Assassin’s Creed 2 | Multi | Review
Assassin’s Creed 2 is the follow up to last years rambling, if not beautiful, parkour based stabby sandbox style romp. The sequel, set in Italy (Florence, Rome and Venice etc) plays better and fortunately manages to avoid almost all of the pitfalls of its predecessor. I think most imagined that the follow up would be better, but Assasin’s Creed 2 has exceeded expectations. The level of craft and care evident in the execution this game is incredible and easily on a par with the GTA series. It looks stunning and the characterization and story is well executed – making and is a very solid and hugely enjoyable experience.
Unsurprisingly it’s also structured a lot like a Grand Theft Auto game. You go to mission icons on the map and receive instructions that require you to complete tasks. This time such tasks are generally varied, inventive and slick and not nearly as dull as before. There are similarities, like you’ll spend a lot of your time clambering over rooftops using familiar parkour based movements, sneaking about in crowds and, of course, assasinating people. However, you can now collect cash that can be used to purchase new armor and weapons, increase your health and tighten your combat skills. There’s a range of new tricks and attacks and the many possible assassinations are now more clearly defined – which are all welcome additions. The only really annoying thing I have found is a control bug that means you sometimes (randomly) jump backwards off buildings – but that isn’t bad given the many frustrations of the first outing.
Essentially what makes this game work is that Ubisoft have stripped away the horrible repetition and randomness of the original and made the assassination missions a lot better (which is the genesis of this game).
That’s pretty much it – and it works.
Assasin’s Creed 2 is the game that Assasin’s Creed 1 claimed/promised it would be – a very good game.
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AC2 was all about flashy looks… but it tried too hard to be a Venetian Fable, and didn’t try hard enough to be a Venetian Assassin’s Creed. The characters were mysogenistic/racist/both cliches, the cut scene dialogue was drivel (literally meaningless drivel in places), the in-game-pedia combined cheap wiki cut n pastes with smug arsehole attitude, and the side missions tended towards timed runs without the timed. Someone explain the point of the coach race? srsly?
Boy I hated this game. More so because the first game was so beautiful, and beautifully scripted. This just looked and sounded like some 12 year old’s e-number overdose wet-dream version of the original. Shocking.
/hating