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Assassin's Creed

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Assassin's Creed

We plunge into the heart of Ubisoft's crusader

Words: GamesRadar US

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But nothing is ever as easy as whacking a warlord and bumping off the odd monk, or so May reckons. “Along the way he will discover that the Crusades themselves are simply a cover for a much larger conflict - one in which he will play a pivotal role. Once this enemy is discovered, it will be up to Altair and his Assassin brothers to stop them.” So the question remains: who are “they,” exactly, and does the hunt for these faux-historical conspirators tie-in with the Holy Land’s turbulent past and, indeed, current unrest? Again, May fights speculation with speculation: “What did the Templars find beneath Solomon’s Temple? Why did they want it? Where is it today?” All good questions just waiting to be answered.

Luckily the team has remembered to also concentrate on the mechanics of murder. Because when the game starts Altair is a Master Assassin - feted, feared and fatal for anyone who crosses his master - Al Mualim. But in what sounds like the now standard all-powerful pre-title sequence playable teaser, Altair’s own arrogance sees him fail in his mission to butcher Templar leader Robert de Sable. So we now find him stripped of rank, his middle finger and facing a fight to regain his lost prestige and powers. And with changeable costumes and improved weaponry too, it adds a light RPG element, hence those Oblivion comparisons you may have heard.

It is also at this point that conventional notions of a Hebrew Hitman clone go the same way as Altair’s digit - to be replaced with something a little more pointed, a little sharper, a bit more beautifully deadly. For while our hero has a short stabbing sword concealed in his wrist, Ubisoft also has other tricks hidden in their billowing sleeves of his.