15th century conspiracy, murder, scantly clad prostitutes, combined with a family of assassins can’t be a bad thing, can it? Find out after the break.
What’s HOT:
- The story-line and locale is such a breath of fresh air for open-world games.
- Visually beautiful with a steady frame rate
- Voice-acting is top notch
- The soundtrack is one of my favorites of 2009.
- Combat and free-running is smooth and satisfying
- 15th century prostitutes
What’s NOT:
- Free running hiccups occassionally leave you jumping off of buildings instead of onto small platforms
- Character models look a lot less detailed when viewed through close-ups.
- A tad slow starting up. Once you're past the first 2 hours of the game though, it's smooth sailing.
The Verdict: Buy!
I’ve had it with open-world titles. It's the type of genre that’s fun to start but can be a drag to complete. You play one of these games and you've played them all. At least those were my opinions on open-world action adventures before I played AC II. Aside from the obvious beautiful visuals and the only game I’ve ever played to be set in 15th century Italy, every element that makes up Assassins Creed II feels refined and new.
While later plot points begin to do nothing more than confuse the player, in the end it all makes sense. Enzo, Desmond, and the fictional world that makes up the Assassins Creed universe should be held high in rank against bland war stories and space marines.
When you’re not playing through memory sequences which tell a story of revenge, conspiracy, religion, and “The Templar”, you’re left with Italy in all of its amazing 15th century architecture. 20+ hours of gameplay will come with little to no effort put into any of the side-missions available to play through. While many of the side-missions are standard-fare in open-world games, there are a few that stand out. Those few missions tie into the plot of Assassins Creed II and, for the first time in a while, really pulled me into completing what I would typically call boring fetch-quests.
If you’ve never played the first Assassins Creed, welcome to the club. Not playing through AC had no effect on my understanding of what was going on in the second installment. Assassins Creed II is more than what I expected it to be. It’s the epitome of a Rockstar game in a much more interesting locale. Free-running, fighting, assassinating, remodeling my villa, and collecting & solving both the Codex pages and “The Truth” glyphs are all too much fun to miss out on. If you’re looking to close the year out in a great way, close it out with Assassins Creed II.
- Jeffrey d
