Despite it's downfalls Assassins Creed is worth at least a one-time play-through (Game-guide is recommended)
You'll spend a large part of Assassins Creed in three famous medieval cities completing missions (AKA "hit jobs" AKA "assassinate bad guys") and return to the Assassins Creed's main base to regain your honor, which you lost at the beginning of the game, as well as all your abilities and weapons… (hmmm, does it smell like Samus Aran in here? Remember? She always loses her power ups at the beginning of all her games… heh.)
Game play is extremely fun, cool and satisfying (imagine being able to assassinate your target all alone in a dark alley after having raced across rooftops and trailed slowly behind him through innumerous crowds waiting for just the right moment before going in for the kill) controls aren't complicated once you get used to them. Big battles are exciting at first but can get tedious after a while.
Environments are, simply put, amazing. Kudos to the artists who worked on this game, it must have taken forever and a half to have built all the cities in this title (and make everything work) Everything looks so real and feels authentic to the time (the future included) One of the most satisfying parts of this game to me was climbing up the view points, checking out the scenery, and then doing the death jumps to land (completely safe and unharmed) into the waiting hay-carts below.
Music adds excitement to the battle and serenity to calmer parts in the game, but grows old and stale after awhile (imagine Final Fantasy VII's exact same fight music every random encounter.)
Alright, now for some downfalls… 3 words: "Buy a flipping game-guide" okay 4 words, but you get the point. In the middle map connecting all the cities I got so frustrated because I got so freakin lost! And people kept attacking me! Some of the time I could just out run them on my horse but they usually frustrated that by hacking at my horse's legs, thus forcing me to the ground for a fight. Also I kept wandering around until I found a path only to take it all the way down (battling along the way) just to find out I had reached the wrong city. It was only after reading the game-guide that I figured out where to go and how to put markers on the min-map as a guide… bleh! Also don't even THINK about collecting all the flags on all the different maps without help… unless you plan on playing this game for a LONG time…
The beginning of this game delivers thrills and excitements and every turn, unfortunately what seems so cool at first begins to wear off and like the story's plot, doesn't turn out as cool as it first appeared to be. Near the end playing felt more like a chore to see how it all ends up rather than exciting and fulfilling like before.
Though the ending was climatic (sort of) it ended abruptly without much of even an attempt at an explanation, let alone an attention-grabbing cliffhanger, leaving the gamer with a WTF? expression on his face and the thought "they better make a sequel to this because that is definitely an open ended plot… or maybe like a whole bunch of open ended plots…"
However despite it's downfalls Assassins Creed is worth at least a one time play-through; players will be rewarded with true medieval assassin wall climbing action, heart pounding roof jumps, and stylized swashbuckler battles, with a splash of mysterious futuristic scientist and intrigue. Sounds like your bowl of soup? Then eat up, but be warned, the food goes cold quickly.