AgtFox
11-20-2009, 06:38 AM
Assassin’s Creed II Review
Title: Assassin’s Creed II
Platform: 360/PS3 (coming to PC Q1 2010 supposedly)
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal (http://www.ubi.com/)
Publisher: Ubisoft (http://www.ubi.com)
ESRB: Mature
MSRP: $59.99 (360 (http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Creed-II-Xbox-360/dp/B00269DXCK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1258594964&sr=8-1)/PS3 (http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Creed-II-Playstation-3/dp/B00269DX5W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1258594964&sr=8-2))
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek
What's Hot: Graphics are step up from original game in my opinion; voiceovers are well done even with the Italian/English accents and the Italian spoken parts (w/English translations if you have subtitles on) throughout the game; Almost all issues from first game are cured; game is as long as you want it to be because you can do all missions or do whatever side missions you want at any time; story is fantastic; simply more impressive and flowing than original game
What's Not: Loose controls still give some fits here and there, although by the end I was once again one with Ezio; inability to skip cutscenes hurts when you have to replay after dying; you MUST turn on subtitles or you won’t understand the Italian spoken words which are translated in the subtitles; glyphs are difficult to find and they connect to something quite interesting in the game
I loved the original Assassin’s Creed, but noted that there were significant problems with repetition in the game which kept it from getting a 5/5 and instead got a 4/5. The assassinations were too dependant on having to do mini-games in order for the assassinations to begin. Everything I had heard up to the point of playing Assassin’s Creed II got me excited that Ubisoft Montreal had fixed the problems from the first game.
I’m happy to say that my thoughts are correct. Arguably the mini-games could be seen as repetitive, but they are no longer mandatory in order to build up to an assassination. Instead, the assassinations are integrated into the game as you go along the actual memory missions in the DNA sequence. That pretty much eliminated my two problems with the original game and Assassin’s Creed II is longer than the first game a grand experience to enjoy. Of course it will be hard for someone to come into this game from scratch because although there are hints at what happened in the first game, they really don’t spell it out for you. It would be smart to seek out a synopsis of Assassin’s Creed if you’re interested in the backstory.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/ac2/shot1.jpg
The game starts off in Italy circa 1476, although the initial Animus connection is when Ezio Auditore, the main character, is born. Yes, you get to move his appendages right after he is born and honestly it is a bit freaky. When we next meet him he and his brother are jumping around Firenzi - or Florence, Italy - chasing each other. Ezio’s next business of the day is to bed a local lady. Yes, he is a ladies man and quite charismatic. He starts off running errands for his father that will get you used to or re-used to the gameplay mechanics of the series. For the most part, the controls are the same as the last game. Ezio has more tricks than Altair did since he is able to purchase new weapons and armor (and easily change them via the Right button) and his friendship with Leonardo da Vinci gives him a bunch of new accessories throughout the game as Leonardo deciphers the codex pages and creates weapons from them. The game takes place in several Italian cities and it is obvious the development crew has done a good job with the local landmarks of the time period. The documents you can look through via the Back button when a small window shows up or in the Start menu gives you the history on many of the landmarks and characters you meet in the game. It’s totally up to you whether you want to read all this stuff or not, but much of it is quite interesting to read through. I’m not up on my Italian trivia, but the way the documents read many of these characters are real life ones.
It’s hard to do a review on a game like this because you really can’t get into the story because it is full of so many spoilers. I feel safe in saying since it happens so early that Ezio’s brothers and father are publicly executed by the Templars after Ezio gives information to a supposed trusted ally of his father. After this Ezio starts to find out that his father was part of the lineage of assassins that includes Altair from the first game. He finds his father’s white assassin robes and starts on his quest to take down the people responsible for the deaths and obviously a larger conspiracy is afoot. Of course the conspiracy goes far deeper than just the group in Florence and it spiders out to other areas in Italy.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/ac2/shot2.jpg
The game is much more open than the original and you can take as much time as you want with it. You can blow through only the story missions, never touching any of the side missions if you want. I believe the Codex missions are needed though since they play an important role later in the game. I have no clue how long it will take you to beat the game doing just the basic things because I undertook side stuff. I was pretty compulsive about hitting all the Viewpoints in the first game and I did that here as well, although it didn’t garner any achievement points (d’oh!). I would in fact hit the Viewpoints before hitting story missions just to unlock more of the map of the area.
I also made it a point to hit any Codex mission whenever one became available. I didn’t do all the side missions. I wasn’t too excited by the races, the beat ‘em ups, the assassination contracts (tried a few) or keeping my notorious level down by tearing down posters in the area, bribing people or killing officials. There are other side missions that I won’t discuss here since it moves into spoiler territory, but let’s just say that the story is well laid out and is even deeper than what was presented in the original.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/ac2/shot3.jpg
Desmond is of course back after the events from the last game. In fact, you start the game as him escaping from Abstergo with Lucy and going to another building with a new Animus in it. After the initial time with Desmond, it’s a good while before you come back to him. It was almost 10 game hours before I took control of him again, a stark departure from the first game where you were constantly going to Desmond after an assassination for him to go to his bedroom and elsewhere at Abstergo to get information. Here since the assassinations are woven into the overall game I was very surprised how long it took to jump back to 2012. Also interesting is as Ezio’s story is being told years pass by. The game starts in 1476 and ends in 1499, or at least that is the last date given as the Animus builds the cities from memory. That’s 23 years of memories that you play through.
Also of note is that Ezio takes his surviving sister and mother to his uncle’s area of the country where he owns a villa. At the very top of this villa is Ezio’s room where you can see portraits of all his major assassinations and the year or years they happened. Along with this the villa is also home to Ezio’s side business. I forgot to say that this game has money in it, although it should have been obvious when I said you could buy weapons and armor. You receive money every time you complete missions or find the plethora of loot chests all around the game area. With this money you can purchase the weapon and armor upgrades, as well as art for the villa. Inside the villa you can also pay to upgrade the buildings in the area, including a brothel, get discounts at the stores in the area and get a larger amount of money as you upgrade the villa area. You get paid every 20 minutes in game time, but you have to go back to the villa to take the money from the chest. This means you will be making several trips there, but it also holds all your weapons and armor that you have since upgraded (you can go up and switch to a different weapon if you want), any art that you purchase and a wall full of all the codex pieces you’ve picked up and had decrypted by Leonardo.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/ac2/shot4.jpg
There are always problems even with the greatest games, the only ones here that I see are the continued loose controls that create frustration early on and in a specific mini-game option that I can’t spoil here, but it has a lot of jumps involved. The other problem I had was that the glyphs on some of the landmarks are often hard to find. You will see a red eye in the window where you can hit the Back button for info. Once you find the glyph you then have a puzzle to solve that will open up an interesting extra in the game. Finding these glyphs are important to the overall story because it opens up an interesting section of the document section called “The Truth” that are clues left by Subject 16 along with audio recordings he took while in the Abstego program. Subject 16 is the person before Desmond who undertook the Animus and left the information with his own blood on the wall in Abstego at the end of the original game when Desmond realized he could use the Eagle vision through his time as Altair.
I’ve gone all this way and not said one word about graphics or sound. The music and voiceovers are really well done. Nolan North and Kristen Bell are back as Desmond and Lucy. Kristen even in the first scene says more than she did in the first game. The music is nuanced and well done. There are some excellent tracks present. With the graphics I am seeing a lot of people moaning about them. I think the graphics are a step up when compared to the first game. Yes, there are jaggies present and there is some draw in, but you have to remember there is a lot more polygons being pushed in this game because the cities are bigger and more busy in both civilian and building areas than the first game had. The Italian landscape is very beautiful, including the water that Ezio can swim in. As a funny side note, enemies once you knock them into the water are dead no matter how much health they had left. Was that homage to the fact that Altair could not swim in the last game? I think maybe it was.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/ac2/shot5.jpg
Even though I didn’t talk much about the story, Ubisoft Montreal has fixed enough in this game for me to give Assasssin’s Creed II our highest score and the esteemed Editor’s Choice Award. It truly is a fantastic experience and sits right up there with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Batman: Arkham Asylum in my mind (haven’t played Dragon Age as of yet. It is going to be awfully hard to choose one of these as Game of the Year and really 2009 has turned out to be an excellent year in top notch gaming.
This game is certainly the longest of the three I talk about as it took me a little over 18 game hours to beat, but I’d say I played over 24 hours total as I don’t think the game time takes into account the cutscene time because they can’t be skipped. Also, Assassin’s Creed II is probably the most story rich of them and has as crazy of an ending as the original did. There is no doubt there will be a third game in the series and I can’t wait! Even if you didn’t like the first game because of the repetition, I feel enough has been done to fix these problems. There are still problems, but every game has them no matter how great it is. I highly recommend this game and am honestly surprised with how fantastic this game turned out to be. They could have rehashed the original game and not added any extra stuff like buying weapons, armor, art, etc.. However, more story and more options simply make this one of the best games of the year. Enjoy!
Score: 5 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG5.png
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/editorschoice.jpg
Loren says, ”Assassin’s Creed II is a must buy for those that liked the original game no matter its problems. For those new to the series I would recommend reading a synopsis on the first game before getting into this one. Even those that disliked certain things about the original game should find enough fixes here to enjoy their time. The game flows better and allows you to do what you want when you want to.”
*Note - Review based upon the Xbox 360 version of the game
Title: Assassin’s Creed II
Platform: 360/PS3 (coming to PC Q1 2010 supposedly)
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal (http://www.ubi.com/)
Publisher: Ubisoft (http://www.ubi.com)
ESRB: Mature
MSRP: $59.99 (360 (http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Creed-II-Xbox-360/dp/B00269DXCK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1258594964&sr=8-1)/PS3 (http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Creed-II-Playstation-3/dp/B00269DX5W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1258594964&sr=8-2))
Editor: Loren 'AgtFox' Halek
What's Hot: Graphics are step up from original game in my opinion; voiceovers are well done even with the Italian/English accents and the Italian spoken parts (w/English translations if you have subtitles on) throughout the game; Almost all issues from first game are cured; game is as long as you want it to be because you can do all missions or do whatever side missions you want at any time; story is fantastic; simply more impressive and flowing than original game
What's Not: Loose controls still give some fits here and there, although by the end I was once again one with Ezio; inability to skip cutscenes hurts when you have to replay after dying; you MUST turn on subtitles or you won’t understand the Italian spoken words which are translated in the subtitles; glyphs are difficult to find and they connect to something quite interesting in the game
I loved the original Assassin’s Creed, but noted that there were significant problems with repetition in the game which kept it from getting a 5/5 and instead got a 4/5. The assassinations were too dependant on having to do mini-games in order for the assassinations to begin. Everything I had heard up to the point of playing Assassin’s Creed II got me excited that Ubisoft Montreal had fixed the problems from the first game.
I’m happy to say that my thoughts are correct. Arguably the mini-games could be seen as repetitive, but they are no longer mandatory in order to build up to an assassination. Instead, the assassinations are integrated into the game as you go along the actual memory missions in the DNA sequence. That pretty much eliminated my two problems with the original game and Assassin’s Creed II is longer than the first game a grand experience to enjoy. Of course it will be hard for someone to come into this game from scratch because although there are hints at what happened in the first game, they really don’t spell it out for you. It would be smart to seek out a synopsis of Assassin’s Creed if you’re interested in the backstory.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/ac2/shot1.jpg
The game starts off in Italy circa 1476, although the initial Animus connection is when Ezio Auditore, the main character, is born. Yes, you get to move his appendages right after he is born and honestly it is a bit freaky. When we next meet him he and his brother are jumping around Firenzi - or Florence, Italy - chasing each other. Ezio’s next business of the day is to bed a local lady. Yes, he is a ladies man and quite charismatic. He starts off running errands for his father that will get you used to or re-used to the gameplay mechanics of the series. For the most part, the controls are the same as the last game. Ezio has more tricks than Altair did since he is able to purchase new weapons and armor (and easily change them via the Right button) and his friendship with Leonardo da Vinci gives him a bunch of new accessories throughout the game as Leonardo deciphers the codex pages and creates weapons from them. The game takes place in several Italian cities and it is obvious the development crew has done a good job with the local landmarks of the time period. The documents you can look through via the Back button when a small window shows up or in the Start menu gives you the history on many of the landmarks and characters you meet in the game. It’s totally up to you whether you want to read all this stuff or not, but much of it is quite interesting to read through. I’m not up on my Italian trivia, but the way the documents read many of these characters are real life ones.
It’s hard to do a review on a game like this because you really can’t get into the story because it is full of so many spoilers. I feel safe in saying since it happens so early that Ezio’s brothers and father are publicly executed by the Templars after Ezio gives information to a supposed trusted ally of his father. After this Ezio starts to find out that his father was part of the lineage of assassins that includes Altair from the first game. He finds his father’s white assassin robes and starts on his quest to take down the people responsible for the deaths and obviously a larger conspiracy is afoot. Of course the conspiracy goes far deeper than just the group in Florence and it spiders out to other areas in Italy.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/ac2/shot2.jpg
The game is much more open than the original and you can take as much time as you want with it. You can blow through only the story missions, never touching any of the side missions if you want. I believe the Codex missions are needed though since they play an important role later in the game. I have no clue how long it will take you to beat the game doing just the basic things because I undertook side stuff. I was pretty compulsive about hitting all the Viewpoints in the first game and I did that here as well, although it didn’t garner any achievement points (d’oh!). I would in fact hit the Viewpoints before hitting story missions just to unlock more of the map of the area.
I also made it a point to hit any Codex mission whenever one became available. I didn’t do all the side missions. I wasn’t too excited by the races, the beat ‘em ups, the assassination contracts (tried a few) or keeping my notorious level down by tearing down posters in the area, bribing people or killing officials. There are other side missions that I won’t discuss here since it moves into spoiler territory, but let’s just say that the story is well laid out and is even deeper than what was presented in the original.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/ac2/shot3.jpg
Desmond is of course back after the events from the last game. In fact, you start the game as him escaping from Abstergo with Lucy and going to another building with a new Animus in it. After the initial time with Desmond, it’s a good while before you come back to him. It was almost 10 game hours before I took control of him again, a stark departure from the first game where you were constantly going to Desmond after an assassination for him to go to his bedroom and elsewhere at Abstergo to get information. Here since the assassinations are woven into the overall game I was very surprised how long it took to jump back to 2012. Also interesting is as Ezio’s story is being told years pass by. The game starts in 1476 and ends in 1499, or at least that is the last date given as the Animus builds the cities from memory. That’s 23 years of memories that you play through.
Also of note is that Ezio takes his surviving sister and mother to his uncle’s area of the country where he owns a villa. At the very top of this villa is Ezio’s room where you can see portraits of all his major assassinations and the year or years they happened. Along with this the villa is also home to Ezio’s side business. I forgot to say that this game has money in it, although it should have been obvious when I said you could buy weapons and armor. You receive money every time you complete missions or find the plethora of loot chests all around the game area. With this money you can purchase the weapon and armor upgrades, as well as art for the villa. Inside the villa you can also pay to upgrade the buildings in the area, including a brothel, get discounts at the stores in the area and get a larger amount of money as you upgrade the villa area. You get paid every 20 minutes in game time, but you have to go back to the villa to take the money from the chest. This means you will be making several trips there, but it also holds all your weapons and armor that you have since upgraded (you can go up and switch to a different weapon if you want), any art that you purchase and a wall full of all the codex pieces you’ve picked up and had decrypted by Leonardo.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/ac2/shot4.jpg
There are always problems even with the greatest games, the only ones here that I see are the continued loose controls that create frustration early on and in a specific mini-game option that I can’t spoil here, but it has a lot of jumps involved. The other problem I had was that the glyphs on some of the landmarks are often hard to find. You will see a red eye in the window where you can hit the Back button for info. Once you find the glyph you then have a puzzle to solve that will open up an interesting extra in the game. Finding these glyphs are important to the overall story because it opens up an interesting section of the document section called “The Truth” that are clues left by Subject 16 along with audio recordings he took while in the Abstego program. Subject 16 is the person before Desmond who undertook the Animus and left the information with his own blood on the wall in Abstego at the end of the original game when Desmond realized he could use the Eagle vision through his time as Altair.
I’ve gone all this way and not said one word about graphics or sound. The music and voiceovers are really well done. Nolan North and Kristen Bell are back as Desmond and Lucy. Kristen even in the first scene says more than she did in the first game. The music is nuanced and well done. There are some excellent tracks present. With the graphics I am seeing a lot of people moaning about them. I think the graphics are a step up when compared to the first game. Yes, there are jaggies present and there is some draw in, but you have to remember there is a lot more polygons being pushed in this game because the cities are bigger and more busy in both civilian and building areas than the first game had. The Italian landscape is very beautiful, including the water that Ezio can swim in. As a funny side note, enemies once you knock them into the water are dead no matter how much health they had left. Was that homage to the fact that Altair could not swim in the last game? I think maybe it was.
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/features/ac2/shot5.jpg
Even though I didn’t talk much about the story, Ubisoft Montreal has fixed enough in this game for me to give Assasssin’s Creed II our highest score and the esteemed Editor’s Choice Award. It truly is a fantastic experience and sits right up there with Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Batman: Arkham Asylum in my mind (haven’t played Dragon Age as of yet. It is going to be awfully hard to choose one of these as Game of the Year and really 2009 has turned out to be an excellent year in top notch gaming.
This game is certainly the longest of the three I talk about as it took me a little over 18 game hours to beat, but I’d say I played over 24 hours total as I don’t think the game time takes into account the cutscene time because they can’t be skipped. Also, Assassin’s Creed II is probably the most story rich of them and has as crazy of an ending as the original did. There is no doubt there will be a third game in the series and I can’t wait! Even if you didn’t like the first game because of the repetition, I feel enough has been done to fix these problems. There are still problems, but every game has them no matter how great it is. I highly recommend this game and am honestly surprised with how fantastic this game turned out to be. They could have rehashed the original game and not added any extra stuff like buying weapons, armor, art, etc.. However, more story and more options simply make this one of the best games of the year. Enjoy!
Score: 5 out of 5 CoGs
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/CoG5.png
http://www.colonyofgamers.com/images/editorschoice.jpg
Loren says, ”Assassin’s Creed II is a must buy for those that liked the original game no matter its problems. For those new to the series I would recommend reading a synopsis on the first game before getting into this one. Even those that disliked certain things about the original game should find enough fixes here to enjoy their time. The game flows better and allows you to do what you want when you want to.”
*Note - Review based upon the Xbox 360 version of the game