Assassin's Creed Basics

This is perhaps the most important thing to understand before going into Assassin's Creed: this is not a stealth game. There are pretenses of stealth built into the design, and if you really want to you can play the game as stealthily as you'd like. However, playing the game as a stealth game makes progression very slow. As you play the game, you'll realize that the pretenses of stealth are very artificial and really have little if any influence on the game.

Assassin's Creed divides player actions into the categories of socially acceptable and socially unacceptable. The actions deemed socially acceptable all are very slow and very limiting. And while you may at first feel that you need to keep a low profile, the truth is that it doesn't matter. Forget the notion of playing Assassin's Creed as a stealth game and you'll enjoy the game a lot more and conquer it more easily.

The consequences of high profile, socially unacceptable actions are very slim. While running around towns, you'll note that citizens and guards will remark at your horseplay. They do not, however, do anything about it, unless the town is on high alert and you do something goofy in front of a guard. If guards are actively seeking for an assassin, a socially unacceptable action will tip them off.However, the other 99% of the time you're playing, socially unacceptable actions have no negative consequence unless you take the snide remarks personally.

Assassin's Creed's combat system is pretty unique and can be a bit confounding, though when you break it down you'll find that the combat is actually rather simple. There are a couple of simple defensive techniques, a slightly obscure but really quite simple combo system, and the basic ability to grab.