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 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 game's 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, players 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 time periods.

Gameplay Assassin's Creed is an action-adventure game, set in an open-world environment and played from a third-person view. Players primarily assume the role of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, as experienced through protagonist Desmond Miles. The game's primary goal is to carry out a series of assassinations ordered by Al Mualim, the Assassins' leader, after Altaïr botches the first mission at Solomon’s Temple and must redeem himself. To achieve this goal, the player must travel from the Brotherhood's headquarters in Masyaf across the terrain of the Holy Land known as the Kingdom, where the player can freely ride a horse, to one of three cities—Jerusalem, Acre, or Damascus—to find the Brotherhood agent in that city. There, the agent, in addition to providing a safe house, gives the player minimal knowledge about the target and requires them to perform additional reconnaissance missions before attempting the assassination. These missions include eavesdropping, interrogation, pickpocketing, and completing tasks for informers and fellow Assassins. After completing each assassination, the player returns to the Brotherhood and is rewarded with a better weapon or upgrade before going after the next target. The player can also be given a set of targets and is free to choose the order in which they pursue them. The player may also take part in several side objectives, including climbing tall towers to map out the city and saving citizens being threatened or harassed by the city guards. There are also various additional memories that do not advance the plot, such as hunting down Templar Knights and flag collecting.

The player is made aware of how noticeable Altaïr is to enemy guards and the state of alert in the local area via the Social Status Icon. To perform many assassinations and other tasks, the player must consider the use of actions distinguished by their type of profile. Low-profile actions allow Altaïr to blend into nearby crowds, pass by other citizens, or perform other non-threatening tasks that can be used to hide and reduce the alertness level. The player can also use Altaïr's retractable Hidden Blade to attempt low-profile assassinations. High-profile actions are more noticeable and include running, scaling the sides of buildings to climb to higher vantage points, and attacking foes; performing these actions at certain times may raise the local area's awareness level. Once the area is at high alert, crowds run and scatter while guards attempt to chase and bring down Altaïr. To reduce the alert level, the player must control Altaïr to break the guards' line of sight and then find a hiding space, such as a haystack or rooftop garden, or blend in with the citizens sitting on benches or wandering scholars. Should the player be unable to escape the guards, they can fight back using swordplay maneuvers.

The player's health is described as the level of synchronization between Desmond and Altaïr's memories; should Altaïr suffer injury, it is represented as a deviation from the actual events of the memory rather than physical damage. If all synchronization is lost, the current memory that Desmond is experiencing will be restarted at the last checkpoint. When the synchronization bar is full, the player has the additional option to use Eagle Vision, which allows the computer-rendered memory to highlight all visible characters in colours corresponding to whether they are allies (blue), foes (red), neutral (white), or the target of their assassination (gold). Due to Altaïr's memories being rendered by the computer of the Animus, the player may experience glitches in the rendering of the historical world, which may help the player to identify targets, or can be used to alter the viewpoint during in-game scripted scenes should the player react fast enough when they appear.

Plot

In 2012, bartender Desmond Miles (Nolan North) is kidnapped by agents of Abstergo Industries, the world's largest pharmaceutical conglomerate, and is taken to their headquarters in Rome. Under the supervision of Dr. Warren Vidic (Philip Proctor) and his assistant Lucy Stillman (Kristen Bell), Desmond is forced to enter a machine called the Animus, which can translate his ancestors' genetic memories into a simulated reality. Vidic instructs Desmond to relive the early years of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad (Philip Shahbaz), a senior member of the Assassin Brotherhood during the Third Crusade.

In 1191, Altaïr and two fellow Assassins—brothers Malik (Haaz Sleiman) and Kadar Al-Sayf (Jake Eberle)—are sent to Solomon's Temple to retrieve an artifact known as the Apple of Eden from the Brotherhood's sworn enemies, the Knights Templar. Blinded by arrogance, Altaïr botches the mission, resulting in Kadar's death; however, Malik is able to grab the Apple before escaping. Although Altaïr later partially redeems himself by fighting off a Templar attack on the Assassin home base of Masyaf, his mentor and superior, Al Mualim (Peter Renaday), demotes him and orders him to assassinate nine individuals in order to regain his previous position and honour: Tamir (Ammar Daraiseh), an arms merchant in Damascus selling weapons to both the Crusaders and Saracens. Garnier de Nablus (Hubert Fielden), the leader of the Knights Hospitalier, who conducts mind-altering experiments on patients at his hospital in Acre. Talal (Jake Eberle), the leader of a gang of slavers in Jerusalem. Abu'l Nuquod (Fred Tatasciore), a pompous trader and regent of Damascus stealing money intended to fund the war. William V, Marquess of Montferrat (Harry Standjofski), Acre's cruel and abusive regent who is forcefully conscripting citizens and hoarding food. Majd Addin (Richard Cansino; based on Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad), a tyrant who rules Jerusalem through fear by holding public executions. Master Sibrand (Arthur Holden), the paranoid leader of the Knights Teutonic, who plans to betray the Crusaders by blocking the ports of Acre. Jubair al Hakim (Fred Tatasciore), a scholar using his position to seize and destroy all written knowledge in Damascus. Robert de Sablé (Louis-Philippe Dandenault), the Grand Master of the Templars who has been taking advantage of the Crusade to further his Order's ideological goals.

As Altaïr eliminates each target, he discovers all nine are Templars who had conspired to retrieve the Apple, revealed to be a relic of a long-forgotten civilization said to possess god-like powers. The Templars hoped to use the Apple to conquer the Holy Land in the name of peace, with each member being assigned a specific task to prepare the population for their eventual takeover. As he slowly learns more about the Templars' goals, Altaïr comes to question the nature of Al Mualim's orders while becoming more humble and wise and making amends with Malik. During his assassination attempt on Robert de Sablé, Altaïr is tricked with a decoy: a Templar named Maria Thorpe (Eleanor Noble). Maria reveals that Robert had anticipated the Assassins would come after him and went to negotiate an alliance between the Crusaders and Saracens against them.

Sparing Maria's life, Altaïr confronts Robert in the camp of King Richard I of England (Marcel Jeannin) and exposes his crimes. Unsure of whom to believe, Richard suggests a duel to determine the truth, remarking that God will decide the victor. After Altaïr mortally wounds him, Robert identifies Al Mualim as the final conspirator, revealing that the latter has betrayed both the Assassins and Templars to acquire the Apple. Altaïr returns to Masyaf, where Al Mualim has used the Apple to enthrall the population, as part of his plan to end the Crusade and all human conflict by eradicating free will. With the help of Malik and several Assassins brought for backup, Altaïr storms the citadel and confronts Al Mualim in the gardens, resisting the Apple's powers and killing his mentor. He then tries to destroy the artifact, but instead unlocks a map showing the locations of countless other Pieces of Eden around the world.

In the present, the Assassins launch an unsuccessful attack on the Abstergo facility to rescue Desmond, resulting in most of them being killed. After completing Altaïr's memories, Vidic reveals to Desmond that Abstergo is a front for the modern-day Templars, seeking to find the remaining Pieces of Eden. With Desmond having outlived his usefulness, Vidic's superiors order him killed, but Lucy, who is implied to be an Assassin mole, convinces them to keep him alive for further testing. Desmond is left alone in his room, where he discovers strange drawings written in blood describing an upcoming catastrophic event.

Development