Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed

The holy land, twelve centuries after the birth of Christ. The Third Crusade brought the Templars in the Promised Land. It was a time of war, a time of fear and the entire realm was affected by the desperate fight between the Muslims and Christians. The only hope of ending the bloodshed lay in the hands of histories most notorious killers. Their name was associated with contract killing in the higher ranking class of population. The angels of death, the assassins, blessing and curse at the same time. Their intention was the pursuit of justice and equality. The only law they knew was the word of their master. Even if they had to give their life for a assignment, they did it without hesitating. There were three basic rules which formed the codex and therefore the life in the brotherhood.
1. Do not kill innocent people
2. Hide from sight
3. Never compromise the brotherhood

Unless there were only these three rules, even they were disregarded by an elite apprentice of the master, a high ranking elite assassin and a selfish one, too. His narrow-minded actions compromised the brotherhood. The player plays a decisive role here and controls the character Altaïr, who was sent to steal the treasure of the Templars and deliver it to the master Al Mualim. However the mission failed, Altaïr presumed to attack his archenemy Robert de Sablé but neither the life of the Templar nor the treasure belongs to him. After this prequel the active part of the player really begins. You have to report to your master about the failed mission after you returned to the stronghold of the assassins. The treasure seems to be lost and the friars who accompany Altaïr are dead. Within the next moment a brother who was reputed to be death appears. He is covered with blood because of the fight with the Templars but still he delivers Al Mualim the desired treasure. Disappointed by his best apprentice Al Mualim decides to stab Altaïr...

This is the end of the first memory of Desmond Miles, an ancestor of Altaïr. He is the second main character in the game. Nearly 800 years after the Third Crusade the actually present is taking place. An organization tries to find the hidden place of the treasure of Templars with the aid of a machine called the Animus by searching through the memories of the kidnapped Desmond Miles.

The Animus allows Desmond to experience the past and the doings of his ancestor Altaïr by analyzing and using his own DNA. Time and time again you get from the past to the present towards defined memory sections, to get close to Desmond's story and to get to know something about the organization in the background. After getting back in the past within the Animus, you will be aware of the fact that Altaïr is not dead, this was only a ritual by what he got reincarnated.

Gameplay:
The controls in Assassin's Creed has a very interesting feature. Every part of the body has its own button. This means one for the head, one for the legs and one for the hands. Furthermore there are two modes for playing Altaïr, a stealth like mode and a aggressive mode. The actions performed by Altaïr depend on the mode he is situated. For example the button for the legs. In the stealth mode Altaïr adopt a praying position, to camouflage as monk to hide in the mass of people. In the aggressive mode he runs or jumps. In the first moment it sounds like an amount of commands which can be executed by Altaïr but only after a few minutes you get acquainted with the controls. The fight system has to phases as well. You attack the enemy in the active part and you try to break his defense as quickly as possible to eliminate him with a direct hit. More interesting is the passive part, because the assassins is nearly unimpeachable in his defensive position, when you control him correctly. You have to wait for the right moment to block the enemy and attack him afterwards. After practicing this is not a problem anymore and you can deal with a dozen guards easy. You can choose out of three weapons. The sword, against strong enemies and for a good defense. The dagger, strong against a lot of enemies and a good choice for quickly eliminating guards. The hidden blade, perfect for killing persons separately and unseen, besides the only weapon for accomplishing the contract kills.

The players attention is intensively drawn to the fight animations, every single murder looks almost acrobatic and you get lust for dueling with enemies. Because of the fact Assassin's Creed is not censored the blood makes the kills even more realistic. Another important aspect besides the murder is the collection of information and also the escaping from the guards. You almost have full freedom of movement and you can choose from running or walking in the streets, climbing, up to jumping from roof to roof. Out of the cities you can ride a horse to get from place to place.

Grafik and Sound:
It is worth to take a second glance on Assassin's Creed. The reflexion of the sun on the cladding of a building as well as on the weapons are very detailed. The design of the people and the environment is always different in this game. The directors of the game studied historical construction plans, architecture and the city maps for creating the ingame cities as realistic as possible. They succeeded in intention and you feel transferred in the twelve century.

Equally the dialogs in the game are well emphasized and you even get the intention of the emotions behind the conversations. While you are going through the cities, you always hear the people talking which appeals the game to be more alive.

The music which accompanies the player the whole game raises always the right atmosphere and is another factor to transfer the player in the past. Graphic and sound are very succeeded. There is only a small mistake, that some noises start a little to late.

Conclusion:
Assassin's Creed is definitely a must-have game. It is between action and role playing game. It makes a lot of fun to explore the streets of Jerusalem and to investigate the intrigues between the Templars and the Muslims and to disclose the secret behind the Templar Treasure and the brotherhood. Graphically and playfully it is a highlight. There is only the small defect that the story seems to be quite linear and you have no chance to make decisions yourself, but this does not matter. Assassin's Creed is really a NextGen game and worth of this title.(daemon-search)