I have recently picked up Assassin’s Creed 1, and I must say, it is a work of art, all thanks to Ubisoft Montreal in 2007. However, the fact is that nobody really plays this game anymore, so in order to shed more light on this absolute work of art, I am going to write a review on it.
It was released back in 2007, but don't be fooled by its age, the story, combat, environment etc, are all well-designed and better than those $80 ‘AAA’ games we get today.
However, if you're unsure whether to pick it up or if your device can even run it, do not worry. In this post, I will thoroughly review each benchmark of the game, rate it out of 10, and then provide a final rating.
Table of Content
1. Climb Synchronization Points
System Requirements
If you are worried that your device might not be able to run smoothly, rest assured, the graphics and shaders are not super fancy, so if my potato PC can run smoothly, your old office laptop with only a CPU can too.
However, I still have listed the exact official system requirements from Steam if you wish to ensure.
Minimum Requirements:
- Supported OS: Windows XP/Windows Vista (only)
- Processor: Dual-core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
- System Memory: Windows XP: 1 GB RAM / Windows Vista: 2 GB RAM
- Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 10.0-compliant video card or DirectX 9.0-compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher
- Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0-compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
- DirectX Version: Direct X 9.0 (Windows XP) or 10.0 (Windows Vista) libraries
- Hard Disk: 8 GB available hard disk space
- Supported Peripherals: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)
If you still read it, you would have noticed that it says Windows XP and Vista only, but obviously, Windows 10 and 11 can easily run. The only thing to look out for is the processor.
Benchmarks
Now let's start rating the actual game. The rating will be based on the following benchmarks:
- Story
- Missions + Side Missions
- Setting and Cities
- Environment
- Characters
- Stealth
- Combat System
- Parkour [since it is an AC game]
- Sound Design [Music]
- Voice Acting
The Story [Spoilers Ahead]
The story is about Altair Ibn La Ahad or just Altair, he was in Master Assassin rank until he failed a mission and compromised his comrades and assassin brotherhood for which he was stripped of his rank and equipment was told by his master Al Mualim to conduct 9 assassinations and he will get one rank and a piece of equipment back after every successful assassination.
|Fun Fact: Al Mualim from Arabic translates to “Teacher”! |
The Plot
The plot of this game is absolutely phenomenal. It revolves around Altair conducting his own research in the cities of his targets and successfully eliminating them on the word of Al Mualim and under the supervision of the cities' Bureau leaders. However, after the deed is done, he learns the bitter truth from his targets which perplexs him and sparks curiosity about the Assassin Order that he hadn't anticipated.
The plot in itself is quite perplexing and confusing for first-time players. It even makes you question your own morals sometimes, and so did Altair. If you are considering playing this game, I highly recommend experiencing it a second time to fully grasp the profound meaning of the story.
[If you want to understand the plot of the game better I recommend you watch this video by @WalshieYT1]
The Rating
9/10
Missions + Side Missions
Main Missions [Story]
The main missions as many people – in fact, everybody says are quite repetitive. There is only one format for the missions: visit the target’s city → gather information about the target → do the deep and take your leave.
Many players consider this a negative factor of the game. This might be a controversial take, but in my opinion, this format of missions brings more realism to the game, as it was Ubisoft’s first game about Assassins. This mission format suits Assassin's Creed 1 perfectly, as it lays the foundation for what Assassin’s Creed is supposed to be like.
And let’s be honest, everybody would imagine this would be the daily work of a novice assassin, which Altair was demoted to. So, in conclusion, the repetitive format of the main missions is perfect for Assassins Creed.
But don't just walk away yet, even though the missions are repetitive, their context is unique in their own way, which is sure to keep you entertained.
Side Missions
There aren’t many side missions to the game and those which are, feel more like side activities. There are three things you can do:
- Climb Synchronization Points
- Save Citizens
- Collect Flags
Climb Synchronization Points
Throughout the AC1 map, there are certain towers which you can climb to gain synchronisation for their respective areas and reveal useful information on the map.
Save Citizens
When you visit different cities, you can find citizens being harassed by a group of soldiers and you must save them. The number and level of the soldiers keep increasing as you progress in your own ranks. After saving them, ‘Vigilantes’ will appear on the spot and will block the path of any of your pursuers in the future.
Collect Flags
Throughout the map, there are flags of different factions and cities for you to collect. There are a lot of flags for you to collect but collecting them does not give absolutely anything in return, therefore it's a waste of time.
The Rating
8/10
Setting and Cities
The events of Assassin’s Creed are set in the year 1191 AD during the Third Crusade in the Holy Land [aka the Levant] [modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria]. Altair visits Damascus, Acre and Jerusalem to eliminate his targets.
The Setting
The Third Crusade as the setting for AC1 is undoubtedly the best one we have got so far. It isn’t just a backdrop, Ubisoft worked hard to integrate it into the story, atmosphere and environment.
The setting is quite historically accurate with characters like Richard and Saladin appearing in the main story, while dense crowds and marketplaces, call to prayer, scholars preaching and soldiers patrolling the streets make the game more immersive.
The genius use of colour filters for different cities to depict the political and cultural standing of each city brings even more immersion to the game. Hat off to Ubisoft Montreal for doing justice to the setting
The Cities
There are in total five areas in the game, three of them being the main cities, they are:
- Masyaf
- The Kindom
- Damascus
- Acre
- Jerusalem
Masyaf
Masyaf is the Assassins’ headquarters, where it all started, where Altair get his orders from and where he reports back after the completion of each mission. It isn’t very big or dense and there isn’t much to do there.
The Kingdom
The Kingdom is also a pretty lacking area of the game. It is the roads linking Masyaf and all the other cities. The only thing you can do here is climb synchronisation points, but they are also quite pointless.
The only annoying part about the Kingdom is the soldiers. You have to go around them really slowly or else they will go after you, but that's not the annoying part, it’s the sheer amount of them. These soldiers are everywhere in the Kingdom and even in the cities [but they are not that big of an issue in the cities] so tread carefully.
The Cities
The best thing about the cities is the colour filter depicting the political and cultural standing, the people and the environment.
My personal favourite is Acre, it has this dark and gritty colour filter that is reflected in Altair’s targets. If you do not understand what I am trying to say, then would have to play the game to get the deep meaning.
The architecture of the cities has been built with parkour in mind. Even though this was Ubisoft’s first open-world freerunning parkour game, they nailed it perfectly on the first try. The cities are packed densely with buildings, domes towers and other structures to provide the smoothest parkouring experience.
|Fun Fact: There are multiple places in Damascus where you can see the front of G1 Optimus Prime’s truck mode as windows of houses|
The Rating
10/10
Break
The post is getting very long so I am breaking this review into multiple parts so that it doesn’t get boring. I will put the link here when the next part comes out so stay tuned.
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