For those not in the know, Assassin's Creed is an Ubisoft produced game. In Assassin's Creed, you play as Altair, for the majority of the game. Altair is an assassin from the Assassins Order, and he lives in the time of the Crusades. Altair, once one of the master assassins, has been demoted to the rank of Uninitiated, the lowest rank in the Order. He must travel and assassinate 9 targets to regain his rank. Each successful assassination grants Altair new equipment, abilities and rank. These assassination missions take place in Acre, Jerusalem and Damascus.
There are multiple flaws in the game that prevent it from what it could have been, a masterpiece.
Guard AI
The guards in Assassin's Creed are horribly inept at fighting. Once you've unlocked your counter ability, which is unlocked after your 2nd assassination, you can easily take on 5 or more guards without getting cut once. All you have to do is defend, and then counter as they lunge for their attack. You can easily kill an army of guards in next to no time. Unfortunately, your assassination targets fight the same way, making assassinations extraordinarily simple.
Battle Variety
While battle based on counter is fine if the counter isn't overpowered, it isn't enough to make a game great. Players need more variety. Abilities like fighting on ladders would be great, rather than just kicking and punching. Sure, you might lose your balance and fall and hurt yourself, but it provides another aspect to the sparsely feature-populated battle. It would also be more entertaining and challenging if Altair was occasionally on the back foot. All too often during rooftop battles, you can force your enemy to the roof's edge and push him off.
Civilians
The “everyday” people in Assassin's Creed subtract a lot from the game. Whereas GTA IV had a massive variation of civilians who seemed to be engaged in their daily lives, the people of Assassin's Creed seem to do nothing more than walk around the same area repeatedly, just waiting to be saved, killed or left to wander. If more of the civilians led to side missions, the game would be far less repetitive and far more entertaining and varied.
Sound
The sound in Assassin's Creed is generally non-existent and when it is present, it is generally terrible. Altair is meant to be a 12th century assassin, not a boring, 25-year-old, American man working in an office. The voice of Altair is simply horrid, which is a pity considering most of the other characters sound great. That being said, the variety of comments by civilians in the cities isn't great. We hear a lot of lines such as “He should stop acting like a child” repeatedly when Altair is climbing. There is also a distinct lack of music during the game, which subtracts from the atmosphere and makes the game seem a lot slower than it really is.
Time of Day
Another factor that detracts from Assassin's Creed is the time of day ingame. The whole game takes place during the daytime, which detracts from the atmosphere of being an assassin. It removes a lot of the stealth factors from the game and makes your assassinations feel less important and less effective.
All those flaws aside, Assassin's Creed is still a very good game. The feeling you get after successfully assassinating a guard or target and getting away unnoticed is great. The ability to climb buildings, hop between rooftops and scaffolding is an amazing experience that can keep you entertained far longer that most other features. The fact that there are 3 distinct, individual cities you play out your adventure in is great.
Overall, I would rate Assassin's Creed as a 7.9. Assassin's Creed is the kind of game you want to buy, but you should probably wait until it drops in price or is available pre-owned. If you're looking for a cross between stealth and action, this is it.
