Back then Assassins

I just finished playing an excellently produced, written, and all around meshed well type of game. Assassins Creed managed to do something that most history-type games do not do for me. It managed to engulf me and make me keep playing. It made me keep playing to the point where I bought it on a Wednesday and finished it on that following Saturday.
AC is in it's essence a stealth game. But the stealth part isn't as strict as a Splinter Cell might be. Granted there are times where it is best not to be seen at all, but to do that, with no map of where enemies are, is tough, but it is challenging in a good way. As I went through this game I thought to myself that the production team did a good job in that it made AC a stealth game, but also had pretty well-to-do fighting moves as well. It wasnt just, mash one button and be done with it, you actually have to be aware of your surroundings a bit.
The one big knock I have on this game is the fact that the dialogue could have been a lot more varied. Every time i would save a woman she would say one of two pre-determined dialogue lines. The men were the same. Honestly, that's the only thing I noticed that really bugged me. At times it can be a bit frustrating when you are trying to climb up a wall only to jump off of it back toward the opposite way you did not want to go, but that isn't major.
One of the great thinks about this game is the chatter that you hear from people when you are walking amongst them. If you start climbing a building people may say, "What is that man doing? He's going to hurt himself." Or they may say, "What a strange man." Or my personal favorite, "Wow he's going to hurt himself. And if he does I'M NOT going to HELP him!" As if to say that I wanted help.
I thought that the regeneration of life is extremely forgiving as you do not have to walk around looking for health. In the whole scheme of things this would have been extremely unnecessary and would have slowed the game down quite a bit.
What I do admire about this game is how it stuck to the subtle theme of a bird of prey. The tip of your character's hoody looks like the edge of a beak of a bird. When you jump from tall buildings after getting a birds eye view of the city, you hear the screech of a hawk. And most importantly, you are acting as a bird of prey while roaming through the city looking for your targets. All of the "side-quests" if you will are not a burden and actually help you in the game (climbing tall structures helps you get an understanding of where things are in the city, helping strangers from soldiers will allow you to have allies in the area). The only thing that is a burden, if you choose to do it, is looking for all the different flags in the area. Something I did not choose to do, and if I did, it would probably take me a month or so to find all of the flags. There seem to be about 250 or more in the game. And with such wide open spaces, that is a little more than I want to try and accomplish.
Overall this is a highly addictive game. The story line isn't something that you will drop your jaw on, but it does stay compelling. As far as the replay value, I am not sure because I just finished the game and am not looking to playing it all over again. But definitely, if you own an XBox 360 or a PS3, get this game.

-Jeremy