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Assassin's Creed
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First, each mission takes place in one of three cities, Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem, all of which are true, giant, heavily populated cities. Exploring each could take days, if not weeks; they are surely large enough. The size makes way for lots of different ways to complete objectives. There’s the choice of how many to perform, how to perform them, and what preparations are necessary, if any.

Gathering viewpoints will help you locate important objectives for the missions.

Here’s a quick example after finding a target to investigate, Altair needed to enter an area blocked off by guards. Three options are available without a second thought: fight the guards and run in, save a nearby civilian to gain access to monks and use them to sneak in, or create a diversion such as killing a wandering guard and waiting for the guards protecting the entrance to leave, allowing entry in.

Though after considerable thought, one could also attempt to climb the walls if possible and go over, run in with the guards after you, and even just forgo the mission entirely. Each method gets Altair where he needs to go; how he gets there is up to you.

Those choices aren’t simply made on a whim, however. Each one is easy in one field and difficult in another. Attacking the guards head on requires good fighting skills. Making a diversion requires stealth, for the kill and for sneaking in, and using monks requires both to help the civilian in peril. It’s all about give and take.

Of course, this is only fun for the first hour or so. After that, it becomes tedious and repetitive, which is unavoidable. This isn’t Splinter Cell, and Altair is made to fly, not sneak around. Once every other alternative is deemed non-enjoyable, there’s only one thing left to do that never gets tiring: running from guards and finding a hiding spot.

It may sound boring, but what makes this exciting is what Ubisoft has dubbed “free run,” where Altair will, when holding down the right trigger and A button, run wildly down the street, up a building, and just about anywhere else that has at least one ledge to climb. Using agility that makes Prince of Persia’s Prince appear dainty, as well as amazingly fluid movement animations, there really isn’t any place you can’t reach. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

The sight of so many enemies may seem overwhelming, but it will rarely be an uneven battle.

To make it more challenging, everything in the world that is moving is dynamic. That means running through a crowded street will make you bump into people, slow down, and even fall and roll on the ground until Altair can get back up. Thugs will fight you, drunkards will push without reason, and beggars will block your path and annoy incessantly.

All these things make up a great gameplay scheme, one we have never seen work before. It is truly marvelous to witness and play through. Yet even with such a full and lively world, AC falls short on some very basic features which really shoots it off its high horse.

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