Assassin's Creed: The Holy Land of the Third Crusade

The game opens with a failure. Altaïr and his fellow Assassins Malik and Kadar are sent into Solomon's Temple to take the Apple of Eden from the Knights Templar, the Brotherhood's sworn enemies. Altaïr, blinded by arrogance, botches the job and Kadar dies; only Malik grabs the Apple and escapes. That mistake costs Altaïr his rank and drives the whole story. Tradition says King Solomon built the first Temple on the Temple Mount in 957 BCE, so the pin marks that hill.

Location precision: The game's Temple is a rebuilt set; the pin marks the Temple Mount, where tradition places Solomon's Temple.

Masyaf is the Brotherhood's headquarters, the base from which Altaïr rides out to Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus. After the Temple he helps fight off a Templar attack here, but his mentor Al Mualim still demotes him and orders nine assassinations to win back his honour. Masyaf is also where the story ends: Al Mualim has used the Apple to enthrall the population, and Altaïr storms the citadel and confronts him in the gardens. The real castle stands on a platform about 20 metres above the plain; Rashid ad-Din Sinan, the Old Man of the Mountain, ruled from it from 1166 to 1193.

Damascus holds three of the nine targets. Tamir is an arms merchant selling weapons to both Crusaders and Saracens; Abu'l Nuquod is a pompous trader and regent who steals money meant to fund the war; Jubair al Hakim is a scholar using his post to seize and destroy all written knowledge in the city. As in each city, a Brotherhood agent offers a safe house before you strike. The pin marks the Umayyad Mosque, one of the largest and oldest mosques in the world, in the heart of the old city.

Location precision: The game's targets move across the whole city; the pin marks the Umayyad Mosque at its centre.

In Acre Altaïr hunts Garnier de Nablus, the Hospitaller leader who runs mind-altering experiments on the patients in his hospital; William of Montferrat, a cruel regent who conscripts citizens and hoards food; and Sibrand, who plans to betray the Crusaders by blocking the city's ports. Historically Acre fell to the Third Crusade in July 1191. Beneath the old citadel, excavations uncovered halls built and used by the Knights Hospitaller, now about 8 metres below the modern streets.

Location precision: The game never ties its hospital to one address; the pin marks the Old City of Acre, home of the Hospitaller remains.

Visitor guidance: The excavated Hospitaller halls lie beneath the citadel in the Old City.

Jerusalem has two targets: Talal, leader of a gang of slavers, and Majd Addin, a tyrant who rules the city through fear and public executions. Each city has viewpoint towers to climb and map, an idea the developers took from the landmark towers such cities really had. The real Old City is a walled area of just 0.9 square kilometres. Its present walls and gates are younger than the story: the Ottoman Empire built them between 1535 and 1542.

Location precision: The game's city is a stylised rebuild; the pin marks the centre of the Old City.

Altaïr's ninth target, Robert de Sablé, the Grand Master of the Templars, is waiting in the camp of King Richard I of England. Altaïr exposes his crimes, and Richard suggests a duel, remarking that God will decide the victor. After Altaïr mortally wounds him, Robert names Al Mualim as the final conspirator. The game gives no place name for the camp; the pin marks Arsuf, where Richard defeated a larger army under Saladin on 7 September 1191.

Location precision: The game names no location for the camp; the pin marks Arsuf, where Richard's army fought in September 1191.