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Overview

Assassin's Creed is a video game by Ubisoft. The game takes place during the Third Crusade in the year 1191 CE. The gamer plays as Altaïr, a member of the assassin sect Hashshashin.

Initially, he fails in slaying the leader of the Templars because he broke the tenets of the Creed leading to his dishonor and nearly his execution. To redeem himself and his honor among his brothers, the sect leader Al Mualim orders Altaïr to assassinate nine historical figures who are propagating the Crusades, and cause much suffering for the people. As the gamer finds and kills these targets their ultimate conspiracy is unveiled. The player is able to travel through three cities in the heart of the Holy Land: Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus.

Plot

Messenger of the Assassins

The game tells two stories simultaneously. One is that of a young assassin named Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad, a master assassin for an organization called the Hashshashin during the Crusades of the late 12th century. The other is about one of Altaïr's descendants, a bartender named Desmond Miles living in the near future.

In the year 2012, Miles is kidnapped by a huge corporate conglomerate known as Abstergo Industries, who influences the world from the shadows. They need to access secrets held in his genetic memory -- specifically, certain aspects of his ancestor Altaïr's life. They do this by using a machine, known as an Animus, which renders genetic memories into 3D landscapes. Unfortunately Desmond does not possess the confidence to step into the proper memory of his ancestor. Therefore, in order to increase their synchronization, Desmond must must work his way to the target memory by carrying out nine assassination quests that were given to Altaïr.

Altaïr’s story begins with him trying to retrieve "The Piece of Eden" together with two other assassins, Malik and his brother from Solomon’s Temple. In his mission to retrieve this artifact Altaïr breaks all

A blade in a crowd

three tenets of the Assassin’s Creed to try and kill the Templar master, Robert IV de Sablé, who obstructs Altaïr’s quest. After being thrown through a wall, Altair is forced to escape back to Masyaf where he leaves his allies behind. He then returns to Al Mualim, leader of the assassins, who reveals that Malik lived, but lost an arm and his brother because of Altair's arrogance. They did, however, recover the treasure.

As a consequence of his actions, the Templars attack Masyaf and lay siege. After Altaïr lays a trap and defeats the Templar forces, he is called to assembly by Al Mualim in front of the village. He is told he only succeeded because he followed orders, and goes to refer to the Solomon's Temple incident. As punishment for this Al Mualim, publicly demotes Altaïr to initiate after stabbing him to be 'reborn'. He then assigns to him nine assassination targets he must kill throughout the game.

As the game progresses Altaïr becomes aware of the fact that the men he was ordered to kill are all connected through the Templars, and eventually Desmond finds out that his captors are the modern day Templars. As the game progresses, Altair finds out that Al Mualim, his master, is also a templar and has been using Altaïr to further his own goals. Altaïr confronts Al Mualim and fights with him. After defeating his master, Altaïr acquires the Piece of Eden, a mythical object that can hypnotize the masses with mind control. The Piece was lost in the past, and eventually after Altaïr found out where it is, only to have Abstergo retrieve it in the real world. While the company initially intended to kill Desmond, a lab assistant named Lucy (who, it turns out, is really a secret member of the modern day assassin's guild) convinces them to let Desmond live. The story ends with Abstergo moving the Piece of Eden, leaving the story open for an obvious sequel. It is also revealed that through overuse of the Animus, Desmond is able to use Altair's Eagle Vision ability outside of the machine. The game ends with Desmond using his new ability to see words and characters written in blood on the walls left by a previous test subject.

Gameplay

Climb everything!

Assassin's Creed invokes the design concept of Abilitease rather early on in the game. In this case Altaïr is cocky, fails a mission for his guild and is stripped of his rank and much of his equipment. You'll embark on a quest to eliminate targets to prove your loyalty and dedication to the assassin's cause and gain back your rank and weapons. The basic game play in Assassin's Creed involves Altaïr being instructed of his next target and their general location. From there you must travel to the city in question and begin to investigate your target. Investigations take the form of side missions and basic tasks such as pick-pocketing information, eavesdropping or intimidating individuals through the use of force to gain their knowledge. Other side missions have you completing tasks for other assassins such as collecting a bunch of flags in a rooftop race against the clock.

The player can travel to any city by traveling through an area known as The Kingdom. In this area enemies are extremely aggressive and numerous, but the player has the advantage of being on horseback allowing him to flee quickly should he get in over his head against enemies.

The free-running system is very easy to master compared to Assassin's Creed's sister project, Prince of Persia. Simply holding down the 'legs' and 'free-running' buttons allows you to jump and climb automatically. Every structure has some way of climbing it except for the city's walls.

Though it is very forgiving, Assassin's Creed is ostensibly a stealth game. If you are spotted by guards while in the act of something devious, or if you do something out of the ordinary while they are on high alert, they will activate and give chase. Once you break the pursuing guards' line of sight you can lose them by hiding in piles of hay conveniently placed around the city, ducking into rooftop gardens or sitting on a bench amongst other people. A specific mechanic named "Leap of Faith" allows the player to jump from a high height down into a haystack for an escape. This move can also be used to quickly leave "Viewpoints", which have have been climbed to uncover more of the map.

Optional Tasks

Throughout the game there are numerous flags that the player may collect. Every area has a different set of flags and each set can contain up to 100 flags. Also throughout the game the player can encounter fierce Templars that excel at hand-to-hand combat and are difficult to beat with force alone. There are a total of 60 Templars that the player can find and kill in the game. You can also hunt and use all of the viewpoints.

Voice Talents

• Philip Shahbaz ... Altaïr ibn La-Ahad
• Kristen Bell ... Lucy Stillman
• Nolan North ... Desmond Miles / Abbas
• Phil Proctor ... Warren Vidic
• Peter Renaday ... Al Mualim
• Haaz Sleiman ... Malik A-Sayf
• Alain Benatar ... Acre Bureau Leader
• Carlos Ferro ... Damascus Bureau Leader
• Jean-Philippe Dandenaud ... Robert de Sable
• Ammar Daraiseh ... Tamir
• Hubert Fielden ... Garnier De Naplouse
• Jake Eberle ... Talal
• Harry Standjofski ... William of Montferrat
• Fred Tatasciore ... Jubair Al-Hakim / Abu'l Nuooud
• Richard Cansino ... Majd Addin
• Arthur Holden ... Sibrand
• Eleanor Noble ... Maria
• Marcel Jeannin ... Richard the Lionheart
• Jennifer Seguin ... Animus

Press

Assassin's Creed divided the press as one of the holiday's more anticipated titles. Some outlets (such as GameSpot) hailed it to be an extraordinary game and gave it "Triple-A" scores. Others believed that it was quite average and repetitive, and had been over-hyped by a manufactured press cycle. Scores ran the gamut with Assassin's Creed receiving 10s from some print outlets all the way down to a 4.5 from one of the three reviewers in Electronic Gaming Monthly. The game has an average of 80 on Metacritic, ranking it as an above-average title. The game similarly divided gamers, and the game's validity as a great product is still hotly debated.

Sales

The initial release of Assassin's Creed has done very well for Ubisoft selling millions of copies and spawning a spin-off game for the DS. Ubisoft was surprised by the sales and released this statement:

"Assassin's Creed has greatly out-stripped Ubisoft's sales expectations and currently ranks among the top two or three best-selling games for the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system in the vast majority of geographical regions. In less than four weeks Assassin's Creed recorded more than two and a half million units in sell-through sales worldwide, and is the fastest-selling new video game intellectual property ever in the U.S. Consequently, Ubisoft now forecasts that it will sell a minimum of five million units of the game in 2007–08 compared with its previous estimate of approximately three million."

The spin-off for the DS serves as a prequel to Altaïr's adventure in the console version. The game has also received recognition from Hideo Kojima and the team responsible for Metal Gear Solid, who have added a version of Altaïr's costume as an unlockable bonus in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Ubisoft stated their desire to iterate on the franchise which came in the form of Assassin's Creed II and the games after it.

A PSP exclusive version was released on November 17th 2009, titled Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines. The story once again follows the exploits of Altaïr and picks up right where the console version left off. This time, however, players will be in control of Altaïr only and won't have to bother with Desmond's role. Given the nature of the PSPs size the game won't encompass sprawling cities like its big brother console version. Instead players will guide Altaïr to the island of Cyprus as he attempts to dispatch all the high commanders of the Templars to drive them away.

A PC only "Director's Cut Edition" was released and it included several added mission types that didn't make it into the final version of the game.

Trivia

• In the opening cinematic, Altaïr used a crossbow that was originally going to be a weapon in his arsenal throughout the game, but was replaced in favor of the throwing knives in the final build due to historical inaccuracies.
• The game's timeline is around two months long, from July (after the Crusader victory in the siege of Acre) to early September (just before the battle of Arsuf).
• The phrase used by the Assassins, "La'shai sahih bel kullu shai'n mumkin," is Arabic for "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." This is most likely from the 11th century Persian missionary Hassan-i Sabbah.
• Al Mualim, Altaïr's mentor throughout the game, is most likely based on Rashid ad-Din Sinan, a real person who allegedly ordered two botched assassination attempts on Saladin, the ruler of Syria and Egypt at the time.

Origins

Altaïr's first name is derived from an Arabic word related to “flying” or “the bird”. His last name, Ibn-La'Ahad, literally translates as “son of none.” These two elements surface in Altaïr's character as his eagle-styled tunic and cowl, as well as being the child of both Christian and Muslim faiths.

In an interview with Jade Raymond, she revealed that one of the main influences for the game had been a book written by Vladimir Bartol with the name "Alamut" which takes place in the very same castle featured in Assassin's Creed. Several of the game's characters resemble those of their counterparts in the book, although they are not named the same and the castle of Assassin's Creed very much resembles the descriptions given in the book. Even the game's tag-line "Nothing is true, everything is permitted" is a direct copy from "Alamut."

Soundtrack

Assassin's Creed Soundtrack Cover Art

The music for Assassin's Creed was composed by Jesper Kyd and it features lots of sombre choir use and some medieval eastern instruments.

PC System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows XP/Vista
• Processor: Intel Pentium D Dual Core @ 2.6 GHz or Athlon 64 X2 3800
• RAM Memory: 1 GB for XP/2 GB for Vista
• Hard Drive: 8 GB Free
• Video Card: 256 MB (GeForce 6800/ATI Radeon X1600)
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
• DirectX: 9.0c
• Keyboard & Mouse
• DVD-Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements

• Operating System: Windows Vista
• Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO @ 2.2 GHz or Athlon 64 X2 4400
• RAM Memory: 1 GB for XP/2 GB for Vista
• Hard Drive: 8 GB Free
• Video Card: 256 MB (GeForce 6800/ATI Radeon X1600)
• Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
• DirectX: 9.0c or 10
• Keyboard & Mouse
• DVD Rom Drive

Xbox 360 Game Installation

• Assassin's Creed requires 6.7 GB (with the newest update it only requires 6.6GB) of space to install on an Xbox 360 HDD.

Xbox 360 Games on Demand

On August 6, 2009, Assassin's Creed became available on the Xbox 360's Games on Demand service. It costs $29.99 or 2400 Microsoft Points.