The first Assassins Creed was a polarizing game. At the one end, people were highly impressed with its new gameplay mechanics and ability to bring a historic city to life. But on the other hand, people complained about the game’s simplicity and repetition.

With Assassins Creed 2, Ubisoft have made significant improvements and additions that not only address these complaints, but also deliver a much more entertaining and satisfying experience. 

Players will take the role of Ezio, who is also a descendent from the line of Assassins. The game takes place in Italy during the resonance period in the late 15^th century. His father, also an assassin, is betrayed that results in his death and that of his two of sons. Ezio takes it upon himself to get revenge and uncover the conspiracy.

Taking it to the next level:

The scope of the game is vast and the primary missions alone can take more than twenty hours to complete. That being said the missions vary quite well and often put the player in unique scenarios and settings. This solves the problem of repetition. Although the graphics do not have a huge overhaul (they did not need to anyway), the cities of Italy are bought alive with great precision.

The long campaign allowed Ubisoft to develop their characters and deliver a fulfilling and complete story. The game starts of a little slow as players take the role of Ezio before he becomes a full fledged assassin. But this additional time is well spent as it goes a long way in developing the character. The length of the game also allowed for the character development and explanation of Ezio’s enemies’ roles in the conspiracy against his family. This added information attached a certain emotion into the assassination targets. I really liked the pacing of the game.

Best of all, the game only puts you in the shoes of Desmond a total of three times. The latter two of which actually make Desmond fun to play with.

Taking care of business:

The game grants the player many tools and tricks that also aid in providing a lot of variety to the game. Rather than waiting for priests to make their rounds, Ezio can blend into any group of people. Furthermore he can hire escorts or thieves to distract guards or hire mercenaries to aid him in a battle. In addition Ezio can also use smoke bombs or simply drop some money on the ground to cause some confusion. But perhaps the best tool is the poison which makes guards wail around their weapon randomly.  If timed properly, this can be used to take out assassination targets.

To complement the various techniques and methods that can be used, the game is easy. This encourages the player to take risks and try out different methods. You can always attempt to rush in and battle your way through to get to your objective, but such a strategy can get very tedious and is definitely not how the game is meant to be played.

By far one of the most satisfying aspects of the game is the way you can take out enemies. Ezio comes equipped with two hidden blades. Walking towards a group of guards and instantly stabbing two of them in the face is by far one of the coolest things I’ve done in a video game this year.

New to the sequel is the ability to disarm opponents. This makes the larger weapons such as axes and pole arms accessible. The counter and finishing moves using these heavy weapons are also very slick. More than just combat, it’s the way Ezio talks and even walks that have a coolness factor about him. The responsive controls gave me a can do attitude and made me feel completely in charge.

Taking care of the secondary objectives:

Assassins Creed 2 solves the problem of tedious secondary objectives by making them highly rewarding and unique. The two main secondary objectives felt so important that I treated them like primaries. One of the objectives has the player navigate through six tombs so as to unlock Altair’s armour. These tombs were fun to traverse through but due to the simplicity in the controls were not as satisfying as the platforming in the Prince of Persia series.

The other secondary objective required the investigation of mysterious markings left by subject 16 (you play Desmond who is subject 17). Gaining access to the clues required solving some mind bending puzzles. Some of these puzzles were very hard if not trivial. I personally used a guide to solve them because I wanted to spend my time playing the actual game. But solving them is highly recommended as it uncovers an important video that reveals more information in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

The Cliff Hangar:

Those of you that have been following Assassin’s Creed 2 may have heard about the game ending in a cliff hangar. Rest assured that the game completes the story of Ezio and only uses the cliff hangar to create curiosity for the next instalment. Without giving much away, this was one of the wildest cliff hangars I have witnessed in a video game and makes me very interest for AC3.

Final Word:

The fact that I only had an issue with one of the optional quests of the game is a strong testament to the greatness of this game. The generic missions are replaced with a remarkable variety of missions and a great assortment of tools and techniques at Ezio’s disposal. The controls are responsive and fluid. The moves and animations have a really ‘cool’ feel to them.  Through its steady pacing the game delivers a remarkable and thorough story. All these factors help the game transcend to a new medium where I really felt like I lived the life of a great assassin.  

Genre: Action Adventure

Platform: PS3, Xbox 360 (Reviewed on Xbox 360)

Developed and Published by: Ubisoft