The story concerns Altair, a member of a secret order of assassins, who after acting out of turn on a failed mission is demoted and asked to prove himself all over again. To do this he must eliminate nine targets in three different cities in the Holy Land. In an obvious nod to the Metroid series, the player is shorn of their special equipment at the start and has to earn back their abilities as they complete each mission. Each of these requires the player to do some investigations to start with, whether it’s eavesdropping on a conversation, or carry out a quest for an unnamed person, before the final assassination occurs. For every target, 3 out of 6 investigations must be carried out.

What could have been a cue to expand on the character of our main protagonist instead ends up with repetition instead of invention. These can take the form of pick-pocketing a target, interrogating someone or performing various tasks for other assassins in the area, verging from easy to outright frustrating as clumsily executed controls mar the player's progress, causing them to find a hiding spot until they can re-try the task. The game employs a “Social Stealth” system, which goes from low (white), suspicious (yellow) to high (red) visibility. Altair needs to be in the low category to perform actions such pick-pocketing and interrogation.

If any of these go awry, Altair has to find a place to hide for a short while to bring your status back to low. While hiding in a cabana or a bale of hay is a good way to avoid your pursuers after you break their line of sight, literally sitting down on a bench and it having the same effect is bewildering, as you`re plainly still in full view. It breaks the immersion and feels wrong.

The world is wonderfully realised, with some truly breathtaking areas. The first time Altair rides into Jerusalem, clambers up the giant Cathedral in Acre and the sheer unadulterated joy of climbing upon the cross at the very top, are remarkable sights. To gain access to each City, Altair rides on horseback through the Kingdom over-world until each city is discovered. Much like the cities, it's packed with intricate detail and proves how much care was lavished on the game. Luckily once discovered, you can conveniently warp to the various cities, preventing tedious backtracking.

Luckily the control scheme mirrors the attention to detail each location enjoys. Wonderfully simplistic yet intuitive all at the same time, Altair moves with such grace and conviction, it’s hard not to be impressed. Outside he moves as normal by pushing the analogue stick in any direction, but by holding down the right trigger, he breaks into a light jog. By pressing down the A button he enters free-running mode, which allows him to clamber up buildings or any surface with a ledge or outcrop. The free-running skills serve to highlight just how well the game mechanic is realised. Using the skills at our disposal, tasked with climbing different vantage points, which over time expose the various areas of interest for us to investigate and move towards our final goal of eliminating our different targets.

The way Altair moves, with such grace and conviction, it’s hard not to be impressed. Apart from Zelda, Mario & Metroid, never has a game's main character felt as if his surroundings have been as tailor-made precisely for him. The three cities in the Holy Land, Acre, Damascus & Jerusalem are wondrous playgrounds for Altair to explore, investigate and become accustomed to. In addition, don’t think that any limits have been imposed in the scale on offer either. If you think it can be climbed then it can, all that’s required is a foothold, outcrop or ledge and he’ll be able to traverse that area, encouraging the player to explore every nook and cranny of the city.

Unfortunately, the effortless grace afforded to the free-running controls hasn’t transferred across to the other aspects of the game. It can be very jarring when you try to perform a stealthy assassination only for it to be clumsily executed (no pun intended) and leaving the player wondering what they did wrong. Going for the direct route often ends up the best way to negotiate the mission as regardless of the player’s actions, a mass brawl will ensue. It’s a real pity because the prospect of skulking in, performing the hit then leaving as if nothing had happened until someone discovers your handiwork is an enticing prospect.

While it's understandable that guards would pursue you for murdering their master, the inevitable chase around the city as Altair tries to make it back to the Assassins Bureau can resemble a Benny Hill-esque run-around until you can shake them off. For a studio famous for stealth action game Splinter Cell, it feels like a let-down, and something that should've been addressed very simply. Hoping for the best does not feel like a well thought out game device. Combat is flaky as well, and at worst, it is downright terrible, boiling down to nothing more than a game of random chance, and as soon as you re-gain the counter move, a simple case of pressing buttons at the correct interval will see the player prevail.

This tedious combat system starts to grate towards the end, being far too samey, with no change in execution or any tactics involved. This may put off all but the most dedicated from finishing the game.

The story and voice acting can be downright absurd at times. The "twist", while discussed elsewhere on the internet WON'T be in this review, as it feels wrong to give it away. The best you can say about the story is that it is the worst kind of hokum that gives games a bad name. If they'd had some courage, they would've dumped the ridiculous premise and given their characters a more graceful story instead of the ham-fisted and clichéd mess that it ends up as.

The flaws in AC are deeply frustrating, because it could have been really good. There is a superbly realised first third of a game there, but the combat and linear mission structure, coupled with the awful storyline help to undermine the quality apparent elsewhere. It deserves to be experienced, but in the full knowledge that there are aspects that will deeply frustrate any player as much as it will delight.