Assassin's Creed doesn't fulfill ambitious heights people hoped, but it is fun to play and indicates a promising future.
The gameplay centers around a stealth-inspired adventure over the shoulders of our third-person protagonist, Alstair. Most of the game is spent re-attaining his stripped powers, unfortunately anticipating the use of his crossbow, uncovering new areas through exploration, and assassinating ten targets throughout the three cites. Alstair occasionally has the need to resort to swordplay in the form of one-button combat to fend off guards that catch on to his identity of "Assassin." While the combat is entirely one-dimensional, the countering options and cinematics following each successful kill keep the combat from becoming boring altogether. Eventually, it's possible to fight against the guards using the counter-attack of the handblade, which keeps more Tweak Gamers engaged without the monotonous task of blocking and attacking.
The most highly anticipated portion of the gameplay, however, comes from Alstair's seamless bound from rooftop to rooftop, persued by guards or otherwise directed toward infiltrating the territory of your mark. All other forms of stealth are reduced to a press of a button that makes Alstair walk slowly with his head bowed, which puts off the attention of virtually every guard. Only assassins run through cities in the universe of Assassin's Creed. Despite the lackluster stealth, the freedom demonstrated in climbing up and over buildings Prince of Persia-style offers enjoyment in and of itself, and this is a site to behold for first-time players.
Assassinating each target employs most of the challenge in the game. While it's easy to run into a target's territory and counter-attack each guard until you pulverize your mark, the true challenge arises in your attempts to orchestrate the perfect assassination - killing your target quickly, efficiently, and then fleeing the scene.
My main problem with Assassin's Creed lies in its story, which I intially expected to be my highest praise. Without spoilers, the story is told through the perspectives of two characters: Alistair and Desmond. Desmond is another character played in the future by you only through cutscenes and menial walking and talking in between the action of Alstair's gameplay. I was hoping this second story would turn into a stealth-based game on its own, effected by the events that unfold at your hands in the previous time of Alstair's world. Sadly, this second story serves only to set up a world in the near-future for future installments of the AC franchise (presumably). Ubisoft could have cranked out an entirely unique and rich experience through this unanticipated secondary plot, but instead its tacked-on nature leaves much to be desired. Not to mention, the primary plot of the story gets bogged down with too many faceless characters, and long, contrived, spirtless discourses in the form of cutscenes.
Overall, Assassin's Creed does not achieve the greatness the world desired. No new ground has been broken in terms of story-telling and combat. The saving grace of this game comes in its short length (less than 10 hours) and the enjoyment of climbing and running across buildings. With no multiplayer options whatsoever and little replayability, this game is most certainly a rental.