Brookhaven Courier

Issue date: 12/3/07 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: www.assassinscreed.com

Nov. 14 finally arrived, and I was giddy as a schoolgirl. After more than a year of waiting, "Assassin's Creed" for the Xbox360 finally arrived in stores.

Now usually I don't get this excited over a video game, but the main reason I bought a 360 was for this game. I've had to read interviews and watch trailers for this game for a while and it was good to finally get a taste of it.

Sitting down to play the game, I was immediately intrigued by the story. There's a twist to the game Ubisoft Montreal (the studio that made the game) did a good job of keeping quiet. I won't spoil it, but it would have been better served at the end. They gave away the biggest twist five minutes into the game.

The graphics for the game are amazing. They make "Gears of War" and "Halo 3" look horrible. OK, I won't go that far, but the look of "Assassin's Creed" is a great use of the 360's power.

The game is set during the time of the Crusades (in the year 1191), and according to the publishers everything that happens during the game is historically accurate. All the people the assassin (Altair) has to kill actually died or disappeared during this time.

Although the game is great to look at, the game play gets tedious and repetitive. Altair is charged with the job of assassinating nine people who are continuing the Crusades on both sides. He visits three separate cities; Jerusalem, Demascus and Acre. In each city he has to walk amongst the people and gain information on his targets. He can pickpocket, eavesdrop, beat people into giving up information and can find informants who will share info for a small price.

To find these forms of information Altair must climb to the top of some of the highest points in the city, which are called viewpoints. There are about 10 of these locations around each section of the three cities.

Once the player accesses these viewpoints, he or she can then find locations of the people who hold critical facts about the target.

I had the most fun with these viewpoints and other tall buildings. Altair can climb on almost anything in the cities, which makes for hours of rooftop-running and building-climbing fun.

Altair has to find at least three pieces of information around each city before he can complete the assassination. There are only a few ways to do this, and it becomes tiresome after the second or third time of doing it.

Continued...

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