Assassin's Creed 2 is the sequel to the beautiful but deeply flawed Assassin's Creed. You reprise the role of Desmond in the present day parts but Altair and the third crusade has been ditched for a new character and setting. You play as Ezio during the peak of the renaissance in Italy. This game needed to take the solid concepts and good parts of Assassin's Creed but address the issues of repetitive side missions, limited assassination methods for main targets and the inability to swim, and damn it fixes them all. The story line in AC2 is far superior to Assassin's Creed. Instead of a simple quest from your order, this time you are on a vendetta to avenge your families deaths. However, what really pushes the story of AC2 is the strong characterisation and setting which works really well for the story. Ubisoft link historical events directly to their fiction in the game, adding a layer of plausibility to the game and use real historical figures like Rodrigo Borgia, Leonardo Da Vinci and Lorenzo De Medici. Ezio is a great character, and greatly changes during the timeline of the game. His interactions with friends and family seem realistic and are emotive. The level of writing and characterisation for Ezio are way ahead of what Altair had in AC1, and the mix of the series mythology into this makes the story all the stronger. The game spans some years courtesy of the animus as a story device, allowing the player to see the changes wrought in the world and story. Even the modern setting for Desmond's story has been improved with better characters and weaving his tale into Ezio's story. Its a truly involving tale that is greatly rewarding to play through.
Graphically Assassin's Creed 2 is beautiful. The level of detail in the environments is stunning, especially considering the size and scope of the cities you travel to in the game. There is a beautifully rendered and historically accurate Venice, Florence and Forli. The characters themselves are highly detailed, from clothing and weapons to facial features all look great. You can see the ornation in blades and armour on characters. The animations for character movement is also fantastic, as they move realistically and as if they have a weight. As you scale buildings with Ezio his animations always look great and plausible, a truly impressive achievement.
The sound enhances the game experience. Period music is used throughout, creating a fantastic musical ambiance for the cities as you travel through them. The score is perfect for the emotional story scenes and really adds to the emotion and character driven stories impact. The character voicing is also in the driving seat here. Assassin's Creed 1 was blemished by constant North American accents on middle eastern characters, but not so in this game. Italian voice work for Ezio's parts really do improve the immersion of the game, and you can even play the game in Italian if you choose.
The solid gameplay of AC1 has been preserved here, but the repetitive side missions have been dumped and replaced with creative and fun side missions. The structure of the main quest missions has been massively improved and varied. Instead of the boring system of doing 3 repetitive side missions and then a linear assassination that dominated AC1, this time you effectively have a different assassination method for each major target. In a particularly memorable mission you use Da Vinci's flying machine to infiltrate a palace and to reach your target. Its a much more exciting and fun main quest and allows AC2 to reach its potential. No longer are you limited to swords and knives; Assassin’s Creed II presents you with a variety of ways to kill enemies, even if some of them aren’t very useful (pistols, poison daggers, etc.). In addition, battles now have much more strategy to them than before; enemy health is now displayed upon lock-on, and while fights can quickly decline into violent button mashing affairs, there is a myriad of moves, each with their own specific purpose and strategy.
AC2 is more prone to bugs and glitches than its predecessor. AI anomalies and graphical flaws occur here, though very rarely. Its just noticible as they were absent from AC1. The free flow structure of the game and the ability to determine your own methods of carrying out your missions is a well worthy trade off for a few small glitches. The removal of annoying beggars and the addition of the ability to swim is a GODSEND for this game, and you can even use rivers as a means of escape from guards in pursuit of you. The presentation is perfect here, and the Prince of Persia-esque tombs that unlock better armor and weapons are a nice addition to the game and allow Ubisoft to further increase the mythos of the series.
Assassin's Creed 2 is a fantastic free roaming adventure with a great story line and improved game structure. The game is long, taking me around 16 hours to complete first time through. The game has successfully taken the good parts of its predecessor but fixed all the problems and improved nearly everything. The missions are exciting and varied, and the characters are interesting and the script brilliantly written. The combat has been improved by the addition of new weapons and strategies, and the cities are magnificent. An odd ending which may or may not satisfy you and a few glitches and odd AI behaviour are the only real negative points of this amazing game. Assassins Creed had achieved its potential in this game.
Pros:
- Involving story and excellent script
- Immersive atmosphere
- Historically accurate cities
- Beautiful musical score
- Graphics are stunning
- Every building is climbable
- Mission structure has been varied and hugely improved
- Deep mythos which smartly interacts with real historical events
Cons:
- Ending may not sit well with everyone
- Some odd AI behaviour and glitches
- Controls can sometimes cause problems
Wtf:
- One hand blade wasn't enough for Ezio
Score:
- 9/10