Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed is an action-adventure game and spiritual successor to Prince of Persia. The game was released on November 14, 2007 for Xbox 360 and PS3 and is set for release in early 2008 for the PC.

Background
The game takes place in the year 1191, during the Third Crusade. You take on the role of Altair, a member of the Hashshashin sect (the original "assassins"). Your objective is to assassinate nine prominent figures in the history of the Third Crusade. As you find and kill these targets, you'll uncover their conspiracy.

Locations
There are three cities in the game world, Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus, each of which have been modeled with historic accuracy by using various historic references. The population of each city also takes on historic and distinct qualities, from the poor citizens to the upper class to the merchants. Additionally, all of Altair's targets are historical leaders who died or disappeared in 1191, although not necassarily assassinated.

Gameplay
The environment is completely interactive, from the climbable buildings to the people themselves. How you control Altair affects how the people around you react to your presence. If you discreetly move people aside to navigate through a crowd, it will not have any significant effect; but if, for example, you shove people, they may shove you back, resulting in unwanted attention from nearby guards. In a more extreme example, if you throw someone to the ground and kill him, the crowd could unite against you, forcing you to find a way out.

Another notable aspect of the environment is the openness of gameplay. In Assassin's Creed there is no single pre-determined path in which you must take to complete objectives. You can use the landscape to create your own path.

Scattered about the world are 420 flags to collect. This site shows all of the locations.

Story
The overall story within Assassin's Creed is set in September of 2012, where barkeeper Desmond Miles has been kidnapped by an unknown person prior to the start of the game, and is brought to Abstergo Industries, where researchers are working on the Animus project. The Animus is able to read memories from ancestors of the user that have been stored in DNA, allowing the user to replay those memories as if he were there himself. Desmond was "chosen" for the project due to his relationship to his ancestor Altaïr, a member of the Assassins during the Third Crusade of the Holy Land; the researchers express interest in understanding more of how the Assassins worked and reviewing a specific memory. Though initially Desmond's sub-conscious rejects the specific memory sought by the researchers, he learns to accept it by proceeding through the earlier memories leading up to it.

The memories of Altaïr that Desmond experiences start in AD 1191: Richard the Lionheart has just recaptured the port city of Acre from occupying Muslims. With a base of operations established, the Crusaders prepare to march south. Their true target is Jerusalem – which they intend to recapture for Christianity. However, Saladin, leader of the Islamic army, currently rules the city. Stinging from his army’s defeat at Acre, he will not allow Richard to humiliate him again. The Muslim forces are massing in the ruins of Arsuf, intending to ambush the Crusaders and prevent them from reaching Jerusalem. These war maneuvers have left the rest of the Holy Land wide open. While Richard and Saladin battle one another, the men left to govern in their stead have begun taking advantage of their newfound positions of power. Exploitation, manipulation, and provocation rule the day.

The first memory Desmond experiences is that of Altaïr failing to assassinate the Grand Master of The Templar Knights, Robert de Sable, and recover the order's treasure. Due to this, Altaïr is demoted to Novice (the lowest rank in the Assassin Order). But Al Mualim, leader of the Assassins, offers him an opportunity to redeem himself. Altaïr must venture out into the Holy Land and assassinate nine men said to be exacerbating and exploiting the hostilities created by the Third Crusade. In doing so, he will stabilize the region, allowing Mualim to usher in an age of peace.

Along the way, however, Altaïr discovers that his targets are bound by more than just a shared interest in personal gain, but are in fact Templars themselves, with the goal to unite all mankind under a common goal, by whatever means necessary. Desmond further learns from emails when left overnight between sessions that Abstergo Industries is run by modern-day Templars, who are seeking the locations of several artifacts that they can use to continue to Templars' goals. Desmond learns that he was kidnapped by the company so that they may learn, through Altaïr's memories, where the location of an artifact may be buried in the Holy Land. The remnants of the Assassin's Guild fail in their attempt to rescue Desmond before the locations could be learned. Altaïr's memories finally reveal that the assignment he undertook was a ploy by Al Mualim to destroy the others who knew of the artifact. The Templars use the deaths of Altaïr targets, men onon both sides of the battle, to unite the Crusaders and Muslims against the Assassins. In doing so, Saladin and Richard The Lionheart would instead work together destroy the Assassins, who they perceive to be their common enemy. To save his kin, Altaïr chases after Robert de Sable, who is rushing off to inform King Richard of the 'threat' posed by the Assassins. Present with two different stories, King Richard puts his faith in God, and decides that the victor of a fight between Altaïr and de Sable has Gods favor in the argument. de Sable reveals in his dying words that Altaïr's master is also a member of the Templars, and is now the only person in control of the artifact, the "Piece of Eden" that is able to alter what men can see and can be used for mass hypnosis. Altaïr travels to face his Master, who wields the "Piece of Eden" ,attempting to alter Altaïr's sight, but eventually falls to his blade. As Altaïr recovers the "Piece of Eden", the device activates one more time to reveal multiple locations across the globe in an holographic manner. With Altaïr's memory complete, Desmond wakes up out of the Animus to learn that Abstergo Industries is already sending out recovery teams to those locations hoping to find additional artifacts. Desmond, now having no use for Abstergo Industries, was to be silenced,however, he was saved by Lucy. In the conclusion of the game, Desmond, having become "synchronized" with Altaïr, is able to use the eagle vision, and sees messages scrawled across the floors and walls that only he can see that refer to the end of the world described by several religions, among other writings; such writings include references to the biblical passage Revelations 22:13 ("I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."), a Lorenz Attractor, the Eye of Providence, and other writings in foreign languages. Additionally, there is the Mayan date of 13.0.0.0 — December 21, 2012 — which is only 3 months from the events of Assassin's Creed, and the planned launch of the modern Templar satellite. It is also especially important that this date is the date in which the 13th baktun of the Mayan calendar begins, which also happens to be the end of the Mayan Calendar.

Trivia

 * The popular phrase used to describe Assassin's Creed's gameplay, "Nothing is true. Everything is permitted." is in fact a quotation 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?"