Welcome to Jerusalem, 1191 AD.  Assassins Creed has a strange storyline. Those of you who haven't played it will probably be thinking "So what, you go around prancing about on a rooftop like a fairy, and killing people. Big deal!", and in my opinion, that's probably not far from the truth.

You begin in the year 2012, playing as a character called Desmon Miles. You soon find out that you've been kidnapped by a company called Astergo, for use as a 'guinnea pig' for their new device called the Animus. What the Animus does is enables Desmond to see the memories of his ancestor, Altaïr. Yes, he's the one who has the awesome blade and always wears his hood up, even when it's not raining. Well, annoyingly, throughout the game, you'll switch between the two storylines; the story going on in Abstergo as Desmon, and all your missions etc. as Altaïr.

Quite simply, the aim for Altaïr is to bring peace between the Muslims and the Crusaders, and the way he does this is to do what he does best. Assassinate important figures on either side.

Down to the storyline. Sadly, at the start of the game, Altaïr fails a mission during a cinematic, in retrieving a "Piece of Eden, an artifact from Solomon's Temple. Subsequently, after a bit  of talking between the characters, Altaïr's fellow assassins are killed, or so you're told at the start. One of them escapes (ironically, the other one killed was HIS brother), and returns to Al Mualim to tell him of Altaïr's involvement with his brothers death. Altaïr is then loses his rank, so lucky for you, you have to gain ranks during the game, unlocking more weapons for you to use.  A rank is restored after every successful assassination. You didn't think they'd make it simple, did you?

Graphically, this game is pretty solid, although personally, i think all of the cities look too similar to be realistic. I haven't yet found a glitch graphically such as falling through the ground or anything, but i believe there are some (such as 2 Altaïr's appearing, guards looking as though they're doing something they shouldn't be and your horse running very strangely. Put it this way; it's as though somebody is holding a giant magnet next to the horse, and the hooves on it's front legs are being drawn towards it, while the back legs are pounding along the ground. Humorous? Yes. Acceptable in a game? No.)

Speaking of glitches, throughout the game, the animus will glitch whilst your playing as Altaïr. You can tell when a glitch occurs  when you get a little judder during game play and all these weird 'data-looking' matrix numbers come up. This is the Animus presumably at work, and showing slight error, adding to the effect that you're almost in a virtual reality costume. This seems like quite a cool idea at the start, but it gets annoying aswell.

The sad thing about this game is, it's such a good idea, but the way it's presented is not so good. I can pretty much guarantee that on first playing, you'll be thinking "That reviewer doesn't know what he's on about, this is awesome!" But the game gets so incredibly repetitive and generally boring. Every single assassination is exactly the same, bar the different people and locations. You always have to retrieve information on your targets before hand, by eavesdropping, pickpocketing, and my personal  favourite, interrogation. Once you've found the target, boom, bang, wollop; he's dead. Mission completed. Here's the feather with his blood on it, now send me back to Al Mualim so i can ride my freaky-legged horse.

Let's get down to the movement of Altaïr. Most of the time, you'll be hopping from roof to roof, trying to avoid gaining attention. A foolish idea when you're able to leap extraordinary distance, and grapple onto building parts, no matter how small; the crowds wouldn't be able to take their eyes off you, although somehow, the citizens of Jerusalem obviously haven't discovered the art of looking up, otherwise you would have no chance. Forget hiding in shadows, and hiding bodies, it's plain freerunning with a knife.
I'm not happy with the building grappling. As i said, even when falling at a high speed, Altaïr can suddenly, at last minute, catch the most miniscule of bricks, and hang onto his life. You're falling at 80 MPH, and you think you can just grab onto a lego sized brick and regain control? Well it doesn't fool me. 

I have to talk about escaping from assassinations as this is a main aspect of the game, even though it might not seem too crucial. When you've assassinated someone, all the city's guards will be alerted and be on the look out for you (there is a little button which flashes red on screen to tell you you're a wanted man). You'll be confronted by the target's personal guards first, so you've got to fight them off, find a gap, and run like the wind. The idea is to break the guards sight of you. When this happens, the little button will flash yellow, and at this point it's best to find a hiding place (such as a rooftop garden) or blend in with the crowd (like sitting on a bench).

In conclusion, i would say that at first, this game seems excellent. But once you've played it for awhile, you soon realise that the missions are bland, repetitive and similar. The storyline isn't the greatest; not hinting at anything, but Al Mualim completely takes the story off track nearer the later assassinations.. The end is ludicrous (if you've completed the game, you'll know exactly what i'm talking about). You should realise now that Altaïr isn't as awesome as made out, with his mysterious hood, and cool walk. He rides a disabled horse, he seems to lack dialogue, and that hidden blade doesn't seem as cool as it used to be.

Overall rating 6/10