Assassins Creed II (PS3, Xbox360)

The first Assassins Creed promised a historically accurate sandbox game experience complete with countless side missions and stealth assassin action. What we got was a graphically gorgeously recreation of ancient middle eastern cities and roughly 3 different types of repetitive side missions which recycled themselves till the end of the game or until you bashed your head against the wall, whichever came first.  To say it was a bit of a dissappointment was an understatement. This wasn’t even the beginning of the letdown. The game also took place in the future (yes the future) where you are the descendant of Altair, the main assassin protagonist, and you experience his life via the animus (think those chairs in the matrix that plug into the back of your head). This “twist” wasn’t exactly horrible, but it would have been better served if it was revealed near the middle or end of the game.  It didn’t help that the future portions were boring and a bit clunky to get through.  Fast forward to our present time and the release of the game’s sequel. Does it live up to the huge potential of the first game? Read on…

STORY (9/10)

The story for this game is excellent.  You are still in control of  Desmond Miles, the descendant from the first game, only now you are taking control of a different one of your ancestors, the awesome Banderas-esque Ezio Auditore. The story takes place in Renaissance Italy, which makes for a surprisingly interesting backdrop.  You assume the role of Ezio from birth and then again as a teenager all the way up until he is a man. Right off the bat, the game immerses you so much more than the first one ever did. By assuming control of Ezio as a person, before he becomes an assassin, you really get to learn about him and ultimately you care about what happens to the character and his development.  Without giving away too much of the story, Ezio’s family is wrongfully accused of a crime and then publicly executed. Ezio vows to gain revenge and along the way discovers his assassin heritage and assumes his role in the lineage of assassins.

The future sequences are still the weakest link of the game. Every time you have to play them you’ll be hoping that you can go back to Ezio as soon as possible.  Even the graphics look a bit shoddy in these portions. compared to the Italy segments. It doesn’t help things that Desmond looks like a special ed version of Shia LeBouf, as if the real Shia wasn’t special enough already. Regardless, the plot is great with twist and turns abound and the ending is definitely a shocker that will have you yearning for the next installment.

GRAPHICS (10/10)

The graphics in this game are beautiful. This is probably the best looking game, other than Uncharted 2 (it even gives that game a run for its money), that I have seen on a console.  If you’ve ever wanted to see renaissance Italy, this game will give you a good idea of how things looked. The cities are that detailed.  The first game had incredible graphics also, but this game just puts those to shame.The player models are all very well rendered and the cities all look authentic. I didn’t experience any screen tearing or slow down at all, which says a lot since many times the screen will be filled with a mob of enemies for you to fight.  The graphics are definitely impressive and you can tell that developer Ubisoft put a lot of work into recreating the environments to look as accurate as possible.  the only negative is that the graphics on the future portions do not look anywhere near as detailed as the Italy segments. Still, the Italy segments look so good that I can’t help but ignore the future parts.

GAMEPLAY (9/10)

It seems as if they took all of the complaints of the first game and fixed them for the second. Now the side missions aren’t limited to those in the first game. There is a healthy variety of side quests to keep you busy for some time without getting repetitive. You are no longer required to complete X number of side missions before proceeding with the story missions. Now you can get straight to killing instead of having to do boring and repetitive side quests. The game is long enough just doing the story missions, clocking in at roughly 18 hours of gameplay. 

One of the best new additions are the new instant travel booths. If you need to travel to another city, simply go to one of these booths and for a small sum of money, you can be instantly warped to the location of your choice.   This is a great feature which not only cuts down on travel time, but helps keep the pace of the game moving along.  Nobody wants to waste time riding across the countryside on a horse when there is the option to teleport there.

Controlling Ezio is greatly improved from the last game’s character, Altair. Ezio runs noticeably faster and his free running abilities are much quicker as well.  He scales buildings faster, which helps keep the pace up as you navigate through the game’s cities. There are also more weapons and the combat system seems to be greatly improved.  Ezio now sports two hidden blades, one in each hand, which work great for assassinating two guards simultaneously. My other favorite new weapon is the poison dagger. Stabbing someone with this will cause them to freak out and lash out at anyone around them. 

REPLAYABILITY (8/10)

The game is already fairly long for a single player game. There are tons of extras for you to explore and find. While most people dont play too much single player campaign anymore these days, ACII offfers wnough extra goodies and collectibles to keep you busy for some time. Not to mention that the story missions themselves are exciting. All in all expect to play through the entire thing at least twice. I’ll admit that single player games don’t get too much love from me, but ACII is one of those games that you just have to play.

OVERALL (9/10)

ACII is an excellent game. It seems as if the developers actually listened to the complaints and comments of people who bought the first game and improved upon them in nearly every department. This game is what people were expecting with the first one. Thankfully, Ubisodft learned enough from that experience that they have improved this game exponentially.  This is currently one of the few games that can tear me away from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and that by itself should speak volumes.  If you felt burned by the way the first game turned out, you might want to give this one a try. They managed to keep all of the good elements about the first game, while adding some welcome  improvements.

What is your 2009 Game of the Year?

• Call of Duty : Modern Warfare II (50%, 6 Votes)
• Assassin's Creed II (25%, 3 Votes)
• Uncharted II (17%, 2 Votes)
• Left 4 Dead II (8%, 1 Votes)
• Halo ODST (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 12

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