Call Jack Thompson, Jesse Jackson, and the Pope, this isn’t just an assault on morals, it is an assault on the Church. Be rewarded for killing Christian leaders.

"Our story follows a disgraced master Assassin (ALTAIR) who embarks on an epic quest to restore his status within the Assassin Order. After failing to assassinate the Templar Leader (ROBERT DE SABLE) and recover the legendary Templar Treasure, Altair is demoted to Uninitiated (the lowest rank in the Assassin order).

SINAN, Leader of the Assassins, offers our hero an opportunity to redeem himself. Altair must venture out into the Holy Land and assassinate men said to be exacerbating and exploiting the hostilities created by the Third Crusade. In doing so, he will stabilize the region, allowing Sinan to usher in an age of peace."

If your history isn’t so good this is the war that Kevin Kostner was returning form in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.

The premise at first seems well intentioned enough, kill a few key leaders and bring peace to the world. Seemingly not that violent, part of your "Creed" is to not kill anyone you don’t have to. But it would seem those you must kill are all Christian Leaders, and if you kill all of them you get the "Personal Vendetta Achievement" and 40 Gamer Points.

This is far from the first game to reward you for killing Christians, but it is certainly one of the most mainstream ones to hit the market. Games like Man Hunt which recently made the news because a patch allowed uncensored violence are mostly played by those who know they are playing a very violent game. No parent who spends 5 minutes watching Man Hunt is in the dark about the premise of the game. But Assassin’s Creed (AC) keeps the dark undertone quiet enough that when you are eaves dropping on a park bench or learning how to hide on a roof top that you might miss the parts where you kill the Men of the Cloth in their White robes. At one point you kill a Bishop while he is shopping in the market with a knife to his back, then flea as everyone in the city comes to his aid.

It is not possible to finish the game with out killing the majority of the Templars in the game. And the Templars are not explained to be evil, they may be encouraging men to join the crusades to retake Jerusalem, but they are not "bad" men being cleansed for a higher purpose. Jade Raymond the games producer says "there’s plenty of freedom to tweak people’s personalities and motivations" which he obviously does.

Many games you can look at the violence and give it a reason, or purpose. Doom, Halo, you were defending Earth. Man Hunt has only the excuse that you are playing the bad guys. Assassin’s Creed you are playing the Hero Role doing the "right" thing killing these men of God. The Game has two modes as Raymond puts it "a socially acceptable "low profile" mode, where all his actions are modified to help him blend in socially. In the second "high profile" mode, Altair goes into all-out hero mode, but simultaneously becomes more conspicuous, possibly putting his mission at risk." High profile / Hero Mode is the mode you have to be in when you Kill one of your Christian Targets. The Game is nearly Photo-realistic. The scenery is beautiful, the people are fantastically realistic, and each of your targets has a distinct look, making it extremely personal when you kill them. In most cases you do so at very close range, unlike First person shooters where you are farther away and don’t "know" your kill.

Would I let my kids (I don’t have any) play this game? Probably not. The Game Features no multiplayer modes so you won’t stunt his/her social skills because they are the only kid not playing the game. I personally think that Halo CTF is a great game to point kids at because it teaches Team work, same with Rainbow 6. I’m certainly not opposed to violence in video games, I find it can be a useful outlet. But I don’t take it to the extreme of Man Hunt, and I don’t feel that your House Hold can show good Christian Values if you condone a game like Assassin’s Creed.