While there are a few twists that occur later on in the game that redefine
what's actually happening, the main thrust of Assassin's Creed revolves
around a white-clad character named Altair in the 12th century. Altair has
been trained since his youth to be a methodical, effective killer. He's
grown to become one of the best in his order, with a high ranking within
his clan. During the game's first mission, something goes horribly wrong,
causing the death of many of his key allies. Finding himself stripped of
his status and many of his abilities, he makes a deal to assassinate nine
lives in exchange for his own. With each of his missions successfully
completed, he regains some of his status and abilities. As a member of a
mysterious order of Assassins, Altair is given instructions from his
mentor between each mission at their mountain-based retreat, where other
aspects of the game's larger storyline begin to unfold. Once Altair has
been given his instructions for the assassination, he must travel to that
city. There are large swaths of countryside between these main areas, each
of which has a number of locations that you can scout. There are some
hostile forces here, and you can choose to either sneak past them slowly
to avoid battles or go full gallop on your horse. This approach alerts
them to your presence and means you have to battle them. The sequences
aren't that numerous and you can usually travel to your destination fairly
quickly, though like several other elements in the game, this can become a
bit tedious after awhile.
As you travel throughout the world of
Assassin's Creed, you'll encounter numerous watch towers and other
locations that serve as viewpoints. When you climb up these towers, you'll
see a small ledge at the top of them, and once there, you can synchronize
yourself with the environment, which helps you in two ways - it gives you
a perspective on your nearby surroundings and also allows you to explore
those sections which were previously blocked off to you. In addition,
after you scale one of these areas, previously unseen objectives and
locations will also appear on your map, helping to move things forward.
Additionally, Altair will also be able to see the location of hiding spots
as well. You have to scale most of these Towers in each city in order to
fulfill your mission objectives and the assassinations can't be completed
in many cases without scaling at least a few of these towers. Early on,
these tower climbing sequences let you practice your climbing skills,
which can come in handy later on when you need to escape quickly from some
fairly dangerous sections. However, this system does tend to become a bit
monotonous after you've climbed about a dozen or so of these, slowing down
the gameplay at crucial points.
Once
you have arrived in the city, your first objective is to locate the
Assassin's Bureau and gain further information about the target. However,
in order to get inside, you need to be invisible which means you have to
avoid alerting the citizens by, for example, not knocking them over while
running or taking on an innocent bystander. Once you have arrived at the
bureau, your contact will fill you in on who you're targeting and the
misdeeds you are about to punish them for. After you have received your
final instructions, its up to you to explore the city and find out further
details. This can be done in a number of ways - the first is to find
someone with information on your target which helps you find their
location. To gain this information, you can choose to either sneak in
close to them and listen to their conversations. Another technique is to
pickpocket information on them by moving close to them and taking a piece
of paper from them. Finally, you can use an interrogation technique where
you lure the informant to an isolated place, attack them until they break
down and give you the information you need. Its not quite that simple,
since each city is crawling with guards, who will very quickly spot and
attack you if they sense anything unusual is going on. Fortunately, you
have several techniques to blend in with the crowd, such as walking slowly
with your hands clasped, sitting on a bench or simply running out of their
sight lines. One of the game's more impressive sequences sees Altair
blending in with a group of white-clad monks to evade your pursuers,
though you are basically locked into their formation until you decide to
leave, walking with them through the city streets is fairly dull. During
the game, you can also choose to take some side-quests, usually involving
a citizen being attacked unfairly. While they don't seem to make your job
easier, if you save these innocents from a group of corrupt guards,
they'll repay you later on. For example, they might have friends who'll
suddenly appear when you are being pursued to block your opponent's
progress, making it much easier for you to avoid getting caught.
When you are spotted, you have several different ways to respond. You can
either choose to flee the scene, and find a safe location until the
guards' alert level drops or you can fight them. Assassin's Creed's combat
system is relatively straightforward. Attacking them with your sword is
fairly simple to perform. You can choose to use either a series of short
blows by pressing down on the action button or can perform a stronger
attack by holding down the attack button. You can also perform dodging
motions to avoid their blows or perform a quick, devastating finishing
move. When you're confronted by multiple enemies simultaneously, using
your quick attacks and eagle vision to lock onto an opponent is usually
the best strategy, allowing you to dispatch foes quickly without
subjecting yourself to excessive danger from the other attackers. If you
flee to the roofs, you'll usually find a few guards stationed there as
well, but they're usually alone and can be taken out quickly or pushed off
the side of the building if they don't see you. Altair can also perform
stealth attacks using his hidden blade to take out enemies at close range.
You basically sneak behind them without raising suspicion then plunge the
knife in them and walk away slowly as they collapse to the ground. This is
usually quite effective when you want to take someone down in a public
place without alerting the guards - just don't forget to walk away slowly
after your attack is complete. This is emblematic of the game's unique
approach to stealth attacks, which feels a lot more natural and less
contrived than in a lot of other titles. It definitely requires a great
deal of skill and timing to take someone out without drawing attention to
yourself, but once you get the hang of it, Assassin's Creed's brilliant
design begins to show itself.
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