Do you follow the tenants of the creed? Do you kill for vengeance or justice? There is only one way to find out.
Imagine you are back in the year 1191. It is the time of crusaders, templars, simple townsfolk and even simpler noblemen. You are a member of the assassin's guild, tasked with eliminating various templars, as well as the high level henchmen of your guildmaster's nemesis, Robert de Sable. Clothed only in the sun drenched ivory robes of the scholar, and carrying hidden blades that thirst for blood, you leap over rooftops, avoiding guards and striking like a bolt of lightning and then vanishing into the crowd. If this sounds like the life for you, then sit back and enjoy the ride.
Without trying to spoil anything, you play as Altair, an assassin who is tasked with various missions as he rises through the ranks of the assassin's guild. The guild is led by Al Mualim ("The Teacher"), and he serves as Altair's mentor and harsh taskmaster throughout the game.
Your only weapons are the sword, and throwing knives, which can also be used up close as dual short blades (think Raphael from the Ninja Turtles). While this may not seem like many weapons, they are more than adequate for dispatching the game's many foes.
The graphics in the game are a visual treat and there is plenty of eye candy to gawk at. From the sunlight glistening off your sword to the dust particles blowing in the wind as you run across rooftops, to the city views from high on top various structures, it all looks quite amazing and is one game you wont mind staring at for hours on end.
The controls are pretty easy, once you get the hang of things. You tap one button to attack, can chain attacks into combos by timing button presses, and use the various other buttons for dodges and grabs, while locked onto your opponents. You dont have to lock onto opponents, however, and can still be quite deadly, either way, though I found locking on gives me an advantage, however slight it may be. Altair is probably one of the most fluid characters in a video game, he jumps and climbs and dodges, and its all nearly effortless to pull off and looks fantastic to boot. (If only Spider Man moved like this!)
The music and sound effects in the game are nice as well. The music is pretty subdued, which is nice because the sound effects as so well done. You'll hear the clash of blades, the squish of organs and splattering of blood. There are tons of sound effects, like if you kill a guard in a fountain, you'll hear the water spilling onto the body which sounds good, but doesn't quite sound much like any other sound in the game.
The game also features three distinct, living, breathing, fully populated cities to explore, Damascus, Acre (akka), and Jerusalem. All three look fantastic and feature townspeople that are walking around, at all times. As a sandbox style game it works very well, as you'll often have to move people out of the way to accomplish your goals, or lure certain unsavory individuals to dark corners to "interrogate" them (like you did back in high school).
If there are any complaints to be had, they are relatively minor ones, such as the repetitiveness of the missions you'll be asked to perform, or the fact that when you're fighting a large group of enemies, you'll sometimes get the camera into angles where it will hinder you more than help you out.
Minor quibbles aside, Assassin's Creed is a fantastic game. If you're at all in love with sandbox style action adventure and have not taken the plunge, and have been wondering what all the fuss is about, you really owe it to yourself to check it out.