Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles

Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles is a video game released for the Nintendo DS and Symbian Mobile. It is a prequel to the video game Assassin's Creed, and is published by Ubisoft and developed by Gameloft. It was released in the United States on February 5, 2008. It features two new cities, Tyre and Alep; and the three original cities, Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus; but does not include Masyaf. Unlike the original Assassin's Creed, the game is not told through the perspective of Desmond Miles, but rather the perspective of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, although the menu screens does take place in the Animus.

A port with improved graphics and gameplay was made for the iPhone OS by Ubisoft and was released on the App Store April 23, 2009.

Plot summary
The year is 1190 AD, and the Third Crusade is engulfing the Holy Land. Crusaders clash with Saracens for control of the Holy City, Jerusalem.

A young assassin returns home to Alep from an arduous journey, and finds it under attack by Templars. He has no choice but to repel this attack, killing a low-ranking captain in the process. Soon he is tasked by Al-Mualim to find and retrieve a sacred object: the Chalice. It is said to have the power to unite under one flag all the factions of whatever side possesses it — either the Crusaders or the Saracens — and end the Third Crusade in victory for one side or the other. But the Chalice is too powerful an object to be left in the hands of men alone: It must be found and destroyed.

The assassin, Altaïr, begins his journey in Damascus, where a Rafik tells him (after testing his skills on a target) that the merchant, Tamir, has connections to the Templars. Upon interrogating Misbah, a man with connections to Tamir, Altaïr confronts him and, before killing Tamir, learns that the Chalice is kept in the Temple of the Sand and that Altaïr needs three keys to enter it. Altaïr then visits the circus dancer, Fajera, but she is unwilling to help, leaving Altaïr to fight a circus brute, Badr. After catching her, she gives Altaïr the first of three keys, and tells that a man that is at the Templar hospital in Tyre could help him find two more keys. Fajera also tasks Altaïr with killing a Templar named Alaat.

Arriving in Tyre, the first thing for Altaïr is to speak with Hamid, the Tyre assassin, from whom he learns that Roland Napule, head of the hospital, has being questioning someone recently. In order to get into hospital, he navigates through the sewer, enters the building and assassinates Roland. Altaïr is given the second key by a prisoner of Roland, an old man who has been to the mysterious temple of the Chalice.

Altaïr then travels to Jerusalem and speaks with local assassin agent, Kadar, learning that the Templar leader, Basilisk, is usually at the Jerusalem royal palace with the king, and that he has the third key. The king is going to have a party somewhere soon, and in order to get closer to Basilisk, this location should be discovered. Altaïr overhears some of the noblemen conversations and questioned Ayman, a man invited to the party. He finds out the location of Villa where the party is about to begin, infiltrates it with the help of one of Kadar's men, and encounters Lord Basilisk for the first time. After a battle with him Altaïr gets the key, but has no time to kill him and run away. Later in Jerusalem, Templars attack assassin agent, Hamid, and steal the map to the desert temple. Altaïr chases them to their tower, climbs to the top, facing heavy resistance including catapults, archers, and a mindless brute he fights in a courtyard. After making his way through the tower defenses and killing the archer captain in charge, Altaïr finds the way the tower and its Master, an assassin-like figure who actually high-ranking Templar. Altaïr fights his way through tower, killing the Master's guards and his student. Finally, he reaches the Master himself, kills him and takes the map.

Altaïr then proceeds to the Temple of the Sand, where the Chalice is probably kept. There, he encounters Templar forces and fights his way to the antechamber, defeating Axe Warrior. There, he finds an empty chest and Lord Basilisk, who hints that the Chalice is in fact a woman. Basilisk taunts him, and Altaïr runs back to Tyre before the temple collapses.

In Tyre, Hamid tells him that in order to infiltrate the local Templar stronghold, where Basilisk is located, he need to free two captured men. After freeing two captive brothers, they pinpoint the entrance for him, and Altaïr infiltrates the hold (encountering another Brute on his way), where he fights and badly wounds Basilisk. Altaïr agrees on a deal: Basilisk's life in exchange for information. Basilisk reveals that the Chalice is in Jerusalem, and that the Templars are besieging Acre and are going to poison the water to fasten the siege. Before leaving to Acre, Altaïr burns Basilisk's ships so he couldn't reach Chalice before him.

Altaïr journeys to besieged Acre and helps the city by fighting off attacking Templar soldiers, infiltrating the siege camp first in a disguise of a soldier, but continuing in a scholar's attire, and killing the Templar commander. Altaïr manages to escape the camp using a catapult.

He then goes to Jerusalem, where he successfully rescues the Chalice from group of Templars. Altaïr identifies the Chalice as Adha, the woman he knew and liked before the events of game. From her, he learns that the Templars have paid off Harash, the second-in-command of the Assassins.

Altaïr plans to attack Alep, the assassin fortress, kill Harash and run away with Adha, but after making his way through Harash's assassin guards and killing him, Adha is kidnapped by Basilisk and taken to their port in Tyre.

Altaïr fights through the Templar knights and kills Lord Basilisk in one final confrontation on his ship. But Adha is on a different ship, which escapes before Altaïr can catch it. He swims to shore (But he cannot in Assassins Creed) and, seeing the Templar ship far off in the distance, yells "I will find you, Adha!".

Gameplay
Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles takes advantage of the Nintendo DS's features. The game's main gameplay is primarily Prince of Persia-style platforming, mixed with stealth and combat. It utilizes the touch-screen for mini-games, like interrogation and pickpocketing, as well as displaying a map during standard gameplay.

The game's combat system consists primarily of weak attacks, strong attacks, and combos of the two, as well as using bombs and projectiles. Seven different weapons are available, including the hidden retractable blade, a sword, crossbow, explosive bombs, smoke bombs, throwing knives and a grapling hook witch can be used to rip enimies off their feet.

Weapons and skills can be upgraded/unlocked by using orbs, which can be found throughout the game. The game also features three different levels of difficulty, allowing for more experienced players to take on a bigger challenge.

The Symbian Mobile version is almost an identical port of the DS version.

Enemies
There are several enemy types in-game with the exclusion of sub-bosses (Axe Warrior, The Brute) and bosses (like Badr or Basilisk), which are considered characters.


 * Soldier - basic soldiers wearing black uniforms and armed with swords. Some of them play a role in the story, like a soldier captain killed in the beginning of the game.
 * Helmet Soldier - slightly different soldiers wearing helms, but otherwise similar to the first type.
 * Archer - archers wear red and white-colored uniform and should be killed quickly. Some of them play a role in the story, like the one interrogated by Altaïr in the beginning of the game, or the Archer captain encountered in Jerusalem.
 * Knight - knights wear red helms in-game and much stronger than average guards.
 * Templar - knights Templar have their own insignia on the game's map. They look very similar to a regular knight, but much more difficult to defeat. Some of them play a role in the story, like the Templar Knight Captain in charge of the siege of Acre.
 * Assassin Guard - these guards are employed in Alep by the Assassin's Order Keeper Harash.
 * Saracen Guard - these guards are not members of the Third Crusade. They are seen defending Acre, but some of them serves under Harash.
 * Bomber - soldiers employed by Templars, these men uses bombs against their enemies. Met only once during mission in Alep.

Memories
Altair's Chronicles contains a feature in the main menu called ''Memories. ''This lets the player select a mission of which they have already completed, and continue the game from there. The Memories are categorised into 13 chapters with up to 5 sub-chapters amongst them (e.g 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4). These are the chapter names:


 * Coming Home


 * The Hunt Begins


 * The Dancer


 * The Red Hospital


 * The Hidden Party


 * Kill the Killers


 * Temple of Sand


 * Great Angry Wall


 * Flow of Poison


 * The Running Wind


 * The Chalice


 * Snake Heart


 * Always an End

Reception
The Nintendo DS version of the game has been received with mixed opinions. IGN gave it a 7/10, Gamespot gave it 6/10, Nintendo Power gave it a 7.5/10, X-Play gave it a 2/5, and Game Informer magazine gave it a 6.5 out of 10. The iPhone version was well received overall with a 4.5 stars overall from customers reviews on the App Store.