Remember the Creed
Assassin's Creed is a game experience that I will always remember. I will always remember first seeing this game at my cousin's house. First seeing the awesome looking combat, beautiful graphics, and badass of the main character. It was the game that convinced me on getting a 360. Its just a shame that a lot of the things that I will remember, aren't necessarily good things.
I have started this game so many times I can remember all the dialogue from the beginning of the game word for word. Not because I wanted to replay it mind you, its because I stopped playing the game several times, came back later, forgot where I was, and just restarted!
You play the game as Desmond Miles, a man held by a company called Abstergo Industries. They seem to want whats in your head, your memories from previous ancestors. To do this they have a machine called an Animus. This animus directly sends you back to live the life of your ancestors. They want a specific memory from a man named Altair, an Assassin from the days of the Third Crusade. Why is Altair special? What do they want to find? Well, if you played the future games you already know so yeah.
Altair's story is probably the one your more interested in. Altair and two other Assassin's, Malik and his brother, are looking for an ancient artifact. Altair, who has started taking advantage of the creed, not truly understanding its meaning (nothing is true, everything is permitted) immediately fucks it up and loses his shit when sees the leader of the Templar's there.
Because of this fuck up, Al Mualim (leader of Assassin's) takes away Altair's rank, weapons, skills, and everything else, in order to make him relearn the creed he once believed in. Altair's story is one of redemption, and as a character he does eventually grow, learning to apologize for the stupid shit he's done, and he goes through several mindfucks in this game. Seriously, this guy is learning lessons all over the place.
The graphics still hold up 5 or 6 years later, as they don't focus on the faces as much as they do in AC 2, which do look hideous here as well. The game has a large open world that opens up to you in time, but there is not a god damn thing to do in this world! Lets get to the combat.
First thing you need to know, combat is okay. The game plays like a rhythm game, where you have to time your sword strokes right. It can get frustrating in a big crowd of enemies, which you will likely be fighting a lot of later in the game, so your better off just sticking to your counters until you find enemies they don't work on.
Oh yes, counters. Glorious counters. These things didn't even become old up until Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. These things were awesome. Its too bad the game takes them away from you after you lose all your ranks. Its quite annoying in games, playing with such awesome shit, then having it get taken away!
Now lets talk about the repetitiveness. The game has you doing several things before each assassination if you want to get full sync. You need to do six investigations (three if you're lazy), save citizens around the city, and reach view points to extend your map. That's it. Seriously. You can collect flags too. That's it. The investigations are all the same too, as they do repeat themselves.
The assassinations are what you came for though right? Well they are the BEST in the series. Yes. The one aspect Assassin's Creed never improved upon was assassinations, because in the future games, they are so goddamn linear its not even funny. Even in golden child AC2! In this game, using the information learned from investigations you can pick the perfect way to kill your target. Sure its not as open as Hitman: Blood Money, but you still get far more choice then in future games. Once you do kill your target you get to have a five minute conversation with him in an entirely new area, presumably with all the guards standing there and watching, being polite and let you finish.
Now the gameplay on Desmond's side. Most hated it, I loved it. Learning bits of information from emails, snooping around the lab, it was fun. Sure, it kind of killed pacing, but it was the most interesting aspect of the game! Not to say the present day parts of the newer ones didn't blow!
Assassin's Creed is a great game, marred by odd story choices, repetitive gameplay, boring combat, and to some, a present day storyline. I do like the game enough to warrant it a 4/5.
