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Ubisoft Montreal have returned to develop the sequel to 2007’s Assassin’s Creed. The original game got touted for it’s amazing combat and parkour style sandbox environment.

Assassin’s Creed II has promised to pick up where we all left off and also continue Desmond Miles’ Stories (Ancestors and his own). There was a lot of critical comments on the first games repetitiveness, have they fixed the main problems which had people walking away from the original? Or is this just another stab in the back?

Here we go again, Assassin’s Creed 2!

Story – 9
Desmond Miles returns to keep you up to date with what’s been going on in his life, as well as his ancestors’ life’s those years ago. The game kicks off literally as the original ended, yep, that crazy writing which was written on the walls of your room is the your starting point. Lucy Stillman (That hot ‘chick’ that’s been sticking you in the Animus) ends up pulling you out of the cell and the whole building complex itself. She tells you that the templar’s have caught on and that you must leave immediately.

Sadly, if you didn’t play the original everything will be a little ‘up in the air’ and you will most probably not have a clue about what’s going on. Key storyline development has been placed in the original game and even though you get a quick 1 minute montage about Altair’s life, it’s not quite enough to bring new people into the story. You will need to buy the first one and read up on the story line.

As Desmond you will now learn the basic controls which will have you punching a few dudes in the face, yep, as Desmond. You get taken to another ‘stronghold’ location which houses the best type of Animus there is, the ‘Animus 2.0’ – Yeah right.

You won’t be playing as Altair this time round, instead you will be taking control of another ancestor’s memory under the name of ‘Ezio Auditore da Firenze’. Ezio’s life begins in the late 15th century during Italy’s Renaissance, around about 300 years after the end of Altair’s memory.

Born in a QuickTime Event!

Your born (quite literally in a QuickTime event) and from then onwards you play as Etzio as he grows up and learns all his abilities (which intern Desmond learns). Sadly, all goes a little pear-shaped for Etzio at an early age. Your dad and 2 brothers get convicted for a crime that they didn’t commit, the evidence is ‘stolen’ and therefore your a little to late to save it all. This leads on to you finding out that your dad wasn’t an Accountant, he was an Assassin (Lies lies lies! Terrible family).

From here on out you quite obviously take revenge against the killer and everyone who had betrayed your family. It unravels and it’s not quite as simple as first thought. Leonardo da Vinci even makes an appearance!

The story scores highly thanks to the amazing deliverance to the player. Everything is extremely well delivered in all the cut scenes and the voice actors make an amazing job of pursuing there characters role. After playing the game for the first 3 hours you won’t be able to put the thing down thanks to it’s story.

Things to do: Climb tallest tower, then jump off it and then hope someone has put a hay bail in the correct place.

Gameplay – 9
I’m going to begin with just straight out saying, this game isn’t Assassin’s Creed. This game is Assassin’s Creed pumped full of steroids and then help from Ubisoft’s other game series Prince of Persia to stuff more amphetamines through its bloodlines. They really have made a completely different experience in this sequel, an experience which is a 100x better than first time round, plus the story is going to take you around 20-30 hours to fully complete.

Ezio is probably the main reason for the games upgrade. Due to the fact you play him from a teen to his older years you begin to learn new skills and abilities throughout the game. His character is a lot more agile and can scale structures at twice the speed. He also has a new ability to grasp onto climbable objects at the press of a button, so you can make him jump to the full of his capabilities and you manually hit the grasp button at the height of his jump.

Throughout the game you will be visiting locations such as Venice, Florence, Tuscany and many more. You can travel from city to city by paying at a quick travel location or you can get on the back of a horse and ride there yourself. The riding style is a little glitchy like the original game, sometimes you’ll find yourself getting stuck and the horse just not wanting to go anywhere. It’s a nice feeling to be in such an open world but maybe travelling around isn’t one of the game’s strong points. Sadly it can get a little annoying\unbearable at the start of the game.

Annoyingly some of the fast paced free-roaming can hinder Ezio’s normal running abilities. It would seem that just because Etzio is a master of parkour doesn’t mean that he should be showing off his talents all the time, sometimes we want to just run around normally. In some chase sequences you’ll find that Etzio is climbing up buildings and walls without your control, ruining your chances at completing a specific mission. It would seem that maybe he’s too good for his own good? This can be darn right annoying and clipping into a wall might just mean your going to mount it.

One of the most important new gameplay addition is the shops and your all important ‘housing estate’ the villa.

There are 4 shops in the game: An Apothecary (The local doctor, he will supply you with health potions and poison), Art Shops (You can add expensive paintings to your collection at your Villa – this also raises the value of the villa), Weaponry Shops (Large Weapons, Armour, Small Weapons, Throwing Knifes and Smoke Bombs) and the Fabric Shops (You can dye your clothing in your own personal style as well as buy bigger pouches for your health potions, knifes etc.).

Location Location Location

With the welcoming to a bit of trade in the city, It’s time to talk finances (not quite Ocean Finance though, you can’t get a easily durable mortgage sadly). Money is used to quite obviously buy all your weapons and armour, but It’s also used to upkeep your villa.

Putting money into your villa will get you money off all your purchases and increase the overall value of your villa, raising the value makes more people come to shop in your amazing ‘Shopping Mall’ which intern gets you more money.

Sadly you will find by some point you will just have money coming out of your ears and there is no reason to be buying any forms of Art. Well only if your a massive 100% fan.

Nothing to see here people, just dead bodies.

One big seller for the game has to be the Assassination sequences and this time they’re twice the fun! Quite literally, you now wield 2 hidden wrist blades! Magical!

The game now features a fully fledged weapon’s wheel, so you can go through multiple weapons. Your standard massive sword (or how about a: Mace, Hammer or even a Halberd?), a small weapon (Knife, Dagger or my personal favourite the Butchers knife!), Your standard fists (which can now be used to disarm an enemy and use their weapon against them) and then finally some cheeky health potions.

We are happy to inform you that the most amazing counter animations have returned with hundreds more popping up every single time we play the game. Just looks amazing.

Shhh, It’s OK

The weaponry doesn’t stop there though, you gain more weapons throughout the story missions. Poison, Smoke bombs, Throwing Knifes and, later in the game, an actual Firearm! Another additional weapon\tool is the ability to throw your money onto the floor. This is perfect for distraction (No not that Channel 4 program with Jimmy Carr) and helps you create a scene when you need to get past undetected.

Being sneaky and ‘Assassin like’ has been improved with the ability to distract enemies with many different ways. As well as throwing money onto the ground and everyone going mental, you can now hire people to do the job for you. Hiring a group of pretty ladies or thieves is perfect to make some beefcake guards let you pass undetected. Although the game allows you to succeed 100% when you’ve hired a group to distract the enemies, so It’s a little too easy.

Have you seen this man?

Notoriety takes a big effect on how people react to you in the game. In the top left-hand corner of your screen you have a diamond which represent’s your notoriety level. If it’s red, this means that guards will take notice to your rather suspicious building climbing abilities and will end up shouting at you and creating a big scene, sometimes leading to a big fight. If the diamond’s empty it means your incognito and can move around without being seen.

To get rid of your Notoriety you can go about ripping down posters advertising yourself, killing officials or bribe public speakers. One of the oddest things regarding ripping down notoriety posters is their placement. You’ll find these posters at the peak of buildings, in high up, hard to reach places which really are completely out of sight to pedestrians, slightly odd. Bribing public speakers will get rid of all your notoriety but will cost you a mean 500f  which is a little steep. I just prefer to go and kill a public official.

Your time has come

To furthermore improve the gameplay experience, Ubisoft has added one last gameplay style, this one being our favourite of them all! Welcome yourself to Assassin’s Persia 2: The Creed in Time!

There are points in the game where you have to go and do some crypt rummaging (Indiana Jones Style). There are 6 Assassin’s tombs dotted around Italy which have seals within them, collection the seals will unlock Altair’s amour (The best armour in the game). When your in these tombs you will go through certain trials, jumping from ledge to ledge, swinging off poles and completing tasks under a time limit.

It all works really really well and completely changes the way the game plays in these moments, utterly brilliant.

Graphics – 9
Graphically Assassin’s Creed 2 is stunning, some of the vista’s and views you will be seeing are somewhat breathtaking. Even climbing a little too high will give you a little vertigo.

I can see my Villa from here!

Visually everything looks how it should, especially for the era that the game is set in. Looking into architecture of the Renaissance period all of the buildings are near enough immaculate to how history tells us what they should look like. The biggest evidence is the window styles, rooftop balconies and the physical landmarks. Buildings that still stand today in Venice have had their history put into the game. Even Renaissance tourists stare at an amazing looking virtual world, Breath taking.

Our video first look will give the graphics justice, without me blabbing on for 15,000 words. Sadly my words aren’t very good at painting pictures, that’s what video footage is for. Although a crowd full of around 30 people is never wrong, unless it’s to do with a football match.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is a completely different game in comparison with the original title. If you were put off by the original title, we recommend re-visiting the story 2nd time round because this is a title not to be missed. Best regards, Ezio Auditore da Firenze.x

November 27th, 2009 Posted by Thrungus | First Look, Reviews, XG:TV, Xbox 360 Tagged under | Amazing, Assassin's Creed 2, First Look, Game Review, review, Ubisoft, Written Comment on This Post | Comments (0) Discuss this Post | On the XG:Forum

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