Assassin’s Creed II review

When the original Assassin’s Creed was released, it was an outstanding game. It was an immersive
experience with beautiful visuals and an engrossing story. It set the bar very high, so how could
Ubisoft possibly raise the bar any higher? Well, let’s find out.

Assassin’s Creed II starts off right where the first game ended. You are Desmond Miles, the
descendant of a long line of assassins. Desmond has to enter a machine called the Animus so that he
can relive the memories of his ancestors, and discover secrets from their past. That’s the spoiler-free
version of the story, anyway.

Most of the game is spent playing as one of Desmond’s ancestors, Ezio Auditore, an Italian nobleman
turned Assassin. This is the first improvement that Ubisoft made to the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
Altair, the main character in the first game, had very little personality at best and was thoroughly
unlikable at worst. Ezio, on the other hand, is a likable character that is easy to connect with. You
probably have a friend who is just like Ezio: a bit mischievous and rough around the edges, but
honourable and loyal at the same time.

Ezio isn’t the only well-written character in the game. He has friends, family and enemies, and all
have been given rounded personalities and are superbly voice-acted in a mixture of English and
Italian. I suggest you turn the subtitles on if you don’t understand Italian.

Assassin’s Creed II is a very immersive game. The various Italian cities which Ezio visits are brought to
life with amazing attention to detail. The developers literally haven’t left a single stone untouched;
every brick and cobblestone is well-modelled and textured. The in-game cities stay true to their real-
world counterparts. Not once will you doubt that you’re in Italy. One problem I did have with the
cities is the design of the viewpoints. These are usually towers that Ezio has to climb up to that he
can “synchronise” his map by getting a good view of the area below him. There are 70 viewpoints in
total that have to be reached, so climbing up tower after tower can get very tedious, especially since
most of the towers in the same city have the same design. However, the jaw-dropping views you get
at the top are well worth the climb.

Another reason that the game is so immersive is the realistic people inhabiting the cities. Merchants
call out to the people to buy their products; artists paint portraits on the street; minstrels play songs
and sing for money; people gather in groups and converse with each other; heralds call out the news
of the day; whores stand around in groups, waiting for customers. These are not simply 3D models
and lines of code – they are living, breathing people going about their daily lives. And they react
realistically to your actions. Push a guard off a roof to his death, and the people will scatter and
scream when the body hits the floor. Throw money onto the floor, and a crowd of people rush
towards the coins and scrounge around for them. I once bumped into someone and he dropped the
box of precious cargo he was carrying. He then proceeded to shout at me, and this attracted the
attention of a guard who came over to push me around (of course, I quickly ended his life with a
hidden blade.) This is just one example of the realistic manner in which the AI react to you.

One of the improvements made to the original game is the addition of many more weapons. I don’t
want to give too much away: just know that the weapons in this game are awesome, and there is a
greater variety to choose from.
There is now a monetary system, which means you can use money earned in the game to buy new
weapons, armour, clothing, medical supplies, and even paintings. What could an assassin possibly do
with paintings? Well, he can put them up in his home, of course.

Ezio owns a villa overlooking a small town. Ezio is also in charge of the town, and is able to upgrade it
and earn money from the profits that the town makes. It’s like a management mini-game, and is a
lovely addition.

Another new addition is the addition of hidden levels scattered throughout the game (well, they’re
not really hidden; you can see their locations on the mini-map.) These levels are linear platform
levels, and remind me of games like Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia. They are usually fun to
traverse, and there is a reward at the end of each level. There is a small problem with these sections,
however: the controls don’t feel right. Ezio’s movements feel less slick in a closed platform area than
they do when he’s jumping across rooftops in the open world. But this is a minor issue, and the
controls never gave me any major problems.

Enough about new additions; let’s get down to the controls and the core gameplay.

Just like the first game, Assassin’s Creed II has a rather revolutionary control scheme which makes it
very easy to climb up buildings and jump across rooftops. The controls fall short during combat,
however. When fighting, unskilled players will really struggle to defeat a group of enemies, but
skilled players will find it too easy, because they just need to stand still, block and counter-attack
when an enemy strikes. The combat system needs a bit of polish to make it shine. At the moment,
fighting is unrealistic and a bit clumsy.

The gameplay is still as fun as ever, and is made even better with the addition of new weapons and
therefore new ways to kill enemies. Ezio is an assassin, so it would be rather pointless if it wasn’t fun
to kill people in the game. It is very rewarding to pull off a well-planned assassination, and the
victims don’t recite long-winded monologues after you’ve killed them, like they did in the first game.
There are also many more assassinations to undertake in this game.

When you’re not busy with the main campaign, there are plenty of side-missions you can do. There
are races, courier tasks, beat-up events, and assassination contracts, in case all the assassinations
you’ve been doing in the main campaign aren’t enough for you.

The least you need to know:

Assassin’s Creed II is a triumph. Ubisoft listened to its fans, and have delivered an experience that far
exceeds expectations. There are so many improvements and revisions that it’s hard to imagine that
the first Assassin’s Creed was any good at all! Minor issues like poor combat controls, repetitive
tower-climbing, and less-than-slick controls in the linear platform sections prevent this game from
being absolutely perfect. No one can afford to miss out on this masterpiece!

Final score: 9.7/10