Assassin’s Creed II Review

Despite all the negativity surrounding the first Assassin’s Creed, we were still very impressed with what the game had to offer. The interesting story and magnificent visuals surely were an important factor. But the repetitive nature of the game limited how far it could and should have gone. Even though the game ended up selling very well, gamers still expected and wanted more than doing the exact same three missions over and over again. The developers listened carefully and highlighted the shortcomings in the first game and worked on them. AC 2 comes with a load of improvements while building up on all what was good in AC.

To complete a sequence in AC you had to gather info, climb a few buildings before assassinating the target.  In AC2 it’s a completely different case. Now you will get to meet new people and talk to them, look around the more lively cities and collect items and money. The majority of the missions are still rather simple, but that doesn’t mean they are not fun. Playing the game for a few hours straight you will feel like you are watching a very good movie. That comment right there shows you exactly how good the presentation is in this game.

The story is also very interesting. It continues after the events in the first game and builds up with style. Factored in this time is some drama and comedy. The drama comes from the death of some key characters and seeking revenge. Comedy comes in a numbers of ways in a different number of situations (With Mario making has AC debut). We were expecting the story to drop off a bit after an impressive start, but the game managed to keep coming back with more drama for us to follow and look forward to. Every time you visit a new area or meet a character a little icon will appear indicating that new info was recorded. That info will give you an idea about the historic importance of that area and character. So reading them is certainly not a waste of time.

AC was based in the Middle East, something we rather enjoyed. This time however all the action is happening in Italy as Desmond tries to go back and find out what exactly happened in the past. The cities picked to represent the game are perfectly created. Each city has its own set of places to visit and climb. Each city also has shops for you to check out. The shops sell everything from weapons to cloth and decorations for your castle. That is right; there is a business side of AC now. You gain money from completing missions, treasures scattered around the game or even by stealing that money from poor citizens.

The weapons you can buy are very diverse and each comes with its own set of animations. We actually ended up buying all of them just to see the awesome animations each one of them offers. The money you collect will even help you complete missions faster. You can hire people to help you sneak by guards or even hire a few men to fight on your side for a while. Another way to make money is investing. We actually felt here that developers are taking it a bit too far. But you actually can buy and improve certain buildings in your city to attract more people to the city and there for increase your daily income. Not a totally bad idea, but we would rather worry about killing people with style instead.

Most of the time you will have to move around the city while under cover. You either have to climb buildings or walk with people to distract the guards. The fighting and its animations are so good in this game though, that most of the time we actually went for the fights. The combat and its controls will improve as you progress through the story. The tutorial levels most games force you to play at the beginning are scattered around AC2. The simpler moves like throwing knives for example will be learned in the first few levels. Other more complicated moves will be introduced as you need them during the course of the game. That is a very good idea for one reason. You will actually remember and use each move before moving on to the next one.