Assassin's Creed®: Director's Cut

Assassin's Creed 1 is where it all started, and it's well worth a look. Sure, it's dated, but it's also decades old, so that must be taken into account when playing. It's still fun to play, the story is great, and the world looks beautiful. The bonuses GOG offers are great too.

The first Assassin's Creed got great critical reviews for its exploration of the ancient Middle East and the factions fighting for its control, set across four or five major cities. Popular reviews were less accepting of it mainly because it was repetitive and, I hate to say, somewhat boring. I actually enjoy this game for its historical value. I'd never seen anything like it. It was stark and used a muddy palette of greens, browns, and reds, but that in itself was intriguing. Amidst all the darker coloring was a deeper presentation of architecture, religion and a plot linking the ancient past with a present day company using a man and his memories to find lost secrets. Best of all was that it was the start of something lasting, as was proven with AC2, where the devs started to find their identity and gave the game more life and action than AC1. For me, AC is more of an exploration of the past than an actual game. It has its moments in the main plot but the side stuff is less satisfying. All in all, for $5.99 it's worth a look.

I first met the AC franchise through AC 4 and it was an amazing experience. So, I had the idea to play through the whole saga and, as it is the first franchise game, and the ideas that will emerge later in the next games are still unknown, it is convincingly good. As you will see in this user reviews section, the game follows a cake recipe. 3 cities — Damascus, Acre, Jerusalem —, 3 distinct districts — poor, medium, rich —, 3 targets for each city — 3 cities + 3 districts = 9 targets. The way that you will get the assassinations done follows the same recipe too; you will coerce, steal, eavesdrop. Finally, all the games have their stories connected somehow. So, if you want to understand the whole plot behind this secular battle between Temples and Assassins since its beginnings, it's a title you can't overlook — since its events are later mentioned in AC Revelations.

I love this game as it is one of the first to really feel like a sandbox environment. The only thing it lacks for me is the ability to destroy buildings but that would not make sense based on the gameplay. You are an Assassin and you are fighting against the influence of the Templars. The story is amazing as you play Desmond the descendant of an important member of the order of Assassin's. He uses a futuristic device to replay the memories of his ancestor. The game features a large amount of stealth techniques to infiltrate areas and kill targets. The most fun part of the gameplay is the platforming. You climb and jump across buildings in the Middle East. The world seems vibrant and alive. It's a great title for the first entry which they have improved upon int he 3 following games. However, this game has a magic that kept me playing despite some of the wonky combat controls. I highly recommend playing this.

This is the start of the series, so the gameplay mechanics aren't as refined as in sequels. Which is expected, given this is the first game. Missions are quite repetitive - climb the towers to map the city, finish some of the side missions to obtain information and kill the target. Repeat. Note, that there are no subtitles in this game (at least the english version). Keep in mind you need to adjust the sound. Everything is maxed out by default and it can be hard to understand what characters say during cutscenes, unless you reduce the backround music. However, the setting is pretty unique. You will have opportunity to walk and parkour through three cities - Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus - during the time of crusades. The setting and atmosphere is what brought me to this game and what allowed me to overlook its shortcomings. The second however is Altair. Altair is badass and watching him to deal with enemies is joy. That's why I wasn't sick of saving the attacked citizen for the twentieth time. If you want to sea how the series started and you are willing to overlook its simplistic mechanics and repetitive mission design, give it a try.