Assassin's Creed takes off its cloak

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Ubisoft unveils new franchise set during the Crusades

It's been rumored for a while that Ubisoft Montreal - the brain trustbehind Splinter Cell and the latter-day Prince of Persia games - has been working on something code-named Project Assassins, but like the characters it titlesuggests, thetitle has been shrouded in secrecy. Today, Ubisoft revealed the game as Assassin's Creed, yanking it out of the shadows with an official announcement and a teaser trailer (which you can view by clicking the Movies tab above).

Apparently a stealth epic set in 12th-century Jerusalem - at the height of the Third Crusade - Assassin's Creed seems to borrow elements from both Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia. As an acrobatic young killer named Altair, players will work for the Assassins, a secret society dedicated to ending the Crusade by visiting horrible violence on both sides. According to the announcement, the game will give players the ability to "throw their immediate environment into chaos and to shape events during this pivotal moment in history," so we're interested to see how that'll pan out in the final game.

We haven't seen anything of the gameplay yet, but the trailer does give us an impressive look at the game's vision of Jerusalem. It also introduces us to white-cloaked Altair as he kills an assortment of European knights in a gruesome display (which includes a too-much-information shot from the inside of a knife wound). The setting and potentially controversial subject matter have us intrigued, so we're looking forward to seeing more of Assassin's Creed next week at E3.

May 2, 2006

Mikel Reparaz
Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.