as the game progressed.
But it's here where I praise the way the game immerses you in it's world. Repetitive as they might have been, I never wanted to let a mission (primary or secondary) slip by, because I felt a need to do them. Any time I found a citizen being harrased by guards I wanted to help them. The same applied for helping out members of the clan in their respective endavours. And god knows I never grew tired of climbing to all the view points, because the vistas were so beautiful, and the climbing so exhilarating, it was always a joy. I truly embraced playing the role of Altair and living by the creed's commandments. One can only wonder what could be achieved if the game was fulfilling all of it's potential.
As mentioned before, the game is a pleasure to look at. Aside from the great attention to detail and tremendous art direction, the game is a technical marvel. It's incredible how such a level of technical prowess can be achieved while rendering such a huge gameworld. The draw distance seems to go on forever, which means there's virtually no pop-in effects, and you'll be able to see cities in their entirety when you climb a view point. The textures are rich and vivid. The character models all look great, especially Altair, whose movements are fluid and realistic. Even horse movements are terrificly executed. From a technical standpoint, I only place Crysis above this game. Perhaps the only slight detriment of the graphics, is that while all three cities have a different feel, they still look relatively similar, so you won't enjoy a huge amound of visual variety. But that's just nitpicking.
And to top it all, the game's sound is wonderful. The voice acting is believable and well handled. Altair's voicework in particular impressed me, but so did the voice acting of your fellow assassins, or your targets. Even the beggar women put in a great performance, making you feel their desperation for some help. And you could literally feel the pain when a guard screamed as you drew a blade across his chest. All other sound effects are also terrific, be it sword clashes, horse gallops, crowd chatter, or the eagle cry heard while your perform a leap of faith. The music is also outstanding, changing from pulsating high tempo stuff as you attempt to escape from guards, to tense sections as you attempt to peform a silent assassination.
Assassin's Creed is a game that elicits mixed reactions. Some people can't tolerate how repetitive the game gets, while others ignore that, for the fact that the game is so immersive. I find myself in the latter group, and while I do feel that the game isn't reaching its full potential, I believe Assassin's Creed is a terrific game that can be considered a work of art. I do warn potential players that you must enter the game with the right approach to truly enjoy it. If you can look past its flaws, Assassin's Creed will be one of the most immersive, unique, and memorable experiences you'll ever have.