By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune

"Assassin's Creed"
Reviewed for: Xbox 360
Also available for: Playstation 3
From: Ubisoft Montreal
ESRB Rating: Mature (blood, strong language, violence)

MCT/Courtesy

The best way to introduce "Assassin's Creed" is to compare it to other games, because there never has been a game precisely like "Creed" before. So picture an open-world game like "Grand Theft Auto" or "Crackdown," throw in some fluid acrobatic controls a la "Prince of Persia," sprinkle in the social stealth element the next "Splinter Cell" game is promising, top it off with some terrific hand-to-hand and weapon combat, and set the whole thing in a gorgeous rendition of the Middle East during the 12th century.

That's what playing "Creed" is like, and if you think that sounds like fun, wait until the controller is in your hands.

The beauty of "Creed" is that it glues these genres together with a control scheme that's both all-encompassing and just plain fun to use. The game features a suite of low-key (for when you're trying to blend in or sneak up on a target) and aggressive (for when you're making a break for it or just don't care about public perception) maneuvers. Switching between the two styles is as simple as holding the right trigger button, making it incredibly easy to manage a proprietary arsenal without having to juggle buttons.

The controls shine brightest when you're running, leaping and climbing through the absolutely massive recreations of Middle Eastern cities Ubisoft has laid at your feet. If you can see it, you almost certainly can scale it, and the single-button acrobatics you can perform make it a joy to jet around simply for the sake of doing so. "Creed's" storyline is pieced into nine primary missions and numerous smaller tasks, and you're generally free to run around and tackle them in whatever order you want. The smaller missions are nicely bite-sized, and the lure of tackling just one more makes it hard to put the controller down.

The catch, unfortunately, is that many of these missions simply are variations of one another. Completists will get their money's worth out of "Creed" by tackling handfuls of tasks every now and then, but those simply looking to rent and blow through the story will endure some pronounced repetition as they complete basically the same tasks in different contexts. The polish does wonders for keeping "Creed" fun to play the whole way through, but once you've taken down a few targets and unlocked the primary combat moves, you've practically seen it all.

© 2007, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.