Assassin's Creed™: Director's Cut Edition

Lame! Too clunky and boring. Not fun. Hope they don't make any more.

I would not recommend this game. Save your nerves. Literally full of glitches, errors. Having to take my internet cable out to play this is insane. I've never left a bad game review, but I'm so angry now because it's unfinishable...i've killed judair of whatever the ef his name was 4 times and every time the game doesn't save, bureau is glitchy, I've gotten so many flags and then another day I start playing it says I have fewer. Ef this game honestly.
I thought I need to play all the AC games from start to get the full experience, but so far I HATE how broken it is, so many errors, I don't even know how it shows 28h gamepaly because most of my time has been spent trying to fix errors. I started playing the second one, hopefully it's better.

**THIS REVIEW IS NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE CONSOLE VERSIONS**

I really did want to give this game a positive score, but I cannot in good faith do so.

Do not get me wrong, this is a good game, great even, but it has aged like sour milk. The gameplay is good, it has great flow and the overall story is somewhat compelling.

But my god, if this isn't one of the worst PC ports of any game I've had the chance to experience. This is not only because the game is almost almost 17 years at the time of this review.

The main problem is the sheer amount of frustration due to the incredibly bad control setup, but I did end up getting used to it. This however was not enough to rid my frustration over the 30 hours I spent going through the kingdom, Acre, Damscus and Jerusalem killing templars and collecting flags.

Yes, flags... those damn flags...

I don't mind the occasional flag hunt in games, I'm entertained by a good flag hunt as much as the next person, but not when there are 420 of them to find.

Yes 420 flags, at this point I'm 99,99% positive they did it just for the memes.

If by chance you hate yourself as much as I hate me (It's the only logical conclusion I can come to for attempting to collect them all), then please start collecting as soon as you open the first district, and find a guide that works you, or an interactive map. The one I used I found to be vague in its explanations. Once you have the entirety of the kingdom unlocked collect all the flags then, along with its templars, as it is here you'll find most of them. The final 20 flags are found in Masyaf.

So would I recommend?
No and yes.

No, because it is not a very good port, and you'll be frustrated at it's controls, from hour 1.

But if the controls are so bad, why not use a gamepad/controller? SImple. I had no Xbox 360 or PS3 controllers lying around and ready to use for this game as these are the only that (should) work with the game natively. Even then your results may vary, as I've seen multiple reports that even 360 controllers are not working. Any modern controller needs some sort of software or emulator in order to function, but I've always dreaded using those.

Let us also not forget the fact that had to turn off my Wi-Fi everytime I wanted to boot up the game. On startup, even before the opening video plays, the game is trying to ping a UbiSoft server that no longer exists. Because of this you'll get microstutters every 10 seconds or so. There is a mod that is supposed to remove this issue entirely but people have had varying degrees of success with this. Turning of Wi-Fi worked for me every time.

Then why would also recommend you buy?

Because even though this is a frustrating mess from the 1st minute, I still had an enjoyable experience and the game certainly is worth for the lore alone, and the premise this game sets for its sequel. The fighting is good, albeit somewhat clunky to get used to the stealth is... there.., the story could be better and make more sense, but I still found it intriguing, to a degree

Final conclusion:

17 years later, this game is worth putting in 30 hours of yout life for if you have never experienced Altaïr's story and you have become a fan later on in the series. It really makes you appreciate the later titles and what Assassins Creed is today.

If, however, you are new to the series this may not be the best starting point for you, but if you are determined to start off where it all began, you are honestly better off picking up a 360 or PS3 copy of the game and play it on either console.

As I said, it has not aged very well (at least on PC), and it is just begging and crying for a proper remaster, but I am still glad I put in the hours.

Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted

Yeah, you can put yourself in the fire

And you must accept its heat as well.

While I do love the Assassin's Creed franchise i can't recommend this game as it is now. It takes so much workaround to even be able to play it without a lot of lag. I had to either disconnect completely from the internet while playing or somehow block the domain on the Ubisoft server. No the mod for the lag didn't help me, and neither did just blocking the IP which i saw many recommend. Only disconnecting my internet or block the actual domain via piehole.

That being said, when you got it to work without freezing up every 10 seconds or so, it's not a bad game, specially not for it's time. But it didn't age very well despite that... If you're used the the newer AC games then this game is just janky AF and getting to use a controller (Which i prefer) is very complicated. Just using the steam overlay or the community layouts alone didn't help me, and i had to get the EaglePatch mod and then set the keybindings for my controller myself manually.

After all this I havent had any issues at all, but that in itself is a lot just to play a game normally, so yeah... very janky game and a lot of hard work to get it to even be playable. But if Ubisoft actually cared and made some sort of update fix to the game I might actually change my review... But who am I kidding... I doubt that's ever going to happen in my lifetime ^^'

One of the most annoying game mechanics in the world. Do not play it if you don't want to get frustrated. Enemy AI continuously cheating the game with unfair detection and combat. Wasting time.

Although you don't get any steam achievements, going back to the roots of this franchise has been a great journey, short game that went right to the point. Given that it is a discounted price it was a great purchase.

if you are playing in ROG Ally X beware because you will have to re-map all controllers, it was somewhat tedious, but it was do-able.

The game has not aged gracefully. It is mindlessly repetitive and it feels like it lacks a ton of content. The controller mappings are awful, I had to edit them because they made no sense. The story, the assassinations, it's all a bunch of nonsensical drivel. The threads connecting it with the rest of the story are there, but you can just read what you missed online, as I don't think Ubisoft is ever remaking/remastering this game, it isn't worth the money and time since, as I said, the game is mind-numbingly repetitive and basic.

It's always a good idea to revisit the classics, but god does this game need a remake, preferably one with a less abrupt ending.

It's not like I hate this game, I actually love it, it's a 10/10 experience for me on strictly Xbox 360 and PS3

When it comes to the PC port, controller support is lacking, as it is a very complicated setup to get it work. Personally, if you do already own a Xbox 360 or PS3, purchase the game there to avoid keyboard and mouse controls (very uncomfortable for AC games in my opinion). If you own a Series X that would be an even better option, since this game receives a performance boost on that platform.

Great game in my opinion, just an extremely janky and bad port.

"Assassin's Creed™: Director's Cut Edition" was supposed to be my smooth entry into an AC marathon of playing every game, but it started with a frustrating technical bug. Despite over six hours of troubleshooting, trying every potential fix, update, and even a fresh Windows install, I was unable to fix a bizarre bug where my character couldn’t move and would shake uncontrollably.

From what I can tell, this issue may stem from my high-end hardware (RTX 4080, 13th-gen CPU). Ubisoft support was no help, and I couldn’t find any solutions online. So if you're on modern, high-end hardware, be prepared for potential compatibility issues and hours of troubleshooting. Otherwise, I hope you have better luck than I did!

You literally have to disconnect your internet just to make the game run properly. If you don’t, it freezes every 2 minutes for about 4 seconds—completely unplayable. For such a massive IP, you'd think the devs would care, but nope. It’s actually wild how broken this is.

I’ve tried all the suggested fixes (like editing the hosts file), but as of 3/24/25 on Windows 11, none of them work anymore.

The singular best Assassin's Creed game out of all of them. Only 1 comes close and that's AC 4 Black Flag.

I do feel bad for those experiencing problems running but I've not had any problems running it yet(yet being the keyword lol)

I played this game easily over 500 hours on my xbox 360 back in the day before i got steam, 100%'d it multiple times never got bored playing still don't get bored playing I just adore the assassin vs. templar aesthetic and the time it's set it's aesthetic for a video game.

11/10 would recommend.

The screen is always freezing suddenly. I have tried all hosts from the forum and all failed to solve the problem. Sometimes the screen turns to whole white screen. I give up. Ubisoft, you need to solve technical issue if you still want to sell the game in 2025. So bad.

The first Assassin’s Creed game revolves around a sacred relic, with the main character gathering information that leads him to assassinate nine targets in order to restore his lost honor. While the premise is interesting, the narrative itself isn’t particularly complex—it mostly serves as a setup for the assassinations.

I really enjoyed the combat, which has a nice cinematic feel, and the parkour, which works well, especially during escape sequences. I opted to play with a controller instead of a keyboard because the PC port is not very intuitive. Additionally, I encountered a freezing issue that, thankfully, was easily fixed after a quick Google search (Ubisoft, maybe fix this?).

The game world, both in the present and the past, feels somewhat empty when it comes to object interaction. The main activities include climbing towers to reveal city events and helping other assassins. Honestly, I didn’t expect so many helpless assassins—our protagonist feels more like a jack-of-all-trades rather than a member of an elite order.

Assassin’s Creed 1 is a promising start to the series, but it doesn’t shine through its story. It’s worth playing more for the gameplay and atmosphere rather than an engaging narrative.

Officially Finished.

game isnt made for new pc´s, it keeps crashing and every time you get into a new area your frames drop to 10 for about 2 seconds

Stuttering aside which can be easily fixed, the biggest downsides are:

1) No subtitles. The first time I played the game I couldn't understand a thing and only played for the gameplay. This time around, I had the game script next to me so I could follow the story as well and there were plenty of things I had missed.

2) Collectibles are not shown in the map and it's really easy to miss them in the world. Unless you're using a guide, you'll be in a world of pain.

Safety and peace.

does NOT work on steam deck. cannot start game without keyboard and mouse (why? this was a console game!) and cannot play using controller. Save your money.

Edit: nevermind, this port is a buggy mess on PC as well. Do not recommend.

I fixed the freezing problem, but after reaching the end of the game, it started again and I couldn't finish it, but the game is a masterpiece.

Epic game, ahead of it's time(long gone) but it is unplayable due to freezing frames, lag spikes, it pings a server for ubisoft that doesn't exist and it just makes the game unplayable because its like I'm buffering every 2 minutes... if it was smooth this game would once again be epic to play... Can't recommend it until they fix it which they probably wont.

It's absolutely crazy to me that this game ever got a sequel. Really thankful it did though, because if Ezio hadn't been a fan favorite character, this entire series would have bombed.

The quests are repetitive and annoying. To find the quests, you have to climb almost every single LOF point and it'll usually only lead you to one mission of 3 that you have to complete to even get to the good parts of this game, which are the very short assassination missions. This wouldn't be so much of an issue if the free-running mechanics actually ever did what you wanted them to do. If you're finger is even so SLIGHTLY off kilter when you're free-running, you'll end up jumping the complete opposite direction of where you wanted to go. It's also an incredibly slow and headache inducing process to boot.

The whole "assassination mechanic" doesn't work in any reliable way. You're always going to end up alerting everyone and having to fight a bunch of guys to get away safely, which takes away from the entire idea of being an "ultra lethal assassin" type character. You could be standing right above your target and you're not able to just jump down and assassinate him. You'll have to fight him, knock him down, and then assassinate him.

Spinning off that point, the combat in this game is an absolute joke. It will 100% always revolve around you parrying enemies to MAYBE get a 1-shot in. There's no reason to really run and "keep hidden" because every single mission is going to play out with you fighting 30 guys just so you don't have to worry about them free-running over the rooftops to get to you.

Speaking of...Why can guards in armor so easily catch up to you? They can literally free-run just as well, if not better than the PC. Really stupid, massive oversight if every single enemy in a game where you're supposed to be this "Super Assassin" type can do everything you can do.

The dialogue is incredibly cringy, even by late 2000s standards, and the story really isn't all that great. It's just generic slop ontop of generic slop the whole way through.

The graphics are just headache inducing after a time. 2008 is the year we got GTA 4, Dead Space, and MGS 4. Sure, by today's standards, they don't look great, but they were also way ahead of their time.

This game also stutters pretty much the entire time you're playing it. Because for some reason, this game that's almost 20 years old and never had any kind of online functionality is trying to send 3 packets of data to a server that most likely has been thrown into the ocean by now. The only way to fix this is to shut your WiFI off while you're playing the game.

Honestly, if you're thinking about playing all of the AC games, I'd just skip this one. You get enough of the background story to understand everything from every other game, and it's not like anything that happens in this game is a joy to playthrough. And it's not like any of these games are really, truly connected in any meaningful way.

BEFORE PLAY, GET THIS MOD ASAP: ( https://www.nexusmods.com/assassinscreed/mods/81 )it makes it so that AC1 won't try to ping a dead ubisoft server and stops the random freezing,
Really good game (Minus the freezing without the mod) it's overall a really good. Don't play the newer AC games before this there is no fast climbing, 8.5/10 would replay again

I remember playing this game the day it released in Block Buster to rent. On the PS3, this game was incredible. I recently bough it without looking at the reviews and regret it. This game is unplayable. The game glitches every few steps and re-renders. The leap of faith mechanic does not work. After about an hour of playing and synchronizing at multiple towers, I determined that it is impossible to perform a leap of faith without dying. The hail carts render as solid ground. The game is so glitchy that it is unplayable on PC. The controller mapping mechanics are also an absolute nightmare to figure out. I highly suggest not buying or playing this game.

(6/10) Game is nice, but PC port is broken = Freezing every 2 minutes, commands not fixed (fullscreen is not on options, seriously!!) and issues with app design (window of game stutters)...

Unplayable.
Game stutters and crashes consonantly because the cunts at Ubisoft decided they would make the SINGLE PLAYER game try to connect to non existent servers every 3 min or whenever you move character more than 10 paces

Game keeps freezing because it tries to ping a non existent server, only workaround is turning internet off. This is just ridiculous.

was exited to replay ac1 on pc but its a buggy stutery mess im getting 400 fps in this game and still cant hardly move because its so badly optimized for pc

EN:
The beginning of everything, so great respect, but it has really aged badly. I would recommend it only for the story and for the final boss fight which is perhaps the best part of the game, but it is very wooden and uses mechanics that have been gradually modified or eliminated since its sequel
IT:
L'inizio di tutto, quindi grande rispetto, ma è davvero invecchiato male. Lo consiglierei solo a livello di storia e per la boss fight finale che è forse la parte più bella del gioco, ma è molto legnoso e sfrutta meccaniche che già dal suo sequel sono andate via via modificate o eliminate

Could be great if there wasn't so many issues. Most caused by the game trying to connect to outdated servers. Problems like crashing, freezing and plenty of bugs aren't things that are surprising from a Ubisoft game but it's still unacceptable. Disregarding the problems, the game is fine, but it's important to remember that the game was made 2007. Worth giving a try if it's on sale or if you're a big AC fan. Otherwise, I sadly can't recommend.
Btw, ive been playing for much longer than it says, steam is just buggin out

I had to fix the game myself because Ubisoft won't bother to. The game is extremely repetetive and the only redeeming qualities are the characters and atmosphere.

While I tend to see this game as more a tech demo/proof of concept than a full game I do still thoroughly enjoy it. Getting it to run on modern hardware is an absolute nightmare though.

lots of Freezing its made me crazy :)
i tried to fix it and it works for a while but recently the fix doesn't work anymore for some reason

Great classic game. worth playing though I had a few bugs to work out of it along the way

nostalgic but the templar knights kept cooking me so badly

Beautiful first game. Missions were repetitive but if played within intervals its story is kinda nice actually. Boring at the first few hours but it started to pick up especially its combat. Would recommend for players who's interested in the entire franchise to start here. The controls are a bit lame however, but it grew on me. Overall a solid game.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Assassin's Creed

Maybe it's just me but sadly the game is in desperate need of a remaster, it's clunky and stutters through cutscenes and gameplay alike, no amount of settings or fiddling seems to fix it. I wanted to go back and play the AC franchise from the beginning since Ubi added Steam Achievements to most of the later releases. With the way the game runs currently, that's not really possible which is sad.

Hoje entendo o porquê desse jogo ser tão importante, finalmente fui para onde tudo começou e tive uma boa experiência com Assassin's Creed, por mais que tive que colocar arquivos extras para jogar no UW e ter os controles certos, infelizmente tive alguns crashs no jogo, mas em termos de bugs tive uma experiência melhor do que no Black flag e no Unity, enfim...
A história do jogo é simples, mas tem profundidade suficiente, Altair é um bom protagonista, não tem o carisma dos outros, mas o cara é pura aura, chad demais. Graficamente achei que envelheceu bem, pelo YouTube achava ruim, mas jogando agora vi que era um gráfico excelente para a época, no combate achei mais difícil que o Black flag, então por mais que não tivesse a fluidez, tinha a dificuldade, achei satisfatório. O parkour é decente até hoje, para época deveria ser absurdo, não tive tanto problemas com ele, infelizmente para mim o único problema foram nas variedades de missões e uns npc nada haver no jogo, como esperado, o jogo não tem uma variedade boa de missões, mas como é curto, não me impactou tanto, em relação aos npcs, porque caralhos colocar esses bêbados ? Pqp, só enchia o saco, a mulher pedindo dinheiro é até suportável...
Dito tudo isso, achei um jogo bom, inferior aos que joguei, mas eu vejo uma base sólida que a Ubisoft usou a longo dos anos, jogo lendário.
Nota : 7,5/10

Aged poorly
The game might be good in 2008 standards, but it just feels like a slog.
I am not finishing it, i will not torture myself with playing this game.
It feels like a tech demo, because it is.
I am trying out AC2, but i would recommend just reading up on the story if you care.

The beginning of an era.Although the game has its flaws - especially the repetitiveness - it ages very well and still holds up even today.A solid foundation the Ezio trilogy was built upon.

Stay your blade from the flesh of the innocent. Hide in plain sight. Never compromise the Brotherhood. Nothing is true, everything is permitted.
-
Remember the good old days when an AC game started up and “Inspired by historical events and characters. This work of fiction was designed, developed and produced by a multicultural team of various religious faiths and beliefs.” was enough?

Remember when AC had really compelling characters, development and storylines, when the Isu and their artefacts had real weight and effect on the world?

Gods, Assassin’s Creed was strong then.

I recommend picking this game up if you’re invested in the AC games, and want to see where it all began otherwise save your money, because as much as I love the story and characters of AC1, the game is beyond dated. Graphics wise it’s not terrible, I’ve played worse looking games in 2024, but stability wise it’s a bit of a gamble. If Ubisoft survive 2025 there’s rumors they’re remastering this one, so cross your fingers and hold out hope they can survive and bring it towards current gen. Or uncross them because knowing Ubi they’ll probably cut bits out that offend their soft sensibilities in the current day. Idk.

I am not giving negative review to the game itself. I am giving negative review because the game is unplayable at PC. Dont buy this anymore. Ubisoft shut down servers for this game on 2022 and its trying to ping to none existent server all the time causing freezes and crashes. Ubisoft doesnt wanna do anything to fix the problem. Play this on console if option. Otherwise great beginning game for the franchise.

I think ac 1 is one of the most annoying game i've ever played. Lots of bug on this game like fail leap of faith (that cause your character is dead), often experience many glitch when combat mode, etc. Also, you have to turn off the internet in order to prevent the lagging (even if you have high-end pc). Additionally, the parkour mechanic and movement is just awful and awkward.

Assassin’s Creed is a game that introduced a groundbreaking concept but falls short of fully realizing its potential.
As the debut title in what would become a massive franchise, it’s undeniably ambitious, offering a mix of historical intrigue, open-world exploration, and stealth gameplay.
But while the foundation is solid, cracks in the execution make it feel more like a tech demo than a polished masterpiece.
Set during the Third Crusade, the story follows Altair, a skilled assassin, as he works to restore his honor and unravel a conspiracy involving the mysterious Templars.
The historical setting is the game’s strongest aspect, with meticulously recreated cities like Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus.
The environments are stunning and immersive, and climbing iconic landmarks feels as rewarding now as it did back then.
However, the game’s biggest flaw is its repetitive gameplay.
Missions boil down to the same cycle: gather intel through eavesdropping, pickpocketing, or interrogating, and then perform an assassination.
While fun at first, this formula quickly grows stale due to a lack of variety or meaningful progression.
Altair himself is a bit of a blank slate, with little personality to connect with, though the overarching narrative introduces the intriguing concept of genetic memory and Desmond Miles in the modern-day sequences.
Unfortunately, these segments feel underdeveloped and slow the game’s pacing.
The combat is flashy but shallow, relying heavily on counter-attacks that make most encounters too easy.
The parkour mechanics, while revolutionary at the time, can also feel clunky, with Altair occasionally leaping in unintended directions.
Despite its flaws, Assassin’s Creed laid the groundwork for an enduring franchise.
It’s a game that dared to innovate, even if it struggled to fully deliver on its promises.
For newcomers to the series, it’s worth experiencing for its historical setting and legacy, but patience is required to overlook its rough edges.
A promising start with room for refinement.

good game, good world, good characters

I think completing this game is something every assassin's creed fan should do at some point! The graphics definitely survived the test of time, the story is very interesting, there's so much to do and complete and it's really not too difficult, even for beginner. I will say that there are some issues that I only managed to fix due to the community, not the game's developer. You need to change your settings if you play with a new computer, because if not, your character will continue dying whenever you do a leap of faith. The game also constantly froze in the past because it was trying to connect to a server that no longer existed. I also found a fix for that via the community. If you have the energy to deal with that (once you fix these two things, it's a smooth ride), then go for it! But I do wish the developer would work on a permanent fix, because clearly people are still interested in this game and pay money for it.

"Assassin's Creed" was groundbreaking in its time, combining historical settings with parkour-based gameplay and a rich narrative, creating a new genre that many games have since followed.

The game introduced iconic characters like Altaïr and Desmond Miles, and its blend of historical fiction and modern-day mystery captivated players.

Laid the groundwork for a long-running and successful franchise, with countless sequels and spin-offs.

Was a groundbreaking game that pioneered a new genre of open-world historical adventures.

Pretty fun. Definitely has some bugs but obviously it's quite old from a technology standpoint now

nostalgic and great game atmosphere, though the missions and the mechanic are repetitive. the world looks alive because of the npc (hate the beggars and the drunks).

Missions all feel like the same, parkour and stealth are okay, and I cant play for 20 seconds without my game freezing if anybody knows how to fix this please comment.