Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed is a game about a man named Desmond (That's right, not Altair) who is caught up in a crazed science experiment, for the pursuit of figuring out the past of Altair, an assassin who lived in the year 1191 A.D. How are they going to discover this through a present- day bartender? Well, the mad scientist has discovered that people's memories are stored in their DNA, and that Altair is an ancestor of our Desmond. Believable? Not a bit. Do you mind, or do you just wanna stab someone? That's what I thought. So, as you go through the memories of Altair, you are occasionally getting pulled out of the memories to see the scientist and his assistant talking about things you have no idea about, and you basically wait to get back into the action.
Graphics in this game are no doubt great. They aren't the best you will ever have seen, but they are without a doubt gorgeous. You will find yourself getting into trouble just because you wanted to see how he looked when climbing something in particular ( Save you some time, a little itchy). Anyways, the character animations are the real thing that you notice, as the character moves nearly flawlessly at all times, no matter what he is doing. As a very free game, you will definitely want to push your game as far as you can, which in my experience will get you stuck in people, walls, benches, and even freeze your PS3. When climbing, you may notice some strange things (i.e. arm going through his body) which are mostly just because of the strange ragdoll style climbing method (hands and legs are free to move separate from the body).
Sound in this game is for the most part very nicely done. The voice acting is never overdone, although many o the accents surprised me, not that it took away from the game at all. Weapons hit with great sound and feedback, which is greatly appreciated. Every sound you could need in there is there, and is the right volume to make you feel immersed. The only problems I would have is the annoying beeps you would get being chased, and when in very long chases when you are unexperienced, you might just want to stab your ears until the blood will fill your buds to stop the sound (might). In game script is the biggest problem, hearing the same thing over and over again, just in different accents,sometimes within the next second. When climbing you will hear the same thing constantly that makes you want to just shank them all (which would make you lose, so :( to that)
Gameplay is my most awkward experience in this game. Free running is without a doubt the most fun you'll have in this game, as I was still having fun even when I had already beaten the game. The chase is sometimes fun when you are doing crazy fast lines around the city, dodging and assassinating at every turn. But when you are frustrated by those guards attacking you just for walking closeby, not scholar- like, You most likely will want to attack them and defeat them quickly instead of being chased around for 10 minutes trying to find an extremely obvious place to hide.
Controls are very tight, not much to say, the fight is very simple, not too difficult to pick up and be great at, with fights afterward not getting much harder. You will have two types of control schemes, high profile and low, toggled by holding and releasing the R1 button. Controls are mapped to the face buttons, Triangle putting you into first person Intuition/ Eagle Vision mode, Square drawing your weapon, Circle using your open hand to grab people, and X to dodge, climb, anything like that.
The story, the most important part of any game, is confusing. Not to say that it is bad, but, it is confusing. As you play through the game you will continually change sides to root for in Altair's memory, as you play as Desmond you just get less and less confused, and in the end much more. The two stories really never cross indefinitely, but as the first part of three games, there really isn't much to complain for.
Assassin's Creed is fun. Not really much to add, so if you read any of my rambling, read that sentence. This game should apply to nearly everyone, and is a good rent at least, and a definite buy if you like to find those little collectibles tucked away everywhere (I really don't know how people can collect all of those, there's a lot). It's an easy 8.5 for being a great game that you can easily run through without even noticing you did anything (Just like White Castle).