Assassin's Creed

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Assassin's Creed is a sandbox style action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. The game was released for Xbox 360 and PS3 in November 2007 and for PC in April 2008.

The game centers around use of a machine dubbed the "Animus", which allows the viewing of its user's genetic memories of his or her ancestors, specifically a bartender named Desmond Miles. As Desmond relives the memories of one of his ancestors, the Assassin Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad who lived during the Third Crusade (1191) in the Holy Land, details of a battle between two ancient sects, the Knights Templar and the Assassins, emerge as both scour for an artifact known only as a "Piece of Eden".

The game received primarily positive reviews, for both its story and its gameplay, and received several awards at the 2006 E3. In November 2009, Assassin's Creed II was released as a sequel.

Gameplay

Assassin's Creed is a nonlinear action-adventure video game during which the player controls Altaïr, whose life is experienced through the Animus by Desmond Miles. The overall goal of the game is to rise through the ranks of the Assassins Brotherhood by carrying out a series of assassination missions ordered by the leader of the Order, Al Mualim. In doing so, Altaïr travels from Masyaf to cities in the Holy Land, specifically, Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus.

Upon arrival in any of the cities, Altaïr must locate an agent of the Brotherhood who will provide a safe house and basic knowledge of the target. It is up to Altaïr to perform additional intelligence gathering via eavesdropping, interrogation, meeting with informers and fellow assassins, and gathering important items. It is only after Altaïr has gathered enough information that he can safely and successfully carry out the assassination. After successfully completing assassinations, Altaïr returns to the Brotherhood and is rewarded with a better weapon and then given another set of targets.

File:Altairviewing.png

High vantage points allow the player to map out portions of the city.

While performing the necessary missions, Desmond must direct Altaïr to high points in the city to further synchronize the memories which maps out the city that he is currently located in. Other side quests include tracking and killing Templars, flag collecting, and saving citizens who are being threatened by city guards.

Altaïr needs to carry out most of his missions without being noticed by officials. The game uses the Alertness Level Meter to inform the player of how noticeable Altaïr is to the surrounding individuals, including the guards. Performing certain actions at certain times may or may not raise the local area's awareness level. If an area is on high alert, all citizens will run and scatter in various directions as guards chase and attempt to bring down Altaïr. To reduce the alertness level, Altaïr must break the guards' line of sight, find a hiding place or blend in with wandering scholars (who coincidentally are dressed similar to Altaïr) or with citizens sitting on benches.

To conduct many of the assassinations and various other tasks, Altaïr is capable of both high and low profile commands, both of which affect the alertness level. Low profile commands will allow Altaïr to blend into crowds, hide, and use Altaïr's hidden blade to attempt quiet and low profile assassinations. High profile commands increase alertness at a greater level and include free running, attacking foes, and high profile assassination attempts.

Health in the game is measured as the level of synchronization between Desmond and Altaïr's memories. When Altaïr is injured, it is experienced as a deviation from the actual memory that occurred and synchronization decreases. If there is complete desynchronization, the current memory that Desmond is experiencing ends and restarts at the last checkpoint. If complete synchronization is obtained, Desmond as Altaïr is able to use "Eagle Vision", which has the Animus highlight all visible characters in the current setting in specific colors depending on their status (friend, foe, target).

Because Altaïr's memories are being rendered by a computer, "glitches" may often be experienced with nucleotides and error messages appearing. Such glitches can be used to help identify targets and if the player reacts quickly enough, may be used to provide other vantage points during the cutscene.

Plot

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Warren Vidic of Abstergo Industrries overlooks Desmond inside the Animus.

Desmond Miles, a bartender, is kidnapped by the company Abstergo Industries for use as a test subject in the "Animus", a device that can stimulate the recall of ancestral memories. Abstergo intends to put Desmond in the device to recall the role of his ancestor, Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad, a member of the Assassin Brotherhood during 1191 as part of the Third Crusade in the Holy Land. Desmond has trouble adjusting to the device, but eventually relives Altaïr's exploits over the next several days. The game then primarily takes Altaïr's point-of-view, with occasional swaps to Desmond, due to glitches in the Animus.

Altaïr is first shown attempting to retrieve one of a series of artifacts known as the "Pieces of Eden" from Solomon's Temple with the help of Malik and his brother, but is stopped by Robert de Sablé, Grand Master of the Knights Templar and sworn enemies of the assassins. While retrieving the treasure, Altaïr breaks all three tenets of the Assassin's Creed ("Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent," "Hide in plain sight" and "Do not compromise the Brotherhood") within the opening minutes of gameplay to attempt to kill de Sablé, but fails. In the commotion, Malik's brother is killed. When Altair returns to the Assassins' stronghold at Masyaf with apologies, Malik, who survived de Sable, came back with the artifact and curses of Altair's arrogance.

After narrowly defeating a retaliatory attack by the Knights Templar, Al Mualim, leader of the Assassins, demotes Altaïr to a novice but gives him another chance to rise through the ranks of the Brotherhood. Al Mualim assigns Altaïr the task of assassinating nine key figures across the Holy Land in Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus, to attempt to bring peace between the Crusader and Saracen forces. Each target is based on an actual historical figure from the Third Crusade, including Majd Addin (Regent of Jerusalem), Garnier de Nablus (Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller), Jubair al Hakim (a eminent scholar in Damascus), Abu'l Nuqoud (the wealthiest man in Damascus), Robert de Sablé, Grand Master Sibrand of the Knights Templar and William V, Marquess of Montferrat (Regent of Acre).

Altaïr discovers a map detailing the locations of other ?Pieces of Eden.

Altaïr completes each task, learning how each target is connected to Robert and the Templars, and how together they aim to end the Crusade and place the Holy Land under their own control. With men on both sides killed, he discovers that de Sablé's last ploy is to attempt to unite Christian and Muslim against their new-common enemy, the assassins themselves. Altaïr defeats de Sablé before Richard the Lionheart, failing to convince the king that an end to the war would be welcome to both sides. From de Sablé he discovers that Al Mualim is himself a member of the Knights Templar, and used Altaïr to kill the other members so he could keep the treasure for himself. Altaïr quickly returns to Masyaf to accost his master, who reveals the truth: the Piece of Eden which he had received from one of the men in the Temple after Altaïr's transgression creates illusions. He denounces religion and other seemingly supernatural events (e.g. the parting of the Red Sea, the Ten Plagues of Egypt and the presence of the Greek Gods in the Trojan War) as illusions caused by it, then states his intention to use the artifact to compel mankind into a brainwashed state and so bring an end to all conflict. Altaïr is eventually able to see through deceptions created by the artifact to kill Al Mualim. When Altaïr recovers the artifact, the Piece of Eden activates, showing a holographic view of the world with numerous locations of other Pieces of Eden marked across the globe.

When the process is complete, Desmond learns that Abstergo is a modern-day version of the Knights Templar, and are already seeking other artifacts at locations identified in Altaïr's memory. He further learns that the modern-day assassins had tried to rescue him before the memory was complete but had failed. Desmond was to be killed after completion, but a researcher named Lucy Stillman saves him from death and at one point, tucks her ring finger into her palm, referring to the Assassins' tradition of cutting off the same finger. Though Desmond remains trapped in the Abstergo laboratory, his experience in the Animus has created a "bleeding effect" of Altaïr's life in his own, allowing him to see strange messages painted on the walls of his room, as well as allowing Desmond to use Altaïr's eagle vision. The messages all deal with various forms of the end of the world from different cultures, including several references to the date December 21, 2012, the date that Abstergo plans to launch a satellite that will "permanently end the war". It is hinted at that this will be by the same method that Al Mualim hypnotized Masyaf, only on a larger scale. The game ends with Desmond wondering what these images all mean and who could have drawn them.

Awards

Won

• Game Critics Awards
  • "Best Action/Adventure Game"
• IGN
  • "Best Action Game", "Best Console Game", "Best PS3 Artistic Design", "PS3 Award for Technological Excellence"
• GameSpot
  • "Best PS3 Game of the Show"
  • Runner-Up': "Game of the Show", "Best Trailer", "Best Graphics", "Best Action Adventure Game"

Nominated

• IGN
  • "Game of the Show", "Best Graphics Technology"

Trivia

• Assassin's Creed is set from September 2nd 2012 to September 8th 2012 and most likely in Italy judging by the signs in Abstergo's building during the escape in Assassin's Creed II.
• The popular phrase used to describe Assassin's Creed's gameplay "La'shai sahih bel kullu shai'n mumkin" is Arabic for "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." This quote is generally attributed to the founder of the Hashshashin, Hassan-i Sabbah.
• The case of the game appeared in the "The Dinner Party" episode of popular UK Television series The IT Crowd. Roy picked it up on his way out of the apartment of a woman who he had just walked home asking, "Could I have a lend of this?"