Assassin's Creed II Review

The two targets anxiously walk along the dirty street away from the crowds, away from the prying eyes. Cautiously they scan the alley for threatening shadows, were they followed? The real danger was above crouched on the rooftops. Like a trap ready to spring Ezio waits for the right moment. It comes as the prey turns their back to him. like an eagle he descends upon them, the sharp sound of dual hidden blades un-sheathing is heard and the hapless souls look skyward. Too late. With his full body weight behind him, Ezio plunges each blade into the eye socket of his victims, gracefully dropping the dead weights to the ground. "Assassino!" cries a guard as he stumbles upon the very men he was to watch out for, dead at the hands of a hooded figure. He turns his head to call again, "HELP! Assassino!" But the murderer was gone. The flick of a cloak over the buildings giving the only clue to his whereabouts.....

Assassin's Creed 2 immediatly starts the player off from the cliffhanger that was almost as big a heartbreak as Halo 2. There is a bit of run around concerning the story and I don't like giving spoilers so I shall give none. Quite quickly the campaign begins and the familiarity of the Animus loading screen comes on. It begins with a small street squabble, hence the combat tutorial and shows the basics. You play as Ezio Auditore (pronounced et-zio odd-i-tor-a. I fucking cant stand it when ppl call him enzio auditor) a young noble to a banker Giovanni. Ezio is a pretty cool guy. Rather than the dark and jaded Altair, Ezio likes to party and get his dick wet as all young men should. His innocence is taken away and the story becomes that of vengeance. He becomes an assassin and the game truly kicks off. Like most sequels, the engine is the same with updated graphics. Thankfully colour gets used more so in ACII then its predecessor. But its not not worth really getting into, I should say tho that I am glad moar and moar games are increasing the amount of colour usage. I am just so sick and tired of the gears and fallouts with the brown/gray palette. oooooh its gritty and edgy, and BORING. Anywhoo the game controls are the same cool, but frustrating to say the least. Free-running is one of the most realistic and definitive of the open-world games, but the climbing is basically holding the trigger and occasionally pressing A. The worst part is when the slightest twitch of the stick occurs, Ezio goes flying off the building and introduces his face to the cobblestone street. The combat hasn't really changed, just added stuff to it. Its still the timing the X button and unleashing gorefest 2009 on the guard who was stupid enough to fight you. Added animations show different ways of killing bitches and gives me a bloodchubby. The newest part and my fav of teh fighting is the unarmed combat. Using ur fists is just awesome. Countering leads to a disarm of the enemy and killing said enemy with their own weapon. New enemy types like the brute (seriously? brute is up there with hunter as overused video game terms) carry heavy weapons like a battle axe and spear, these are the balls-to-the-wall sweet to kill mofos with. Whether its cleaving a dude in his spine or fucking screwering a fucker from the back of his fucking neck all the way out his fucking ASSHOLE, the combat gets a murderboner erection of approval.



New weapons the player can expect range from a poison tipped hidden blade to a freaking pistol made epically for you by Leonardo DaVinci! btw, I thought he was going to be some lame side character, he is quite the opposite. Leonardo becomes your best friend and he is one fucking chill dude. He is that quirky nice guy you know that just happens to be a master of all intellectual aspirations. The part I loved the most from it was the historical accuracy of his character, he was shy around those of authority and was passive to getting pushed around by them. When Ezio inquires to why he says he just used to it. This is genius how ACII just tastefully lets on that he used to get beaten alot in prison from being found guilty of sodomy. After all, DaVinci was a homosexual and he did love the little boys. That should lead us to my other favorite thing about this game. As a student of History, I appreciate games like Brothers in Arms for its accuracy. ACII is nothing but accurate. The buildings, the art, the clothing. It all reeks of the Italian Renaissance to the letter! roaming through Venezia (Venice) recognizable landmarks like the Piazza San Marco. Being there makes you feel that you are in Venezia in her prime.

Ubisoft had a team in Italy for 2 years documenting and making the most true-to-life in game city, and it clearly shows that their labours have paid off

There are concerns that have been made apparent from ACI. The repetitive bullshit of having to do the same shit over and over just to kill some old fucker was aggravating. And after you completed that mission you would restart in your home town and have to ride a steed all the way back And the constant coming out of the animus to read some emails was just dumb. These problems have been addressed and fixed. Desmond only comes out of the animus three times during the whole game, the introduction of fast travel stations (no moar 20 min horse rides) and the removal of the side missions are all great things in itself. The only time the player would want to do side missions are to earn, get this, florins! hot damn they even got the currency right! this money goes to the best new game mechanic of ACII, upgradable armor and weapons! dozens of new swords and knives, as well as armors makes the game much more interesting. But that isn't even the best part! When you arrive to your home base and train to become an assassin, the town is dirty and run down. It looked like a series of crack houses turned franchise. An architect is willing to renovate the area for money. Doing so will increase the town value and thus, increasing your income! As you put more money into the town, the better looking it gets and the richer you become. There are also platforming levels where you go inside assassin tombs, seriously its like playing tomb raider but with more clothes. I never did like those alot, but the player would get a seal, which got you closer to gettin Altair's armor, which kicks ass btw

ACII had a lot of hostility facing it when they went into production, but it looked like they listened to the community of tubes and electrons known as the internets. They brought back all the stuff you loved, fixed the shit you hated, and gave you new stuff to drool over. A solid 10-15 hour story this is a singleplayer delight. If you love History or watching people get their throat slit, this is the game for you.


+ Story is a little confusing, but epic

+ Surprisingly, you get attached to the characters, Ezio and Leonardo are freaking cool

+ Combat is easy to pick up and play, plus the many ways of killing people puts the gore in gorgeous

+ Historically accurate, its really is something beautiful

+ Running your own town and the equipment system is damn cool

- Freerunning is fun, but I was yelling at it a lot more than smiling

- The enemy AI is all over the place, sometimes they are on the ball and sometimes they are just retarded

- Tomb raider like levels are cumbersome. They are not bad, just not good

? how come no one else in Italy can swim? The second a NPC touches water they are sleeping with the fishes


MY RATING: 9.0/10