Graphics & Sound:

Graphically, Assassin's Creed is one of the most beautiful games this year. Not only is the representation of Crusade-era Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre gorgeously realized down to the most minute detail, but its historical accuracy is self-evident. The long loading times (which are well-disguised) are justified by the quality of the work and the fact that, once loaded, you've got a whole city or area to explore with little or no interruption, technology-wise.

The main character, Altair, is a member of the true-to-history guild of assassins, the Hashshashin (incidentally, the origin of both the words "assassin" and "hashish"). His animations are fluid and lifelike, and as he scales the ramshackle buildings of middle-ages Jerusalem, can be breathtaking to behold. Even more impressive are the so-called View Points you'll need to reach - lofty vistas from which Altair perceives a panorama of his surroundings and acquires information he'll need to make his next assassination.

Despite a few visual glitches, Assassin's Creed has unparalleled visuals.

Controls:

Being a game about assassination, Assassin's Creed is all about stealth, anonymity, and quick, decisive action. The controls are unique, mapping part of Altair's body to each of the four main buttons - head, hands, and feet. Modified by the right trigger, these context-sensitive controls change depending on whether you're operating in standard "low-profile" mode (which lets you blend into the crowd by walking slowly while praying, gently push strangers out of your way without causing a ruckus, and enter a who's-out-to-get-me mode called "Eagle Vision") or in "high profile" mode.

With the trigger held down, you can sprint, jump, and attack - not to mention scale buildings, one of the most rewarding aspects of Assassin's Creed. Life in the streets is less interesting, but once you've pulled yourself onto the rooftops, jumping from beam to beam and roof to roof with abandon is delightful, in part because Ubisoft decided not to load the deck with too much platforming - the mechanics of nimbleness are helpful enough that you're not always crashing three stories into some souk merchant's wares.

There's a bit of a learning curve, but the controls here are really as good as they can be while still accomplishing quite a bit.

Story:

Here's where Assassin's Creed starts to show its cracks. Ostensibly, the story of a 12th century assassin in the Holy Land is fascinating, but the repetitive nature of the game takes a toll on that aspect of the game (you kill nine historically accurate evildoers, before which you collect information and essentially stalk them with several limited mechanisms...like sitting on a bench and eavesdropping).

Further confusing the issue is Ubisoft Montreal's decision to play the most interesting revelation of the game only moments after it begins. Without spoiling too much, there's a modern twist to the story that frames and contextualizes Altair's assassinations, but the payoff just doesn't feel worth the cost: not only does the game feel sort of anticlimactic (you have, after all, learned more in the first fifteen minutes than most games give you by the end - and that rate of keep-it-interesting is most definitely not sustained), but the game makes the annoying habit of pulling you out of the action after every assassination, essentially killing the pacing with frustratingly empty episodes.

Gameplay

I've discussed the controls above, but Assassin's Creed's gameplay involves miniature missions that you're guided through by a series of simple checkpoints mapped with orientation and distance on a compass at the bottom of the screen. Mostly this a real help, since the alleys of the cities tend to look the same and can be very confusing - but sometimes it feels as if you're being dragged along on a Disney World ride instead of exploring a rich and interesting environment. To the game's credit, there are plenty of opportunities to strike out on your own by helping citizens in distress, fighting bandits, and the like. Exploring the View Points is an amazing mini-game on its own, although the collectibles scattered across the rooftops feel like an afterthought.

Before Altair can make a hit, he's got to do some recon. Initially, this is awesome. Pickpocketing a black market bad guy's shill in a crowded alleyway feels both realistic and fun - although the eavesdropping missions are unrelievedly dull: sitting on a bench and waiting for your mark to start spouting off his boss' secrets is as boring in a game as it must be in real life - especially when you're doing it for the tenth time in a 12 hour game.

Once you've gathered three pieces of information (there are plenty more, if you'd like, but given the repetitiveness of the game, you probably won't), you're allowed to go shank your fella. Altair's hidden blade makes assassinations swift and brutal in a good way, although once completed you're sucked back into that big-twist framing device that so efficiently ruins the mood.

Guards are everywhere, and they'll chase you down and kill you unless you break their line of sight and hide in one of many haystacks or veiled gazebos. It's simple, easy, and fun for a while. Combat itself is timing-based but unexplained, so if you're lucky enough to pick up on the pattern, it's fun. Otherwise it's frustrating and dull. Guard AI is also not so great - while guards will climb buildings and chase you down, rooftop guards can be fooled simply by dropping off the edge of a roof and hanging there. Once again, I was left feeling that Ubisoft Montreal had created 75% of an amazing game - but the 25% that's either ill-conceived or simply wasted really knocks the wind out of the game's sails.

Nutshell:

Assassin's Creed could have been, as they say in the movies, a contender. It's still a contender, to be fair - but its flaws are as obvious and severe as its successes are brilliant. The first few hours of the game are exhilarating and a delight to play - after that, you better hope you enjoy the mechanisms you've learned, because the game never gives you more than that. Rinse, repeat, assassinate. That said, if you do love the climbing and leaping enough to compensate for the lackluster pacing and repetitive missions, you'll probably be in hog heaven.