Assassins Creed II Review
Assassin's Creed II Review
Two years ago it seemed a lot of people had to lob some justification in front of their enjoyment out of Assassin's Creed, or harsh criticism for their contempt with the game. Neither side was necessarily wrong. The game laid out a heady story, catapulted parkour as a genre mainstay, and blended elements of action and stealth to appease plenty of fans. It was also terribly bogged down by poor pacing, repetitive side missions and utterly inept AI to contend with, so you can understand peoples love or hate relationship with the beginning iteration into the planned franchise. If Ubisoft has done one thing with Assassin's Creed 2, and I'll argue they've done more, it's their ability to show they aren't precious or stubborn, that they'll listen to peoples qualms and address them in a meaningful way. As a result, we're left with a far better game that helps drive the series forward by making headway with almost every single issue that cropped up the first go around.
For the uninitiated, you play as Desmond, a modern-day everyman from a bloodline of assassins. A war has been going on between Templars and Assassin's for a centuries, and you're the key to unlocking the mysteries surrounding it all. You do this by laying down on an Animus, a system by which Desmond can jack into memories of his ancestors - think Matrix and you're in the right ballpark. But this is all just the setup to get you where you really want to be, before it was with Altair in the middle east, but this go around you play as Ezio in Italy circa late 14oo's. This is the first mark of improvement in the series, as the towns of Florence and Venice and subsequent surrounding areas are far more vibrant and diverse. It adds a spark that's subtle and reigns you into a world that feels far more believable and real. 
In one of the outer areas if the game you'll encounter your home, a villa at the top of a small rundown and terribly drab village. You're given the options to invest in the town, by renovating shops, or rebuilding thieves guilds or brothels. While the only real reward is a high value given to your villa, which helps raise funds for you to collect and use, you'll also notice that the town becomes a little more active. Open up the church and the brothel and you'll see beautiful women and monks passing by in town that weren't there before. You'll get better gear and bigger discounts at shops. You can adorn your villa with wonderful works of art. It's these touches that breath some life into the world and help with the immersion. If I had any complaints, it's the I wish it was even more interactive, perhaps some side missions tied into your town or NPC's to interact with. Given the scale of the game it becomes a minor issue that doesn't hamper the game but if they utilize a similar town or home base in the third game I hope it's something they take into consideration.
Scale here is important to note. While the first game was large, and that was hammered in by the fact that you had to hop on a horse to get anywhere (a most cumbersome affair), AS2 feels bigger, and has more to do. There isn't a ton of secondary missions, still more than the first time, but at least they're more fun. You can race, perform assassination contracts, deliveries or beat-em-ups. They're sort of there, but only at your choosing -- they also aren't really tied into achievements or trophies beyond doing a single one...something I actually appreciated -- and while you can do them all if you want, they aren't needed to extend the game to feel like you're getting your monies worth. At the completion of the game, having collected all 100 Feathers as well I had reached just under 26 hours of gameplay. I completed only 1 of each side mission and all Tomb Missions, the rest was all story. It's a treat now days to get a game that offers a lengthy campaign without feeling strung along, and you never do here.
The combat mechanics are seemingly untouched from the first game, which isn't entirely bad. The combat worked the first time, even though it was fairly simplified and grew repetitive. AS2 adds a couple nice additions by way of new weapons and gadgets, which help broaden the depth, if only just enough to feel fresh. A second assassin's blade makes for a deadly weapon while sneaking and a formidable match against guards using axes, swords, or spears, each of which you can pickup or purchase yourself. Smoke bombs and throwing money add to distraction options to help get away from guards, and throwing stars are still around to pick off archers. It's really the new weapons that provide the most enjoyment, as some clearly work better in some situations than others. It's here though that the AI show's some kinks. At times I was able to walk up to 4 guards and assassinate them all without a single one drawing a weapon on me. Stealth elements also highlight just how dense they can seem when you plop right behind them a loot treasure or walk away after stabbing someone right behind their back. These issue's don't hamper anything for too long, and players that played the first to death will notice some improved enemy attack patterns.
A huge reason why everything comes together so much better this time around is because the story and the protagonist are far more enjoyable. While the AS1 painted an intriguing world, it was a choppy affair that ended rather predictably seen through the eyes of a rather passive and unlikable character. Altair followed orders blindly without much sense of self motivation or involvement beyond being the murderer sent around. Ezio on the other hand is thrust into this situation after the brutal murder of his father and brothers, he too was to be hung but escapes in time to plot his revenge. While it's more bloodthirsty, it's still very easy to relate to his pain and choices and makes for a much smoother narrative.
The story takes a couple leaps into the full-blown mythic sci-fi realm towards the end of the game, but I can honestly say that everything moves the story forward in such a way that's sure to make people want to come back for the third game. There's a refined hand in the way this is all laid out, instead of jumping back and forth from Desmond to Ezio, you only come back into the modern day setting a few times, which means there's no going to bed and sitting back down for every memory sync. It moves everything along and keeps you doing whatever you want, and it forces the story to unfold while playing instead of in some clunky exposition filled discussion with characters that don't seem part of the story you're actually focused on.
One last note on added little touches. The gadgets that you unlock as you progress are given to you by none other than Leonardo Da Vinci, who isn't just a throwaway character so people feel smart for knowing a name, but he's actually a friend of Ezio's that helps him out and requires a hand or two himself. It adds some credence to stuff you use, and fleshes out this world to help it straddle the line between reality and game. A little history never hurt anyone, after all.
Assassin's Creed II makes every intention to be better than it's predecessor, and it does so proudly and without negotiating away it's stellar setup. While the issues were never in the sound or graphics of the first game, they've still maintained a beautiful world full of life to explore while stepping up every other aspect in both subtle and obvious ways. A minute number of problems remain for the ultra-nitpicky, but none of them hold this back form being a triple-A title. If this is proof of what a developer can do with a little criticism and a sequel - my only wish is that we could get more than just a 3rd game out of the franchise.
The World: Italy not only makes for beautiful scenery, but it offers a more varied and fresh world than anything in AS1. The towns themselves feel different and large, giving you every reason to want to spend a little more time climbing every building just to catch the view. 10/10
The Combat: It's the weapons that sell it this time around, but it's still a fluid system that's intuitive enough to grasp for most, and just deep enough to offer some complexity and options. The AI could be improved to provide some more challenge, however, as you'll still realize that one solid strategy will get you through three quarters of the game safely. 8/10
The Story: Being a sequel, it'll be hard for anyone that didn't play the first to keep pace during this game with a lot of the stuff that's going on. But it's also a more focused and simple story at it's core, outside of the over-arching trilogy that it's all fueling. With a likable protagonist to relate to this time around it's far more fun to play the role of the assassin. 9/10
The Sound and Visual: Some of the best moments come while atop a building, staring out over the landscape and the town around you. The draw distance is astonishing, and the details to the city layout or more than just admirable. Some of the cutscenes, however, are showing their age for the engine. The dialogue here is better, and the voices seem to be spread a bit more thick as well - still the rumblings of the town will start to sound all the same after ten hours of running around. 8/10
The Improvements: Maybe we should just expect this every time we play a sequel, but if you play enough games you know that it just isn't always the case. Ubisoft went out and addressed everything that made people shy away from the first As or kept it from being truly remarkable. You can swim, you feel more apart of the town, you feel like you have a real impact on the world, you don't need to sit on benches to listen to people, you don't need to do side-quests but there's more of them, there's more weapons, more ways to assassinate, more ways to infiltrate, you can boat around on a gondola, your armor damages, and your acrobatics feel better than ever culminating in some of the best platforming side missions I've ever seen- they make you wonder what Prince of Persia coulda have been if it starred Ezio. I applaud the approach to developing when it's not taken so defensively, when producers realize they can always do something better and so long as they try -- we'll all see the fruits of their labor. 10/10
SCORE: 90%
