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Assassin’s Creed II
Xbox 360
The original Assassin’s Creed was a game that took me by surprise. I had never heard of it until the boxes advertising its release started appearing in Game a week before it was due out and in all honesty I didn’t even know what it was about from then. I did buy it on release day however, but that was down to the amount of coaxing from a customer telling me how great it was and him pointing out the number of people who were in the store buying it.
I took the game home and was instantly stunned by the beauty of the levels and impressed with the original take on an action platformer. After completing the game, I learnt that it was meant to be one of a trilogy and that a sequel would be out within the next two years. I eagerly awaited its release and just hoped it lived up to expectation. This review should convey that it did, if not surpass that expectation.
Assassin’s Creed II follows from the events of the previous game, again set just in the future. The assistant, the attractive Lucy, that overlooked the testing process on Desmond, breaks him out of the testing facility and into a small cell group of assassins, which have their own way of testing Desmond. They use an upgraded Animus (a clever machine that allows people to see (and I believe be in control of) their ancestors memories, to locate secret information and items from the past.
Instead of travelling back to his ancestor Altair, who lived in the Crusades, Desmond now visits the memories of his ancestor Ezio, a handsome man who lived in Italy during the Renaissance period. It is Ezio you spend most time controlling in the game.
As with most games, the first levels allows the player to gain a sense of rapport with Ezio and is one where you perform pretty mundane tasks so that you can get to grips with the controls. However, this may sound boring, but actually being in control of a very acrobatic character in a wonderfully recreated world, they seem a pleasure.
Towards the end of the first level, Ezio’s father is framed and arrested, along with his brothers, and are to be hung in the morning. His father asks him to find a man, who ends up double-crossing the family and Ezio watches most of his family die. He is literally thrown into the world of lies and conspiracies and the assassin within Ezio is born.
The game is filled with historical facts and ideas, with the cities based on what they would have looked like back in the late 15th century. This attention to detail is a brilliant touch and it makes you feel like you are playing a top rated game. As you play, you will encounter many real world paintings, available for Ezio to purchase and admire.
These factual inclusions are used frequently in the “unlock the file” minigames. Somebody that was being studied in the Animus previously had discovered something of importance but only wanted another assassin to find it. So he broke up this file and hid them in glyphs on the side of buildings across Italy. Ezio has the task of finding them and then unlocking them through a puzzle. These puzzles vary from cracking a code, locating something in a painting or even creating a picture from pieces. There are 16 in total and it certainly adds depth to the game.
This game of hide and seek with the hidden glyphs is just a small part of the collectables side missions, which also were a key feature of the first game. Instead of flags, we now have feathers to find (just thankfully a lot less to find this time, being 100 in all). You also can collect the artwork featured within the game and assassin seals, which will unlock a special prize for collecting a complete set…
A few missions into the game, you gain ownership of a stronghold. This generates money on a 20 minute interval for Ezio to spend. The amount of revenue increases as you spend to have the villa shops and services renovated and upgraded, by placing collectibles in it and by upgrading Ezio’s armor and weaponry. This adds importance to finding the collectibles, as it makes the game slightly easier if you can afford to buy that top end equipment.
You will be pleased to know that there is a whole lot less faffing about in this game (which is a good point, as it was the original ones main drawback). Side missions are there mainly to act as a source of income and can include hitman contracts, races, courier missions and the ever popular “beat up the cheating husband”. These do not need to be completed, but doing at least one of each is good, just to get the achievements for doing so.
As this game is more storyline driven than the last, the missions can be completed at a pace to suit your own needs. If you want to rush on in and complete the game, you can do – the storyline allows for that. If you prefer to just take your time, find the feathers, glyph and admire the city you can do that also, without the game taking it out on you for not following the plot.
If you have seen any of the screenshots from the game, or viewed any in-game footage, you will know hoe pretty it looks. The cityscape is wonderfully rendered, with a distinct lack of fogging (so that you can see from one side of the city to the other), making finding viewpoints all the more worth it! Everything is detailed – from knots in wooden structures, to the flowing of hair upon Ezio’s head. If Ezio gets wet, he emerges from the water wet and drips for a considerable amount of time afterwards (ok Uncharted fans…I know this has already been done in your game, but it still should be featured in any game wishing to top the charts!)
The audio is fantastic – with the sickening sound of a sword cutting into someone ACTUALLY sounding like it is (I was almost physically sick when I heard that noise the other night). It has an incredible array of sound effects. The music score is also of note, but nowadays it is hard to find a game with a poor score! The only thing I will have to say that is poor about the sound is the voice acting of civilians. I find myself throwing money on the streets of Italy just so I can hear them say the same 6 phrases over and over. Ezio and the main cast have fantastic voice acting, but the civilians all seem too samey. I’m sure that may change in the next sequel.
Ezio is actually fairly simple to control, with lots of different button combinations fitting in fluidly with gameplay. Some amazing parkour can be achieved just by running and pushing “A” to jump. However, there are moments where Ezio’s movements will make you want to scream and physically jump in and thump Ezio (if that were possible, I’d avoid it…he is an assassin after all…). It can be frustrating trying to delicately climb a structure when all Ezio wants to do is to see what suicide feels like by jumping backwards from a 100ft tower. Still, with the lack of a lives system, you just pick it up and try again.
Another point of frustration is there are some missions that involves walking slowly with one NPC from one side of the city to another, whilst they talk. It all feels a bit pointless and a cutscene would have sufficed. But an interactive delivery of information is a way to make sure you take note of what is being said.
The game distinctly lacks a multiplayer function, which is a shame. A “blade in the crowd” style online deathmatch would be an awesome feature online as the way the crowds interact is fantastic. I couldn’t really see how a co-operative mode would work, but in vain they could try something like Splinter Cell did in some of their games. Nonetheless, the game can stand well just on its single player alone.
Overall, Assassin’s Creed II is an amazing game that is incredibly addictive. It has a very long story that should keep you occupied for a few weeks. Like all games it has a few cons, but these are far outnumbered by the number of pros. It is certainly a must buy title because a rental would not do it justice (you’ll probably have to pay the retail price in rental fees if you did rent to completion).
98%
Xbox 360
The original Assassin’s Creed was a game that took me by surprise. I had never heard of it until the boxes advertising its release started appearing in Game a week before it was due out and in all honesty I didn’t even know what it was about from then. I did buy it on release day however, but that was down to the amount of coaxing from a customer telling me how great it was and him pointing out the number of people who were in the store buying it.
I took the game home and was instantly stunned by the beauty of the levels and impressed with the original take on an action platformer. After completing the game, I learnt that it was meant to be one of a trilogy and that a sequel would be out within the next two years. I eagerly awaited its release and just hoped it lived up to expectation. This review should convey that it did, if not surpass that expectation.
Assassin’s Creed II follows from the events of the previous game, again set just in the future. The assistant, the attractive Lucy, that overlooked the testing process on Desmond, breaks him out of the testing facility and into a small cell group of assassins, which have their own way of testing Desmond. They use an upgraded Animus (a clever machine that allows people to see (and I believe be in control of) their ancestors memories, to locate secret information and items from the past.
Instead of travelling back to his ancestor Altair, who lived in the Crusades, Desmond now visits the memories of his ancestor Ezio, a handsome man who lived in Italy during the Renaissance period. It is Ezio you spend most time controlling in the game.
As with most games, the first levels allows the player to gain a sense of rapport with Ezio and is one where you perform pretty mundane tasks so that you can get to grips with the controls. However, this may sound boring, but actually being in control of a very acrobatic character in a wonderfully recreated world, they seem a pleasure.
Towards the end of the first level, Ezio’s father is framed and arrested, along with his brothers, and are to be hung in the morning. His father asks him to find a man, who ends up double-crossing the family and Ezio watches most of his family die. He is literally thrown into the world of lies and conspiracies and the assassin within Ezio is born.
The game is filled with historical facts and ideas, with the cities based on what they would have looked like back in the late 15th century. This attention to detail is a brilliant touch and it makes you feel like you are playing a top rated game. As you play, you will encounter many real world paintings, available for Ezio to purchase and admire.
These factual inclusions are used frequently in the “unlock the file” minigames. Somebody that was being studied in the Animus previously had discovered something of importance but only wanted another assassin to find it. So he broke up this file and hid them in glyphs on the side of buildings across Italy. Ezio has the task of finding them and then unlocking them through a puzzle. These puzzles vary from cracking a code, locating something in a painting or even creating a picture from pieces. There are 16 in total and it certainly adds depth to the game.
This game of hide and seek with the hidden glyphs is just a small part of the collectables side missions, which also were a key feature of the first game. Instead of flags, we now have feathers to find (just thankfully a lot less to find this time, being 100 in all). You also can collect the artwork featured within the game and assassin seals, which will unlock a special prize for collecting a complete set…
A few missions into the game, you gain ownership of a stronghold. This generates money on a 20 minute interval for Ezio to spend. The amount of revenue increases as you spend to have the villa shops and services renovated and upgraded, by placing collectibles in it and by upgrading Ezio’s armor and weaponry. This adds importance to finding the collectibles, as it makes the game slightly easier if you can afford to buy that top end equipment.
You will be pleased to know that there is a whole lot less faffing about in this game (which is a good point, as it was the original ones main drawback). Side missions are there mainly to act as a source of income and can include hitman contracts, races, courier missions and the ever popular “beat up the cheating husband”. These do not need to be completed, but doing at least one of each is good, just to get the achievements for doing so.
As this game is more storyline driven than the last, the missions can be completed at a pace to suit your own needs. If you want to rush on in and complete the game, you can do – the storyline allows for that. If you prefer to just take your time, find the feathers, glyph and admire the city you can do that also, without the game taking it out on you for not following the plot.
If you have seen any of the screenshots from the game, or viewed any in-game footage, you will know hoe pretty it looks. The cityscape is wonderfully rendered, with a distinct lack of fogging (so that you can see from one side of the city to the other), making finding viewpoints all the more worth it! Everything is detailed – from knots in wooden structures, to the flowing of hair upon Ezio’s head. If Ezio gets wet, he emerges from the water wet and drips for a considerable amount of time afterwards (ok Uncharted fans…I know this has already been done in your game, but it still should be featured in any game wishing to top the charts!)
The audio is fantastic – with the sickening sound of a sword cutting into someone ACTUALLY sounding like it is (I was almost physically sick when I heard that noise the other night). It has an incredible array of sound effects. The music score is also of note, but nowadays it is hard to find a game with a poor score! The only thing I will have to say that is poor about the sound is the voice acting of civilians. I find myself throwing money on the streets of Italy just so I can hear them say the same 6 phrases over and over. Ezio and the main cast have fantastic voice acting, but the civilians all seem too samey. I’m sure that may change in the next sequel.
Ezio is actually fairly simple to control, with lots of different button combinations fitting in fluidly with gameplay. Some amazing parkour can be achieved just by running and pushing “A” to jump. However, there are moments where Ezio’s movements will make you want to scream and physically jump in and thump Ezio (if that were possible, I’d avoid it…he is an assassin after all…). It can be frustrating trying to delicately climb a structure when all Ezio wants to do is to see what suicide feels like by jumping backwards from a 100ft tower. Still, with the lack of a lives system, you just pick it up and try again.
Another point of frustration is there are some missions that involves walking slowly with one NPC from one side of the city to another, whilst they talk. It all feels a bit pointless and a cutscene would have sufficed. But an interactive delivery of information is a way to make sure you take note of what is being said.
The game distinctly lacks a multiplayer function, which is a shame. A “blade in the crowd” style online deathmatch would be an awesome feature online as the way the crowds interact is fantastic. I couldn’t really see how a co-operative mode would work, but in vain they could try something like Splinter Cell did in some of their games. Nonetheless, the game can stand well just on its single player alone.
Overall, Assassin’s Creed II is an amazing game that is incredibly addictive. It has a very long story that should keep you occupied for a few weeks. Like all games it has a few cons, but these are far outnumbered by the number of pros. It is certainly a must buy title because a rental would not do it justice (you’ll probably have to pay the retail price in rental fees if you did rent to completion).
98%
love the game and it is so fun mugging poeple
Assassin’s Creed II
Xbox 360
The original Assassin’s Creed was a game that took me by surprise. I had never heard of it until the boxes advertising its release started appearing in Game a week before it was due out and in all honesty I didn’t even know what it was about from then. I did buy it on release day however, but that was down to the amount of coaxing from a customer telling me how great it was and him pointing out the number of people who were in the store buying it.
I took the game home and was instantly stunned by the beauty of the levels and impressed with the original take on an action platformer. After completing the game, I learnt that it was meant to be one of a trilogy and that a sequel would be out within the next two years. I eagerly awaited its release and just hoped it lived up to expectation. This review should convey that it did, if not surpass that expectation.
Assassin’s Creed II follows from the events of the previous game, again set just in the future. The assistant, the attractive Lucy, that overlooked the testing process on Desmond, breaks him out of the testing facility and into a small cell group of assassins, which have their own way of testing Desmond. They use an upgraded Animus (a clever machine that allows people to see (and I believe be in control of) their ancestors memories, to locate secret information and items from the past.
Instead of travelling back to his ancestor Altair, who lived in the Crusades, Desmond now visits the memories of his ancestor Ezio, a handsome man who lived in Italy during the Renaissance period. It is Ezio you spend most time controlling in the game.
As with most games, the first levels allows the player to gain a sense of rapport with Ezio and is one where you perform pretty mundane tasks so that you can get to grips with the controls. However, this may sound boring, but actually being in control of a very acrobatic character in a wonderfully recreated world, they seem a pleasure.
Towards the end of the first level, Ezio’s father is framed and arrested, along with his brothers, and are to be hung in the morning. His father asks him to find a man, who ends up double-crossing the family and Ezio watches most of his family die. He is literally thrown into the world of lies and conspiracies and the assassin within Ezio is born.
The game is filled with historical facts and ideas, with the cities based on what they would have looked like back in the late 15th century. This attention to detail is a brilliant touch and it makes you feel like you are playing a top rated game. As you play, you will encounter many real world paintings, available for Ezio to purchase and admire.
These factual inclusions are used frequently in the “unlock the file” minigames. Somebody that was being studied in the Animus previously had discovered something of importance but only wanted another assassin to find it. So he broke up this file and hid them in glyphs on the side of buildings across Italy. Ezio has the task of finding them and then unlocking them through a puzzle. These puzzles vary from cracking a code, locating something in a painting or even creating a picture from pieces. There are 16 in total and it certainly adds depth to the game.
This game of hide and seek with the hidden glyphs is just a small part of the collectables side missions, which also were a key feature of the first game. Instead of flags, we now have feathers to find (just thankfully a lot less to find this time, being 100 in all). You also can collect the artwork featured within the game and assassin seals, which will unlock a special prize for collecting a complete set…
A few missions into the game, you gain ownership of a stronghold. This generates money on a 20 minute interval for Ezio to spend. The amount of revenue increases as you spend to have the villa shops and services renovated and upgraded, by placing collectibles in it and by upgrading Ezio’s armor and weaponry. This adds importance to finding the collectibles, as it makes the game slightly easier if you can afford to buy that top end equipment.
You will be pleased to know that there is a whole lot less faffing about in this game (which is a good point, as it was the original ones main drawback). Side missions are there mainly to act as a source of income and can include hitman contracts, races, courier missions and the ever popular “beat up the cheating husband”. These do not need to be completed, but doing at least one of each is good, just to get the achievements for doing so.
As this game is more storyline driven than the last, the missions can be completed at a pace to suit your own needs. If you want to rush on in and complete the game, you can do – the storyline allows for that. If you prefer to just take your time, find the feathers, glyph and admire the city you can do that also, without the game taking it out on you for not following the plot.
If you have seen any of the screenshots from the game, or viewed any in-game footage, you will know hoe pretty it looks. The cityscape is wonderfully rendered, with a distinct lack of fogging (so that you can see from one side of the city to the other), making finding viewpoints all the more worth it! Everything is detailed – from knots in wooden structures, to the flowing of hair upon Ezio’s head. If Ezio gets wet, he emerges from the water wet and drips for a considerable amount of time afterwards (ok Uncharted fans…I know this has already been done in your game, but it still should be featured in any game wishing to top the charts!)
The audio is fantastic – with the sickening sound of a sword cutting into someone ACTUALLY sounding like it is (I was almost physically sick when I heard that noise the other night). It has an incredible array of sound effects. The music score is also of note, but nowadays it is hard to find a game with a poor score! The only thing I will have to say that is poor about the sound is the voice acting of civilians. I find myself throwing money on the streets of Italy just so I can hear them say the same 6 phrases over and over. Ezio and the main cast have fantastic voice acting, but the civilians all seem too samey. I’m sure that may change in the next sequel.
Ezio is actually fairly simple to control, with lots of different button combinations fitting in fluidly with gameplay. Some amazing parkour can be achieved just by running and pushing “A” to jump. However, there are moments where Ezio’s movements will make you want to scream and physically jump in and thump Ezio (if that were possible, I’d avoid it…he is an assassin after all…). It can be frustrating trying to delicately climb a structure when all Ezio wants to do is to see what suicide feels like by jumping backwards from a 100ft tower. Still, with the lack of a lives system, you just pick it up and try again.
Another point of frustration is there are some missions that involves walking slowly with one NPC from one side of the city to another, whilst they talk. It all feels a bit pointless and a cutscene would have sufficed. But an interactive delivery of information is a way to make sure you take note of what is being said.
The game distinctly lacks a multiplayer function, which is a shame. A “blade in the crowd” style online deathmatch would be an awesome feature online as the way the crowds interact is fantastic. I couldn’t really see how a co-operative mode would work, but in vain they could try something like Splinter Cell did in some of their games. Nonetheless, the game can stand well just on its single player alone.
Overall, Assassin’s Creed II is an amazing game that is incredibly addictive. It has a very long story that should keep you occupied for a few weeks. Like all games it has a few cons, but these are far outnumbered by the number of pros. It is certainly a must buy title because a rental would not do it justice (you’ll probably have to pay the retail price in rental fees if you did rent to completion).
98%
Xbox 360
The original Assassin’s Creed was a game that took me by surprise. I had never heard of it until the boxes advertising its release started appearing in Game a week before it was due out and in all honesty I didn’t even know what it was about from then. I did buy it on release day however, but that was down to the amount of coaxing from a customer telling me how great it was and him pointing out the number of people who were in the store buying it.
I took the game home and was instantly stunned by the beauty of the levels and impressed with the original take on an action platformer. After completing the game, I learnt that it was meant to be one of a trilogy and that a sequel would be out within the next two years. I eagerly awaited its release and just hoped it lived up to expectation. This review should convey that it did, if not surpass that expectation.
Assassin’s Creed II follows from the events of the previous game, again set just in the future. The assistant, the attractive Lucy, that overlooked the testing process on Desmond, breaks him out of the testing facility and into a small cell group of assassins, which have their own way of testing Desmond. They use an upgraded Animus (a clever machine that allows people to see (and I believe be in control of) their ancestors memories, to locate secret information and items from the past.
Instead of travelling back to his ancestor Altair, who lived in the Crusades, Desmond now visits the memories of his ancestor Ezio, a handsome man who lived in Italy during the Renaissance period. It is Ezio you spend most time controlling in the game.
As with most games, the first levels allows the player to gain a sense of rapport with Ezio and is one where you perform pretty mundane tasks so that you can get to grips with the controls. However, this may sound boring, but actually being in control of a very acrobatic character in a wonderfully recreated world, they seem a pleasure.
Towards the end of the first level, Ezio’s father is framed and arrested, along with his brothers, and are to be hung in the morning. His father asks him to find a man, who ends up double-crossing the family and Ezio watches most of his family die. He is literally thrown into the world of lies and conspiracies and the assassin within Ezio is born.
The game is filled with historical facts and ideas, with the cities based on what they would have looked like back in the late 15th century. This attention to detail is a brilliant touch and it makes you feel like you are playing a top rated game. As you play, you will encounter many real world paintings, available for Ezio to purchase and admire.
These factual inclusions are used frequently in the “unlock the file” minigames. Somebody that was being studied in the Animus previously had discovered something of importance but only wanted another assassin to find it. So he broke up this file and hid them in glyphs on the side of buildings across Italy. Ezio has the task of finding them and then unlocking them through a puzzle. These puzzles vary from cracking a code, locating something in a painting or even creating a picture from pieces. There are 16 in total and it certainly adds depth to the game.
This game of hide and seek with the hidden glyphs is just a small part of the collectables side missions, which also were a key feature of the first game. Instead of flags, we now have feathers to find (just thankfully a lot less to find this time, being 100 in all). You also can collect the artwork featured within the game and assassin seals, which will unlock a special prize for collecting a complete set…
A few missions into the game, you gain ownership of a stronghold. This generates money on a 20 minute interval for Ezio to spend. The amount of revenue increases as you spend to have the villa shops and services renovated and upgraded, by placing collectibles in it and by upgrading Ezio’s armor and weaponry. This adds importance to finding the collectibles, as it makes the game slightly easier if you can afford to buy that top end equipment.
You will be pleased to know that there is a whole lot less faffing about in this game (which is a good point, as it was the original ones main drawback). Side missions are there mainly to act as a source of income and can include hitman contracts, races, courier missions and the ever popular “beat up the cheating husband”. These do not need to be completed, but doing at least one of each is good, just to get the achievements for doing so.
As this game is more storyline driven than the last, the missions can be completed at a pace to suit your own needs. If you want to rush on in and complete the game, you can do – the storyline allows for that. If you prefer to just take your time, find the feathers, glyph and admire the city you can do that also, without the game taking it out on you for not following the plot.
If you have seen any of the screenshots from the game, or viewed any in-game footage, you will know hoe pretty it looks. The cityscape is wonderfully rendered, with a distinct lack of fogging (so that you can see from one side of the city to the other), making finding viewpoints all the more worth it! Everything is detailed – from knots in wooden structures, to the flowing of hair upon Ezio’s head. If Ezio gets wet, he emerges from the water wet and drips for a considerable amount of time afterwards (ok Uncharted fans…I know this has already been done in your game, but it still should be featured in any game wishing to top the charts!)
The audio is fantastic – with the sickening sound of a sword cutting into someone ACTUALLY sounding like it is (I was almost physically sick when I heard that noise the other night). It has an incredible array of sound effects. The music score is also of note, but nowadays it is hard to find a game with a poor score! The only thing I will have to say that is poor about the sound is the voice acting of civilians. I find myself throwing money on the streets of Italy just so I can hear them say the same 6 phrases over and over. Ezio and the main cast have fantastic voice acting, but the civilians all seem too samey. I’m sure that may change in the next sequel.
Ezio is actually fairly simple to control, with lots of different button combinations fitting in fluidly with gameplay. Some amazing parkour can be achieved just by running and pushing “A” to jump. However, there are moments where Ezio’s movements will make you want to scream and physically jump in and thump Ezio (if that were possible, I’d avoid it…he is an assassin after all…). It can be frustrating trying to delicately climb a structure when all Ezio wants to do is to see what suicide feels like by jumping backwards from a 100ft tower. Still, with the lack of a lives system, you just pick it up and try again.
Another point of frustration is there are some missions that involves walking slowly with one NPC from one side of the city to another, whilst they talk. It all feels a bit pointless and a cutscene would have sufficed. But an interactive delivery of information is a way to make sure you take note of what is being said.
The game distinctly lacks a multiplayer function, which is a shame. A “blade in the crowd” style online deathmatch would be an awesome feature online as the way the crowds interact is fantastic. I couldn’t really see how a co-operative mode would work, but in vain they could try something like Splinter Cell did in some of their games. Nonetheless, the game can stand well just on its single player alone.
Overall, Assassin’s Creed II is an amazing game that is incredibly addictive. It has a very long story that should keep you occupied for a few weeks. Like all games it has a few cons, but these are far outnumbered by the number of pros. It is certainly a must buy title because a rental would not do it justice (you’ll probably have to pay the retail price in rental fees if you did rent to completion).
98%