The first Assassin’s Creed came out of the gate running. It was a stealth game that had intense action. It’s construction and gameplay elements were so revolutionary that it had other developers trying to keep up. For everything Assassin’s Creed did right, it was still a game that had its share of flaws. With Assassin’s Creed II, it is clear that the mentality going into this sequel was, “Lets make the same game but make it better.” And make it better they did. ACII might not be as ground breaking as its predecessor, but it manages to achieve a level of excellence that few other sequels are able to acquire.
The first immediate improvement was the upgrade to the way the story is told. Unlike the first game, which sucked players back out of the action at the end of every sequence, this title focuses on keeping the momentum. From the very beginning of the game, which is the last moment of the first, to the crazy cliffhanger ending moments, the pacing is just rock steady. You are given some story in present time and then aside from a few key points, you are in the Animus playing as Ezio. Instead of running two stories simultaneously, as was more the point in the first title, you are playing Ezio’s with more of a hint at what’s really going on up until the revelations of the ending. And the ending is crazy. Even with the obvious gap for a third installment, ACII still manages to wrap things up in a very satisfying way and leave the audience wanting more, as any good game worth it’s salt should.
The main theme that is apparent when playing through ACII is that it is a sequel that is about more. More places to go, more things to do, more stuff to collect, just more of everything. The developers must have heard the cries from critics and fans about the first title becoming tedious with the same thing being done over and over again from place to place. This time around you will not once feel as though you are doing the same type of thing repeatedly. Any feeling of repetition is immediately expunged with the sheer number of ways that you can go about solving a particular objective. There are hired hands that you can utilize to either fight your battles for you or distract the enemy while you slip past. You can hide in wait and pick them off one by one and no one will be the wiser. The way in which you can assassinate is just infinitely more robust then before giving you a feeling of choice on how you go about it.
Faults in ACII are hard to come by. It is indeed an excellent improvement in the formula originally laid out back in 2007. What problems you might run into are pretty minor, camera not being where you want, landing after a jump not quite where you thought you should be, texture popping, graphic clipping, blatantly lifeless look of the rag doll dead body movement, all things that don’t really detract from the overall experience of the title. Out of those the one that will warrant the most frustration is the controlling of Ezio when he is free running. Even with the improvements to the climbing, and the climbing really is a lot smoother then it was before, you still run into times when Ezio jumps in one direction when you tell him to go in another. This is especially irritating in the Assassin’s Tomb sections. These are sections that take you out of ordinary day-to-day play of the game and focus almost exclusively on platforming. While these sections provide an amazing feel of just how acrobatic Ezio can be, and are extremely satisfying when you can do it right, they can also be the most frustrating parts of the whole game. There really isn’t a way that you can fix a problem like that though. In a game where it is all about movement and speed, you have a hard time figuring out how to let the player control everything while at the same time helping them in the right direction. Luckily these tombs aren’t really all that hard and once you get through them you can get back to business.
With a system that is already established as being ahead of the curve under their belt, the only way to make Assassin’s Creed better was to fix all the little things. In this sequel they have done that and more to give fans exactly what they asked for. With all of the improvements and the additions, Assassin’s Creed II provides a more complete experience that is both immersive and entertaining. The development team will be hard pressed to top what they have done in the next installment of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. This is a title that is highly recommended for anyone who wants a solid single player experience and receives an 8 out of 10 for exceeding excellence in a game.