An amazing title with great sights, sounds, story, and great innovation in gameplay. BUY IT!!! I'll wait....
The Game is virtually perfect. Want to talk graphics? Even on my crappy 1996 Panasonic, it looks AMAZING. Unlike most "realistic" games, it explores all spectrum of colors. Everything is bright and vibrant where it should be, and the game can also be dull and toned down where it needs to. You've got 4 huge cities to explore, plus a "Kingdom" that connects all of them. You will see all types of architecture, of building styles, clothing styles, rich areas, poor, middle class, thugs, public speakers, oppressive guards... It's really well done in terms of art direction, technical prowess, and variety. The animations and physics are also top-notch. There is no pop-in, no major glitches ( The only glitch I've seen was Al-Mualim's head went through a tapestry for .12 of a second), the shadows look great, and everything is crisp, detailed, and life like. The game really shines in making you feel as if it's a living place. Everything moves, every thing flows, and it feels very lifelike. The textures on everything look amazing, even in SD. If you want to show of an HD setup, this is a go-to game. It's probably a shade better than Gears in terms of graphics.
And you'll want surround sound as well. The music is very well done. It fits the settings and time period well, and it is either mellow, in the background, blending in, or fast and high paced, during battles sequences. The attention to sound detail is great as well. You can stare at a horses feet while galloping, and notice that the sound is cued up EXACTLY when it hits the ground. Video and audio are always synchronized. The sound effects are also very good. You can hear children running and laughing, birds twittering, guards whining, merchants shouting, wind blowing... If you stand up and close your eyes, you'd swear you were in a real city. Even better is the audio immersion. When some one is in front of you talking, you feel like the sound is coming from in front of you ( I've got a gaming chair, so It's actually coming from behind). A lot of Devs recycle and and re use the same music an sounds, but the team at Ubisoft really took time to work on this.
Then you've got the gameplay. The main new mechanic is the ability to climb your surroundings. Anywhere you can see, you can go. You are actually encouraged to climb to the tallest points, as it reveals more of the map, as well as being ******* awesome!It is so much fun to feel like an action star, sprinting and juping across the city. It works very well, the controls make it very easy, but still rewarding when you get to the top of a building. Also, Don't think it's like Mario. You don't just walk on the surfaces, and one foul stroke of the analog stick and you're screwed. You "Stick" to surfaces your climbing. For example, when you run across a beam or plank, just hold down the right trigger and press forward on the Control stick. Even if you try pushing diagonally, Altair doesn't go plummetting to his doom. Really, I'd recommend a Demo, or playing it at a friends house to really get it.
Some other mechanics include the stealth system and the socially acceptable moves. The Stealth is self explanatory, and being that ubisoft has done very well with Splinter Cell, they've taken the best parts of it and added it into elements of Hitman. You can "Blend" and pretend to be a scholar, as well as hide in "Hide spots" like benches, roof gardens and hay piles. Now obviously, if you go sprinting down the street doing long jumps over people, in real life, people would be somewhat annoyed. In Assassin's Creed, there are socially acceptable actions, which will make the guards leave you alone, and let you blend into the crowd, like lightly pushing people out of the way, walking, blending, or jogging. Doing things like sprinting, Jumping, tackling people, brandishing weapons, bumping into people, and breaking things, tends to raise attention. If the gaurds are relaxed, IE no dead bodies, the threat meter is white, they are just going about their day, they will leave you alone when you do high profile things. They will call you stupid, and comment on your strange-ness, but no violence. However, if the gaurds are tensed, like if there are dead bodies nearby, or a Hit has just been carried out, those high profile actions will cause them to attack you. It works really well.
The Story has 2 plots, one is Sci-Fi, and one is the assassin's. They are both very good, and only one has a crappy ending. I'll leave it at that.
Overall, it's an amazing experience, with tons to do, a great story, great Sights and sounds, and a fun feeling to it, as well as a great new innovation with the climbing system. Buy it. I played it For a Week straight.