Plot:
Desmond Miles, a bartender, is kidnapped by the Abstergo Corporation. There, Desmond is forced to lie in 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 Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, an assassin during the time of the Third Crusade. Within the Animus, Altaïr's memories reveal that he was attempting to stop Robert de Sable from taking an artifact from a temple, but broke all three of the Assassins' Brotherhood's tenets. The Brotherhood leader, Al Mualim, demotes Altaïr, and assigns him the task of assassinating nine people to regain his former status.
As Altaïr completes the assassinations, he finds that each was a member of the Templar's searching the area for "Pieces of Eden", artifacts similar to the one de Sable attempted to steal. Altaïr eventually faces de Sable in front of King Richard, and kills him; with his dying breath, de Sable reveals the existence of a tenth Templar: Al Mualim. Returning to the Brotherhood, Altaïr finds Al Mualim in possession of a Piece of Eden that is able to control people's minds. Altaïr is forced to fight his way through innocents to reach Al Mualim, and engages him in battle. Altaïr eventually sees through Al Mualim's tricks using the artifact, and kills him. Upon approaching the artifact, Altaïr 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 Templar's. Abstergo is now set to use the locations on the map seen by Altaïr 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, one of the Abstergo scientists who is actually an Assassin mole. Left alone in his locked room, Desmond discovers (through a "bleeding effect" from his time spent as Altaïr) 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.
That was the storyline in a nutshell, but you cannot even begin to comprehend the beauty of this game until you actually play. Being able to experience Jerusalem and other cities from the Holy Land from the highest point in that city is a sight to behold.
This game has a couple different mechanics to it, basically you are an assassin. You are given a target, you then have to learn about that target, and how would be the easiest way to kill them and their locations. And while you travel about the city doing this you must remain un-noticed by the guards patrolling the city. Things like running in a crowd or climbing a building in those days were seen as something one doesn't do unless there up to something. So this is where the stealth comes in, you are given techniques to blend into crowds and become invisible should you not want to fight. But if you do cause all the ruckus you like.
My two favorite elements of this game are, one the hidden blade. This is a blade that is attached to Altair's wrist. And in this day of Assassin's before you could wield one you had to be a full fledged Assassin, and they removed your ring finger as a sign of loyalty, as this finger was now gone, the blade was in a perfect spot to slide right between the empty space, when in use. This hidden blade actually allowed you to hide on a rooftop jump down and kill a soldier without a fight! It was awesome!
The second thing was the Leap of Faith. In the game there were points at the highest buildings in the city, you would climb to these points and get a clear view of what was in the city, then you would basically do a swan dive off of this point into a hay cart below! It was amazing to feel the excitement of performing these!!
There were some points in the city to that you could do this just because or to hide from soldiers on your tail.
So at the end of the game we find out Abstergo is a modern day front for the order of the Templar, who is attempting to control the world with pieces of Eden. This game comes with the premise of actual things that happened in history with a sci-fi twist to them. In this case, the piece of Eden that is discovered is called the Apple. This is believed to be the Apple that spurned the story from the bible, the Apple off the tree of Knowledge that Eve ate. This Apple has the power to control minds and make illusions, as we see at the end Al Mualim the "leader" of the Assassin Order an actual Templar in disguise, uses the Apple to control the minds of those in the Order. Altair stops him and retrieves the Apple, and is shown a map of the world, although this "world" is not familiar to him, in this time a majority of the world still thought it was flat and knew little of those outside their borders, the map had locations of the other pieces of Eden.
We also learn that Atair had an interesting gift. In the game its called Eagle vision. This vision allowed you to reveal hidden enemies or things hiding in the world, like a sixth sense.
We learn that through and effect of the Animus called the Bleeding Effect, Desmond unlocks this ability within himself and saw strange scribblings on the walls of his cell, by the previous test subject. Subject 16.
And we are left with Desmond attempting escape with Lucy, a assistant to the Templar doctor actually an Assassin of the modern day order.
So this raised a lot of questions. What in actuality are the Pieces of Eden? Will Desmond and Lucy escape? What is the Templar's plans when the find all the Pieces of Eden?
One of the things I love about these games are the designs of the Assassin's. The outfits are so modern and yet fit into the time period that they are in its amazing!!
This is Altair's design, and as you can see looks like he fits in his time era, but the costume itself has very modern design.
Another image of Altair.
The Apple.
Masyaf, home of the Assassin Order, is actually based off of a real place in the Holy Land.
Next up Assassin's Creed II.
