Assassin's Creed

I got this game for Christmas on my PS3, although I had played the game on the 360 previously. I have to say, I do not regret getting this game, and I will never allow it to leave my home.

You play as Desmond, a man forced to get into a machine and relive an ancestor's past as an assassin from early 1100 A.D. Every once in awhile you will be pulled out of the machine because of random causes, such as the machine overheating, you need your rest, you need to be spoken to, etc. The best part of this game is the freedom you get anywhere, even during fights and missions. You can climb and hold onto literally anything, including cracks in the wall, bricks sticking out, or windows. My one complaint about this game is when you get Counter Attacks. At first, you are doing great and facing an ass load of men, and your scared like hell. Then when you get Counter, you can do 1 hit kills on almost everyone, you can basically run out into the open, kill a load of ordinary people(Not recommended, seeing as how you lose 3 bars whenever you kill 1 person), get almost 30 guys surrounding you, and easily take them out within 5 minutes.

Graphics- 10/10 Gameplay- 9.5/10 Story- 9/10 Music- 10/10 Overall(Not averaged)- 10/10

For me, this game comes incredibly close to being a masterpiece. But it's let down in just one area, and unfortunately it's a key one. The missions.

It has a great many positives, for example:

Graphics. The graphics are good enough that the game is still perfectly playable today, especially the environment models, however I would say the character faces are somewhat lacking.

Mechanics. The game still plays beautifully, the combat mechanics are extremely good fun, as is all the parkour. It isn't as smooth as a modern game but who would expect it to be, that's just advancement.

Story. The story is brilliant. It's clever, interesting in my opinion the games best aspect. If anything it is worth playing just for the story, as it sets up the series, and for that reason, the game is a must play for any assassin's creed fan who hasn't already played it.

However, there is one huge negative to an otherwise great game. The missions are far too repetitive. They essentially consist of go to a place, gather information, kill person. It feels like they put so much effort and creativity into the overarching story that they just forgot about the missions within that. Additionally, it's quite tedious to have to ride between locations the first few times, as the horse riding isn't fun in itself and the area between the cities isn't too much to look at.

Overall, although the missions cause the game to have little replayability, it is definitely worth playing once, especially now it is reasonably cheap, even if you're only playing it for the great story.

A rare beauty of this game just tickled the inner thigh of my brain when I first saw the trailer for this game. First I thought I can't play this, I don't have a proper machine for this. But, years later I bought a new, proper machine, and I got this game. And fu*k me sideways that was a brutal experience. That was definitely one of the most beautiful games I have ever played.

Perhaps, the best thing I like, is the FACT that the game is based upon some historical events. Finally, an educational video game, that makes you want to read a book. To do a little research yourself. So, we are going to talk about this special stuff here. First of all graphics - holy sh*t! They are awesome! Greatly done graphics. The sound effects are great. Visually, the game is very, very beautiful. The landscapes, the characters (characters visually and their personality, also), the way they created Damascus and Jerusalem, that was impressive! Music score was good, very atmospheric, fits perfectly in the game.

The story is good, I don't know how precise is, when it comes to the historical events, but it's up to you to do a research. Now, you are an assassin (a word that comes from Arabic 'hashashin', the killer sect that used to assassinate specific people, war leaders, religious leaders, politicians, etc ) named Altair. The name 'hashashin' constantly reminded me of Eddie Izzard's famous joke about hashish and Arab assassins. Altair makes a mistake in the first mission which is actually a tutorial, but after that, his leader strips away his skills and weapons, so that you can go and start the game properly, and to upgrade yourself sh*t But, before that you realize that the gameplay is actually an virtual memory image from a guy named Desmond Miles, who is a descendant of Altair. And he is kidnapped and persuaded to take place in an scientific experiment to discover deepest memories of ancestors via machine called Amnibus. Sounds pretty cool, right? Now, every time you lay down on amnibus, you become Altair. And then, you take various missions, assassinations primarily, pickpocket, spying on people, interrogation and other minor challenges. The gameplay is decent, not that hard, you just need to adapt to these kind of controls, and to a fact that this is an third person, adventure stealth game. I don't like stealth games, I prefer first person shooters, where I can enter the But, after this game, I learn to love stealth in video games more. You really need patience for this game, for every moment of it, because, here's the thing that makes me angry. The cut scenes are pretty long, it takes a pretty long time to enter the game, it takes a hell of a lot more to exit the damn thing so just give patience and everything will be just fine. And get use to the controls, sometimes Altair can be clumsy in battle and sometimes it happens that he can't grab onto a building, but you need to get use to it. So, that's about it, take your console, and go ride assassinate, survive, adapt, hide and defile evil and traitorous enemies.

This is Assassin's Creed at its most simple. But simplicity isn't bad, mind you. In fact, it's this game's rawness that still makes it feel a bit different than what followed.

As the very first game of its kind and the first entry to one of the largest gaming franchises, it definitely feels like its goal was to set the foundation of what was to come. In other words, setting up an ambitious and promising framework. As a result, AC1 takes some risks. It's avant-garde in nature, but it's that very nature that makes the subsequent titles seem so sanitized and accessible in comparison.

AC1's story is daring and thought-provoking, questioning life on Earth and religion. It's very much a game that prioritizes its themes over a deep character arc and a nuanced plot. Altaïr's character arc is still good, just not as prominent as one would expect. The plot is straight forward, but leaves enough room for the mysterious and thematically-driven narrative to flex its muscles. The storytelling feels very akin to Ghost in the Shell (1995) at times, with lots of dialogue and philosophical discussions. But the arguments presented here are genuinely well thought-out, and that is partly due to the strong script. Then there's also the suspensefully mysterious worldbuilding that makes the story much more expansive than it already is. The ability to leave the player with more questions than answers, but in a fair and compelling way, is the story's greatest strength.

The gameplay may seem simple on the surface (because it is), but there's more going on when you actually engage and experiment with it. The parkour may seem slow when you engage with it in a casual way, but when you add a bit of tactic, you'll realize that there's a deeper system behind it than you originally thought (even with special animations that you wouldn't see via casual play). The combat sees a similar level of depth, but to a lesser extent. Another interesting layer to the gameplay is the marriage of narrative exposition and how it can open up opportunities during gameplay. Doing certain missions will inform you about secret pathways for assassinating targets - granted, the player remembers that information.

Lastly, there's the atmosphere and art direction. AC1 has a bleak and gritty look, but the atmosphere and art direction go hand-in-hand very well. Certain environments are characterized by particular color schemes and the soundtrack informs the player of what kind of culture and history settles in these environments. A lot of the time, during story moments, this game has a very eerie vibe to it. The mix of ominous sci-fi and dark history only makes the atmosphere even more unsettling.

AC1, despite being the most simplistic game in the mainline series, still feels like the most unique entry. Its ideas are presented in ways that have been trivialized in later games. Its much more niche because of that. The series would go on to be a much more accessible historical/sci-fi epic, but this first entry is what Assassin's Creed could've been. An eerie and challenging series that analyses philosophy and questions conspiracies.

Let's start with the good... - The game is smooth and looks very good - The Parkour is very good - The combat is great - The story is great - It was very innovative at the time

Now the bad... - Incredibly repetitive - Ridiculously frustrating at times - Often boring

Not a great game, but it's playable. The main reason for playing would be the story. I'm just getting into the series, and I wanted to start from the very beginning, which is basically the only reason anyone would ever have to play it.

Compared to some of the other additions in the franchise, this game is horrible. But compared to E.T. The Video Game, this game is The Shawshank Redemption. It's all about perspective.