Assassin's Creed - hands-on

A typical assassination goes something like this. First, you receive your mission from your leader at the assassin hideout in Masyaf. Make your way across the kingdom to the city where the target lives. Enter the city stealthily by climbing walls, creating a diversion, or blending in with some monks. Find the Assassins' Bureau for advice on your target. Climb up to high-altitude view points to open up the map and show investigation targets. Complete investigation targets and any of the optional Save Citizen missions in the area. Investigation activities include interrogation, pickpocketing, eavesdropping, assassinations, and time-trial challenges. Once your investigation is complete, return to the Bureau to get a feather, which you must coat with the blood of your victim. Once you've taken out the target, the chase is on and every guard in the city will be looking for you.

If you can break line of sight with your pursuers, you can hide amongst monks, dive under piles of hay, or slide inconspicuously onto benches to blend in with the locals. The Leap of Faith is the flashiest method for ditching pursuers, which involves leaping from a rooftop into a pile of hay. Leap spots are marked by a gaggle of pigeons and a patch of bird poo, providing a much-needed visual cue when fleeing frantically. Soldiers have a morale system determining who is going to attack, taunt, cower (giving you a free hit), or run away. Every soldier has his own morale; groups of soldiers form a faction. If you kill the highest-ranking soldier first (identifiable by garb and helmet style), it will lower the morale of the rest of the faction and make the fight easier.