Assassin's Creed 2 - Reviews

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24.4.2013

One word to describe this game - Brilliant!I am a big fan of the Assassin's Creed games and am 100% pleased with the second instalment in the series. As you most probably are aware, it is a direct sequel to the first game and continues where the first one left off. It continues the story of the war between the Assassins and the Templars who have been fighting a long and secret war for ancient artefacts known as Pieces of Eden. The story still takes place between two time periods which are the present (2012) and a distant period in history through the use of a new version of the Animus, the Animus 2 point oh.This time around the historical period and main Assassin hero/protagonist has changed,and you experience the story of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an Assassin during the 15th century Italian Renaissance. In the current day, the story still continues with Desmond Miles who uses the new Animus 2.0 to relive Ezio's memories.I'm not going to spoil the story too much since it is best discovered by you playing the game. Having played the first game in the series which had the main problem of being unbelievably repetitive, Assassin's Creed II was surprisingly refreshing and much had been improved upon. The game has a lot more variety to it and it doesn't ever feel like you are doing the same tasks over and over again. I found the story to be much stronger this time round, and the player will feel more connections with the protagonist. Everything about the game from its gameplay, settings, as well as beautiful music (composed by Jesper Kyd) just combined for one of the best Assassin's Creed experiences around. The music and settings just complemented the story even further. I cared about what was going on in the story.If you play one Assassin's Creed game then getting used to the gameplay and controls of the others will be easy and of second nature. That doesn't mean that all of them are the same, and therefore nothing new and boring. It just means they play out in the same way but with a lot of subtle differences. In this game the controls feel more fluid and responsive, as well as being given a wider variety of gadgets and weapons to make use of. You are able to purchase weapons, armor, upgrades as well as medicine. Speaking of medicine, the health system in this game has been greatly improved upon as you can increase your health through purchasing better armor and decrypting discovered codex pages.The varieties of this game just go on forever, such as having your own villa which you can purchase paintings for, upgrading and renovating the town of Monterrigioni in order to get more income into the villa's chest. The missions are a less linear since there are a wealth of side missions which are optional if you wish to experience them. You can carry out Assassination Contracts, explore tombs, do courier missions, take part in races and many more fun side missions. In terms of collectibles, this game has 100 feathers which are scattered throughout the locations. Collecting all of them would be tough without a guide, but very rewarding nonetheless.I have been itching to purchase and play Assassin's Creed II for a long time and recently, I finally decided to buy it. I'm so glad to have experienced such a fantastic game as this and will look forward to experiencing all the subsequent games in the series. However, I will have to purchase the Complete Edition or the Game of the Year Edition of this game, because I am reviewing the initial standalone edition of the game which isn't complete with extras like 3 Templar Secret Locations and additional sequences.This game is well worth your time and money since it is fantastic and since it's over three years old at the time of this review, you can probably pick up a new copy for a very cheap price. I got my one for under £10 which to me was jaw dropping. Give it a go, that is after you have played the first game in the series.With the Game of the Year edition, you get all the additional features that an AC fan would definitely want to experience. These features are not in the standard edition of the game and buying this version will give you all of the additional content such as DLCs and Templar secret locations to explore. Since, at the time of this review the game has been out for over three and a half years you can even get the Game of the Year edition with all the additional content sometimes cheaper than the standard game without the extras.The extras include extra sequences that are Sequence 12 (Battle of Forli) and Sequence 13 (Bonfire of the Vanities) which give you a few more hours of plain awesomeness and do chip in to the story gap which you would notice without these sequences since after Sequence 11, it jumps straight to Sequence 14. There are also three Templar Secret Locations to explore which are Arsenal Shipyard, Palazzo Medici, and Santa Maria Dei Frari. I didn't find these locations to be anything spectacular but they give you extra places to explore and to loot more chests to obtain a decent amount of florins.With everything said about the main game, as well as the extra content, you should purchase this version since I made the mistake of buying the standalone game first, and then ended up wasting more money on this version in order to play the additional content.

19.12.2009

As enough reviews have already been written about this game, I decided to simply summarize some personal key observations, having completed this game recently. Please be aware that this overview contains many ** SPOILERS ** - Hence, if you have not played it yet or have not completed the game, you may want to stop reading NOW.PROS:- Fantastic Graphics & Visuals (e.g. beautifully rendered cities, such as Florence, Venice and Rome - sets a new visual standard for a GTA kind-of-game)- Excellent Voice Acting & Body Expressions of characters (e.g. unlike Oblivion IV, the sentences spoken match lip movements; a wealth of voice actors give it a real sense of adventure)- Great detail of incorporating historic figures and their information (e.g.working with Leonardo da Vinci to decipher CODEX pages or have special weapons being build is quite cool)- Assassins Tombs provide different kind of challenges (e.g. the 6 tombs are fun to explore and beautiful to look at - keeps matters fresh while trying to complete the game)CONS:- The 'Glyphs' are not on the map (e.g. there are 20 puzzles to be solved to reveal the so called 'The Truth', a sequence of video's apparently showing Adam & Eve in Eden - To solve a puzzle, you need to find a so called 'Glyph' on a building in a given city, to activate the puzzle - The problem is that these Glyphs (once spotted) are not indicated on your map afterwards, meaning if you do not want to bother finding the 'Glyph' right away (some take quite some time to find), you will have to remember in which part of the city, this building is located, to come back later. If you wait too long and have activated all 'viewpoints' in Venice for instance, this can become quite an ordeal (e.g. having to run through the city, trying to find 1 building amongst thousands.) Also, while it is easier to find these 'Glyphs' in the so called 'eagle vision', the picture becomes so dark, that you frequently fall from buildings or are losing orientation all together, as your compass is not even displayed anymore).- Complex Puzzles towards the end (e.g. based upon the comment about 'The Truth' above, you will find that as you proceed with solving these puzzles, they become more and more complex, using a serious of numbers and later symbols combinations to crack codes. If not numbers, many of the puzzles have a heavy religious, biblical undertone to it - Meaning, unless you read the Bible at least once in your life (or at least parts of it) you will be running into some challenges (e.g. trying to match biblical characters with timelines for instance).- Purpose of 'treasure boats' unclear (e.g. through several cities, you will find boats which have coins which you can collect - However, the boats are not part of the 330 treasures you need to find overall - Hence, you do not know how many there are in the game nor what ought to happen once you found them all - somewhat confusing).- Mega rich and nothing to spend it on (e.g. half way through the game, you can have anywhere between 200,000 - 300,000 cold coins collected, especially if you have fully restored the city of your villa, and get paid % by the shops - The problem is that you will not be able to use this money on anything worthwhile, once you upgraded your armor and weapons to maximum capacity - By the end of the game I had 465,000 coins and could do nothing with it - Hence, finding all these treasures becomes a little of a pointless exercise, really).- Repetitiveness of finding treasures, doing races and finding viewpoints (e.g. I saw some other comments who were also referring to the repetitiveness, that start to creep in after a while - Somehow the game does not manage to keep you engaged in the storyline enough, so that you do not mind, having to do the same things for hours to come - GTA IV somehow did manage to keep things fresh all the time - Am unsure why that is).- Occasional jittery frame rate & jerky controls (e.g. towards the later part of the game, you will be in situations where you find yourself surrounded by 6, 8 or even 10 guards - If you have hired a bunch of thieves, it will even be more - At that point the game is clearly starting to have issues trying to handle as many as 14 fighting man + all the by-standers around it. Furthermore, at times during combat (or when jumping from/to buildings) the controls do get a little iffy and you may find yourself having to do the same jump attempt several times, before you are successful).- Character Shaun Hastings annoys relentlessly (e.g. While 99% of all the voice actors and their dialogue are very well done, Ubisoft decided to throw us a curveball with the character, portraying technical nerd Shaun Hastings, voice acted by British author Danny Wallace - The character focuses predominantly on being ultra sarcastic, painstakingly annoying and anything but helpful or courteous - At some point, Shaun really took the fun out of the cut scenes and I needed to mute my TV - Not sure what Ubisoft was thinking here).FINAL WORD: All in all I hope this summary helped you a little - While quantity wise, the CONS outweigh the PROS, quality wise this game does convince. AC II is a good role-play game, fun to play (at least most of the times) and one of the PS3 highlights of 2009.

14.12.2009

I loved the first instalment and I truly cannot put into words how excited I was for the second instalment, especially when considering the rumours going around that Ubisoft had successfully addressed some of the key flaws in the first. Taking us back to the times of the Third Crusade in the first Assassin's Creed was an inspired choice, yet the newly created free run system and the immense landscapes and detailed ancient cities made for a truly unique gaming experience. The problem with this free running, exploration and high climbing was that it was the same thing over and over again and the repetition of the original game spoiled the overall experience. Also,the lack of any real interesting story telling or mission progression killed the excitement once you became used to the unique surroundings and control system. Assassin's Creed 2 addressed all these issues and presented the best bits of AC1, took away the worst parts and put in something else. This time it isn't just investigate your target and kill when you have eavesdropped, pick pocketed and bullied the info from those you have to get the information from. It is a full blown story worthy of a James Cameron masterpiece.It is the year 2012 shortly after the ending of the original game and Desmond Miles is still the prisoner of Abstergo. After being released by Lucy Miles, the assistant of the professor in the first game, they go to a secret hideout where Desmond will be placed in another animus machine to explore the past life of his Italian descendant, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. This takes Desmond back to 15th century renaissance Italy and introduces you to some key players of that historical era. Going back to Ezio's time is not simply just done as a means of exploring the past and finding out more about the pieces of Eden but it is more about taking advantage of the bleeding effect which is in preparation for the battle that is to come with the Knights Templar. Ezio's story begins as him being the typical pretty boy always getting him into mischief, yet things take a turn for the worst very quickly as his father and two brothers are betrayed and executed by a close friend under a charge of conspiracy. As Ezio looks to seek revenge and find out who was behind this betrayal, he unravels an even bigger conspiracy involving the Knights Templar, The Pieces of Eden and even the Pope.The first Assassin's Creed game was a great one in its own right but the gameplay in itself was massively flawed. Although the exploration element was fun and the combat system unique and interesting, it became boring very quickly indeed. The fact that for every target, before you were given the chance to assassinate them, you had to eavesdrop; pickpocket and bully people into providing information almost drained the game of any fun element and in some senses made it a chore to play. Ubisoft have addressed this by getting rid of it altogether. They have instead replaced it with a more linear storyline and given you additional assassination, beat up and race side missions as an option. Aside from that there are a number of different options that make for a more interesting experience. The introduction of a currency system allows for a more immersive experience in which you can buy and customise your armour and clothing. You can also employ the help of some allies including courtesan's, thieves and an army of fighters to distract the guards from bothering you while you try and eliminate your enemies.This is truly an immense game. The personality of the renaissance time cities such as Florence is truly perfect. The exploration element is also turned up a notch as there is treasure and secret underground lairs to explore and unlock another present from the past. There is also a cool cribs (I know, I couldn't think of anything else to label it as) type element to the game known as the villa. This is a place where you ultimately become the ruler and owner of this small city and it is your duty to improve its stores and other attractions to bring in travellers. As the villa becomes more popular the town literally brightens up and becomes busier as a result of your hard work and dedication to bring in the cash. This also generates a decent little earner for you much like the business element in the Grand Theft Auto series which you would collect the earnings from your business when it reached its maximum amount. The inclusion of Leonardo Da Vinci and the ability to purchase paintings reminds you of the historical element of the game which, much like the first, makes me want to learn a little bit more about the era and I sincerely will be doing so.The historical element, the customisation element, the currency, side missions and the whole game in general is truly a work of art. I would highly recommend it to anyone who was a fan of the original but would especially recommend it for those who haven't even played the original. There's so much more I could have spoken about, but it would be better that I let the reader discover all the brilliance of this game on their own as it would be much more rewarding as a result. Buy this game, I promise you will not be disappointed.

20.11.2009

I received this game at 8am on the Friday day of release and having booked myself a day off of work to play it, played it through until 4pm, played it for another 6 hours on Saturday and during part of Sunday until 2am.Only then did I feel that I had enough knowledge of the game to write a decent review!In total I have spent almost 20 hours playing this game and given that I have done all of the optional side missions as I go along, I am still only 55% of the way through the game and am not bothered that I have only just made it to Venice as everything along the way has been such a pleasure, in so many ways.I was a huge fan of the first Assassins Creed,mostly because it was so different to anything else available particularly the usual 'run round shooting whilst not dying' games, also the graphics and general visuals were such a pleasure to look at that my wife and mother were quite happy to watch me play!This game is an improvement in every area.So many games are released that promise so much, but deliver very little, particularly sequels - i.e. Prince of Persia, the various Fifa 'updates', Operation Flashpoint 2, various James Bond games........I haven't yet played Uncharted 2, and although GTA 4 and Little Big Planet are both up there, but this is - in my opinion - the best game available on any console, by a very long way.As a grown adult (almost) I do have to make a real effort not to go and play it when I have more important things to do.There are a number of small additions and improvements that add a huge amount over the original game - swim, row boats, hire various groups of people, drive the carriage, fly the 'plane'! Play for short periods as Desmond & Altair, not as good as the main part of the game but a worthy addition that makes you want to get back to being Enzio.Pickpockets were an inspired addition and although they don't add to the storyline, they break the game up and leave you a number of choices over whether to let them run away, chase them, kill them or even use them as a distraction for the guards to chase.Adding money to the game is one of the best additions, choose whether to buy paintings - which in turn improves your income, choose whether to spend money on better weapons or save the money for something else and 'borrow' weapons from other people, or spend money on things that add nothing to the gameplay but are just fun, like dyeing your clothes! Buy 'shares' in local businesses which will then give you a discount on purchases, buy medicine, poison.......Choose to play the main storyline straight through or play the side missions, like collecting coded messages and drawings(improving weapon upgrades), help people (I haven't yet), deliver messages (extra clues), also the slightly tedious collecting of flags from the first game has been done away with, in favour of something with relevance to the storyline - and a more satisfying conclusions and rewards, the other 'collections' require use of your eagle vision, all in all it gives you more reason to want to collect things - which I didn't want to complete in the first game. I bought Prince of Persia and wasn't a fan but the addition of similar but optional levels that require accurate, well timed climbing and jumping in hidden areas, do add to the overall game and again, will give a worthwhile reward when completed. Optional puzzles and `jigsaws' all add to the overall package.The gameplay and controls are slightly improved but there wasn't anything really wrong with them in the first place. It seemed a little harder to freerun initially, but now I've played for a while, I realise that it just requires more accuracy on the part of the person playing which can only be a good thing, if it's too hard you don't need to do it.The graphics in general are a slight improvement technically but the better use of colours and more varied landscape make this even more of a visual treat than the first game and the addition of a town with a large free-roaming countryside surrounding it, has found me riding round the tuscan countryside for no good reason on more than one occasion. The initial similarities between buildings and towns in AC and AC2 proved to be unfounded after time and there is a clear difference, type the town names into google and you will see how historically acurate they are.In short, the gameplay is better, the graphics are better, the storyline is better - but not perfect, there is so much more to do, you will want to play this again and again, and this well researched, historically accurate game should be bought by anyone with more than 1 brain cell!One tip - the bigger the TV you can play this on - the better.For my first day of playing I used our new and highly spec'd 40 inch Sony 40W5500, but moving into another room to play on our 2 year old 52 inch (and technically inferior) Sony 52X2000, added to the graphics and visual details in general, if you play on anything less than 40 inch you will be missing a lot of detail, that said it is still worth playing on something smaller if you dont have a choice.

19.6.2010

Assassins creed 2 is of course the sequel to the Altairs adventures in number one. The first game had a lot of critics due to repetitive gameplay, glitches and the cut scenes taking forever, thankfully these problems have been resolved and ubisoft have pushed the boat out to thank all those who have returned , and too get an understanding of the back story and feeling of the game i would recommend the first game, its very cheap and a nice playthrough, but this isnt a review for that so lets go.....===Story===Well carrying on from the last game, in the present you are desmond miles, an ordinary man who has been taken to a research lab and thrown into the animus,a computer which allows him to playthrough his ancestors memories, however the lab is under-attack from the aincent templars and their control of the pieces of eden.In the animus , you are Ezio Auditore from florentina , son of a banker and known for his womanising, drinking and general mischief. Ezio is not an assassin , unlike altair. and learns the ways from codex pages decrypted by leonardo da vinci and his uncle mario. As things occur Ezio becomes more of an assassin and goes on the trail of those who have sinned against him in many different cities in rennaisance italy.===Controls===The control system takes getting used to if you havnt experienced the first game , but soon becomes very intuitive. The action buttons control the body:The triangle button controls your head (Eagle vision, headbutting and talking)The square button controls your weapon hand ( fighting and assassinations)The circle button is your non weapon hand (grabbing people, interacting and pushing through a crowd)The cross button controls the legs (running , jumping)Along with the use of r1 and l1, you can then sprint , counter and much more.===Gameplay===The gameplay is very smooth and fighting mechanics work very well. Ezio moves with ease as you take him running through the streets and jumping from one building to the next. When fighting in big groups you have to really time your actions and you even have the ability to disarm your enemies (which come in all different classes) and use their weapons against others. The assassanations can be done in two ways stealth and planning or killing everyone in your path, i prefer the stealth as it feels rewarding to get in and out without many people noticing.The cut scenes are also not as long as the first game and they seem to serve much more purpose.The repetitiveness is also lowerd as there are many more different missions to such as delivering packages , doing assassinations outside of your story and the noteriety system means you have to work harder to be another face in the crowd. When your level of notoriety rises , guards are more alert to you and so to lower this you should rip down wanted posters , kill high ranked guards or bribe the heralds so they speak about other things.The use of money now means you can buy groups to fight with you , or women to distract guards, it also means you can buy different weapons and armour, or pay off the annoying bards who will follow you singing songs.You can also now blend into any group which is much improved from the first game where you had to wait for monks to walk by.===Graphics===The graphics are very good in this game , the buildings , the cities and the people are all very realistic and it makes it so exciting to be running around in the knowledge that the levels are based on true maps and designs. Add to this the bustling streets and the different areas you just become overwhelmed and i have many a time , taken a break from my killing spree and just wanderd the streets looking at the hard work of the developers. The way shadows and clothes move are amazing and cause the game to be quite intencse, when your hiding and see a brute of guard and his axe shimmering against the wall near you/The cut scenes in this game are actually worse looking than the true game which seems strange , this does take a little away from the experience but as they are not too long it does not ruin it.===Sound===Ahh the sounds of renaissence italy , as you walk the streets you will see how good the sound is , everyone walking past has their own conversations about their lives and own reasons for being in a certain area, again it is sometimes fun just to relax and follow a group seeing what they get up to as they go to church and shop at stalls or go and see the criers.The sounds of weapons clanging against each other is also exciting and fun, the clarity of the words is also great as usually there is alot of action going around, the option of subtitles is there too which comes in handy as their are sections where they talk alot of italian.===Overall===Overall this is a great game and to complete fully will take a long time , especially if you search for the feathers and statues.The game is very good but the small things like the cut scenes and the room for development in the next game (yes this is a trio of games) means there is something to look forward too

8.8.2012

Assassin's Creed IIPlayStation 3Rated 151 PlayerHD 720p, 1080i & 1080pFeatures UplayRequires 2GB minimum of free hard drive space.No network features other than Uplay.Developed and published byUbisoft Entertainment S.A.Story:PRESENT DAY- After the events of Assassin's Creed, Lucy goes back to save Desmond, who is still trapped in his room at Abstergo. Together they flee on foot through a series of corridor's and fight several patrol men. Once they'd escaped, they both end up at a disused warehouse where Desmond meets the rest of the crew; Shaun and Rebecca. Shaun is a Tactical Analyst and an Historic Researcher whilst Rebecca is a Techno-Scientist who predominatly works on the Successor to the previous Animus nicknamed "Baby" AKA Animus 2.0.The team descend to unravel the Templar's plot in obtaining the Apple of Eden by masquerading as an Assassin from the Renaissance Period of the 15-16th centuries.ASSASSIN PAST- Desmond travels into the young mind of Ezio Auditore Da Firenze, a charming and charismatic person who bares witness to the unlawful deaths of his family; namely the male bloodline (Ezios father and 2 brother's) to a series of conspiracies surrounding the Papacy and the Borgia family. Ezio spends the majority of time unravelling the hidden codex pages, seeking revenge on the papacy whilst also maintaining uncle Marios villa.Story Review:To say I'm reveiwing this game after the likes of: Brotherhood, Revelations, ACIII & Black Flag, this game surprisingly still maintains the series ONLY strongest plot. It's also the ONLY game to have both the past and present making sense out of the entire series. The story is easy to follow with it being centered around conspiracies. But above all this; the character is likeable, charming and quirky which are all good qualities to have, especially in a game which is gloomy and depressing as this. So the story is good.Gameplay: EzioThis game also houses the BEST gameplay out of the entire series because it's simple, manageable and most importantly responsive that the latter games in this series just seem to lack. Things like running and jumping is done using a 2 buttoned combination which stops the player from transversing up every wall or person which is seen as an hinderance in the later games. The build or maintanence of the villa is also the right amount compared to the zealous amounts of maintenance you'll come across in doing up Rome for instance. You walk into the villa; go up to a person over-looking a model replica and select different derelict buildings to sprouse up and in time you'll see the Villa transform into an 8th wonder of the world... or should be. The tutorial sections are brief and only give rise to excessiveness if the player chooses to i.e when chosing to take up on Marios offer of training. The combat is sleek without all this pushing and shoving as witnessed way to many times in the later games. Quick execution in combat is one of Assassin's Creed II strongest elements and should've been implemented a lot better with the other Assassin's Creed games. Overall this game is still No1 in the Combat department compared all the other games in this series.Gameplay: StuffHieroglyph's are puzzles which complete various video footage showing what is presumably Adam & Eve running; these puzzles become more difficult and distorted the more you complete them. The different puzzles range from solving picture clues to number codes. In addition to this there is a physical challenge, involving collecting seals for gaining the ultimate custume, which significally increases health when worn. These challenges are somewhat timed before your exit is blocked off; so you'll need to be quick. Codex pages are found in several bank depositories and are mandatory for game completion; however they need decypherning first from Leonardo Da Vinci. Special family requests also need to be completed to gain in-game rewards. This is achieved when collecting Petruccio's feather's and completing the Villa Pre-requesit.Visuals:The visuals lack depth, However I like the different areas which are exporable as it provides a wider scope to what would seem to be a clautrophbic concoxion of enclosed building's.Conclusion:In my eyes, it still retains the title as the ultimate Assassin's Creed game because you don't need to complete subgoals that go toward 100% syncronization. It's gameplay is versatile and doesn't require the player to partake in long journey's across mass oceans or through unexplored tunnels and for that reason, it gains 4 stars

21.6.2010

Although personally I loved the first Assassin's Creed, it did come under some scrutiny, primarily for its slightly linear and repetitive approach, which I could fully understand. However, Ubisoft have clearly noticed this and taken action. AC2 is far deeper, considerably more entertaining and generally a lot more enjoyable to play than its predeccesor. A very impressive sequel, which is far superior to many of it's closest rivals. However, despite it's numerous positive aspects, I was slighty dissapointed at how easy the game was to complete fully. Although this may be seen as a good thing, i.e. no irritating obstacles to overcome, the game never truly becomes challenging. For example,I managed to get the platinum trophy within 21 hours playing time, without having to work too hard, which was a dissapointment considering the game costs £40. A small annoyance, but one worth mentioning.As for the storyline, AC2 follows on directly from the original, with players maintaining the role of Desmond Hume and assuming the new Assassin role of Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Set around 300 years after the events involving Altair in Jerusalem, Ezio is a descendant of the great assassin himself, and seeks to continue the work left unfinished by the hero of the original. The setting is fairly similar to the first game, although is now in numerous parts of Italy, with the busy cities primarily consisting of stone houses, traditional shops and some extremely tall buildings! Guards still litter the streets everywhere you go, which can sometimes be a nuisance, although Ezio's far superior fighting skills and jumping abilities mean that evading capture is never too difficult. The plot is both dramatic and tense, leaving players immersed in the action and always wanting more. Although towards the climax of the game the plot does become rather far-fetched, in general AC2 is well engineered and well thought out, and should be enjoyed by all players.Like the first game, the actual gameplay and controls are easy to understand and highly enjoyable; one of AC2's strongest aspects. Ezio has the ability to run and jump almost anywhere throughout the vast landscape, and scaling 200 ft high buildings before performing a leap of faith from the top never gets tiring. Combat is particularly effective right the way through the game. Your sword skills steadily improve as the plot unfolds, and the ability to buy improved weapons, armour and equipment contribute heavily to the enjoyment. The soldiers you are up against are tough and well equipped, although not particularly bright; it is rare for more than one soldier at a time to attack you for example, meaning that slicing through 10 soldiers with Altair's sword is never too difficult, yet still remains satisfying. Other points of interest include finding other Assassin's graves (usually involing you to solve some form of puzzle; themselves being absoring to complete), the usual bartering for goods, travelling on horseback, gaining money, and my particular favourite: the unusual and disturbing 'glyphs'. These are basically clues left by the infamous 'Subject 16' which Ezio must hack to discover 'the truth'. A very worthwile and interesting sub-plot to the main story.The cut scenes interwine effortlessly with the action, making the game look and sound excellent, as current PS3 games should. The graphics are first class, although do not make as big an impact as the original did, most likely because games such as MGS4 and Uncharted 2 have raised the bar to another level since. I have not discovered any technical glitches thus far, and the gameplay for the most part is smooth and flawless. Overall, AC2 is in most ways a big improvement on the first game. Missions have far more variety, and a interesting, intruiging plot drives the game forward. Should be played by anyone familiar with thrid person action games, and is a blast from start to finish. As stated earlier though, the game does not provide a big enough challenge and is quite simply too easy. Or am I being too padantic?Avanti da qui!

1.12.2009

With a lot of love for the first game most reviews were mixed saying that the missions were to repetitive but I liked the missions and Parkour of the game so for me this was an ideal game for me. After the confusion of the end of the first game this one sets off directly afterwards throwing you straight into battles and getting used to the controls. For the first 30 minutes of the game you will have to follow the story instead of having the will to free roam.The story revolves around the "Animus", a machine which makes it possible for the player to view the genetic memories of protagonist Desmond Miles' ancestors, a long line of assassins.This time you are based in late 15 century Italy during the Renaissance and take control of a young nobleman-turned-assassin named Ezio Auditore da Firenze who after witnessing his family killed goes on a journey to uncover a hidden conspiracy after the murder of his family.The graphics are pretty much the same as the first game with a few jitters in frame rate from time to time.Not much has changed in the way of controls, a few more moves have been added and the free running works well it seems until you are in a rush and little things like jumping away from a wall you are climbing or diving off buildings when you didn't want to can be frustration and time consuming especially when you are against the clock. This however is a small problem and once I learnt to let go of "X" at places I deemed dodgy areas then I found this problem happening less and less.The battle system is mostly the same, you now can take weapons from your enemies and vice versa but for me this makes the combat even easier than before. When I play assassin's creed I like to be unnoticed and do everything by stealth but I found with this game it did not matter if I was spotted because I could take all the guards out without any problem and get away with ease. The problem that they need to sort is the A.I. of the enemies, they will just hang back and let you pick them off one by one and you even have time to taunt and change weapons while they attack you one at a time. What should happen is all the guards attack you at once forcing you to make a getaway.Also added is a meter that will tell you how much guards take notice of you, you can clear this by ripping down wanted posters or bribing a public speaker but they might as well not have this meter as I found I could easily walk around the town with a full meter and no one stop me, the only time I ever had problems was the guards on the roofs.Assassination jobs are easier to pull off then the first game, you also have more of them which is a good thing but I would have liked them to be more of a challenge. What makes it easier is that you can pay prostitutes and thieves to distract guards or pay a group to attack them, giving you all the time in the world to hit your target.Like the first game things to collect are back but instead of flags you have feathers to collect also statues and codex's. There are also Glyphs which will unlock puzzles to complete which extend on the main game. Delivering letters against the clock, beating up cheating husbands and races are also small sub quests but again too easy. You also have stores to fix any broken armor or upgrade, a healer you can buy medicine from but I found this useless to have so much I never even used more than 2 bottles and I had 15. You can buy treasure maps and paintings and also change the color of your clothes.Also swimming has been added which also adds another way of evading the guards as you can duck under the water and somehow they seem to forget you were ever there. Once out of the water your clothes will look wet and you will be dripping for a while which was a nice small touch to the game.In short this is an amazing game improving on the first with more missions and a stronger story but it also has some of the flaws from the first game such as poor A.I. and issues when it comes to precise jumping. I dropped it a star for this but if we could give half stars it would get 4.5

21.2.2013

I am a big fan of the Assassin's Creed games and am 100% pleased with the second instalment in the series. As you most probably are aware, it is a direct sequel to the first game and continues where the first one left off. It continues the story of the war between the Assassins and the Templars who have been fighting a long and secret war for ancient artefacts known as Pieces of Eden. The story still takes place between two time periods which are the present (2012) and a distant period in history through the use of a new version of the Animus, the Animus 2 point oh.This time around the historical period and main Assassin hero/protagonist has changed, and you experience the story of Ezio Auditore da Firenze,an Assassin during the 15th century Italian Renaissance. In the current day, the story still continues with Desmond Miles who uses the new Animus 2.0 to relive Ezio's memories.I'm not going to spoil the story too much since it is best discovered by you playing the game. Having played the first game in the series which had the main problem of being unbelievably repetitive, Assassin's Creed II was surprisingly refreshing and much had been improved upon. The game has a lot more variety to it and it doesn't ever feel like you are doing the same tasks over and over again. I found the story to be much stronger this time round, and the player will feel more connections with the protagonist. Everything about the game from its gameplay, settings, as well as beautiful music (composed by Jesper Kyd) just combined for one of the best Assassin's Creed experiences around. The music and settings just complemented the story even further. I cared about what was going on in the story.If you play one Assassin's Creed game then getting used to the gameplay and controls of the others will be easy and of second nature. That doesn't mean that all of them are the same, and therefore nothing new and boring. It just means they play out in the same way but with a lot of subtle differences. In this game the controls feel more fluid and responsive, as well as being given a wider variety of gadgets and weapons to make use of. You are able to purchase weapons, armor, upgrades as well as medicine. Speaking of medicine, the health system in this game has been greatly improved upon as you can increase your health through purchasing better armor and decrypting discovered codex pages.The varieties of this game just go on forever, such as having your own villa which you can purchase paintings for, upgrading and renovating the town of Monterrigioni in order to get more income into the villa's chest. The missions are a less linear since there are a wealth of side missions which are optional if you wish to experience them. You can carry out Assassination Contracts, explore tombs, do courier missions, take part in races and many more fun side missions. In terms of collectibles, this game has 100 feathers which are scattered throughout the locations. Collecting all of them would be tough without a guide, but very rewarding nonetheless.I have been itching to purchase and play Assassin's Creed II for a long time and recently, I finally decided to buy it. I'm so glad to have experienced such a fantastic game as this and will look forward to experiencing all the subsequent games in the series. However, I will have to purchase the Complete Edition or the Game of the Year Edition of this game, because I am reviewing the initial standalone edition of the game which isn't complete with extras like 3 Templar Secret Locations and additional sequences.This game is well worth your time and money since it is fantastic and since it's over three years old at the time of this review, you can probably pick up a new copy for a very cheap price. I got my one for under £10 which to me was jaw dropping. Give it a go, that is after you have played the first game in the series.

14.2.2010

First of all, if you haven't played the first game, don't worry about it. You may be a little confused at first but it doesn't take long to catch up at all. There are a few references to Altair you may find a little confusing and if you choose to find all the tombs your reward is his armour, but that's about it.Firstly, there are lots of similarities to the first one. You still climb viewpoints to get things to show up on your map, you still assasinate people (obviously) and it's still mission based. but that's about it. For a start Ezio is far more passionate and I think a better character than Altair. Altair was trained, presumably from a young age, which made him pretty one dimensional and wooden.Ezio is a passionate man and far more 3 dimensional so i found him far more interesting to play.There are lots more kinds of tasks and lots more you can choose to do. You can choose to upgrade your home base, to do all the little mini missions like couriers and beating up cheating husbands. You can choose to buy lots of paintings and try to find treasure and teh assassin's tombs. Or you can choose to simply follow the main plot. Even the main missions are a bit more varied, sometimes you're pickpocketing and others you're chasing people down. Mostly you're killing though and the only real reason to do up the home town is to get more money to buy more weapons and armour.The bad points are that if you didn't like the first one I'm not convinced you'll like the second. If your only problem with the first one was the repetitive nature of it then give the second one a go, that is vastly reduced. If you thought the whole concept was a little boring then don't bother.My biggest gripe is the camera doesn't seem to have improved much. I still sometimes jump off walls when I mean to jump to a nearby ledge of run up a door way instead of running through it because the camera and controls are really sensitive. Sometimes it can be good that the character moves so quickly but during a timed mission or race more than once I plunged to my death because I held the jump button a split second too long and jumped off a ledge I didn't mean to. And the character still soometimes looks over a ledge instead of hopping off of it. It can make some missions very frustrating. Also if you go for all the glyphs ( a sort of mission running all the way through the stopry when you're trying to find messages left for you by a previous user of the Animus) the puzzles range from pretty simple to really confusing. Especially the ones where you need to find links in a series of paintings. I've needed a clue from the Internet almost every time, even when I figured out what the link was sometimes I didn't pick the right pictures. Those bits do slow the game down a bit.The other irritating thing is to do with when you fail missions; the save point is back at the start of the mission which is great is you'd run quite a distance but if you find the mission to difficult it's not obvious you can decide to cancel it and do something else. I only found this in the pause menu by accident. Also, when you're doing a race the timer starts counting down again the instant the game starts up and a lot of the time your character is facing the wrong way! You lose a few seconds getting your bearings and swinging the character round which is a real pain in the butt.All in all I thoroughly enjoyed it and it's a bit more puzzle based with the glyph missions. Mostly though, it's more of the same but done up a bit better so it's not so repetitive. If you really enjoyed the first one, get this one. If you enjoyed the first but thought it was too repetitive, get this one anyway. If you thought the first was interesting, rent this one first. If you hated the first one then don't bother with this one.

11.1.2010

I gave the Assassin's Creed 1, 4 stars because it was missing out on something but I couldn't point out what. After playing and completing Assassin's Creed 2 that missing out on something feeling disappeared. The game has improved on pretty much everything.Storyline:The storyline begins to make more sense in Assassin's Creed 2. You start off where you left off in Assassin's Creed 1. You escape the building and move into another place hiding. You then go back in time through the DNA and start the storyline. In Assassin's Creed 2 its set in the 1400's in Italy. Azio Auditore is the new assassin. He starts off as a young adult and then his family members get killed.Through out the game you are doing missions to track down the person responsible for there deaths. In the end yes you do find him and get the answers you want. But yet again Assassin's Creed 2 leaves you with another strange but exciting ending. I would say the storyline is much better than Assassin's Creed 1. There are also new characters you meet through out the game. Leonardo Da Vinci being one of them!Setting:This has to be mentioned in the review. The setting of the game is amazing. It reminds me of GTA IV. Assassin's Creed 2 has cities set in the 1400's every single one of them is different and full of detail. The cities really make you feel that you have travelled back in time. Its not just the city that's nice the people are detailed and some buildings and masterpieces. It's said that the cities in Assassin's Creed 2 are the best ever made for a game.What's New?Lots! New assassin character. Different setting. New characters. Carries on the storyline from Assassin's Creed 1. There's now shops where you can buy stuff. New weapons theres even a gun its not excellent and the aiming is a bit bad but it's a one shot kill.The Good:You can now buy weapons.You can now buy armor and ammunation.You can now buy different clothes for your character.You can now buy paintings.You can now get your armor repaired.You can now get poison.You can now get medicine to heal yourself.A better stoyline.New improved setting.More things to do.In Assassin's Creed 1 there were constant interruptions in the new game there's only 2.Now saves automatically. I remember having problems with saving on assassins creed 1 no problems with assassins creed 2.You can now swim.Travelling from place to place is much more easier and simple.The Bad:I think the controls have changed a bit. Sometimes the assassin jumps in the wrong direction when you didn't even want him to. But eventually you do get the hang of it but at first it seems very hard.The assassin seems to be the only person in the game who can swim. Everyone else dies instantly when they go into the water.It does change from day to night but there's no weather changes.Some missions require you to run across the city to kill someone on your way you may slip and fall or get killed and you have to restart all over again. Some missions have check points others don't.Graphics haven't changed at all there excellent but was hoping for maybe something ever so slightly better.To sum up the game. It has improved a lot from Assassins Creed 1 which is why I'm giving it 5 stars. It took me just over 2 weeks to complete it spending about 1 to 2 hours a day on it. The graphics may have not changed but the detail of everything has. Problems such as saving or getting lost in the complicated maps have all been sorted. Well done Ubisoft on a great improvement this is a highly recommended game. I will be looking forward to Assassins Creed 3.

16.12.2012

It was a cold tuesday morning around 7:30 as our alarm had just gone off, we were ever so grateful for the burglars that day as we'd overslept for work. they didnt take much just the usual, the gimp mask collection, a bag of stolen ear rings from Claires Accessories and my authentic 1864 hole punch. As a unit we decided we had to improve our home security, what if the kids had escaped. Or worse the buglars found our collection of diseased uterus's.This we couldnt allow!So we did what anyone in this age of technology does. Amazonian-Women.com. After a cheeky rub I put some relaxed effort into my struggle to find a turkey baster to jam the door with. £3.28...BARGAIN (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apollo-Turkey-Baster/dp/B003AS98SE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1352632922&sr=8-1)After a few days waiting for delivery, the basters arrival and the now foreseeable inadequacy of a turkey basters use for blocking a door that holds back 4 children I swiftly realised i had wasted my money and I needed to buy something that would solve mine and my partners issue.We devised a list:A Baseball"The W" LPA £20.00 PSN GiftcardCricket BatRopeFloating ShelfAn Ironand2kg SugarWe had been drinking again.our plan was simple, listen to M.E.T.H.O.D MAN on repeat whilst we tied the rope the the cricket bat, set the iron precariously on the new floating shelf just above the door we rested the cricket bat behind towards the rear left hand side, got the kids to sniff lines of sugar then in a nose blood induced frenzy got them to throw the baseball at the cricket bat till it fell over. To make the game more interesting we insisted the eldest stand under the shelf and sing The Fugees - Killing Me Softly. It was a knockout! Unfortunately the kids got startled and like the Sand People they are, they retreated to their cave.By this time we had missed a weeks work and both been called into our respective offices to have a meeting, I remember thinking "What if John awoke on a camel, but it wasn't really a camel. What if the camel was a helicopter that was blue and red and whistled occasionally" Realising me and my boss shared no common interests I resorted to ending our little date by urinating in his drawer and calling him a space chimp. Upon leaving the office I was struck down by a car. In hospital my partner visited me everyday, but I never woke up.And this is why she bought this lingerie, she wore it every day without showering for a month. This was both vile and dedication. The next month she placed the soggy underwear under my pillow hopeing the stench would wake me, but unfortunately it wasn't the smell that woke me. Days passed and as the still soggy underwear rotted away at my pillow and slowly corroded the back of my neck the elder child came to visit (to this day we don't know how he got out of that chest freezer, but maybe it was fate) he tells me he grabbed a wire and with his blue hands began to throttle my comatosed body in the bed. there happened to be a rip in the wire exposing the copper, this burnt my neck and also touched the soggy knitwear my mrs had purchased from you. the electrical current flowed through the erotic wool and right into me. WAKING ME UP.So to wrap this up quickly me and my wife are very grateful for your knitted underwear and it was well worth the £36.89 that she paid.However.I wish shed just bought a cattle prod.5 starSaved an innocent life!

8.11.2010

Sequels in the games world are always extremely hard to judge as you never know what you are going to get. In some cases (very few spring to mind though) you get a general improvement of the game as with Resident Evil 4, then in others you wonder why they bothered as in Resident Evil 5 and Godfather 2 are perfect examples and then finally you get the games that are just basically carbon copies and released mainly to get some easy sales as with Modern Warfare 2.Assassins Creed 2 for anyone that has played the first title will come across as a bit of a mixed bag as it improves in certain areas over the first title and actually regresses in others.As i'm sure you know by now the story picks up in Italy with a new hero that has to learn to become an assassin as per the first title. This as usual involves a lot of running across rooftops and climbing up buildings and taking out all manner of bad people, which the game implements fairly well.The game is ok to look at although it is nothing special as current generation machines have churned out better looking games in terms of scenery and character models. In some places the character movements appear wooden and the programmers have still not mastered the art of animating walking or running as these still look the same as the were in AC1. This is a minor irritant and the walking I guess can be passed as a confident swagger but when your main character runs like he is running through treacle and in flip flops you know this is a bad thing.While on the topic of running another minor irritant in AC1 was that your character would attempt to run up walls or do weird jumpy type movements at the wrong time, this hasn't been looked into and is another minor irritant especially when you are chasing after someone and this slows you down.Combat is one area in which the game has been improved, well sort of. You can still get through 80% (over exaggeration probably) of the fights by simply doing your counter move and this can get a bit repetitive as you see the same animations over and over again. In another move that left me puzzled you can kill guards in plain sight with no repercussion other than your notoriety going up which in turn can be reduced by tearing down posters of yourself, some of which are not even at eye level so which members of the public that would be looking at these is beyond me.This game isn't shockingly bad and I didn't hate playing it at any stage as the storyline keeps you engrossed, during the many hours you will be playing this as it there is quite a lot to do with a number of mini tasks to hone your skills. Unfortunately I did feel that this had not gone far enough in polishing the rough edges that were identified in the first game and this is what stops it from being a classic.More emphasis on stealth assassinations of your main targets would be nice as this very rarely happens this time around as it seems you have to assassinate your targets in as public a way as possible with at least 5-10 guards surrounding them. I guess they have to get you using the fighting system somehow.Let's see what Assassins Creed brotherhood has got to offer when it is released, I'm hoping that it goes some way to being a good sequel.

24.4.2011

Firstly I have to say that I love the first Assassin's Creed, even more than this second installment, but that's mostly because I prefer the time period. However, in almost every other department you can see the improvements made. The main elements of the game haven't changed; you have to free-run up and down buildings and across streets and use your hidden blades to assassinate people. So far, so good. However, this time around you get more coplex environments to run around in, more weapons to slaughter unsuspecting guards with and different enemies to counter in combat. In the original you had but one enemy: the guards. Sure some would have bows, but other than that they were all the same.This time around you've got Brutes, Seekers and Agiles to add to your enemies. Brutes have thick armour and need a bit more finesse to kill. Seekers can search hiding spots meaning you can't just jump in a hay bale anymore and expect to get away with it. Agiles will be able to catch you where other guards fail.The plot's fairly decent, you go around assassinatingpeople to foil another Templar plot, and you end up travelling from city to city (all beautiful by the way) stabbing a few guards along the way. Your protagonist, Ezio, is rounded out as a character this time, where we knew little of Altair (and grew bored of his sour attitude), and you grow to like him.That's the bare bones, but then you've got all the collectibles to think about too. If, like me, you ran around trying to grab all the flags and view points etc last time around (for no real reason than to grab those meaningless and yet so tempting Achievement points), then you'll have a whole load more this time. First of all, you have a town to build up, and you can do it in a bunch of ways. You can pay an architect to build a bunch of buildings, you can collect feathers, codex pages, Assassin Seals, weapons, paintings, armour, the list goes on. You might think that there's not much real point to collecting these things other than to satisfy some sort of obsessive compulsive need but the more you spend on your city (and the more you collect) the more money you earn from the "money chest" which fills as your city grows in size and stature. Not that you'll run out of money otherwise, but another facet nonetheless that prolongs the game beyond the storyline.There are of course ways in which the game could have been better. The combat, for instance, feels mechanical still. You will find that most of the time your just pressing the strike button while performing a counter kill whenever you get the chance. You have a few more weapons to play with, sure, but none of them feel too different to one another. We're also cryig out for some proper ranged weapon where available. Also, there are several infuriating puzzles in the game that involve leaping about to solve, which is all well and good, except for the fact that they can take forever as Ezio tries and completely fails to jump from one beam to another too often when he should be making it easily.A great game nonetheless, if you loved the first game you'll love this one too.

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