The first thing you need to understand about Assassins Creed is that its a hybrid. The game is equal parts Grand Theft Auto, and Crackdown. Once you understand that you understand how you are supposed to play the game.

This game is a sandbox style game. Which means player freedom, soft objectives, and superfluous mechanics. Set in a non linear world design. That means it is up to the player to play the game in a fashion that is entertaining to themselves.

For all the griping about all of these objectives you must complete the reality is you don't actually need to do all of these things. You don't even need to do a tenth of them to progress. You do not need to climb all the towers pick every pocket, eavesdrop on every conversation, save a single civilian, or even bother with flag collecting.

Generally the griping about such things in nonsense if you don't like doing these things they have only required a bare minimum of them. Further more you can fight your targets in any way you so desire. There is almost always some clever way to get at them with a minimum of fuss, and that is part of the challenge.

The story line isn't a bad story line. Even though the foreshadowing was too overwhelming making the ending a little less then shocking. However the dialog is quite nice, and the half dozen clever twist help to balance it all out. Be honest you really did think those assassins were going to save you, and when your master stabbed you. Well you just knew it would be a tale of revenge. While perhaps not gripping they were surprising.

This is actually a very good game if you approach it with the mindset of not playing it as a chore. Instead play it like you want to play it bring a little imagination with you, and be willing to screw around a little bit. The best part in my mind is the freedom of expression, and the strategy involved. Don't just play a mindless thug try to be smart about it. You need the mindset of a real assassin to truly enjoy this game. Try being clean, thorough, and methodical in your approach to killing your targets. The game isn't going to force you, but if you decide to do it yourself you can find a chilling thrill there.

By the way my favorite point in the game was when one of the beggar ladies finally made me snap, and before I realized it I gave her the hidden blade. A real holy crap moment. Seriously it hadn't occurred to me that I was allowed to kill annoying people. Many a roving retard found my knife from that moment on. You have to love the social commentary woven into this game. Once the retards were freed, I suddenly agreed with the sociopath that locked them up in the first place. They all need their legs broken. Seriously in what other game can a mentally retarded character not only get you killed, but kill you with his pushing you over edge antics.

Creed is an utter failure of a game. It is completely not worth buying. I rented it it and decided to take it back after killing one of my targets. The only thing it has going for it is graphics/physics. One thing that really screws it up is REPETITIVE! You readlly do not have to do any sneaking around to kill the target. You can get away with just doing the good old maniac kill instead of stealth. This is a perfect example of graphics over gameplay. I would not feel compelled to play it either. It should be buried with all them old infamous E.T. games.

As a new franchise, Assassin's Creed is like a caterpillar. Either you see the potential or you don't. I see the potential, so I fell in love with this game. The core mechanics are a breath of fresh air. The possibilities of moving forward are promising. And I just absolutely couldn't get enough of the stealth gameplay, the climbing, the rooftop running, and even the combat segments.

Definitely a love it or hate it experience, much like Shadow of the Colossus was for many people.

That would be true if the game was a true sanbox - but it isn't.  You can only interact based on the core mechanics of the game.  Sure, it feels open but it isn't really and next to true sandbox titles (be they GTA or Oblivion) there is precious little to do.

My gripe is that I can see what could be delivered in the world they created - they just didn't deliver anything much.  Just when you actually get somewhere its game over see you in the next one.

 The whole game is essentially an extended tutorial for its gameplay mechanics and a prologue for the main story.

 I enjoyed what was there.  But what's missing is why the game hasn't scored so highly compared to true classics and why most reviews (and reviewers) point out the same flaws in the game.

BTW if it was a sandbox game it would be a poor one next to the best sandbox games out there.  I like it - I still fire it up just to climb around (because they got that so right it dwarfs most other games with climbing) but its faults are pretty obvious.

started out well for me as well but the story just gets plain idiotic at the end

Stupid game is poo on my shoe.

I actually liked this game. The story is pretty good, and the gameplay is a bit innovative. However, after a while it starts to get repetative. What i did to help solve this was try to find new and interesting ways to kill people. Plus, this game had kristen Bell, so i can't hate it. lol.

I actually really enjoyed this game for the duration. Afterwards, I couldn't think of any compelling reason to go back to it, so I sold it. I will definitely be interested in the sequel, however.

I also think there is merit to the suggestion that your enjoyment of the game depends entirely on your approach to it. There are a lot of ways to make it more fun than it would be by just performing the bare minimum of actions and tasks.

Assassin's creed is GOTY..... till about after the 3rd assassination (exaggerating of course), because by then you've gotten a feel of how assassination's work and you've explored the 3 cities already. Also by that point, you start to notice all the areas that lack polish in the game (AI, graphics, even gameplay when the game doesn't recognise ledges that are right there).

Story is good, except I dreaded every moment I wasn't controlling Altair. Mainly because Ubi was putting it up to be some huge twist, which got ruined in the first 5 minutes of the game anyway.

Assassin's Creed is my most disappointing purchase of 2007.