Assassin's Creed

With its riveting story, beautiful visuals and surprisingly lifelike world, Assassin's Creed is an incredibly deep, enjoyable game that kept us addicted from beginning to bizarre end.

Assassin's Creed joins the guild as by far the best "sandbox" game created to date, rounding out the best single year I've had as a gamer since I picked up a 2600 pad. [Jan 2008, p.56]

A masterpiece; a true gem. It deserves a place in any serious gamers’ collection. Even though it’s strictly a single player experience, it is a fresh and much needed title in this over crowed sea of average next-gen games.

Its stunning visual style, high concept story, and wildly open level design are like nothing else, even if too much repetition begins to frustrate in the later hours. It’s a game people will still be talking about five years from now.

Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed feels the second coming of the Prince. Darker and more compelling, Assassins Creed gives the player a world of hidden agendas, deception, and murder.

Assassin's Creed arrives as a glorious but flawed masterpiece that deserves to be praised for all that it does so brilliantly, not shamefully criticised for a smattering of minor detractions that never threaten to do anything but temporarily blemish an otherwise glistening gem.

It is a rare thing in this age of sequels and franchises to see a new IP stand out so boldly, and although it was a calculated risk, Ubisoft should be applauded for blazing a new trail.

You should love the stunning views and the ability to climb nearly all the buildings in the three cities as well as of the countryside sections.

About as atmospheric game as they come. The cities of the Holy Land are rendered so beautifully that simply exploring your surroundings feels exciting. It's a pity that there's really not much else to do than rush to your next assassination target. Fortunately, the core gameplay of climbing up walls and slicing up guards never gets boring. [Dec 2007]

The first half of Assassin’s Creed is a truly clairvoyant experience. You’ve never played anything like it. The sagacious story, incalculable crowd interaction, and unprecedented freedom to traverse the environment how you choose are landmark moments. Over time, repetition rears its ugly head, combat becomes a necessary routine, and dimwitted foes snatch you out of the third crusade and remind you that you’re playing a game.

This beautiful, sprawling sandbox title turns the Crusades of the twelfth century into your personal playground of murder.

It would be a finer experience without those nuisances, but they do little to diminish the sense of awe you feel when watching the sun rise over Jerusalem from atop the Dome of the Rock, drinking in the sight of the ancient city, and looking for your next victim.

In Assassin's Creed, the greatest joy comes from the smallest details, and for every nerve-racking battle, there's a quiet moment that cuts to the game's heart and soul.

Assassin’s Creed is remarkable in every aspect it performs. From the sprawling city life to the dual-vision storyline, everything blends together to offer one of the most complete and satisfying experiences so far this year.

This is a great game. The pace may be unexpected, and repetition can be a slight issue, but the excellent gameplay, story, presentation, and immersion turn them into minor details.

An astonishingly ambitious adventure that's, largely, beautifully executed. [Jan 2008, p.72]

A solid enough game to overcome its awkward plot device. It doesn't much matter why you're in the situation you're in. What matters are those wonderful moments when you're sitting on a tower overlooking one of the most gorgeous cities you've ever seen in a game, and you know it's all yours to play in.

Even with "Halo 3" and "Bioshock" adding to my 360 game collection, Assassin’s Creed has stepped in and stopped me worrying about what to choose for our ‘Game Of The Year’ article this year. Clear enough for you?

Assassin’s Creed is quite possibly the coolest game I’ve ever played. Not only is it satisfying to play, but it looks incredible and is easy to control. Each city is alive with activity, designed with care and attention to detail. Assassin’s Creed may not be perfect, but it offers one of the best singleplayer experiences you’ll play this year, and that’s saying a lot.

So, is Assassin’s Creed perfect? Not exactly. The main game will run around 20 hours but you’ll see most of what the game offers in the first few.

One of the better experiences of 2007 and one of the few to genuinely deliver something of a 'new' experience.

Though it degenerates into a lot of fighting at the end, and makes a fair number of mistakes in its execution along the way, there’s something entrancing about this game and each of the amazing things you can do.

Assassin's Creed is an amazing accomplishment by Ubisoft Montreal. Make no mistake, this is a fantastic game, it has so much to offer.

Creed has raised my expectations of the visuals and multi-level sandbox games; I am hoping Ubi fixes up the minor flaws for the next go-round as I am now anxiously awaiting the sequel.

Just don't draw any conclusions until you've played the game from beginning to end.

The sheer attention to detail that has gone in the game, both in plot, visuals and audio makes your experience in the game a memorable one. The combat system, though tricky at first, eventually becomes intuitive.

Apart from the slight faults in the AI and voice-acting, Ubisoft has done an amazing job in creating a unique gaming experience and a solid new franchise.

A must-buy title for gamers interested in following an excellent story. The wonderful visuals play a major role in the experience and easy controls and open level design will suck you right in. This is not a game for everyone and misses a perfect rating due to pacing issues.

It's a small game stretched out by using repetition. But you'll love what there is of it. [Christmas 2007, p.74]

Either way, if you can ignore the faults, you'll have a great time with this ambitious and entertaining game.

Questionable stealth elements and repetition prevent Assassin's from achieving greatness, but the free-running system and beautiful playgrounds mean Creed is still worth your attention.

This is worth playing all the way through, the developers reward you for wading through their world.

An adventure that, for all the self-important dialogue and forced morality, is unquestionably worth your time - particularly for fans that can differentiate between action/platformers and stealth/RPGs.

We still think you gotta play it (or at least rent it) because the good parts are truly majestic. Just go in with your eyes wide open, and listen for the snik! of the game’s hidden blade popping out to kill off any hope of this game living up to its full potential.

Assassin’s Creed is by no means a bad game; it’s fallen to the fate of many other games by having too much hype surrounding it. If you’re expecting a ground breaking Game of the Year quality game, you won’t find it. If you’re expecting to play an average action game, then you’ll find yourself very pleased with your purchase.

Assassin's Creed is one of those games that could be considered for the "games as art" debate. A lot of times you'll stop for a second and just stare in awe at how beautiful and graceful the game is. The game is by no means perfect, but it does start to head into the right direction that most sandbox games should.

It has all the ambitions and potential worthy of a true next-gen title, from its visuals to the freedom it offers to the player, although it falls victim of its own limitations. But this title still has the flavour of something quite innovative. [Dec 2007]

The open-world genre has never looked so good, but it could've played a bit more realistically given the subject matter. A few fewer Biblical references would've been nice, too.

A truly original property, and deserves much merit for its fresh approach to stealth gameplay. The freedom to climb and move so adeptly is brilliantly implemented, and having AI that is able and willing to give chase considerably adds to the realism.

After "Bioshock" and "Uncharted," it's hard to imagine a game having an even better setting, but Assassin's Creed seems to have pulled it off.

As stunning as the game looks and as enthralled as I was by the story - which really is quite intriguing if you look for all the information - the game's flaws are too hard to ignore. They mostly boil down to how the game seemingly goes out of its way to make things less fun than they should be.

This Middle Eastern adventure is one of the most beautiful cinematic games ever devised, but not one of the most rewarding to play. It's also one of the most mature, thoughtful games of recent years, challenging you with ideas and concepts that are far from clear cut. But where is the freedom of choice? Unless you count the difference between the dagger or the sword, there really isn't any.

Assassin's Creed oozes potential from every pore, but Ubisoft has failed to capitalize on a lot of it. Honestly, it feels as though Ubisoft spent the bulk of the game's development cycle building the foundations upon which later games would stand - elements like the catch-all control-scheme and the graphics engine.

Assassin’s Creed is receiving a fair amount of criticism, despite some of its flaws I still believe the game to be very good, it just could have done with some more refining.

The in-game combat isn't bad either, if you can accept two things—there's not enough variety to the combat, and the extra effot to sneak around often isn't worth it. The guards can be real idiots, too. Past that, this Assassin cuts deep.

Confusing plotline and ending aside, Assassin’s Creed is still an original and profound experience that shouldn’t be missed by any gamer looking for something different. It might not be an achievement in game design either but there is way too much to love about this stealth game.

A game that attempts a lot of major development moves and it shows a lot of promise, even if it isn't always executed well.

It’s visually wonderful, technologically marvellous and honestly a great deal of fun to play, but as with many other people, we have to seriously question its staying power.

Assassin’s Creed II once again allows players to step into the silent shoes of an assassin, and moves in the right direction providing a more focused and solid playing experience.

Assassin’s Creed has a rich spread of activities with hours of gameplay. Unfortunately, it gets extremely repetitive about midway through—and then it unsatisfyingly turns into a tedious, combat-heavy game.

A great game that has lots of great features, but is also lacking in the fundamentals.

If you play Assassin's Creed for an hour, you will probably think it's a fantastic game. But as Assassin's progresses, its dual storylines and repetitive quests begin to grow tiresome. There are so many great individual elements, but they are lost among the myriad of poor decisions from Ubisoft Montreal.

Assassin's Creed is fun, but it isn't the system seller that everyone was expecting it to be. Climbing around and exploring the city is initially a lot of fun, but there isn't much to do beyond that. The investigations and the side-quests are repetitive and quickly become tedious instead of entertaining.

Thoroughly flawed, but eminently playable.

In short, Assassin’s Creed is two hours of a really good video game repeated ad nauseum for many more hours. It’s fun, but can get very boring.

It attempts a lot of ambitious things and it almost succeeds at every one. But it's apparent that these grandiose ideas may have been a little too much to master the first go-round. But hey, at least the groundwork is laid for a killer sequel -- right, Ubisoft?

It's a fitting end to a game that starts off brightly, wriggling elusively as you try and grasp what's going on, delighting in the mechanics and beautiful visuals, before sinking into a pattern that, while fairly gratifying, never evolves and ultimately becomes a bit boring, and quite amazingly repetitive.

Instead of a true stealth engine, you have awkward "hide spots" to accommodate the free roaming. Combat is either too easy or too hard, lacking the brilliance of a dedicated action title. And the free-roaming, bound as it is to mission objectives that would be fine in a more linear game, is just unsatisfying. Each element of the game is individually interesting, but as a whole the package feels incomplete and patchwork more than innovative.

Astonishingly accurate when it comes to historic characters, details, and setting, it's a shame that the repetitive, formulaic structure to the game diminishes any impulse that the intriguing storyline provides.

What is most interesting to me is how these features fail to coalesce into the amazing experience the action/adventure/stealth game seems to promise.

There is some enormous potential here, and for all its failings Assassin’s Creed deserves to be played, and its achievements savoured. [Christmas 2007, p.82]

While the graphics and the game mechanics, coupled with an excellent introduction and finale, absolutely make the game highly enjoyable, its flaws and the lack of challenge and variation pull the game back from its potential classic status into mediocrity, destined to gather dust after a single playthrough. As a package, it stands above the crowd, but not remotely as far as it could and should have been.

Assassin's Creed had the potential to be something amazing but falls short due to a lack of direction in terms of game design. I get the feeling that with another six months of development this game could have lived up to its hype, but as it is, it's lacking.

A victim of its own ambition, and one that can probably be finished during a rental – we can only hope the inevitable sequel provides more substance.

Assassin's Creed is a brilliant game wrapped up in a less brilliant one.

Summarizing, Assassin’s Creed had so much potential, but seems to have out thought itself.

There is a superbly realised first third of a game there, but the combat and linear mission structure, coupled with the awful storyline help to undermine the quality apparent elsewhere.

I felt like Ubisoft Montreal has made this game exclusively to be shown at gaming conventions. They have this great tech demo, this one looping level complete with cool graphics and gameplay mechanics, but they ultimately had no idea what to do with it. They just kept on going with these derivative missions until you become fed up with it.

After the first level I thought I had a winner on my hands for sure but as I played more I got more bored and the game became more repetitive. Even though it takes a lot of chances with innovative features and an entirely new fighting system it does not follow through where it matters.

With a bit more focus and a little more tweaking, Assassin's Creed could have been a great game. Unfortunately, it fails to deliver on many promises we've heard over the last year.

That sense of freedom offered aside, its design is hopelessly outdated at best and laborious to the point of perpetual boredom at worst. Once the initial lustre of Assassin’s Creed’s world wears off after a few hours, what’s left is a flimsy, soulless gameplay experience, struggling under the weight of a painfully ponderous, woefully hackneyed narrative which only serves to drag things down further.

Combat is largely optional, as is fitting an assassination game. But then so is actual assassination. It’s as entertaining as having a balcony with a beautiful view, hence the score.

The premise intrigues, but Assassin's Creed is an incomplete template based on multiple other games. [Jan 2008, p.88]

Assassin's Creed is a disappointing, repetitive game filled with horrendously long and unnecessary cut scenes, a boring plot, tedious chores, and significant difficulty problems -- it's a game with a few great ideas but absolutely no idea how to implement them...Once you get past all that, however, there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't be able to have a hell of a fun time with it.

Everything except Altair's athletics feels underdeveloped and painfully shallow, making the end result an overhyped attempt to recoup the development costs for something that's little more than an extended tech demo.