Assassin's Creed II Review
First let me say I love this game. I recommend it to anyone who likes period piece action games, with a bit of puzzle solving. And the game is VAST. Well worth the money.
That said there are a few minor issues I had with the game that if remedied, would have made it the perfect game for me.
1) I had just played the first Assassins Creed, and found it lacking. It was repetetive and frankly boring. Although I liked the graphics in the first game more. They just seemed less cartoony, a bit more dirty and realistic. My complaint pertaining to the switch from the first game to the second, however.....KEEP THE CONTROLS THE WAY THEY WERE!!! I spend the ENTIRE course of playing the second game trying to exit the map the way I did the first game. Changing the controls were pointless. Its a minor quibble, but annoying.
2) Get rid of the feathers. People complained about the flags in the first game and rightly so, as collecting them gave you.....NOTHING. And although theres a reward for collecting feathers (spoiler!) in this game, its a weapon I never used during the course of storyline gameplay, and then a cape that is useless as, from what I understand, doesnt protect you at all. Also, the map has the locations of the treasures. Why not the feathers?
3) When Ezio becomes flirtatious with the interactive female characters during the story, I think to myself....here we go...a love interest. This is an adult game, nothing wrong with that.....it doesnt have to be God Of War graphic, but SOMETHING would add a dimension to the game. Except NOTHING ever happens. I counted no less than four major female characters in the game I assumed soemthing was going to happen with, and it never does. Not only does it NOT, but a few of them play a large role, flirt with him, and then DISAPPEAR.
4) The money situation in the game is awkward. You have little to nothing at the beginning, waste your time searching for treasure so you have enough for armor and weaponry, then when you get it all.....you become overly flush with nothing to do with it. I have over 300000 francs at the end of the game. Pointless. Time the monetary returns to coincide with the game more.
5) Some of the gameplay aspect flutters out at the second half of the game. At the beginning im climbing MASSIVE church towers for viewpoints, and at the end its a generic barn or small building. Seems lazy.
6) At one point in the game you are taught (by on of the females who flirt-disappears) how to leap up while climbing. Very useful. Except when you are trying to climb a building in a hurry. Suddenly what you had done before so quickly becomes an exercise in patience as you clumsily climb up the side of a building.....not to mention that the button to leap is the same one as the button to drop. Very awkward.
And lastly, the online downloadable content. Lazy. Filled with bugs. Out of context, unimportant. Not worth the money. There were entire conversations with no audio (thank god for subtitles).
With all that it may seem that I hate this game, which is untrue. Just wanted to vent a bit, since it was so close to a great game for me. And since (spoiler) at the end of the game they make it clear theres another one coming.....hopefully someones listening up there.
Assassin's Creed II Feature
- Explore the deadly, shadowed world of the assassin with new assassin Ezio
- Roam freely through the lush and dangerous world of Renaissance-era Italy
- Do whatever it takes to complete your missions in the game's all-new open world and mission structure
- Thrive in an environment rich with power, revenge and conspiracy
- Practice your assassin's art with all-new weapons and instruments created by Leonardo da Vinci
Assassin's Creed II Overview
The world of the assassin is one cloaked in shadow and steeped in danger. Ensnared in a web of revenge and conspiracy, the assassin embraces power at its most elemental, acting as the dividing line between life and death. As an assassin confronted by perilous new challenges and difficult choices, what path will you choose?
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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Aug 21, 2010 14:00:03
Assassin's Creed II: Welcome To The Animus 2.0 - Brandon King -
Let me start off my saying this is the way to do a sequel. A perfect sequel at that. Everyone take note, if you ever do a sequel, that it from Bungie, they know how to do it.
Assassin's Creed is back and it's better than ever. They've got some familar faces and some new ones, and a new assassin? Will he be able to live up to the previous assassin Altiar? Will he crash and burn or will he shed a new light and become your new favorite Assassin? My money is on door number two.
Story 10/10 - Desmond is back and the game picks up right where the first one left off. Desmond is in his room when Lucy tells him to come with her. Back into the animus to retrive a file containing a new past life of Desmonds. Breaking out of Abstergo Desmond agrees to fight along side with the Assassin's and stop the Templars. The file Lucy had contained another past life of Desmond. Ezio Auditore da Firenze. They plan to use something called the "Bleeding Effect" which will allow Desmond learn what Ezio learned over the years in a few days. You play as Ezio Auditore in late fifteenth-century Italy in his adventure to avendge his family and find out why they were murdered. Along the way you meet some new faces and get deeper into the story of Assassin's Creed.
Gameplay 10/10 - Hated repeating yourself over and over in AC1? Wished you could climb a building faster? What about any bugs you thought the first one had, afraid they'll appear again? Well fear not. Everything that could have been wrong with the first one is gone. I found no problems or flaws with ACII. The free running was smoother, missions better, weapons more dangerious, and everything just completely better. Bungie out did itself here and I was very impressed. Great work guys.
Graphics 10/10 - Love the graphics of the first game? Well they are back and I must say even better. Everything is once again beautiful and you are just in aww of the scenery around.
Overall 10/10 - Assassin's Creed II is one game to buy. It brings all the good of AC1 back and more. Become the ultimate Assassin and stop the Templars from taking over. This game also inclused DLC that can be found in the XBL Game Add-ons and the PSN. Jump into the world of Assassin's Creed, you won't regret it.
If you haven't played the first game it is recommended that you do to get the full feel of the story. You may be lost by jumping into ACII.
Look for the third installment of the series Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood in stores November 2010.
Great Game, Slightly Glitchy - Mike -
I just completed the game and both additional memories 100% and I must say that it was a very impressive game.
Pros:
*Extremely open environment
-you are free to explore the four cities at your own pace, you aren't particularly pushed to do anything
*Excellent Graphics
-some of the best visuals I have seen on any recent game
*Simple Controls
-easy to figure out, nothing complicated
*Great save system
-you do nothing to save manually, if you collect a new item, open a chest, or complete a mission, it saves automatically.
Cons:
*Somewhat glitchy
-There were a few points where I didn't make a jump that I really should have, and I actually fell into couple of buildings and got stuck, although it was easily fixed by reloading the game
*Boring combat
-After a while it gets old, you can only see your character stab someone in the throat so many times before it beomes monotonous
Overall:
I would highly recommend this game to anyone.
Very amusing, while it lasts. - Lirisimah Sorrim - California, USA
Originally, I had played Assassin's Creed 2 at a friend's house while I was hanging out with them. Which got me hooked on this game. I genuinely loved the free-running aspect of the game, regardless of everything else it really made a big impact on my experience.
Outside of that, however, the graphics and storyline were marvelously done and didn't leave too much room for improvement (unless you're looking for the whole good vs. evil character choice games, in which case I'd go for a different game. You stick with one storyline, no twists or turns.)
The range of weapons and methods to incapacitate and/or dispose of enemies was very amusing by itself when I didn't feel like progressing through the storyline, and exploring dungeons in the game was very entertaining as well.
There are a few small points that bummed me out:
- Gender cannot be changed at game-start. (It makes sense in the storyline, but it's still a thing for some people if they can't do it.)
- Combat gets rather unrealistic when you have a large group of enemies you're fighting. You can basically hold your block button as long as you want and then slowly whittle down the enemies by performing counterattacks when they attack you. I didn't find it too big of a pain though, I still enjoyed the game. I'd find more creative ways to take care of my enemies.
- Storyline was one-direction only. You couldn't take different turns in a storyline to spice up what happens. It makes sense when you pay attention to the beginning aspects of the storyline, but it's still upsetting for some people.
Anyway, that's what I have to say. I probably missed a few of the smaller things in the game, but if I did they obviously weren't too important for me.
All in all, a 4/5.
Assassin's Creed II Specifications
The world of the assassin is one cloaked in shadow and steeped in danger. Ensnared in a web of revenge and conspiracy, the assassin embraces power at its most elemental, acting as the dividing line between life and death. As an assassin confronted by perilous new challenges and difficult choices, what path will you choose?
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