When you think about a game that revolutionizes gaming, i hope you will think of Assassin's Creed
You will first enter Assassin's Creed and your first thought will be... "Am i playing the right game?" The answer is yes you are, you will be in a research facility. Technology has developed so far that by the use of a machine called an Animus, researchers can look into someones past lives. These researchers do this with you, they look into one of your past lives where your name is Altair, you are an assassin in the 1100's and are about to get yourself in trouble with the Assassin's Creed (your clan of sorts).
After a brief tutorial and chance to run around and test your newly learnt skills, they're stripped away from you for disregarding the rules set by the Creed. From there you are back to square one, and your task is to perform nine required Assassinations to climb the ladder back up the ranks within the Creed. Thats about all i will mention on the story out of fear of ruining it for you.
Visuals: The visuals in Assassin's Creed are stunning, climbing to the top of a viewpoint and checking out your surroundings is one of the most rewarding gaming experiences ever, and one im sure you will enjoy. At any one time you could be surrrounded by 100's of NPC's, Ubisoft didnt skimp on the NPC's, they look wonderful as well. Cities such as Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus look brilliant and are covered with more NPC's, each of which you can interact with. To perform an Assassination is a work of art and one im sure you wont be forgetting for some time.
Audio: The audio too is stunning, when progressing through one of the cities you can overhear merchants trying to sell their goods, discussions between members of the public and other such NPC activities. Only one jibe, i have noticed that when Assassinating a templer, the sound is very slightly out of sync with the video. However dont let that discourage you, its very minor and a non-necessary element to the game anyway. Every other element of the Audio is breathtaking. Character voices too are brilliant and in sync with the video
Gameplay: A new element of gameplay was explored in Assassin's Creed: Button-Body correspondence (i made that name up, personally i love it). What it means however is that for example by pressing the Triangle button, you will control Altair's head, by pressing Square you will be controlling his weapon arm. Circle his other arm, and X will control his feet. It may take a little while to adjust to but its definately a positive thing. Controls are sharp too which is always good. If you choose not to progress with the storyline for a while, the playing world is massive and will keep you preoccupied for hours on end.
When planning for your next Assassination you have the option of barging in and fighting your way to your target (effective but risky) or using a stealth approach, blending in with scholars, climbing rooftops and pouncing on your prey. All unbelievably believeable methods of approach and you feel extremely proud of yourself once you have performed your Assassination, however its not over yet, now the entire city is on its toes on the lookout for you, you need to shake your chasers and make your way back to the Assassination Bereau without being killed yourself, this can be tough if your Assassination approach was stealthy because it means you left a hell of a lot of guards alive, meaning there are more chasing you. Luckily there are more than a few giant haystacks scattered about which you can hide in, however theyre useless unless you break the line of sight with the guards.
Assassin's Creed is one of those games which will have you gushing whilst playing and gushing afterwards too, and would be on track with Super Mario Galaxy for this years game of the year. If you have a PS3 or an Xbox360 you owe it to yourself to pick up this game, its one you wont forget.
Thanks for your time reading, its my longest review to date and i hope it helped you.
- Paul James