Assassin's Creed II

Playing through Assassin's Creed 2, I couldn't help but think of this scene from the sitcom, Community. "You ask him to pass the salt, he gives you a bowl of soup. Because you know what? Soup is better." Assassins Creed 2 is better than the original in pretty much every way imaginable.

While the original Assassin's Creed was well-reviewed, the universal criticism of the game was it's repetitiveness. All the missions, all of the sidequests followed the same structure so it felt like you were doing the same thing over and over again. Five minutes into playing Assassin's Creed 2, I could already tell things were going to be less repetitive. Even though the side missions fall into discrete categories again, they never feel repetitive. The story missions are varied so that even though the end goal is always to assassinate someone (hence the title), using the waterways of Venice makes for a complete different experience than the rooftops of Florence.

Each of the cities that you can visit in the game feel more vibrant than the cities in the original. That may be partially due to the fact that these are cities and landmarks that you can still visit today. But it's also due to the fact that there's more to do in each city than hiding in bales of hay and running from Templar soldiers. Now, rather than waiting for a roaming group of scholars to blend in with, you can hire your own band of thieves, mercenaries and even prostitutes to provide cover as well as distractions. There are now merchants that you can buy equipment and weapons from to upgrade your health and attacks, as well as artwork to increase the value of your Villa.

Oh, that's right I forgot to mention, not only do you go around assassinating people, you get to play mayor of your own town! While this aspect of the game isn't particularly deep, it does contribute to the overall economy of the game. As the value of your villa increases, either by spending money for improvements to shops and brothels or acquiring artwork and artifacts , you'll receive a percentage of the value in cash (yes, you can collect 100 feathers instead of the flags of the first game but this time they actually mean something!). Which, in turn, you can use to spend on equipment, more improvements or prostitutes.

Even the core combat mechanic has been improved and refined. Whereas in the first game, you only had four weapons at your disposal, now you can fight with literally whatever your opponent has in hand in addition to your already impressive arsenal of swords, knives and guns (that's not a typo... you've got a primitive firearm up your sleeve). The enemy types are varied so that you're no longer fighting everyone in the exact same way. You'll need to use different tactics to take down heavily armored opponents versus your run-of-the-mill grunts.

If you thought Altair's story was compelling in Assassin's Creed, Ezio's story is leaps and bounds better. You're basically taken through the origin story of Ezio Auditore da Firenze and his journey to become an assassin and take revenge on those who executed his father and brothers. Along the way, you'll interact with real historical figures, most notably Leonardo da Vinci (who apparently plays Q to Ezio's James Bond). I was a little disappointed that the time spent with Desmond, Altair and Ezio's present day ancestor, was minimal. Although, there are touches in Ezio's story that never let you forget that you're controlling Ezio through Desmond.

Unfortunately, not everything has been improved. Like the first game, I did experience a few glitches and freezes in the sequel. Although, I'm not sure if that's a product of the game itself or the PS3 that I was playing on. And the graphics are somewhat hit and miss... it seemed that most of the graphics in Ezio's world are better than the graphics in Desmond's world. It's almost as if the development team lifted the character models from the Desmond portions of the game from the original. Although, I don't remember Kristen Bell looking like she got hit with the Joker's gas in the first game...

In spite of those minor offenses, Assassin's Creed 2 is a solid game. I can't imagine that anyone who liked the original wouldn't like the sequel... and anyone who was turned off by the original wouldn't like it because of all the problems addressed in the sequel. It's just better.

Rating

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