Jade Raymond is gorgeous and so is this game.
You play as the assassin Altair in the holy land circa 1191. Basically, you're given the task of killing nine political figures and restoring order to the land. You're given a wide array of tools from swords, daggers, throwing knives and of course hidden blades. You can climb any building you want with a go anywhere you want vibe. Think of this as Grand Theft Carriage and Jade Raymond is hot.
... or is it? See you're actually a guy named Desmond who is controlling your past self using a device known as the animus. Basically, these bad dudes want to steal the knowledge of your dead ancestors. Ok, so it has a sci-fi subplot but it was interesting and that's all that matters. And by the way, Jade Raymond, marry me.
Graphically, Assassin's Creed is stunning. Beautiful vistas, complex architecture and an attention to detail second to none, this game looks great. No wonder the recently released PC version has such high specs. The game has occasional framerate issues and bugs in this department but for the most part, it looks phenomenomal. Another aspect that looks great is Jade Raymond.
The sound also is atmospheric and suits the game well. None of the Prince of Persia hard rock crap. The voice acting is also superb but Altair sounds like a California teenager. Kristen Bell also does voice acting and she's easily becoming my favorite girl ever second only to Jade Raymond.
The main problem with the game is that it can get repetive. Before you get to the satisfying assassination, you have to do a variety of climbing buildings, saving citizens, pickpocketing, collecting flags and the like. The problem is these sequences often repeat and feel identical to the last time you did them. I felt the developers did this to make the game longer. You can actually avoid a lot of these extra missions if you don't want to but then the game would probably be 4 hours long and that's way too short for a $59.99 game. Unlike Jade Raymond who is the perfect height.
Another problem is the relative simplicity of the combat. The "animus" that Desmond uses to control Altair and each of the 360's face buttons become a different part of the body. The controls work well and are intuitive but combat becomes relatively one button mixed in with occassional blocks and counters. Sometimes the whole free-running bit gets touchy but I usually didn't find a gripe with that. I would definitely want to touch Jade Raymond... uhhhh.. nevermind.
Even with the complaints, I loved this game. It is so exhilirating and satisfying to do things like climbing buildings, killing your target then running from your pursuers and even throwing homeless ladies around that the multitude of flaws that you can notice become trivial. I think reviewers had really high hopes and that ultimately influenced their final verdict of the game. The game regardless of how you slice it, looks and feels like 1191 AD and that is simply a testament to the team at Ubisoft. I think if you like these Action Adventure type games, you owe it to yourself to take the creed.
Now you might be wondering who is Jade Raymond. She's the sexy producer of Assassin's Creed. Why am I obsessed? I find her attractive, charming and a gamer. She's simply the perfect girl. So yeah forget Jade Raymond and play Assassin's Creed, it's really good.