I approached the roof top archer, moving silently in his blind spot so he remained unaware of my approach. His colleague however, presented a problem, twice now I had been forced to duck below the roof line to remove myself from his view from the rooftop across the street.

Both guards had identified my brother assassin as he tailed the Merchant Prince of Damascus, and both needed to be silenced, without raising alarm. Only then could I continue my mission to dethrone the Merchant Prince.

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I waited for the problematic guard to take his eyes off his colleague and made my move. Silently and swiftly I dispatched the first guard. As luck would have it however the second guard turned around just as the first hit the ground. Abandoning stealth, I leapt across the rooftops towards him as he raised his bow and reached for an arrow. Just as he notched the arrow I reached him, jumped, and with my knee on his chest forced him to the ground with my hidden blade. A quick scan of the street below showed no one had noticed. My fellow assassin was safe...

"That looked cool!" said Ignant, who had stopped by to watch me eliminate the guards.
"Indeed."

Assassin's Creed has always looked good though, the 2007 blockbuster 360/PS3 title from Ubisoft has been a champion of next generation graphics bandwagon ever since the first screenshots were revealed, and I'm happy to say that the PC version is no different. Despite the somewhat expensive minimum requirements, the game if anything looks better than its console brethren. Assassin's Creed on the PC really gets to stretch its legs and show its stuff with no signs of the tearing or popping that plagued the console version.

This PC incarnation is a faithful port from its loungeroom cousins, with the story and core gameplay remaining the same (to compare, check out Tony's review of the [review=166]console version[/news]).

One of the biggest complaints with the console version was the gameplay, specifically the repetitiveness of the missions leading up to each assassination. Thankfully Ubisoft have listened to feedback and have added four new missions to this PC instalment. These new missions are spread throughout each city district giving the player plenty of options leading up to each assassination. The four new missions are escort, roof-top race, roof-top archer assassination and merchant stall destruction.

The new Escort mission mode available exclusively on PC

The escort mission is fairly straight forward, walk alongside your fellow assassin as he makes his way out of the area with one or two waves of guards attacking you along the way. This mission can get tricky later on if you encounter a guard patrol whilst doing the mission, effectively doubling the amount of guards you have to face.

In the roof-top race mission you must reach and talk to another assassin in another part of the city before the timer expires. The time limit is fairly generous but if you miss more than one or two jumps, you will struggle to beat it. You must also be anonymous with the guards before you can finish the mission so it pays to avoid roof-top archers and keep a low profile.

These archers do come into play however in the third new mission type, which sees you killing two to three of them without raising the alarm. There is no time limit for this mission, allowing you to scout a route to your targets that provides the best cover. You do need to take some care timing your attacks so that the remaining guards are not alerted however.

The fourth and last new mission type is the merchant stall destruction. For this mission you must destroy at least two merchant stalls by throwing someone into them. This can be quite tricky due to the fact that destroying a merchant stall upsets the populace and alerts the guards. Coupled with the time limit, which thankfully is quite generous, this can make for a frustrating experience. On a number of attempts at this mission I would destroy the first stall using one of its customers, only to find none at the second stall due to the disturbance. While forced to wait for one to walk past, a guard patrol would see my handiwork, and head towards me - further scaring off any potential customers. In the end I found it simpler to throw a guard at the stalls than to rely on civilians as the game had suggested.

The control system for Assassin's Creed on console was somewhat revolutionary, using a different button for each part of Altair's body you became a master puppeteer of his actions. So how does it work on the standard PC's keyboard and mouse?

The default layout uses the WASD keys to move Altair around and the mouse changes the camera angle. So holding down W and moving the mouse allows you to effortlessly thread Altair through the populace on the city streets, or line up that next building as you run along the thieves' highway. The left mouse button uses your main hand (attack), and the right puts you in high profile mode. Space controls your legs, left shift for your off-hand, and E for the head/eagle vision makes up the rest of the default layout. Plenty of on-screen hints help you remember what key is used for what and I found myself racing along the Damascus skyline killing guards with ease in no time. Those that severely damaged their trigger finger playing the console version will be glad to hear there is an option to make High Profile mode a toggle instead of having to hold the button down.


Screenshots from the other new mission modes available on PC:
Roof-top Race, Merchant Stall Destruction and Roof-top Archer Assassination
I was going to buy a 360 and this game after getting a glimpse of it at last year's eGames Expo. However after playing it on my brother's 360 extensively over Christmas I was disillusioned by the lack of variety in missions. When the PC version landed on Ignant's desk I was quick to snap it up to see what had changed. Unfortunately it was a time-limited review copy, but the brief exposure to the new missions rekindled my interest and I actually went out and bought my own copy today so I could finish it.

Overall I found the PC version of Assassin's Creed great fun and it's now on a rather exclusive list of PC games I have actually played all the way through to the end. I give it a 9/10.