Review Time

After much (or very little, depending on how I tell it) deliberation, I give you my mini-review of Assassin's Creed.

I won't give away plot elements, or the ending or any spoiler of any kind. I will deal only with the grit and grime. And the game is quite grimey. In a great way.

Now, I'll start by saying that I rarely have had as much fun as I did when I played an hour of this game. The freedom of it is unprecidented.

The combat is extremely satisfying, and there's a lot of it. At the very beginning of the game you don't have the amazing Counter Kill ability. But after a little while you discover it, and it is just swell.

As the name implies, some guy swings a sword at your face-- you counter and then perform one of dozens of "quick kill" moves: knocking him down and gutting him like a fish; pushing him back and burying your blade in his shoulder/neck area; deftly spinning around and slashing diagonally to tear his throat.

Every element in the game is responsive to what you, the player, do. You stab a soldier in the streeth, the crowd screams and runs. More guards rush at you. Kill enough of them and the last one or two may choose to run for their pathetic, pointless lives. Then, you may chase them and plunge your dagger in their ear, or let them run and warn the others. That usually leads to more bloody antics, though, so be warned.

For grown men wearing suits of plate and chain mail, they climb like monkeys. They can and bloody-well will chase you all up and down the city, howling insults at you. Sometimes they throw rocks.

Also, there are archers to worry about.

Not much satisfies more than bounding up a wall, racing across the roof and tossing one of those suckers off the edge. Look down at his sprawled form and you will see the panic begin to take effect below. "Guards, guards!" "Infidel!"

Now, a note on religion and race: as Altair, you kill without discrimination. That's important. The game would be a mite inflamatory if you only killed a certain creed. Luckily, that's not a problem here.

Personally, I prefer murdering Crusaders. Only because it's hilarious to hear them curse you in French, English and German.

That reminds me. Y'know how Mario has you collect Red Coins and things of that nature? Well, this game also has... "collectibles". But rather than scour the land for mere coins... there's a side-quest/collectible quest where you have to search the Holy Land for Templar Knights to butcher. These warriors are each much stronger than you in the beginning, and they attack on sight. But as the sworn enemies of your Order, they have to die (apparently).

They are men like any other, however, and often a silent approach is favorable...

Graphics... what can I say, really? They're the best I've ever seen. The Behemoth (my PC, 'case you missed that bit of info) runs the game splendidly. I only had to set one of the options one notch down. Even with that slight down-grade, the game looks amazing. Mere words cannot describe it's sheer awe-inspiring holiness.

I know there's lots of stuff I omitted. But I think that discovery is the best part of any game. So, I chose to give you a light sampler. The main course is yours to try.

Of course, you could always go to IGN.com or something. But I think the best way to learn about a game is from a player, not a professional reviewer. Besides, I don't like any of the reviewer sites much anymore.

Alot of their decisions have "political" reasonings behind them.

In my opinion, the gaming industry has become way too self-important and absorbed in all the wrong issues.

Got a little sidetracked, it seems...

Conclusion! If you like running, climbing, jumping, chasing, fighting, assassinating action-- you pretty much owe it to yourself to buy this game. The requirements are a little steep, so just make sure you read them over.

For your convenience, I've added them below.

In order to play this game properly, your PC MUST meet or exceed these minimum requirements:
Supported OS: Windows XP / Vista (only)
Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
RAM: 2 GB (3 GB recommended)
Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (512 MB video card recommended) (see supported list)*
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
DirectX Version: DirectX 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
Hard Drive Space: 12 GB
Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)
*Supported Video Cards at Time of Release: ATI RADEON X1300-1950 / HD 2000 / 3000 series NVIDIA GeForce 6600-6800 / 7 / 8 / 9 series
Laptop versions of these cards may work but are NOT supported. These chipsets are the only ones that will run this game.
NOTICE: This game contains technology intended to prevent copying that may conflict with some disc and virtual drives.