Assassin's Creed

Astounding in every way. Worth: $40
based on Xbox 360 retail

The GamerGal applying her feminine whiles.

I'm struggling. Struggling to avoid building this game up too much. You know how if someone says that a movie is "great great great" and then you see it and it's only "great" you feel disappointed? I'm trying to stay away from that. Let's start with a little critical commentary:

The game can be a little repetitive. There's only 5 types of jobs (eavesdropping, pickpocketing, rescuing, interrogating, and killing). There are a couple other activities, like collecting flags and climbing to lookout points. But that's kind of it. The thing is, it's a great "it".

The acrobatic urban jungle gym makes this one of the freshest games I've played in 10 years. The controls are very different, but as I'm getting used to them I see that they're well-done. There is a learning curve to them, but the game is written to introduce you to these new controls gradually.

The game has an important quality for me: flexibility. You can play like a maniac (Arth), like a sneaky SOB (Gypsy 6), or somewhere in-between (GamerGal). A great aspect of this flexibility is that if you blow your cover on a stealth mission, you don't fail the mission (a la Hitman and Metal Gear Solid). It just means you have to finish the mission by killing everything in sight. Your boss will give you a hard time about being so sloppy, but you still finish the damn mission. This lets me keep progressing, and it gives me some replay motivation. ("I bet I can sneak up on that guy if I try it again.") If you totally blow it (meaning die) the checkpoints are well-placed as you respawn just before your confrontation.

Another aspect of this flexibility is that you can just be a tourist and wander around the gorgeous cities, or you can be more goal-oriented and work the missions. I tend to mix them together. You can (if you're Arth) just go crashing in right away and kill your target, slashing and maiming with reckless abandon. Or you can (if you're Gypsy 6) gather intel so you can sneak up on the guy. (Actually, if you're Gypsy 6, you gather intel, attempt to sneak up on the guy, trip over your own feet, get caught, and then have to fight your way out of the area, slashing and maiming with reckless abandon.)

So far, this game may well prove to be worth the $60 I paid for it. Even the GamerGal is playing it. She's a little out of control with the acrobatics (falling off buildings never looked so good), but she's ferocious in a sword fight (bring out your dead!). From watching her play I've learned to try and keep a low profile to avoid pissing off the guards every 20 seconds. The guards will attack you for basically no reason so it's important to blend into the crowd, or avoid the guards altogether. This makes the rooftops your primary route to everywhere, since the streets are so (realistically) clogged with obstacles it's almost impossible to avoid attracting attention (and fights) to yourself.

More later, as we continue through this excellent game...

UPDATE: Dec 3, 2007
Now that I've gotten the hang of the sword-fighting, I don't really worry about sneaking around. If I'm in a bad mood I'll purposely antagonize the biggest group of guards I can find, set up my one-man slaughterhouse, and start carving steaks. These brawls can last so long that fresh guards come by and join the fray. I've been able to get some streets so full of piled-up bodies you couldn't see the ground anymore. Totally awesome. You become everyone's nightmare come alive in daytime and the scourge of repression-loving rent-a-cops everywhere.

UPDATE: Dec. 19 2007
I've finished, and I've got two things to add. (1) Learn the sword-fighting moves*, because the endgame is tough. (2) Good story, but they've obviously got AC2 in the works, so don't expect a lot of resolution.

* At least master the Counterattack move. The other moves are very helpful, but I never would have finished AC without spending a little time practicing Counterattack. Getting the hang of this move made me totally fearless in a fight, no matter how many guys I was facing. Grab Break is a good one too (you'll see what I mean) but it isn't necessary.