Assassin's Creed on Xbox 360: Video Game Review

Escaping into the realm of video games is often a great way to relieve the stress after of a long day at work. I personally just adore games that allow you to be a deadly assassin. Over the past year, a few games were released that allowed you to do just that. I played a couple of these. The first, Tenchu Z, which involved you playing as an assassin in ancient Japan. The second, Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which had the wonderful Dark Brotherhood Guild quests that helped you rank up in the secretive world of assassins.

Since I had so much fun playing as an assassin in these games, I could not wait for the time to pass until the ultimate assassin game was released in later months. This game is called Assassin's Creed. It was released November 14, 2007. I could not wait to get my greedy hands on this game.

In Assassin's Creed, you start out in modern times. A young man named Desmond is abducted and in some strange laboratory called Abstergo Laboratory. A Dr. Vidic and his assistant tell Desmond to cooperate and do as he is told or die. What must he do? He must synchronize with a strange machine called the Animus. The Animus links Desmond's mind to old memories of his ancestor that are stored in his DNA. But why does Dr. Vidic want memories of Desmond's ancestor?

This won't be revealed until much later. I don't want to give anything away. But in the mean time, on to the star of the game, Desmond's ancestor: Altair. Altair's story takes place during the Third Crusade. Altair was once the highest ranking among his Assassin's Order. But one day he got cocky and did some things that got him demoted to the lowest ranks. In order to redeem himself, Altair must assassinate certain people in order to allow his Master, Al Mualim, bring peace to the land.

The game begins in a tutorial session where Desmond learns to connect to Altair's memories through that strange machine, the Animus. In the Animus, Desmond basically sees himself as Altair. He also sees everything as Altair remembers it. The cities look the same, as do the people. Desmond's job is to relive Altair's memories from when he was demoted, up until he assassinates several people. His goal is to bring back Altair's memories, which are currently spotty in his mind. These are called Memory Blocks. In total, you have to get back 8 Memory Blocks to see the game to its ending, and hopefully get the special ending.....

Back to the tutorial, here you learn basic moves. Once done here, you move on to the actual game play and reliving Altair's memories. While in the tutorial, you learn about how you must keep in touch with Altair via synchronization. You lose synch with Altair by doing things you shouldn't as you play through the game. This includes: killing innocent people, falling great distances, getting hurt in combat, etc. If you lose synch with Altair, you disconnect from the Animus and you end up in modern times back at the laboratory. Your synchronization meter is shown at the top of the screen. If it starts to diminish, you need to refill it. This is done by remaining anonymous or completing objectives.

What's this about remaining anonymous? Well, Altair is an assassin. He is to remain hidden. If he starts a commotion or picks fights with city guards, he won't remain very anonymous, will he? The guards will be alerted to his presence and you can tell this by how the guards look. If you decide to do anything rash, you can get Altair back to anonymous status by hiding in haystacks or roof gardens, blending with the crowd, and other ways. Say you are walking through town and you see a peasant in distress. If you help the peasant out, you will become friends with all peasants. This means that later if you are trying to make an escape after assassinating a target, the peasants may crowd around you to help you escape the guards.

Altair is capable of many things. His actions are either "Low Profile" or "High Profile." Low Profile actions are actions won't alert the guards and others. High Profile actions are actions that will get everyone's attention. Some examples of actions are: walking, blending, gentle push, punching, grab and throw, pick pocketing, assassinating, throwing knives, jumping, climbing, wailing, riding horses, and more.

To regain Altair's memory, you often have to climb high atop a building or cliff and use "eagle vision." This helps Altair in many ways. The most prominent is to let you see who is a friend, foe, or target. You will also have to accomplish many tasks, aside from assassinating your target. These tasks involve interrogating, spying, stealing, and other things. All of this is part of attaining your goal of getting all eight of Altair's Memory Blocks... which are wanted very badly by the people of Abstergo Laboratory.

The controls of Assassin's Creed are scary at first. But once you get used to them, it is really quite simple. Altair is smoothly controlled and his stunts and maneuvers throughout the game are as flawless as an Olympic gymnast performing in front of judges. Watching Altair leads you to say "Wow, I wish I could do that."

The graphics of Assassin's Creed are breathtaking. All of the environments are blended in quite well. It is truly a living and breathing environment. As for sound, the musical score is superb and goes well with the climatic scenes of the game. Also, the hustle and bustle of the time you spend in the cities is done quite well as you listen to random banter of the city folk.

This game is absolutely gorgeous and the game play is surreal. If you have been waiting for a game with high attention to detail, great controls and functionality, and an excellent story... then you really must get your hands on Assassin's Creed.

Assassin's Creed is available for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. It has an ESRB rating of M for mature. This is because the game features strong language, blood, and violence. This rating also means that the store may check your ID when you go to purchase the game to make sure you aren't too young to play it! Strategy guides are available for this game if you want to squeeze every bit of game play out that you can.