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Assassins Creed

If there is one game which can come close to meeting, or even exceed the expectations held for Halo 3, then Assassins Creed is it. Apart from X06 and E3 attendees, all anyone has seen of the game is a small selection of screenshots and a couple of videos. Cynics might think that the gameplay show in the aforementioned trailers would be non-indicative of the final product. They are wrong.

From the implementation of free running, to the combat, to the crazy dives from equally insane heights, every facet of the game just oozes quality. Better still, for all the complication of having so many elements to the game, the control interface on which it lives or dies, works perfectly.

Put simply, after five minutes playing I was no longer a journalist, but rather a deadly assassin on route to put an end to a nefarious slave traders business. At the sharp end of the cut and thrust of medieval politics, so to speak.

In normal movement Altair, the player's character, walk around at a leisurely pace and the A, B, X, Y buttons offer such options as 'gentle shove' which lets you move other Jerusalem inhabitants out of your way, or 'blend' which allows you to enter a suitably friendly group of, say, priests and, well, blend in to sneak past guards.

A quick pull of the right trigger, and you're in free running mode. Uniquely, Assassins Creed offers no dedicated jump button, instead, you simply run up to an edge and if you can make the gap, you will. If not, you'll pull off a neat swivelling about face and grab the ledge or, possibly, tumble to your untimely death.

If you decide to enter into combat the controls dynamically change again, X becomes your attack button and works in combination with the shoulder triggers which control your defence and offence. If you've seen the smooth parry and thrust, tit for tat combat in the trailers and thought 'sure, but it wont look like that in game' then allow me to assure you it really does.

After a quick lesson from a nearby rep (who was no doubt wincing at my ineptitude) I was simultaneously battling no less than 12 guards at once, all circling me, using the imputes from one person's parry to propel my sword into the torso of the guard standing opposite, it was pure, bloody poetry in motion.

Speaking of friends and foes, the game also offers an interesting way of identifying said parties. First, the map view gives you a plan of the city with a blue dot for neutrals, a red dot for guards and other hostile entities and special markers for friendlies and, of course, your target. Secondly, the HUD marks any hostile parties with a shimmering white highlight and an array of binary characters playing over that border. It's hard to describe without pictures but it works well.

Ubisoft are unwilling to say just yet why there is all this high-tech tomfoolery in crusade Jerusalem, or offer up any plot details at all for that matter. but we look forward to finding out in November when the game is finally launched. The only proviso is that the PC and PS3 will be seeing the game too, so there's no incentive to buy the 360 version specifically.

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