Let's start out by saying that I was hugely hyped for this game, I couldnt wait for it. It was easily my most anticapated game of 2007 but from the first moment I played it, I knew it wasnt the game I expected. Sure, with all the hype you can say that no-ones expectations were going to be met and to a certain extent that is true. Yes, there is a decent game hidden somewhere but its flaws(of which it has many)outshadow that experience.

Okay, now lets look at what makes this game. Huge sprawling cities, assasinations and of course free running. And Assasins Creed delivers on each one. Each of the 3 cities is huge, the gameworld that connects the 3 cities is also huge, if a little too big. The assasinations are somewhat varied and exciting and the free running is probrably the best part of the game. Controlling Altair(the main character) takes some time to get used to but once your comfortable with the controls, you'll be free running around the city with great ease. Jumping from rooftop to rooftop is a great experience and feels very original despite Prince of Persia having a go at it previously. Together with assinations it forms the basis of the game. Unfortunately, after you get past the free running there really isnt much else to the game.

The graphical design is mostly great. Character models are good, textures are good and the overall design and feel of each individual city is also very good. However, this cause a problem. That problem being that the framerate is very inconsistant. You can be leaping around on the top of a building at a smooth and easily playable rate, but for some reason the game take huge drops every now and then. This is more evident in later levels as the game can sometimes slow to a crawl making it basically unplayable.

Now lets get on to the gameplay. Basically, you will trying to assinate various targets given to you by your leader. For the first few assinations, it feels good to slowly plan out your attack by gathering information. But as soon as you realise every single mission in this game is exactly the same, it becomes horribly tedious. And thats the story of the whole game. Its just tedious. After you have completed your first mission, you have seen the whole game. There is no varying misssions, no side quests barring collecting flags and absolutely nothing to do other than run around. Your basic assination works like this, you get your mission, find out information on your target by sitting through an un-skippable cutscense of you sitting on a bench listening to two guys talk to each other; or you follow a guy and beat him up. After this you actually get to assinate someone. Getting close to your target unseen is not easy as there are usually hundreds of guards patrolling the area. But once you do, its simple enough to kill him. After this you are treated to yet another tedious un-skippable cutscene.

That brings me to another thing. The AI. No joke, the AI in this game is quite possibly one of the worst ever seen in a video game. Basic NPC's have about 3 lines of dialogue and every single one of them will say the exact same thing over and over. The enemies are also beyond stupid. In combat they will wait and attack one at a time which makes the combat insanely easy as all you have to press only one button to kill them.

Without these flaws and with a few more months of development time to flesh out some of the missions, Assasins Creed could have been great. But, unfortunatly like so many other games it gives the feeling of being rushed. However it does do alot of things right and without certain flaws there is a good basis for a sequel. Heres hoping the next one will be better.