Assassin's Creed (video game)

Assassin's Creed
Game cover art
Developer(s)	Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Director(s)	Patrice Désilets
Producer(s)	Jade Raymond
Designer(s)	Maxime Béland
Programmer(s)	Mathieu Mazerolle
Artist(s)	Raphaël Lacoste
Writer(s)	Corey May
Composer(s)	Jesper Kyd
Series	Assassin's Creed
Engine	Scimitar
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 Microsoft Windows
Release	November 13, 2007 PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 NA: November 13, 2007 EU: November 16, 2007 AU: November 21, 2007 Microsoft Windows NA: April 8, 2008[1] AU: April 10, 2008[2][3][4] EU: April 11, 2008
Genre(s)	Action-adventure, stealth
Mode(s)	Single-player

Assassin's Creed is a 2007 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the first installment in the Assassin's Creed series. The video game was released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in November 2007. A Microsoft Windows version titled Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition containing additional content was released in April 2008.

The plot is set in a fictional history of real-world events, taking place primarily during the Third Crusade in the Holy Land in 1191. The player character is a modern-day man named Desmond Miles who, through a machine called the Animus, relives the genetic memories of his ancestor, Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. Through this plot device, details emerge about a millennia-old struggle between two factions: the Assassin Brotherhood (inspired by the real-life Order of Assassins), who fight to preserve peace and free will, and the Templar Order (inspired by the Knights Templar military order), who seek to establish peace through order and control. Both factions fight over powerful artifacts of mysterious origins known as Pieces of Eden to gain an advantage over the other. The 12th-century portion of the story follows Altaïr, an Assassin who embarks on a quest to regain his honour after botching a mission to recover one such artifact from the Templars. Altaïr is stripped of his status as Master Assassin and is given nine targets spread out across the Holy Land that he must find and assassinate for his redemption.

The gameplay focuses on using Altaïr's combat, stealth, and parkour abilities to defeat enemies and explore the environment. The game features counter-based hack-and-slash combat, social stealth (the ability to use crowds of people and the environment to hide from enemies), and a large open world comprising various regions of the Holy Land, primarily the cities of Masyaf, Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus, all of which have been accurately recreated to fit the game's time period. While most of the game takes place within a simulation based on Altaïr's memories, the player will occasionally be forced out of the Animus to play as Desmond in the modern day. Here, they are restricted to exploring a small laboratory facility, as Desmond has been kidnapped by Abstergo Industries, a shady corporation looking for specific information within Altaïr's memories that will further their enigmatic goals.

Upon release, Assassin's Creed received generally positive reviews, with critics praising its storytelling, visuals, art design, and originality, while criticism mostly focused on the repetitive nature of its gameplay. Assassin's Creed won several awards at the 2006 E3 and several end-year awards after its release. The game spawned two spin-offs: Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles (2008) and Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines (2009), which exclude the modern-day aspect and focus entirely on Altaïr. A direct sequel, Assassin's Creed II, was released in November 2009. The sequel continues the modern-day narrative following Desmond but introduces a new storyline set during the Italian Renaissance in the late 15th century and a new protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Since the release and success of Assassin's Creed II, subsequent games have been released with various other Assassins and periods.