Assassin's Creed - hands-on

Ubisoft was tight-lipped about the intriguing cyber-future-genetic-memory teasers that crop up all over the game, but assured us that players will know in the first 30 seconds what its all about. Some of the clues we saw include "synchronizing" with the surroundings, loading from "memory banks," and filling in strands on a DNA chain. There's also a point, after each assassination, where time stops and Altier has a brief dialog with his victim to further the plot. While intriguing, it doesn't much impact the gameplay that we've seen thus far.

We're suitably impressed with what we've seen thus far of Assassin's Creed. Its ambitions are high, and while that occasionally leads to weird hiccups, it introduces a fresh and interesting style of play that breaks from the traditions of the stealth/action genre. The genius of Assassin's Creed is in its layers of cause and effect, the subtle yet profound ways in which your actions ripple through the city, and the visceral pleasure of a perfectly executed stealth kill.

Don't forget to check out our massive new pile ofAssassin's Creed screen shots