The story picks up from the first with Desmond Miles, the kidnapped bartender and future assassin, escaping from Warren Vidic's testing laboratory, Abstergo. From there the story shifts to fourteenth century Italy where a 17 year old Ezio Auditore de Firenze is forced to become an assassin after his father and brothers are murdered. Ezio's journey for revenge takes place across many cities as he attempts to unravel the conspiracy around his family's death. The story takes on a dangle theme with more revelations being revealed just as the player thinks the story is over. Despite this the story is still interesting to follow the protagonist through to the end as he rises from boy to assassin.
Assassins Creed 2 has just one story mode lasting about 15 hours. This changes depending on how long you choose to explore the 5 different sandbox cities in the game. Tasks in these include completing story and side missions which include races, beat up, and assassinations with certain conditions like not being spotted, searching for many optional collectibles including Glyphs, codex pages, and feathers, and using money (Florins) in 4 vendors scattered around the cities, Paintings, healing, weapons armour and fast travel. These all go towards the management feature of the game. Early in the Assassin's Creed 2 Ezio will gain access to Montereggioni, his uncle's own town and villa, here Ezio can use money to renovate buildings and open up new areas. This aims to ''attract'' more citizens to the city, making even more money to spend. It's an interesting system and most players will be fixated on completing it and unlocking the rewards before the end of the game. In each city there is also an Assassin tomb, these contain either platforming or fighting challenges or both. These tombs are quite challenging and provide a tantalizing prize if they are all completed. Though it is baffling why the game always tells you exactly where they are on the map. Assassin's Creed 2 has a solid length with incentive for completion and PS3 trophies, but unless you want to buy the DLC which fills in missing parts of the story, there isn't much to go back to afterwards with no multiplayer offerings.
Assassin's Creed 2's gameplay is mostly similar to the first made up of platforming, combat and puzzle solving but with many additions and tweaks. New ways to assassinate include pulling guards into a haystack or bench, or pulling them off a ledge. Many new tools from Ezio's friend Leonardo da Vinci are also used to assassinate from the poison blade to the surprisingly effective hidden gun, there's much more variety to kill your targets. Variety has been added to the stealth and missions too. Ezio can blend onto a crowd simply by stepping into it or he can hire courtesans or thieves to distract guards. Weapons are divided into four categories, small (Knives and daggers). medium (Swords and maces), long, heavy and ranged (throwing knives and hidden gun) all weapons and medicine for healing are selected with the dpad or by holding R2. Enemies are generally guards divided into five groups (Standard - swords) (Nimble - Move faster) (Brute - hits hard) and (Seeker - uses spear) These enemies all have different tactics for victory. Eagle vision returns with red marking enemies and gold marking targets. Assassinating a key target in the story is still immensely satisfying thanks to the monologues the targets provide to Ezio before dying. The platforming is fast and fluid allowing for daring escapes. Climbing a tower to expand the map and take a leap of faith is just as thrilling as the original Ezio can also swim which is a handy way to escape guards. Ezio will also use horses, canal boats and even a flying machine at one point to travel through areas much faster. These vary the platforming well and keeps it from becoming repetitive The enemy AI is smarter than before thanks to the notoriety meter. It increases if you kill or rob civilians and decreases from bribing heralds, killing corrupt officials or removing wanted posters. Guards will be greatly aware of Ezio if he has a notorious state and will only attack if they see him commit a murder if he has an anonymous state. This improves the enemies slightly although it is odd how they will still stand and watch their comrades get slaughtered with little to no reaction for them. Checkpoints are done quite well. As long as Ezio's equipment is up to scratch most will be able to beat most missions on the first try however having to stay hidden causes some frustration especially when assassinating a target. Aside from this the game is relatively simple to play and enjoy.
Assassins's Creed 2 presents a stunning, beautiful view of Italy from the thatched roofs in Florence to the breathtaking views in Venice everything feels completely authentic to both the time period and location. There's even a small encyclopedia to read if you're so inclined. Characters animate well especially Ezio who uses many moves in both his climbing and combat. On the other hand textures in cut-scenes showing touch or movement can look unrealistic. Voices for the characters are consistent throughout and facial animations are very clear and precise showing all feelings of the characters. The game overall looks very beautiful in general.
Assassins Creed 2 improves on the original in almost every way, adding every bit of variety the series needed. It may lack multiplayer and replay value but AC2 is a worthy addition to the third person genre, stepping up to major contenders like Uncharted 2 and InFamous. Any third person action fan should play this. Can Ubisoft top this with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood this year? I'd love to see them try.
Rating: 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.