Well, this is were it all began. Assassin's Creed, who'd have thought this would become a series that never stopped. It was also one of the first games that kick-started my wonderful Xbox 360 career. Let's eagle dive into this one ;)
The first in the everlasting series, released back in 2007. This game didn't really age well, but what do you expect, it is very old now. Set in the Third Crusade, in Jerusalem, we play as a disgraced assassin, Altair and also Desmond, in present day. Desmond, taken in by Abstergo to explore his ancestors memories, by entering the Animus. The Animus is a sort of bed, that delves into the minds of the subject and is capable of exploring the ancestors lives of the subject.
The game is fun, being able to climb practically every building in sight, no matter how tall. Free running over the rooftops, sword fighting, riding horses. It's all fun. Across the many AC games, this has my favourite combat. The counter move is the most useful asset, it comes in handy when you end up in a fight against thirty people. The introduction of the hidden blade started here, being able to walk up undetected and then take out your target in one quick attack can save you an intense battle.
The game started off much simpler than it's followers, find information on the target and then kill them. The problem was that the game was repetitive, doing the same kind of investigations, interrogating people, eavesdropping and pickpocketing and then reporting back before you started the assassination of your target. It started off great, it was different, it was new and exciting. It sadly deflated pretty quickly when you realised it was the same thing. Altair was dull and boring, I'm certain he wasn't capable of emotions. His outfit is one of my favourites throughout the series though. The other characters were boring too, I just didn't care about them and don't even get me started on Desmond!
I loved the game at the time, but we were miss-sold. We were expecting it to be set in the past, yes it was, but we were really in the present day, entering a sort of time machine back to the past. I remember thinking "what the fuck is this", when I was first placed in the modern era. It slowed the game down, being taken in and out of the Animus, although the modern story makes more sense the further it goes, but I can't help think that this game should've been strictly set in the past and got closer to the present each game.
The architecture was beautiful, the scenery, the landscapes, all great. Travelling to each city was a pain though, it was nice riding on a horse at first because it made it seem like you could travel a lot with the horse. You can't, you can only go to each city and when you're there, you have to be on foot. It was far too big as well, it took ages to get to each city and there was nothing to do in between. It also never made sense how you would alert guards just by running by or sprinting with the horse. It was so frustrating how often guards would engage in combat when you were just exploring the city.
There's a good alert system that lets you know when you're being watched, when you're detected and when you're safe or hidden. You can also blend in with scholars and using them as a moving hiding spot to sneak through guarded areas. Another cool thing is the Eagle vision, it highlights guards in red and the assassination target gold. There's also the eagle dive, where you jump off a building and safely land in a hay barrel, it's cool but very unlikely you'd survive. We don't play games for them to be life-like do we?
I never expected this game to get as many sequels/spin offs and even a movie after this game, despite how much I liked it. I'm glad they changed the character and setting and it's always something to look forward to where it'll be set next. For the first time, we're getting a break from the annual release since the first game, although the movie is out this year...
7.5/10
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