Assassin's Creed II
The new installment from Ubisoft was one of the most awaited games from my part but I only managed to play both AC1 and AC2 this year. After finishing AC1 in May, I gave it a shot and I almost finished it (only last part to go). I purchased through Steam, the deluxe edition, which includes the extra map packs for the Templar Lairs and also has the DLC included, Battle of Forli and Bonfire of the Vanities.
Play time - 65+ hours
Review
Technical side
First of all, I played it on a Dell XPS M1710 with a slightly overclocked Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 at 2.0GHZ, 3.2GB RAM, 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900GS and on Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit. I did have some lag but it didn't affect the overall gameplay, apart from the cutscenes which lagged badly because they had no optimisation at all.
Furthermore - the DRM issue.
No problem.
Seriously, I had no problem with it. I have a high speed wireless connection at home and I never had any fall downs or interruptions. Never.
Only issue - save games. Two times I had to redo approx 2-3 hours of gameplay because it did not save.
Rating: - 7/10
Why? DRM issue is a problem to many. I didn't have any problem whatsoever but so many people had it, I had to dodge off a point. The other 2 are for the bad optimisation. I played it on another, more powerful computer and I still experienced some sort of lag. Albeit almost unnoticeable, it was still there and it showed that the optimisation issue is not only on my computer.
Graphics
Stunning. Visually stunning. I took lots of in game photographs which I saved to my Xfire profile and which I will post later, but there's nothing much on this part that can be criticised. The water looks superb as well, and climbing the viewpoints reveals some great graphical work.
And very exact, I must add. The amount of research done - staggering.
Only issue - textures on some of the buildings may look a bit blurry.
It is not much of an improvement over AC1 but it still is very good.
Rating: 10/10
Here's a quick picture, over Venezia:
Gameplay
Ezio. Well Ezio is an assassin. But he is not.
Altair was an assassin. Ezio is more of a renaissance statesman interested in the finer aspects of life. Altair was a brutal, no nonsense assassin who got the job done. Ezio is not.
But otherwise, the plot and the whole game is incredible. Ubisoft made a massive overhaul of the whole system and this is clearly shown in the complexity of the whole story, the believable characters and the enjoyable experience that this game offers you. Some parts may look a bit outlandish to some of the more critical games but it does not prevent you from enjoying the game to the maximum. This is probably one of the biggest improvements in terms of gameplay I have ever seen in a sequel, if not the best.
Some points regarding the new game:
- the traditional blending from Altair exists no longer, which annoyed me sometimes - stealth missions are harder to do since you can only blend inside a group of people
- courtesans, mercenaries and thieves - groups you can hire to do your bidding - a great plus but I have only used them sparingly since you can do without
- your base - Monteriggioni is a great example of having your own base to start from, and I loved the idea to improve it - I only wished this was a bigger feature of the game!
- lots and lots of new weapons - except the hidden blade is my favourite
- SIDE MISSIONS - many players will say AC2 will only offer you around 30 hours of gameplay - but that is without the superb side missions that are a must for an AC2 fan - assassination missions, courier, beat up and some other small items
- historical discovery - whole cities, Assassin seals, Codex pages... great addition
Overall, lots of fun for the gameplay, greatly improved over AC1.
Rating - 9/10
Why? It gets tiring by the end. The wow factor completely disappears and you just want to finish it once and for all.
Audio
Great work in this department as well. The voice acting is superb, I honestly felt like I was watching a movie. Characters were very realistic in Italy, not so in the "current world" department. Felt as if I was watching 2012 or other conspiracy theory movie.
Rating: 10/10
Overall feel
I have very mixed feelings about it. It is a great game, heavily improved over the first except that in their desire to improve on every chapter, they lost some of the substance AC1 had. Sure, AC1 was very linear and repetitive but it had substance.
Altair was a true assassin, a character who knew what to do, who to assassin. Ezio, well he's more of a ladies man than a real assassin. He's much more relaxed, more laid back. Altair was serious, you really felt he was a force to be reckoned with. The Renaissance setting creates a positive world for Ezio to act in so in essence he is helped a lot by the unsure reality of the era, where scheming, plotting, assassination and ruthless individuals are lurking at every corner.
The missions for Ezio reflect this character as well, Ezio spends more time talking and trying to avoid rather than following the orders. While I appreciate this now (he's not a puppet), it takes more soul out of the "assassin" ideal because assassins were ordered to kill, they did not go after on their own.
Rating - 8/10.
Overall?
44/50 - 88%
Really recommend this. Buy it from Steam with the additional three map packs that show the Templar Lairs for added AC2 fun. This includes the DLC packs as well.
Happy assassinating!