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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 7, 2007

System: Xbox 360
Also available for: PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, PC

Publisher: Ubisoft

Reviewer's rating: **½

ESRB rating: Mature

Game type: Action

Kind of like: "Prince of Persia"

Best feature: The three main cities (Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus) are re-created beautifully.

Worst feature: The voice acting is dreadful.

The bottom line: One of the most highly anticipated games of the year, "Assassin's Creed" amounts to a litany of unfulfilled promises.

Set mainly in the Middle East during the Third Crusade, the game lets you play as Altair, member of a real-life group of assassins who performed politically motivated murders between the 11th and 13th centuries.
Altair is found guilty by his fellow murderous crew of disobeying the order, is stripped of his weapons and powers, and is forced to earn them back by completing missions that we know to be boring because Altair says so to his superiors, who all agree.

Eventually, Altair gets back up to speed and is charged with killing nine bad guys. The assassinations play out like predictable boss battles.

The unique control scheme couples each button with a part of Altair's body. The trigger button switches him between stealth and cinematic modes. Also unique is the combat scheme, which is largely rhythm-based.

The greatest failure is the spliced-in story line. "Assassin's Creed" inexplicably reveals its main plot twist within the first five minutes of gameplay.

Stephen Hammill

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