Fantastic but Flawed Great game play, but halfway through be prepared for tedious repetition.
Controls
The Controls are among the best I have played in a long time. Doing simple things like running were smooth, fluid, and lots of fun. Jumping up walls, running along beams, and leaping from rooftops was amazing. (The Tomb Raider team should be taking notes). There was some challenge in learning the controls, especially combat. Novice players will have difficulties with the controls in the beginning, but it's such a fun game to control that it should not dissuade them from giving it a try.
Controlling the horse was a little cumbersome, but it was still fun as long as you didn't get into a small or narrow area. Also the horse combat seemed clunky, difficult to hit enemies from horseback and in the end pointless since you can just out run enemies that are on foot.
Graphics
The Graphics are very good, great camera work and wonderful art direction, and absolutely amazing animations. My only negative is that is the lacking in the color department….the world is mad up of mostly shaded of grey and brown, particularly the cities
Game Play
The basic game play is a series of moving through an environment, mostly city environments, but some wilderness areas as well. Running, jumping, climbing and moving slowly to blend into the crowds are all big parts of the minute to minute game play. Trying not to attract attention to yourself, or draw the attention of the guards is a common practice.
Combat is fantastic, creating a wonder feeling as you duel with 3-6 guards all at the same time is incredibly difficult and they did a great job making you feel like a deadly swordsman. Normally you don't want to do this, especially in the beginning of the game when you are weak and don't have a good grasp of the controls.
The other environment is the overland world, where you can grab a horse and rip across the land. They have some controls that let you swing your sword, but I never felt a reason to fight a group of people you could more than easily outrun.
Stealth kills are preferable since attention normally means that 2-6 guards could show up at any moment and help their fellow guardsman out. Plus it is so much fun to sneak up on enemies and use your nasty stealth blade, a spring loaded blade that pops out just as you strike. One of the most satisfying kills to perform is run at a target and stealth kill him by leaping into the air and stabbing him in the neck as you slam his face into the ground.
City activities were interesting, but ultimately to few to prevent tedious repetition. Climb Tower, Pick Pockets, Ease Dropping, Interrogation, and Save Citizen are the only things you can do in a city other then the assigned mission. There are three sections to every city, and each section has 3 or 4 of each of these, except Climb Tower witch was more like 9, so the repetition gets obvious and boring about half way thought the game.
Story
First I have to say that I don't play games to get a story, its nice, but its an afterthought for me, if I want story, Ill read a book or watch a movie…so spare me your "Cinematic Experience", thanks. With that said:
The story was interesting, and it has moments that surprised me. I admit that I was curious, even anxious to see what was going to happen next. But I can't say the characters were believable, or moved me emotionally, or did any of the things a really good story is supposed to do.
Sound
The sound was great. People yelling and the sounds of them chasing you were very cool. All the random chatter of the people in the city was fantastic. I will say they could have used more, it got obvious when I started hearing the exact same dialog over and over every time I performed specific and frequently repeated tasks.
Music
The music was minimal, and by that I mean it was not intrusive and provided just the right amount of background atmosphere. I will also say that it also did not leave me with a strong memory ether.
The Fatal Flaw
Near the end of the game I encountered a fatal flaw that corrupted my save game making it impossible to complete. The character would fall through sections of the world and die. Also, there would be duplicate Altairs that I could control both at the same time. Both would move and fight, even targeting and attacking each other, eventually leading to Altair's death.
Final Score
Assassins Creed is a great game, but the flaws made it tiresome to continue playing, and a rare but fatal bug made it impossible for me to finish.
Some day I may go back and play it again just so I can finish the game, but this is my score and it will stay this way forever as my first experience.
Final Score = 8.0
So there you have it! Good luck and happy hunting.