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Plot Overview: Altair’s Journey of Redemption
The game focuses on Altair Ibn-La’Ahad, a member of the Levantine brotherhood of assassins who became a Master assassin at the age of 24. The game starts with Altair chasing down Robert De Sable, and in doing so, breaking all of the creed’s tenets. He fails to kill his target and is later chastised for acting so rashly, and stripped of his rank. The story then follows Altair’s journey as he has to prove himself once more to his fellow assassins and climb through the ranks as an initiate.
Gameplay Mechanics: Open World but Linear Story Progression
As a game, it is purely an open-world, with a mechanic for obtaining 100% synchronisation and increasing Altair’s own synchronisation bars through completing side missions. Impressively, the bars used in this game are merely synchronisation points and represent Desmond’s own synchronisation with the legendary assassin, which means that in reality, Altair was never hit once throughout the timeline of this game. Assassin’s Creed no-damage run, anyone?
The game is described as being linear because while you may choose which targets to kill first, all the plot points lead to one overarching storyline. The animus does provide the interesting perspective of playing two different storylines, however, which was quite a fun addition.
Repetitive Side Quests
One of the sore points I have to mention is that side quests lack variety and could become highly repetitive after a while. This could lead to many players skipping them unless they’re aiming for 100% completion, or finding it necessary to progress through the main story with their number of synchronisation bars. Additionally, for completionists, these side quests might offer a few additional hours of gameplay.
Crowd System and NPCs
The game was one of the first to introduce dynamic crowds, creating bustling city streets that felt alive. NPCs reacted to Altair’s actions: they would notice him climbing buildings, shove him if he ran into them, and sometimes even call for guards if he behaved suspiciously. This crowd system was a core mechanic of gameplay since it introduced the monks, a group of people that you could blend in with in order to enter stealth. While the NPC models were constantly repetitive and lacked any sense of variety, they still managed to make it feel like a sprawling, bustling environment.
Frustrating Guard Mechanics
While the game relies on stealth mechanics for many of its quests and side quests, these mechanics can feel unpolished and broken. Guards spot you at the most inopportune times at the strangest angles, and additionally, the mission auto-fails if you’re seen even mere moments before completing an objective. Such moments can prove to be a major source of frustration and break the flow of the game.
Innovative Gameplay and Movement System
When it comes to gameplay, one must applaud the brilliant and innovative free-roam movement system introduced in Assassin’s Creed. The free-running and climbing mechanics allow players to traverse almost any building and devise creative ways to eliminate opponents. This opens up a number of different ways you can consistently use your environment to your advantage during your missions and often inspires you to get creative and change your approach. This system became a cornerstone for the Assassin’s Creed franchise and inspired other titles like Brink, which expanded on it.
Storyline: Simple Yet Engaging
The story itself is straightforward, with most plot points easy to follow. Since you unlock new weapons and mechanics over the course of the game, this certainly helps to keep the experience from going stale. There is also a pretty exciting plot point towards the end. Noticeably, the story becomes quite rushed near the end, sending you on a journey that forces players into battles almost every other minute. While it offers some thrilling moments, it lacks depth compared to later entries in the series.
Overall Verdict: A Solid Start to the Franchise
Overall, I would rate the game a solid 7 out of 10. Despite its flaws, the game’s unique mechanics laid the foundation for what would become a beloved and critically acclaimed franchise.
Story-wise, I feel it is quite straightforward, with nothing too complicated. Near the end, it gets exciting for a brief moment but is also majorly rushed, forcing you to encounter battles almost constantly. The side quests were not varied in the slightest and were highly repetitive, likely resulting in most people skipping them unless they needed to progress through the story or were completionists. An added gripe of mine with this game was the fact that guards sometimes spotted you when they shouldn’t. This was especially annoying during missions that auto-fail if you are seen seconds before assassinating your target or completing an objective. Such occurrences were definitely a source of frustration.
When we speak about gameplay, one must keep in mind the innovation and fluidity of the motions that enable free roam, allowing you to climb almost any building and devise creative ways to kill your opponents. It was definitely one of the pioneers of such a system, and other games, like Brink, took inspiration from it and expanded upon it in later releases. One should applaud the creativity of this team for laying the stepping stones to this iconic franchise.
Overall, if I were to rank the game out of ten, I would give it a solid seven out of ten.
