A crusade: Ubisoft Montreal completes its most recent mission, Assassin's Creed, in historical fashion.(Gaming)

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MASTER OF THE GAME: LEVEL 3

Ubisoft Montreal, founded as a subsidiary of Ubisoft in 1997, started out developing low-profile projects. A decade later, the company has evolved into one of the largest game developers worldwide, having produced the popular Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia series--both known for their stunning visuals and exciting action. So, it comes as little surprise that this Ubisoft group has once again capitalized on cutting-edge CG technology to take gameplay and game graphics to a new level with its recently released Assassin's Creed.

By December 13, 2007, the game obliterated Ubisoft's initial sales expectations by selling more than 2.5 million units in less than four weeks, making it the fastest selling new video game intellectual property and one of the top three best-selling video games in history. On the heels of this record success, Ubisoft raised its sales target for 2007-2008 from 825 million euros to a whopping 975 million euros ($1.4 billion US).

The game, set in the year 1191 as the Third Crusade tears the Holy Land apart, the player assumes the role of Altair, a master assassin who embarks on a quest through three meticulously re-created cities--Jerusalem, Damascus, and Acre--to slay the nine historical figures who are promulgating the Crusades and exploiting the ensuing chaos for their own monetary interests. Along the way, Altair discovers that his targets may be bound by more than a shared interest in personal gain: by membership in a secret society whose true goal leads to a shocking modern-day conspiracy involving genetic memory.

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Four years in the making, Assassin's Creed is set in three fully rendered and historically accurate cities populated by thousands of inhabitants. From the Dome of the Rock, to the Tower of David, to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the game presents a meticulous re-creation of the architecture and culture of the period, where everything and everyone is completely interactive. Altair's actions always affect how the bystanders respond to him. When passing through a crowd, lightly nudging someone out of the way will not have a significant effect. However, if Altair's knocks someone to the ground or kills the character, the crowd may mass against him and chase him through the city and across rooftops, attracting the attention of the guards. The player can grab onto and climb a building facade or practically any aspect of the environment; Ubisoft notes that any object that protrudes more than two inches is interactive. To give Altair this level of unlimited interactivity with his world, Ubisoft Montreal created well over 12,000 animations for his character model and modified his control scheme so that buttons correspond to various body parts instead of whole-body actions. For instance, running toward a wall and pressing the "legs" button will make Altair jump the wall, while pressing the "arms without weapons" button will make him vault it like a gymnast.