I remember being swept up in the hype for Assassin’s Creed back in the day. I watched the E3 presentation and was hooked immediately. The game just looked so unbelievably good. I mean c’mon! Assassins!

When the actual game came out in 2007, I was so excited to dive in. I remember being blown away by the graphics. It really was the first time I simply could not believe the visuals of a game. It looked so beautiful and honestly still looks great today. On my recent playthrough, it was hard to believe that this game is 13 years old.

So, the game looks nice… what else? Luckily, there is a whole lot more to the game. Nowadays, the Assassin’s Creed series is known for having a complex plot that spans thousands of years of history. But how about the plot of the first entry? It’s confusing… to say the least. You play a bartender named Desmond Miles living in the year 2012. Because of his bloodline, Desmond is kidnapped and taken to the headquarters of a shady conglomerate named “Abstergo Industries.” They force Desmond into a machine called an “Animus.” This Animus is able to simulate genetic memories. Allowing Desmond to relive the past via his relatives. This is where the assassins come in. In these genetic memories, you play as Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad. Altaïr is on a mission to assassinate nine targets to discover the hiding place of an ancient treasure.

Okay… All that was just to describe the start of the plot. It gets a lot more confusing as you go through the game. I think this confusing, tangled plot sets the tone for the series as a whole; the plots are hard to follow. But that does not mean I don’t like it! I just feel that the first game leaves a whole lot to be desired as far as the story goes. It does set up a sequel beautifully, however.

Speaking of leaving a lot to be desired, Assassin’s Creed’s gameplay falls into a vicious loop of the same thing over and over and over. The first tenth of this game is INCREDIBLE. But then it just goes through the paces for the rest of the game. There is the setup for some incredible stuff, but nothing really happens. You just do the same missions over and over in locations that all look essentially the same. After completing a certain number of missions, you assassinate one of your nine targets. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the game. It gets really boring. The twist of the game sort of happens in the first hour too. There simply is not much reason to play the back 3/4 of the game if I’m being honest. By the time you get to the final fight in the game, you’re just counting the minutes for it to end. I feel that they fix this problem in the sequel, but as for the first game, it’s easily forgettable.

I give Assassin’s Creed a 2 out of 4. The first hour of the game is breathtaking, especially in 2007. But the other 15 hours become a total slog. You repeat the same actions and do the same missions way too many times. To the point that I stopped paying attention to who I was assassinating or why I was assassinating them. I simply did not care about it after a while. I will say, however, that the combat and the climbing mechanics are AMAZING. Which is lucky because they have to hard carry this game. They really are the only reason I enjoyed 90% of this game (considering they ARE 90% of the game). But the plot is so drab and boring that it feels like this could have all been a DLC for a different game. It is worth it to play this game if you want to experience the origin of Desmond Miles, but other than that, not really. This is the second time I’ve played this game and most likely my last. Which feels strange because I love love love the Assassin’s Creed series so much. But I guess it had to start somewhere… Unfortunately for Assassin’s Creed, it doesn’t really start until the sequel. Which I cannot wait to get in to. But that’s for another day.