Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles
Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles is a prequel to the game Assassin's Creed, and is published by Ubisoft and developed by Gameloft. It was released in the United States on February 5th, 2008. It features 2 new cities, Tyre and Alep, and the 3 original cities, Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus, but does not include Masyaf. Unlike the original Assassin's Creed, this game is not told through the perspective of Desmond Miles which is set in the year 2012, but rather is told directly by Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad. Though it should be noted the the menu screens take place on the Animus.
Plot
The game starts with Altaïr reaching the end of a journey, though it is untold what journey. He arrives in a settlement on his way to Alep. He uses the rooftops to make his way to the gate. He leaves the settlement and enters the village just before the citadel of Alep, to find it in flames, destroyed and looted by Templars. He fights his way through the village, into Alep’s citadel. He informs Al Mualim about the attack on the village, and Al Mualim informs him the attack happened because a man of theirs had information, and was being followed. Al Mualim informs Altaïr of a Chalice, and tells him to find it, and bring it back.
Altaïr departs from Alep to Damascus in search of information regarding the location of the Chalice. Rafik tells him of a merchant named Tamir, who has ties to Templars that might know of the Chalice’s location. Although Rafik doesn’t know a way into Tamir’s heavily-protected house, a man, named Misbah, on Lowend Street potentially might. Altaïr makes his way through Lowend street, via rooftops to find Misbah, who he interrogates. The guards catch on to Altaïr, giving Misbah the opportunity to run and leaving Altaïr without information. Altaïr escapes to the rooftops, pursuing Misbah. Misbah is about to escape when the roof under him collapses, and he barely survives the fall by grabbing a rope. Altaïr takes advantage of the situation by convincing Misbah that he will get him down if he gives up information. Altaïr learns that Tamir is receiving a shipment of oil on his roof, and quickly sets out to find it. Altaïr arrives at Tamir’s house and sets fire to the oil barrels, distracting the guards, and causing Tamir to come outside. Altaïr then confronts Tamir about the Chalice, and Tamir reveals that the Chalice lies in the desert, and Altaïr will need 3 keys to retrieve it. He also reveals to Altaïr can learn more from a dancer named Fajera. Altaïr kills Tamir and reports back to Rafik.
Rafik tells Altaïr that the “dancer” he seeks is actually a circus dancer. Altaïr goes to the circus in search of Fajera, who he finds. She has a man named Madr attack him, though, and narrowly escapes. Altaïr kills Madr and pursues Fajera on the rooftops. She finally stops chase, revealing she was just testing Altaïr. She gives him the first key to the desert temple and asks him to kill a man named Alaat in the baths of the Northern District of Noble Street. She also informs him of a man who has been to the desert temple and knows where the Chalice is; he’s inside the Templar Hospital of Tyre. She takes him to the Northern District and tells him he can use the sewers to get into the baths and kills Alaat. Altaïr gets through the sewers and kills Alaat, who alerts the guard. Altaïr swiftly escapes the baths and passes on the rooftops of the next building to a courtyard where he once again find Fajera. Fajera tells Altaïr he must go to Tyre next.
Right when Altaïr enters Tyre, he notices one thing: the increase in the number of guards. He seeks Hamid, the keeper of the Creed in Tyre. Hamid, at the end of the street, informs that the soldiers now holding up in Tyre are there to guard their hospital. He tells Altaïr they must split up and meet somewhere else. Altaïr follows the rooftops to the location where they meet. Altaïr arrives and Hamid tells him to find Roland Napule, the man in charge of the hospital. Altaïr takes a drained fountain to the sewers to infiltrate the hospital. Altaïr encounters guards in the sewers, indicating that this route into the hospital is known. Altaïr successfully infiltrates the hospital and finds a hidden crypt by stumbling upon a body chute. He notices something wrong with the coffins; they are actually switches. The switches activate the lift to a hidden room where Roland is torturing a victim who he suspects knows the location of the second key. Altaïr kills Roland, and talks to the man he was torturing. Altaïr is given the second key and informed that the Templars already have the third and know the location of the door they open. Altaïr heads to Jerusalem.
In Jerusalem, Altaïr finds Kadar, the keeper of the Creed. He asks the location of Lord Basilisk, the Templar who has the third key. Kadar tells Altaïr that Lord Basilisk is inside the castle of Jerusalem, and warns him that infiltrating that castle is no small feat. However, Altaïr arrived in Jerusalem at the right time, because the king will be holding a party, and will be out of his fortress and somewhere in the city. Kadar doesn’t know where the party will be held but tells Altaïr to try the gardens, it is good for learning gossip and picking up information. Kadar also assigns Altaïr with the task of finding an assassin that is working for the king that they have not heard from. Altaïr makes his way to the gardens where he eavesdrops on two men having a conversation about their friend who got invited to the king’s party. Altaïr confronts this friend, Ayman, who tells him that the party will be held at Lacoeur’s villa, in the north part of the city. He makes his way to the entrance, which is heavily guarded, and narrowly makes it in. Altaïr encounters the assassins in the king’s ranks, who needs help getting a gate open, and also informs Altaïr that there is a secret passage in and out of the castle. Altaïr finds and enters this passage, encountering heavy resistance along the way. Altaïr runs briefly through the sewers until he finds a wall, which moves, revealing Lord Basilisk himself. After a short confrontation, Altaïr grabs the third key from around his neck and runs.
Altaïr then sets out to find Hazad’s shop but walked in just an instant too late, Templars beat him there and took a map showing the way to the desert temple. Altaïr follows the Templars back to their tower, meeting heavy resistance from both citizens and guards along the way. He learns that Lord Basilisk himself requested the map. Altaïr chases the map carrier through the fortress before cornering him and killing him. Altaïr then moves to their master, who gives him an offer to join the Templars, which he refuses. He then chases and kills the Templar with the map, and departs for the Temple of Sand.
Altaïr makes his way through the obstacles of the Temple of Sand, meeting a lot of Templar resistance. When Altaïr finally comes to the room containing the Chalice, he opens the container, to discover the Chalice gone. Lord Basilisk strides in and gives an explanation. He says that the Chalice is actually flesh and bone, a woman. Lord Basilisk calls in guards, but then the Temple collapses. Altaïr finds himself in a desert valley, being chased by a cloud of sand. He narrowly escapes the obstacles and departs for Tyre.
In Tyre, Altaïr meets with Hamid once again on the docks. Hamid explains that only two men have access to the Templar’s Hold in the city, but they were captured. Hamid tells Altaïr that he can access the men by travelling along the wall to their left. As he progresses, Altaïr find a man in a cage and frees him. The man’s brother knows how to get into the Templar’s Hold, and tells him where to find his brother. Altaïr frees his brother, who tells him how to get into the Templar’s Hold; the gate on the other side of the wall has a guard guarding it that has a key to it. Altaïr gets to the gate and opens goes through it, he is in the Templar’s Hold. He starts search for Basilisk on the rooftops. He interrogates a man who tells him Basilisk is eastward, around the city gate. When Altaïr finally finds Basilisk, he decides to run, and, of course, Altaïr pursues him. Altaïr finds him in a building and confronts him. Altaïr defeats him at combat, at which point he offers information in exchange for his life. He tells Altaïrs the Chalice is in Jerusalem, in Don Carvaggio’s Villa; he also says there’s a plan to poison every water source in the city of Acre, killing everyone before sunrise. Altaïr, wanting to get the Chalice, yet also wanting to ensure the safety of Acre, destroys Lord Basilisk’s ships so he cannot escape, giving Altaïr time to save Acre, and then gather the Chalice. Altaïr then departs for Acre.
Altaïr arrives in Acre, a city under siege. He takes the rooftops across the city to a Templar camp, rescuing many citizens along the way. He disguises himself as a Templar and infiltrates the camp, however, he comes to an area where he must remain absolutely hidden, dismantling all their weapons sieging Acre. He disguises himself as a scholar and assassinates the leader who was about to give orders to poison the water supply. The guards catch onto him and he makes a hasty escapes on a catapault.
Altaïr then rides to Jerusalem in search of the Chalice. He discovers a woman named Adha is the Chalice and is being escorted out of the city by guards. Altaïr quickly decides if he wants to stop them, he must close the gates before they get there. The guards tell the gatekeeper to raise the gate, which he does. Altaïr swiftly stalks his prey, sticking to the rooftops. He rescues Adha from the guards but is separated from her. He tells her to go through the sewers and he’ll meet her there, so she does. They help each other through the sewers and she informs him that the Templars bought off a man named Harash from the assassins. Harash turns out to be the keeper of the whole Order of assassins, with only Al Mualim above him.
Altaïr heads back to Alep to kill Harash, then run away with Adha. Altaïr makes his way through Alep, and into the main forum, where he finds Harash, negotiating with a Templar. After a long struggle, Harash falls and Altaïr travels to Tyre.
In Tyre, Altaïr discovers Templars have found Adha and taken her. He dispatches them and goes to find her. He travels across the boats and docks to find Adha being taken away by none other then Lord Basilisk. Altaïr gives chase and soon find Lord Basilisk on a boat waiting for Altaïr to come and challenge him. Altaïr dispatches him and kills him, but he discovers Adha on another ship that is sailing away. He attempts to board it but fails and swims back to land. The last scene depicts Altaïr watching the boat containing Adha sail away and saying “I’ll find you, Adha!”
Gameplay
Assassin's Creed takes full use of the Nintendo DS features. It utilizes the touch-screen for pickpocketing and interrogation mini-games. It uses the control-pad for general gameplay such as running, etc. There is a selection of nearly a dozen different weapons, including daggers, explosives, swords, crossbows, smoke bombs, and throwing knives. There are two upgrades to the sword weapon and three upgrades to health. Combat consists of small, swift attacks (Y button), strong, slow attacks (X button), and blocks (R button). The A button is used to interact with objects and people, and the L button allows you to crouch and roll under certain obstacles. The R button works similarly to the "Blend" function on the original Assassin's Creed; it makes you walk to avoid suspicion from guards. Whenever walking across beams you also have to hold the R button or you will lose balance and fall. Smoke bombs instantly blind guards, but not Altaïr, giving you the chance to escape. Regular explosives can be either thrown or planted, to throw them you must run and push Y, and to plant them you must be still and push Y. When you plant them they have a timer that must run out before they explode. If you throw them they explode instantly. There is an Easy, Medium, and Hard difficulty setting. When you complete the game, you unlock in the main menu "Memories", which allows you to replay any level you want to on any difficulty. Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles features interesting use of the touch-screen. For standard gaming, it act as a map, where it shows the locations of Altaïr and all the guards. However, when engaging a suspected information carrier, you enter an interesting mini-game called "Interrogation". The touch screen will show a picture of a person's back, and will have spheres with red circles closing in on them. You must touch the sphere with the stylus when the surrounding circle touches it. If you press it too early, or too late you lose time. Losing all your time will result in losing the mini-game and having to engage the suspect once again. The second interesting use of the touch-screen is through the mini-game "pickpocketing". In this, you must run the stylus back and forth across the touch screen to clear the darkness in a person's purse. After you have cleared out the darkness, you will notice a key, you must drag it to the entrance of the person's purse, without touching the edges or other objects. Touching edges or other objects will result in losing time, and losing time has the same principle as interrogation.
Reception
The game has been received with mixed opinions, IGN gave it a 7/10 and Gamespot gave it 6/10, but many reviewers on Gamefaqs have given it quite lows scores.
Technical Issues
Many people have been complaining about glitches that have caused them to fall through a platform and die, or get hit by an arrow and die.