ASSASSIN'S CREED

Imagine the scene.........
The year is 1191.There's dust in your eyes.The temperature is over 100 and its a hot sultry windless afternoon in jerusalem.The marketplace is sparsely crowded,the merchants are advertising their merchandise.Suddently a man dressed in white appears out of nowhere and starts climbing a building.He is being followed by a platoon of guards,all desperate to slit his throat.The guards try to throw stones at the man,but he is too quick,jumping from rooftop to rooftop,evading them and finally jumping into a haystack conveniently placed at the bottom of every building.Thats about 6 hours in the total 13 hour game play of assassin's creed.I know this small paragraph may not sound very attractive,but its the premise of this game,which makes it a hit.Most of us have played Prince of persia,a game very similar to AC and obviously developed by th same company UBISOFT.The aspect it shares from the POP games is that,it relies on acrobatics and is set in the middle east.POP is a fantasy while AC tries to depict real histotical events.It is set during the third crusade(holy wars betwwen muslims and christians).Saladin controls jerusalem and damascus and tries to protect them from king Richard who has captured Accra.The player takes the role of Altair ,a member of the secret society of assassins,who desperately try to end their conflict.Your master Al mualim gives you tasks of assassinatingsome templars.You have to travel to the 3 cities of damascus,jerusalem and accra.You have to investigate,eavesdrop,intimidate and even pickpocket to get closer to your enemy. Curiously the game is actually set in 2012,and you actually play thru the memories of one Desmond Miles using a machine called the Animus.I dont want to spoil any more of the story elements but lets say the gamers are in for a little surprise.

Which brings me to my next point and quite frankly my favorite-Graphics.One word,just amazing!The models,textures,animations all simply breathtaking.If you own a really powerful computer then be ready for a blast because assassins creed can simply take you to the past visually.The AI is superb,show acrobatics near a bazaar and people comment you have gone mad!The score is composed by Jesper Kyd,the same guy who composed the score for the hitman games.The score is a beautiful mix of nostalgic,orchestral scores with electronica.It gives a genuine feeling of the 12th century.The character voices are also well done,all except Altair,who strangely sounds like an American!The controls are a breeze for those who can master it.The only complaint i have against this game is that it tends to get repetitive.

It's hard to put the sheer size and brilliance of Assassin's Creed into words. It is an epic game that you have to experience for yourself. I will caution that the game is not for the impatient or the faint of heart. While you can plow through the main storyline in under 20 hours, to truly get every single last shred of gaming goodness, you will probably have to put in twice that number.
If you liked POP,you will be insane not to get this.

GRAPHICS-5/5
STORY-4/5
GAMEPLAY-4/5
REPLAY VALUE-3/5
SCORE AND VOICE ACTING-4/5