Now that releases for the Assassin's Creed series have seemingly become a yearly thing by Ubisoft, I felt the need to jump in the series now before I get too far behind. Friends told me it was acceptable to watch cut-scenes and read up on the plot from the first Assassin's Creed and jump right into the second one which they all agreed was much better. I did just that.
Anytime I play a game that was extremely popular years ago, I feel the need to post the Robin Williams meme to mock myself.
I know, I'm really far behind but I'm behind not because I don't play games enough but because I play too many other games to stay current. At any rate, here's my take on how Assassin's Creed II stood the test of time.
ACII was released in 2009, a little less than four years ago. In that time, Ubisoft has either released or at least announced the release of four other sequels for consoles, not counting the handheld releases. Ubisoft has had plenty of chances to improve graphics, gameplay, and plot holes in that amount of time but they didn't have to improve on much if you ask me.
After breezing through Batman: Arkham City and Dead Space 2 recently, the first hour or so of ACII felt drab and boring. The story was mildly fascinating, as Desmond is being chased by Abstergo in the modern day timeline. He and his cohorts reach a hideout that contains an even better animus to access the memories of his ancestors. Inside the animus and within ancient Europe, the tutorial portion of the game is adequate but after the never-ceasing intensity of the previous two titles I played, slowing myself down to be a calculated assassin took some work. It doesn't take too long, however, for the game to pick up steam and suck you right in.
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| wired.com |
Graphics
For a four year old title, ACII's graphical presentation holds up well. Though while the atmosphere still "pops" visually, much of the character's movements are repeated animations so after 30 or more minutes of gameplay, you've seen pretty much everything the game has to offer graphically. Many of the townspeople and non-unique structures in the game will repeat over and over again but its all in an effort to create an effect of sprawling ancient cities and it does well enough at that.
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| world4free.us |
Gameplay
If you're not at all familiar with the AC series, essentially there's a machine called an "animus" that can use your genetic code to access the memories of your ancestors. In your case, your ancestors were assassins and your memories are valuable. While the story of Desmond, the modern day character, has it's own riveting plot line that the series is centered around, 95% of your time is spent in 15th century Italy reliving memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze.
The essence of 15th century Italy is well captured with nice recreations of notable structures and associated histories for those yearning to be educated as they play. I enjoyed this about the game more so than I would guess many other players as it just so happens I recently bought Dan Brown's newest novel, Inferno which I read aside from playing the game. Many of the same landmarks are mentioned and it was nice to read a section of the novel that coincided with a place in the game. I could actually visit these places with Ezio and compare them to how Dan Brown describes them. I didn't plan for the overlap but the coincidence was very complimentary to my experience.
The game covers seven locations, five of them are reconstructed Italian cities: Venice, Florence, Forli, San Gimignano, and Tuscany. While I'm not sure how accurate these locations are recreated, the maps are indeed vast. Vast enough, at least, that memorizing locations in each city is no easy task. While many areas of each unique city will look similar to other areas, you never feel like you've been to the same locations twice if you're just strolling about.
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| eurogamer.net |
Controls
The controls may be the weakest point of ACII. Much of the game requires you to run and leap about to escape guards or chase enemies. Sometimes what you want to do and what your character actually does differ, especially in tense situations. One of the more frustrating moments I had was during a foot race which is a side mission you can do for extra money. You have to sprint around and leap between buildings to reach checkpoints all in an effort to beat the course time. The later races are more difficult and one wrong turn, misguided leap, or fall can cost you valuable seconds and require you to restart the mission. Too many times I wanted to not hang on a ledge that I hung on, I wanted to go straight instead of off to the right, or I wanted to jump instead of, well, not jumping. While much of the character's movement feels fluid and natural, sometimes an awkward camera angle or mistimed action can disrupt the flow.
The combat in the game is the other major flaw. If this game had the battle system that Rocksteady's Batman games implore, AC would be a hard game to top. The best combos or fighting strategies in the game require the enemy to attack first. The counters to those attacks are ultimately what kills the enemies and keeps you alive. You can taunt enemies to force them to "bring it on" but it feels broken. When surrounded by six enemies and you must wait for each one to come at you so you can kill them diminishes the flow of a game that's otherwise smooth. And it makes it appear as though your enemies are choosing to die by your hand one at a time, a concept that seems unlikely.
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| ve3d.ign.com |
All in all
All in all I loved the game and was impressed with how much I liked it for an older game chocked with repetitive missions and "collect them all" type reward systems. The strong story and fulfillment of completing a kill the exact way you planned it is addictive. This game is FREE right now with an XBOX Live Gold membership, so if you've not played through it, now is your chance. I'll be jumping into AC Brotherhood soon after I crank on a few other things in the backlog.
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