Assassin's Creed II (2009)

Played through a bunch of the early game for the first time since Christmas 2009 - kind of an interesting revisit since I can see both how this formula and foundation eventually got very old and how its shortcomings didn’t matter at the time.

The brief modern day stuff at the very beginning, which I’ve forgotten most of the details of, felt really weak despite the fact that everyone seemingly misses it - guess that was partly just a case of unfulfilled potential. But once you get in Ezio’s shoes, it quickly gets better. I visited the old Florence area represented here recently in real life and found the visual anchoring that its river and amazing Duomo do from various vantage points to be a great aspect of being there, a natural fit for this game’s synchronization points and for the kind of concentrated urban environment that works well for the series. The game eagerly jumps into a few iconic landmarks in a way that gives it both a touristic appeal and a bit of historical gravity.

While early missions are somewhat boringly designed, and they along with the open wandering lead very frequently into the game’s pretty meh-feeling combat where a group of enemies often waits around for you to finish with the one you’re working on, they are at least doing a pretty good job with the early story setup. On a scene-by-scene basis, this feels somewhat uneven, and the facial animation (at least in this Ezio Collection version, can’t remember the original) is distractingly of an era where things just weren’t quite there yet, but I still think the narrative setup is pretty good as a whole. It also feels both pretty M rated and actiony while also vaguely “cultured” due to the setting so its appeal to a teen like me at release is obvious.

For me, I don’t think these likely really merit full replays, just not really fun or gripping enough to justify it especially after the series wore out its welcome many years ago, but I could totally see dipping back into more of their historical worlds for a bit.

Rating this game was a challenge for me. Assassin's Creed 2 is widely regarded as one of the best entries in the series, and it’s easy to see why. The medieval Italian setting, where you explore significant cities like Florence and Venice, along with the inclusion of historical figures such as Leonardo da Vinci and Lorenzo de' Medici, adds a captivating touch to the game. Leonardo, in particular, stood out as one my favorite characters.

The fighting mechanics and parkour system are generally very effective, contributing to an engaging gameplay experience. However, there were instances where these mechanics felt clunky and frustrating, along with some issues with the camera angles.

Certain missions, such as the catacomb stage, killing the nine lieutenants and collecting the 30 codex pages, were less enjoyable for me. The lack of fast travel made the extensive traveling quite tedious. Additionally, the story didn't resonate with me as much as I hoped it would.

Despite this, I think that Assassin's Creed 2 should be in everyone's must-play list

The sequel in what is now an impressively long-lasting series shows huge strides in improvements over the original. While graphics still suffered, the movement, character development, and fighting all received huge amounts of change for the better. None of these are without faults however, especially fighting.

Combat still is lacking in its fluidity and how easy it is to "cheese" certain encounters but then also get cheaply attacked by others. I do enjoy their expansion on weapons able to be used and having to change fighting styles based on the enemies you are against, but the new weapon types still show room for improvement as this is their debut.

As for the story, it pairs well being a sequel to Altair's story, as well as an original in its own future trilogy. Ezio is an amazing character given great backstory with his family and supporting characters, and a great villain with the returning Knights of Templar.

I played this game with the plan to 100% the achievement/trophy list, which I will say is quite the grind. Completing certain fighting tasks and collecting everything is not the where this game shines, but it does do a good job of breaking down what is still needed so you are not stuck guessing and checking like the first one.

All in all, Assassin's Creed II is a key part of the rising era of Ubisoft, but not quite in it's golden age where great worlds and stories are consistently the standard.

You can just feel the love and passion Ubisoft put into this game. Where the first game started the legacy of Assassin's Creed, this Cemented it. You see massive improvements in every aspect, from the number of weapons, to the additions to the map and the game as a whole. The only complain was that finding all the feathers was a serious pain, lol.

Extremely recommended.

Way better than ac1 in terms of mechanics and gameplay. The story at the beginning is cool and the music is top-notch. Most characters are pretty unremarkable and ezio doesn’t change or go through an arc or anything really unlike altair. He kind of goes through an arc but it’s super rushed like it happens between 5 mins. Stealth is a joke and combat is annoying and repetitive after a while. Parkour is meh but way faster than ac1. Ac1 has way more interesting villains and more complex moral ideas while ac2 sometimes has cartoonishly evil people at times and the templars are diff from ac1( Like the ideology). Also all the collectibles apart from the codex are trash especially the feathers since the rewards suck.

Idk if I’d recommend this game. It does become extremely boring and repetitive but it does have an ok balance of good moments. If you like the beginning, push yourself to play the game even if it bores you out a bit or in my case a lot.

SPOILERRR** Also the story is really fucking dumb at timesSpoiler*. The whole oh every person who u allied uo with to this point was an assassin and they were training u was so fucking dumb. It makes no sense why they wouldn’t share this info with ezio and it’s a lazy way to tie up loose ends and connect the story. The ending, while ok still sort of sucks. The alien people are cool but some of the stuff they say makes no sense. I won’t critique the aliens just yet because they might give more info in future games. Not killing Rodrigues barbagio is some dumb shit. I get killing him won’t make your family come back but ezio is a fucking assassin and he’s a fucking Templar who might just kill any remaking friends/family Ezio has.

Sorry for the spelling mistakes I wrote it fast

daddy ezio has to get revenge all the mfs that set up his family and the vibes are immaculate, and I just really enjoy dicking about in Renaissance Italy ok

Pros:

1. gameplay, characters and plot are all significantly improved from AC1
2. mission structure and variety also improved
3. historical personages add some extra spicy fun for all u history buffs, i a mere art historian, also enjoyed the attention to detail in the architecture and paintings
4. ezio is a hot hunka prime grade italian beef, why doncha come up and stab me sometime
5. fun set-pieces

cons:

1. ezio is not real

and yes i DID collect all the feathers. recee estcat apache to my fav little pigeon fetishist

I'm working my way through the Assassin's Creed series and I must say, when I first started playing creed 2, I was a bit overwhelmed. There were so many new aspects and controls that were similar but different that at first I thought I was going to hate it. Slowly, as I let the game guide me through the plot, I started to get a feel for the game and really began to like it. Their is a sweet spot in the middle of the game where your used to the controls, the flow of the game and are earning enough money that you can do whatever you want in a sense. At this point the game takes on so much more life and directionality that you can really start to play your own way.

Things that I liked in this game over the original: The cut scenes were much much MUCH shorter The loud and obnoxiously repeating beggar women from Creed 1 have been replaced with bards attempting to serenade you and their overtures are only really present when they are right in your face. I didn't like how you don't auto heal over time and because you are more connected to Enzio via the animus you don't have as much freedom to fall off things without hurting yourself and/or dying. This becomes less of an issue after you start earning money and increase your health potential. Their are alot of side quests and play at your own pace options which I found super fun. You can collect a bunch of different things (paintings, weapons, armor etc) so you can dally through the game as much as you want buying treasure maps and doing side-hustles like unlocking glyphs and mini puzzles. The optional historical pop ups for characters and places are really interesting and add character to game play Better overall graphics and effects Their are interactive cut scenes (but unlike some games if you miss the prompt it just moves on with a slightly different story)

Things I was not so fond of in this game: Their is alot of cursing so I can't play it around my nephews There are alot of courtesans, seductions of women and general non-bad-ass-ery of women throughout the game. I mean, even the woman thief has to get rescued by Enzio and afterwards has the super hots for him the whole time. (I know their are some bad-ass female assassins' to come in later versions, so I'm told, and looking forward to seeing those!) The assassins' tomb side quests are more often than not a nod to Prince of Persia and focus on balance and jumping challenges. This is a cool concept but the controls and play of the game and Enzio's more 'heavy' character make for not-so-easy tasks that can have you cursing at your tv after 10 failed attempts.

General Game Glitches: On the xbox controller to select and switch weapons can be finicky and a pain to switch on the fly The LS motion control can get so sensitive that even if you are facing and pointing in the right direction, Enzio will leap off in the totally wrong direction Characters still can get stuck running into walls In some sections their are alot of mandatory camera POV switches that throw you off and can get super frustrating when paired up with, lets say, a speed challenge in an assassins' tomb quest

Overall a great game and one that I have really enjoyed playing

While it's a huge improvement over the first game, I still don't enjoy the gameplay much. It's weird! Feels like a game stuck between different generations. I played better and older stealth games, but, I think the main difference is Assassin's Creed is trying to accomplish stealth and other mechanics in a big, populated city. For instance, it's not totally fair to compare it to Splinter Cell, which is played in a very narrow environment and has very few enemies. I wanna continue only because of the beautiful city design but I'm starting to think that this series is just not for me.

By the way, I think "gently push" may be the most useless game mechanic ever :) If only we had a cover or a slow walk button instead of it.

Yes, yes I did play Assassin's Creed 2.

It's marginally better, just by virtue of having more stuff in it. You know, the "2"-ness of it.

Mechanically it is still just as bad, just as shallow, just as stupid. I still have to hold R down the entire goddam game, I still have to do stupid trailing missions, I still have to do stealth sequences without ANY support from actual stealth mechanics (like, you know, a reasonable cover system like Splinter Cell has. Anything at all other than hiding in a bush or among conspicuously placed hooded NPCs).

I just hate this series.

And yes, I also played 4 - everything that wasn't on a sailing ship has the exact same criticisms and was a complete waste of time. This series is mechanically bankrupt and the fact that everyone likes it makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills

Assassins Creed 2 is everything you would expect from a sequel. Takes best elements of it's predecessor and builds on it a great game.

The game follows a story of Ezio Auditore - a character I found extremely annoying at first but learned to like by the end of a game. This time the story is set in renaissance era of Italy with action taking in a couple of Italian towns like Florence, Venice, Tuscany.

Ezio is introduced a s reckless playboy character until both his father and brother are hanged for treason. Only then Ezio learns that his father was an assassin and begin his journey into the ranks of assassins. The story this time is a bit more linear than in the original Assassin's Creed but there is no lack of side activities to torment the completionists. Same as previously we follow the modern-time story of Desmond who re-lives the life of Ezio. And as previously the time spent outside the animus feels like totally necessary.

Mechanics wise this game improves on original game in almost every aspect. Drops the tedious repetitive missions in favour of more catered story driven missions this time. Crowd blending has been vastly improved making it more natural than previously. Notoriety has been introduced which can be removed by bribes or taking down wanted poster. It is really fun trying to navigate through a town having highest notoriety with guards alerted to your presence if you're not careful enough. Combat was also refined giving a wider array of moves.

Graphics hold up till this day - although you can tell the age when you're outside the town and it feels a bit empty. Inside cities however there's nothing to be picky about. The designs gives a good feel for the time period. The cities are well designed and fun to travel through either by foot or taking the rooftops.

Overall a big improvement to the original one and a really fun game that still holds up very well. Definitiely worth playing.