Assassin’s Creed is a game that came out in 2007. Little did any gamer know that this would be a first of a long series of games that would be entirely unique to other video games.
The Story
First things first. The game centres around two separate organisations. The Assassin’s and the Templars. The Assassin’s are a Creed that believe in peace by freeing the world from those who would seek to control. The Templars also seek peace but they believe the only way to do this is to manipulate everyone in the world. These two organisations have fought against each other for thousands of years. Originally set in 2012, Desmond Miles (a bartender), is kidnapped by the company Abstergo Industries (the modern version of the Templars) and is used as test subject known by everyone as Subject 17. Desmond is put into something called an “Animus,” a ‘bed looking’ device that can simulate ancestor’s memories by tapping into any person’s brain. Abstergo intends to put Desmond in the device to recall the memories of his ancestor Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad, a member of the Assassin Brotherhood in Masyaf in the year 1191, who lived during the Third Crusade in the Holy Land to find an artefact called a ‘Piece of Eden’. Desmond relives Altaïr’s past exploits over the next several days while trying to answer some of his own questions.
The Game Play
As I said at the very beginning, this is a truly unique game not only for it’s story but mainly for it’s game play. While you are in the animus there are many features that you can use that let you fully control Altaïr. Firstly, you can walk, jog, sprint, blend (such as sitting on benches with citizens), climb and free fall off certain buildings into haystacks called ‘Leap of Faith’. You can also select what weapon you wish to choose. You can choose the un-armed combat, sword, throwing knives and hidden blade in which to assassinate enemies. All of these skills and weapons fused with a free roaming map make this game very enjoyable. You can do what you want when you want. Up to a point. If you hurt an innocent person you can loose health and potentially loose synchronisation. You will respawn at a previous checkpoint. Your health is portrayed as a bar that depletes if you fall, get hurt or de-synchronise. Luckily your health bar regenerates over time. There are optional objectives you can complete as well. You can collect flags, reveal more of the city maps on your select menu screen by performing ‘Leap of Faiths’, perform tasks for other assassin’s and much more. I love this game play but the only problem I have with it is that when you are running around on buildings and climbing, you have to be really precise on where to go as you could find yourself walking into walls and not going anywhere. Plus when you are climbing tall buildings it takes so long to get up there. Not good if you are in a heated chase.
The Graphics
Considering this game came out in 2007 this is a great game that tries to put as much detail into everything as well as trying to keep everything realistic and as close as to what life was like back in the 1100’s.
The Music
To be honest there was not anything in the way quality. None of the music seems to stand out. I think the composers struggled to come up with something imaginative. The only real intrigue is how they create background music for the different city maps that are inspired by stereotypical instruments from those real world locations. But in all fairness this game was an experiment to see if they had potential for future games. More work and dedication was put into Story, game play and graphics.
So all in all this is a fantastic game which I like to play all the way through again every now and then. But compared to future games this was more like baby steps.
That is why I have given this game… 7/10
