Video Game Vintage Title: Assassin\'s Creed

Assassin\'s Creed

"Assassin's Creed is a historical action-adventure open world stealth video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows. Most of the game takes place during the Third Crusade, with the plot revolving around a sect known as the Secret Order of Hashashin . The player is in reality playing as a modern-day man named Desmond Miles, who through the use of a machine named the "Animus", is allowed the viewing and controlling of the protagonist's genetic memories of his ancestors, in this case, Alta�r ibn-La'Ahad, a member of the Assassins.

Through this plot device, details emerge of a struggle between two factions, the Knights Templar and the Assassins, over an artifact known as a "Piece of Eden", an ancient artifact used to control minds. The game primarily takes place during the Third Crusade in the Holy Land in 1191. The game received generally positive reviews, and won several awards at E3 in 2006. The story of a separate assassin, Assassin's Creed II, was released in November 2009. The sequel to Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, was released in November 2010. A subsequent sequel, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, was released on November 15, 2011. Assassin's Creed III was released on October 30, 2012 and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is set for October 29, 2013."

Assassin\'s Creed Plot

"Desmond Miles, a bartender, is kidnapped by Abstergo Industries. There, Desmond is forced to interface with the Animus, a device that is able to replay the genetic memories of the user's ancestors. In Desmond's case, they seek information about his ancestor Alta�r ibn-La'Ahad, an Assassin during the time of the Third Crusade. Within the Animus, Alta�r's memories reveal that he was attempting to stop Robert de Sabl� from taking an artifact from a temple, but broke all three of the Assassins' Brotherhood's tenets in the process. The Brotherhood leader, Al Mualim, demotes Alta�r to the rank of Novice, and assigns him the task of assassinating nine people, all of whom are Templars, to regain his former status.

As Alta�r completes the assassinations, he finds that each was a member of the Templars searching the area for "Pieces of Eden", artifacts similar to the one de Sabl� attempted to steal. Upon encountering a heavily guarded de Sabl�, he discovers that it was actually Maria disguised in his armor. She demands he finish the assassination, but he spares her. Alta�r learns the location of de Sabl�, encounters him in front of King Richard and accuses him of Templar treason. King Richard makes the two fight and lets God decide who is telling the truth. Alta�r eventually kills de Sabl�, who with his dying breath, reveals the existence of a tenth Templar: Al Mualim. Returning to the Brotherhood, Alta�r finds Al Mualim in possession of the Apple of Eden that is able to control people's minds. Alta�r is forced to fight his way through innocents and assassins under Al Mualim's control (with the help of other Assassins still loyal to the creed) to reach Al Mualim, and engages him in battle. Alta�r eventually sees through Al Mualim's tricks using the artifact, and kills him. Upon approaching the artifact, Alta�r is surprised to find it displays a projection of the Earth marking several spots around the globe.

At this point, Desmond is brought out of the Animus, his purpose served. He comes to learn that Abstergo is a front for the modern-day Templars. Abstergo is now set to use the locations on the map seen by Alta�r to find more Pieces of Eden, believing that they must collect the artifacts to control the world's population in order to stave off the projected end of the world in 2012. Desmond's life is spared by Lucy Stillman, an Assassin mole doubling as an Abstergo scientist. Left alone in his locked room, Desmond discovers (through "the Bleeding Effect" from his time spent in the Animus) that he can observe numerous messages in blood on the walls and floor left by a previous test subject (Subject 16) that foretell the end of the world."

Assassin\'s Creed Gameplay

"Assassin's Creed is an action-adventure video game in which the player primarily assumes the role of Alta�r, as experienced by protagonist Desmond Miles. The primary goal of the game is to carry out a series of assassinations ordered by Al Mualim, the leader of the Assassins. To achieve this goal, the player must travel from the Brotherhood's headquarters in Masyaf, across the terrain of the Holy Land known as the Kingdom to one of three cities�Jerusalem, Acre, or Damascus�to find the Brotherhood agent in that city. There, the agent, in addition to providing a safe house, gives the player minimal knowledge about the target, and requires them to perform additional "recon" missions before attempting the assassination. These missions include: eavesdropping, interrogation, pickpocketing and completing tasks for informers and fellow assassins. Additionally, the player may take part in any number of side objectives in these open world environments, including climbing tall towers to map out the city, and saving citizens who are being threatened or harassed by the city guards. There are also various side quests that do not advance the plot such as hunting down and killing Templars and flag collecting. After completing each set of assassinations, the player is returned back to the Brotherhood and rewarded with a better weapon and then given another set of targets, with the player free to select the order of certain targets.

The player is made aware of how noticeable Alta�r is to enemy guards as well as the current state of alert in the local area via the "Social Status Icon". To perform many of the assassinations and other tasks, the player must consider the use of commands distinguished by its type of profile. Low-profile commands allow Alta�r to: blend into nearby crowds, pass by other citizens, or other non-threatening tasks that can be used to hide and reduce the alertness level; the player can also use Alta�r's retractable blade to attempt low-profile assassinations. High-profile commands are more noticeable, and include: running, scaling the sides of buildings to climb to higher vantage points, and attacking foes; performing these actions at certain times may raise the local area's awareness level. Once the area is at high alert, the crowds run and scatter while guards attempt to chase and bring down Alta�r; to reduce the alert level, the player must control Alta�r as to break the guards' line of sight and then find a hiding space, such as a haystack or rooftop garden; or blend in with the citizens sitting on benches or wandering scholars. Should the player be unable to escape the guards, they can fight back using swordplay maneuvers.

The player's health is described as the level of "Synchronization" between Desmond and Alta�r's memories; should Alta�r suffer injury, it is represented as deviation from the actual events of the memory, rather than physical damage. If all synchronization is lost, the current memory that Desmond is experiencing will be restarted at the last checkpoint. When the synchronization bar is full, the player has the additional option to use "Eagle Vision", which allows the computer-rendered memory to highlight all visible characters in colors corresponding to whether they are ally (blue), foe (red) or even the target of their assassination (gold). Due to Alta�r's memories being rendered by the computer of the Animus project, the player may experience "glitches" in the rendering of the historical world, which may help the player to identify targets, or can be used to alter the viewpoint during in-game scripted scenes should the player react fast enough when they appear."