Assassin's Creed could easily have been one of the best games of 2007. It is, without question, impressive on several fronts. But developer Ubisoft Montreal took some missteps along the way and squandered the immense potential of its pseudo-stealth action title.

(-)A bad story, repetitive gameplay elements, and poor AI lead to the downfall of one of the more promising games in recent memory. Assassin's Creed could have been one of the great games of this generation. Instead, it turned into just another action title.

Story:

You play as Altair, a member of the Hashshasin (or Assassins), a real-life group that performed politically-motivated murders between the 11th and 13th centuries. Set in the Middle East during the third crusade, Assassin's Creed is steeped in historical fact. Each of the three main cities was well-researched and beautifully recreated. The nine men Altair is charged with dispatching did, in fact, all die or disappear around the time the game takes place. The attention paid to creating an accurate representation of Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus is commendable. Were it not for the "anomalies" that flitter around characters, you would have little reason to ever question that this is indeed what these cities and people looked like centuries ago.