I once heard Assassin’s Creed described as nailing the prom queen. She looks really good in her dress but once you get her in bed she just kinda lays there. For many parts of the first Assassin’s Creed, I’d have to agree. The game to me was breath-taking: it had great sound, great environments, and – though slightly odd – a well written story. However, once you got down to the actual gameplay it became repetitive, and it became easy to lose interest. Assassin’s Creed 2 takes the vision behind the first game, and spends plenty of time polishing the story. I found myself being led into really enjoying the characters this time, and believing they had emotion and a reason for being. The first Assassin’s Creed – though experiencing many gripes – was what I believed to be an experiment in world interaction and sandbox style free-running which was pulled off very well in most regards.

Upon booting AC2, I found my character in the same prison he was held in during the first game, and waiting once again for freedom. A quick monologue to catch you up to speed in case you missed the first game and away the action goes. AC2 certainly wastes no time in getting going, and keeps you on your toes just as much online action games or party bets do. Sprung from prison, you begin your escape route being flung into the trunk of a car and taken to a secret lab where they will analyze your memories to turn you into a modern-day version of your ancestors. I couldn’t help but notice that the faces on many of the characters looked odd, the lovely woman who sprung you had huge lips, which when animated definitely helped display her emotion, but when standing still looked creepy and unnatural. Some of the character models in the modern-day cut scenes looked sub-par, especially when compared to Ezio’s world of Italy.

A huge help to fixing the redundancy that AC1 suffered from is that Italy has many varied landscapes and artistically diverse cities that they can send you to. Moving from city to city in AC2 feels much more varied and exciting. I was also pleased to leave behind the pattern of receive mission, pick-pocket, recon, assassinate, wash, rinse, repeat. Allowing you to use varied tools, escape plans, and breaking into areas however you see fit (paying hookers to assist included!). Also, a nicely added system is the world economy. Since you are a noble, you are allowed to re-invest your personal finances into building brothels, taverns, etc. into the city, and will earn money from them as they progress. These reasons cited, and then adding the items from Leonardo DaVinci on top of Ezio’s vengeance driven motives, you get a title with much more depth and entertainment than the first game offered. This game motivated me to continue much further than the first, and I find myself wanting to grind more into the game to help build my city, strengthen my fighting, and finish my revenge. Ubisoft’s open mind to their consumer’s wants have helped this title grow to solid AAA title.

To add a geek side-note, I’m super pleased with my collector’s edition content. The one offered at Gamestop for 79.99 came with a very nice, very detailed statue of Ezio standing 7.5 inches tall, and looking great. Also included are extra maps for more game play. If you were lucky enough to have one reserved, or find one unclaimed, I highly recommend picking it up. I buy and receive a lot of collector’s editions, and most that include a “statue” (Street Fighter, I’m looking at you and your barely passable RYU/C-VIPER.) generally deliver a 3″ action figure. It’s nice to see a collector’s edition with a solid amount of content for a reasonable price.

Loved:

• The huge immersive world, smoothness of the interaction between AI and Ezio while in Italy.
• The acrobatics system, climbing, and audio all felt exceptionally polished.
• Collecting items while in game felt much stronger, instead of discovering banners across the world, you are picking up feathers with sentimental value to your mother who hasn’t spoken since your family tragedy (I’ll leave the events secret to prevent too many spoilers).

Hated:

• The cut-scene style execution of the modern-day looked spotty. Some character models looked very detailed and strong, while others seemed half-assed and weird.
• While controlling Desmond Miles I watched my character run for no reason, and then with a horror-film style rigidity he began walking slowly again, and then returned to running.
• It felt like anything involving Ezio was highly polished and very detailed, while anything in modern-day was an afterthought to the game.

Rating:

• Graphics – 8
• Audio – 9
• Replay -9
• Controls- 9
• Overall- 8.75

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