The story, too, suffers logic problems that make it impossible to suspend your disbelief for any length of time. The notion that you’re reliving the memories of your ancestor is both novel and interesting, but the way the narrative unfolds is ham-fisted at best. You never really assassinate your targets, something that ought to imply a stealthy approach followed with a quick strike and getaway. But you will rarely, if ever, strike an assigned target unawares, nor will you do so unnoticed. Instead most targets are taken down in full view of guards and the general populace. And each target, after being stabbed in the throat, suddenly finds the will to expound at great length about how misguided your actions are. It’s certainly polite of the six or more armed guards that are always right there to stand and wait while your dying target monologues the story forward. Likewise, most of the time it’s simply easier to stand and fight any guards in pursuit of your person rather seek a stealthy escape. And by the end of the game, a stealthy escape will no longer be an option as you're required to tackle a ridiculous number of foes to even reach your target.

Fortunately, if you can get past these anomalies and shortcomings the moment to moment gameplay is a joy. It’s a relief that at least some thought was given to porting the game over from console to the PC. While there are a few uncomfortable contortions thrust upon you when playing with the mouse and keyboard, you can tweak the key controls however you like and the game is completely playable with them. That said, the console roots of this game are clearly there and it’s an easier interface to work with if you have a gamepad (especially if you can connect an Xbox 360 gamepad to your PC). Regardless of your preference, using the control scheme to leap among the rooftops, climb to dizzying heights, and fend off guards with your trusty blade all work extremely well.

What’s not so easy to get past are some of the technical problems hampering a lot of PC users. While I encountered only a pair of crashes, there are many Windows gamers for whom the game is crashing so much that it’s all but unplayable. Likewise, graphical problems resulting in jaggy on-screen images plague others. And if you don’t have a widescreen monitor, you’ll still be forced to play the game in widescreen mode, which is a bit silly.

Then there are the problems that are just outright careless. You can’t skip any of the game’s cut scenes, which is a problem we should’ve all been able to get past a decade or two ago. It’s also, bar none, the most convoluted game to exit I have ever encountered. Exiting Assassin’s Creed requires no less than eleven different inputs from the user. First you have to exit Altair’s memory. Then you have to exit the Animus. Then you have exit to the game’s main menu, log back in to your user profile and only then can you exit the game. You’re better off just exiting the Animus and pressing Alt+F4 to force Windows to just close the program outright.

The shame of Assassin’s Creed isn’t that it’s a bad game. Far from it. It’s just disappointing to think that it could have been another blockbuster—a new spin on the Thief style of gameplay given the unique premise of playing an ancient assassin combined with its first rate game engine. As it stands it’s a highly enjoyable game for the first few hours, but whether or not you’ll get much satisfaction from it after it starts getting repetitive depends entirely on how much you like the overall gameplay mechanics.

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