Assassin's Creed Review (X360)

Assassin’s Creed is one of the most intriguing, fresh, fun, and absolutely impressive games to come to the Xbox 360. The presentation is stunning and the gameplay will hook you and not let you go for hours at a time. It is not a perfect game by any means, but when you take your time to really experience everything the game has to offer rather than rushing through it, the flaws fade and the strengths shine even brighter. Assassin’s Creed is a great game that is among the very best of 2007.

Assassin’s Creed is a third-person action game that mixes stealth, free running, sword fighting, and more to create one of the most uniquely satisfying and enjoyable games on the Xbox 360. You play as an assassin in the Holy Land in the 12th century, and it is your job to explore the cities of Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus and find and kill nine political targets. You are free to explore each of the cities along with the kingdom in between them, and the scale of the game can only be described as massive. You can fast travel to the cities, thankfully, but you can also explore the kingdom on horseback and it is actually pretty fun to just head out and see the sights. Your main objective is, of course, to head into town and assassinate your targets, and that is where Assassin’s Creed really starts to prove its worth.

The gameplay in Assassin’s Creed is split into a few different parts. First, you get your orders and then head out to that particular city. Once there, you are free to go out into the city to find information on your target. You do this by climbing high towers, and after you take a look around, new objectives appear on your HUD. They include eavesdropping on a conversation, pick pocketing, beating someone up until they talk, or speaking with an informant who will help you after you perform some task for them. Once you have enough information on your target, you can then pursue them and kill them. Each assassination provides different challenges due to layout of the city and the number of guards. The best possible scenario is that you are just a silent blade in the crowd and you can get in, kill them, and then get out without being noticed. More often than not, though, at least on your first playthrough, you’ll probably mess up and have to kill them in open combat, fight off a few dozen guards, and then try to run away and hide so you can sneak off and report to your superiors. Whether you do it stealthily or you bumble around like a drunken idiot, though, Assassin’s Creed always manages to be fun.

We continue our review and talk about Assassin's Creed's flaws and successes as well as the presentation on Page 2 ...