The game starts with a person named Desmond, played by you, in the
present time, being explained about a machine called the animus by a
scientist guy ( Vidic ) that lets you see memories of your ancestors. The
scientist apparently wants the memories for some research which is not
clearly specified in the starting, but is slowly revealed throughout
the game.
So you start with a memory that begins the story of Desmond's
ancestor-Altair(You). You get out of the animus at some intervals to
discuss the memories with the doc and to do a little bit of present day
investigation too. The story turns from interesting to absolutely
amazing in the end, and therefore I'm not going to reveal it to you.
In the game you get to travel to cities like Jerusalem, Damascus, Acre,
Arsuf and Mysaf through the kingdom on horseback or directly.
The graphics are amazing and the shadows and the textures are greatly
detailed, and if you have a high end pc, you'll get an amazing
experience.
There are a lot of beautiful scenes that will force you to keep taking screen shots.
The NPCs are very realistic, reacting to every move you make, like
commenting on you when you start climbing buildings in front of them or
jump from one.
If on a run from the guards for some reason, once you break their line
of sight, you can blend in with the environment in pretty cool ways
like sitting on a bench, blending with some scholars or hiding in a
haystack or a rooftop garden.
The climbing and jumping part of the game is probably what made it so
famous and waited for, and it feels great. You just keep a few buttons
pressed and the work will be done automatically, but you will still
feel as if you are doing some great work. It all is seamless and very
realistic.
The city feels very alive, with the sounds of children crying, dogs
barking etc. to be heard in some places, plus a huge amount of crowd
moving about the city makes it even more so.
The combat part is never very difficult, but it would be an
understatement to say that it is just great. You can inflict a number
of different blows to your enemies like grabbing, parrying, counter
attacking and the like. There may be around 20 people on the screen but
you'll be able to kill them all slowly.
Assassination, as required, is one of the best parts of the game, with
the hidden blade having its own coolness. You can stealth assassinate
in a number of ways too, jumping on with the hidden blade, normal blade
assassination, throwing knives (one shot kill, ranged) etc.
Near the end of the game and the final assassination, the
similarity of the game is blown away as the plot suddenly twists
leaving you dazed. The story, people and environment change so rapidly
that completing the game becomes way more than worth it. It is so much
fun in the end of the game, that however much you enjoyed the rest of
the game, you'll enjoy the last part TEN times more. Friends and
enemies all get mixed up to form one smashing climax.
You get out of the animus feeling all strange and VERY entertained,
only to know that there is a lot going on in the present day as well.
The only thing you will think except what you just saw and did will be
- "When is the next game going to come out?"
