Fun the whole way through...well, not really.
True, the game is very exciting at points: plummeting hundreds of feat down tall buildings into piles of hay, stabbing guards in the throat with your hidden blade and slapping around lepers, but is it enough?
The game follows the ancestor of the lead character Desmond Miles, Altaïr ibn La-Ahad. Altair is the character you control and slay with and it is he whom you complete the game. As Altair, you are a high-ranking member of the Assassin's Guild, Hashshashin, until the first mission causes you to lose both your status and title.
Ruining the story is not what I intend, however; I intend to cover the highs and lows of the game as a whole, beginning with its high points.
The combat system in Assassin's Creed was truly well-designed. Not only can you create combo kills to quickly dispatch your foes using a few well-timed strikes, you can counter your opponent's strikes to finish them just as fast.
After combat, you must become inconspicuous again before you can continue on your merry way. For example, while being chased through town after an assassination, or saving a civilian from certain death, you can leap through merchant stands, blend in with groups of scholars, or hide in rooftop huts, among other things.
The freedom in this game is not as great as in games like GTA or Crackdown, for killing civilians causes you to lose health, or, synchronization. Not to worry, however; there are plenty of guards for you to murder at your leisure. Also, you can choose to explore the connector between cities, Kingdom, which has a fair amount of things for you to do and see.
The music and sound effects couldn't have been better for this type of game and although many of the voice acting is the same lines over and over, it all sounds authentic. Gently pushing through crowds of people during a hot day in Jerusalem actually feels like gently pushing through crowds of people during a hot day in Jerusalem. Especially with a great sound system, this game can put you right in the action.
Story is something I normally look for especially, as a good or bad campaign can make or break a game. That's a good thing for Assassin's Creed, because it does boast quite a compelling campaign. The game keeps you questioning your actions, much like Altair does himself and the ending can be quite a surprise.
And now for the bad.
In terms of re-playability, Assassin's Creed is very lacking. There is nothing you can get by replaying the game after completion, unless you did not succeed in getting all the achievements the first time around, which, except for one, can easily be done. Aside from the achievements being easy to get, they are not very enjoyable to get; I did not buy a game where I play as an assassin to collect flags or talk to girls.
Assassin's Creed is a complete and utter let down when it comes to the missions. They are all basically the same thing: save citizens, jump off buildings, get information, kill the bad guy. Rinse, repeat. It's not like you have great selection in where you do all of this either; it all takes place in either Damascus, Jerusalem or Acre. To add more to the tedium, Damascus and Jerusalem are frighteningly similar in appearance. Sure you may get to explore Kingdom, but that grows tiresome quickly and frankly, this game could do without the city of Masyaf.
So, you ask, if Assassin's Creed has such terrible re-playability and the first play through is all the same anyway, why am I giving it a 7.5? Because, reader, the fun aspects in this game really know how to keep you going. Yea, you might be doing the same thing over and over, but that same thing just happens to be a barrel of monkeys. I know I will never play through this game again, but the one time I did do it, I had a great time.