Take Hitman, Prince of Persia and 50 percent of the gameplay from Crackdown; toss it in a blender and out pops one of the most cinematic and dashing game of this year.

Assassin’s Creed has been through a pretty up and down ride over its development cycle. The game started with a boat load of hype from its first presentation on PS3 at E3 and over the next few years the game was presented the hype seemed to die down and the excitement turned to worry. Like any game when it is overhyped, if it fails to bring something completely new to the table, it’s automatically deemed a failure. While Creed doesn’t bring anything completely new to the gaming world, it mixes 3 of some of the best action and stealth titles released in the past year or two.

First the game matches Hitman with setting you up as an assassin, giving you your target and delivering multiple ways to take that target out. For example my first meeting with one of the boss characters could have gone a few ways. I simply could have pulled out my sword; started a one on one battle to the death and attract a crap load of guards. Or I could have waited till he moved to a more secluded area to deal with him. Instead I decided to use my hidden knife to accomplish the deed and while the guards were not paying any particular attention to him, I walked to the side of my target and knifed him the back with one quick blow. Timing can be a blessing if you are smart in this game.

Control wise, Creed takes a few key moves from Prince of Persia and seamlessly brings them over to this brand new universe. While they do take some getting used to at first, in more than half an hour you’ll be seamlessly running, jumping and speeding from roof top to roof top in no time. The combat system takes a nod from Prince of Persia and adds excellent counter moves and offensive attacks, giving a real cinematic approach to battles. Having a duel against almost 6 people at once is tons of fun and once your done looking at your body count you can’t help to give an evil grin with the chaos you caused. Not much of a fighter? Then run for your life and head to the roof tops.

The final layer of this game seems like it was majorly inspired from Crackdown. You’re given a huge open kingdom to explore, you’re tasked with taking out 3 key targets (Out of 9 in total.) and you’re allowed to go after which one you prefer at anytime. As you accomplish goals, you character is upgraded with more abilities and weapons, allowing you for more fun. Much like how you collected key locations in Crackdown with Agency towers, in Creed you will hunt for eagle towers; structures you climb in order to get a bird’s eye view of your surroundings and objectives. The climbing system in the game beats Crackdown hands down and allows you to get a real feeling of accomplishment when you make it the top of your destination. The final nod to Crackdown is the many flags that are placed throughout the kingdom, collect them all and get achievements; just like the orbs in Crackdown.

The big storyline surprise that Ubisoft was hinting at is pretty obvious if you’ve seen any trailers for the game or have been following the development of the game. I can safely say that’s this is explained in the very beginning of the game and that the actual storyline that you follow after it is decently interesting; far more interesting then Crackdown’s.

Sound wise, even on my surround sound system I wasn’t too blown away by it, the sound is passable, but it’s nothing that will knock your socks off like Halo 3 or Call of Duty 4 would. Graphically, the game looks and runs very nice with some minimal popup and the occasional small slow down.

The bottom line is that if you enjoyed any of the three previous games I mentioned then this is definitely worth a pick up. Skip out on the oversized limited edition as there is nothing really worth picking up on it; the regular edition will get you by without a problem. If you didn’t really enjoy those games then it is still a very highly recommended rental that you should check out!

I’m myself I’m glad I bought the game; I just wish it included a Jade Raymond poster. Just kidding!