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Assassin’s creed is a stealth/action game set during the Third Crusade on the holy land of 1191.The story revolves around Altair an assassin (surprisingly) who must track down and kill key figures of Richard the Lionheart’s invading force and the resident Saladins’s leaders. These individuals must be tracked down in one of the exquisitely detailed cities of Jerusalem, Damascus and Acre before silently killing them and escaping into the shadows.

Assassin's Creed has been a huge success on PS3 and Xbox 360 with slick next generation visuals and even slicker controls allowing fluid freedom of movement in the games “open” world. Besides the stunning visuals and a rather convoluted dual story (Altair is actually a genetic memory embedded in the mind of the depressingly dull sounding Desmond Miles who is being held by a shadowy group in the present day forced to relive Altair’s memories in a scanner that appears to have been borrowed from Star Trek) the game offers plenty of action and entertainment. Freedom of movement is essential to the game and an incredibly responsive control method resides within shaming other games previous attempts. This allows you to race through the city streets and scale their lofty spires with the grace and fluidity of a seasoned Parkour expert and carry out those all important assassinations. But can this acclaimed control method be transferred to the beige box of delights?

There is always a sense of trepidation when a console game is released on the PC.These ports are usually lazy and offer such poor controls that it’s like the first time you played Gran Turismo on the PSOne and no matter what you did on the joypad it wouldn’t stop your car from wedging itself in a grass verge. Ubisoft have taken this conversion very seriously making sure the excellent controls have translated well to the keyboard and mouse and with an Xbox 360 pad the controls are perfect. The bulk of the game involves tracking down the targets by eavesdropping on conversations and on occasion picking pockets. When you have ascertained the desired information you are then left to kill the target and make your escape. The game world is dauntingly open at first and use of the mini map is essential to navigate the cities to find targets. All buildings can be scaled and the tall towers offer a stunning bird’s eye view of the city and whilst aloft these perches you can synchronies Desmond’s memory with Altair’s to eventually allow access to other areas.

Sadly, it’s not all good. The areas between the cities are large and beautifully realized, but travelling through them is at times dull and feels a little like the sailing sections in Zelda’s Wind Waker which were blatantly used to stretch out the games longevity. The soldiers that litter areas outside the cities are possibly the most nervous men we have ever seen. The slightest glimpse of you on a galloping horse immediately causes them to attack you on sight and in turn cause every other soldier from then on to attack you. This may be the 11^th century but mobiles are obviously readily available as soldiers miles down the road from where the initial soldier freaked out are aware of our suspicious activity and the frankly terrifying appearance (galloping on a white pony wearing what looks like a bathrobe), that they are already tooled up and ready to attack when we arrive? This and the combat system that relies on simple parrying and retaliation ends up boiling down to a very repetitive wait for the right moment to activate the counter attack video that floors the guard with either a broken limb or a severed appendage. These problems do not ruin the game but during extended play can really irritate.

Graphically Assassin’s Creed cannot be faulted and on the PC higher resolutions only make the detailed splendor more interesting and inviting. The cities are teaming with life and are all well rendered, the market areas especially. The dual story mechanic does grate at times and after taking the time to create such a splendid game world the inclusion of the present day environments as a distraction to a game that is at its core, a wash rinse and repeat formula seems unnecessary. People who bought the game knew what they were getting, an action stealth em-up set during the crusades. The time spent creating Desmond’s story and environment could have been better used to add more variety to the missions (some extra missions have been added to this PC version but are simple races and protection of citizens) and making the combat more varied. All in all, Assassin’s Creed is a good game and a shining example of how to successfully port a console game to the PC.

Score: 8/10

Craig is the newest member to the Avid Gamer team and will be handing the PC / PS3 sides to the site. We’d all like to welcome him with this, his debut review.

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