Platform: X360, PS3, PC

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Genre: Action

Released: November 17, 2009

Ubisoft’s ambitious open-world action series is back with Assassin’s Creed II. While the first game had players stealth-killing and leaping across rooftops in the middle east during the Crusades, this time around the action takes place in Renaissance Italy. The setting may not be as controversial or politically relevant as that of the first game, but it’s easily one of the most compelling reasons to play Assassin’s Creed II. The developers have reconstructed cities like Florence and Venice, some of the most architecturally impressive areas in the world, to an almost exact likeness of their appearance in Renaissance times. If a famous building or bridge was only half-finished in those days you’ll see it under construction in the game. Anytime you encounter a famous piece of architecture you can not only climb it, but stop to read about the actual history of the structure if you desire. Even if architecture isn’t your thing; all the water, stone, and culture of Renaissance Italy acts as a beautiful backdrop for the story.

You play as Ezio, a brash young ladies man who’s quickly thrust from his carefree life onto a dark path to avenge the death of his family. While the onset of the story is an all too familiar tale of revenge, Ezio will quickly earn your empathy and the story will become exceedingly more complex and engaging as time goes on. There’s actually a story within a story taking place here and newcomers to the series may be a bit confused initially. The frame story takes place in the present day and ties all of these Assassin’s Creed games together. There’s a brief rundown of the plot early in the game so new players shouldn’t feel too disconnected, especially since Ezio’s story is both the central focus and completely new to this game.

As the title implies you do a lot of sneaking and killing in this series, but it’s not as stealth-centric as you might imagine. You can approach missions in Assassin’s Creed II entirely from the shadows if you choose: carefully picking off archers with throwing knives, waiting to ambush lone guards, and hiding bodies in stacks of hay to avoid detection, but typically you don’t have to be that careful. Games built around stealth, like Metal Gear Solid, can be rather unforgiving if you are discovered while sneaking around, but in AC2 you can usually complete your assassination missions in a number of ways including charging in rambo-style for direct combat. The variety of killing options is welcomed and fitting for an open-world game, but hidden-blade kills are easily the most satisfying of the available choices. This game introduces dual hidden-blades so you can simultaneously kill two adjacent enemies at once from the ground or by leaping onto their backs from a rooftop. These kills are overwhelmingly stylish, graceful, and truly never get old. You can also use the hidden-blades while hanging from a ledge to pluck guards off of it and toss them to their death or from a hiding spot to kill and simultaneously hide bodies out of plain sight. While you get to use these tactics often, it’s a shame
there aren’t even more opportunities to do so since these elaborate hidden-blade maneuvers are the most entertaining and satisfying abilities in the game.

Several characters assist Ezio on his quest for vengeance, including Leonardo Da Vinci who constructs a number of useful tools like the wrist pistol or flying machine. The time spent with these allies in preparation for each major assassination is somewhat of a bonding experience, which is a nice contrast to the bland and forgettable supporting characters of the original game. Mechanical grinds and procedures no longer break apart the flow of the story like they did in the first Assassin’s Creed. In fact Ubisoft listened to and addressed all of the major complaints players had with the original game including issues with countering and water. In AC1 even the toughest combat situations could be overcome simply by repeatedly countering enemies for an instant kill and if your character so much as came into contact with water in the previous game you would drown instantly. In Assassin’s Creed II water is no longer the angel of death, but yet another potential method for eluding guards. Swimming and diving isn’t particularly fun or interesting unto itself, but it’s a welcomed change to have it on your side. Countering is no longer the end-all solution in combat either, but it is still quite effective. For enemies that are highly resistant or altogether unaffected by countering, new abilities are available including grabbing, disarming, or throwing sand in their face. Additionally you can take weapons from fallen or disarmed enemies, such as spears or lances, and perform unique ranged and sweeping attacks. These features add some variety to the combat, but it’s unfortunate how unnecessary they are to success. I found myself able to simply mash the attack button to wear down and trump advanced enemies or even to take out the main assassination targets at almost any point throughout the game. The ability to spam counter-attacks has seemingly been replaced by the ability to spam regular attacks. Still, combat situations arise in which you are completely surrounded and must do something a little trickier than mash the attack button.

Despite all of the resolved issues from the first game a notable new one has come to light, which either didn’t exist in AC1 or wasn’t readily apparent. Free-running, or quickly and intuitively climbing most surfaces in the game with a single-button, was and still is a big appeal of the series. However, the freerunning in AC2 doesn’t seem quite as smooth. That is, Ezio will occasionally attach to unintended surfaces or plummet to his death from great heights instead of making a jump to a nearby ledge as intended. Most of the time this isn’t an issue, but it happens often enough to be noteworthy. The discrepancy could lie with the fact that the architecture in the first game was, for the most part, symmetrical and rectangular, so freerunning was probably easier to achieve on those simple surfaces rather than on the more complex renaissance architecture. Certain freerun paths expedite travel and are pretty entertaining (like swinging around a corner via a tethered potted plant), but others paths like flat vertical climbs are slow and become tired after several hours of play. You may be tempted to simply run through the streets to your next destination rather than hop across rooftops, which is unfortunate, but the lack of truly expedient freerun paths often deems it so.

A few puzzle, sim, and equipment elements have been thrown into Assassin’s Creed II for flavor. None of these elements are major game changers, but they’re all pretty fun when they pop up. The puzzles are wrapped up in ‘DaVinci Code-esque’ historical conspiracy theories and they’re presented in a creepy, but involving way. Essentially you have to align portions of famous Renaissance paintings, perform number or word substitutions, and decipher messages left behind by a now mentally broken man who’s stumbled onto a hidden truth and left behind these encrypted clues for you. Eventually Ezio will come to own a villa and you can use the money earned from missions, found in chests, or pickpocketed to renovate and open shops there. The renovations generate money as the game clock runs and you can collect this money at any time to further invest into the villa or to purchase equipment for your character. Ezio can have a plethora of weapons and armor equipped at any given time and more becomes available in shops as you progress through the game. Higher quality armor adds more to your life bar and higher quality weapons inflict more damage at greater speeds. It’s not an elaborate equipment system, but it’s fun to upgrade and you can certainly feel the difference new gear brings to combat.

The developers managed to crank this game out in 18 months, which is rather astounding since they not only fixed the major issues seen in the first game, but also essentially modeled all of Renaissance Italy for an open-world experience. There’s still a few gameplay mechanics in this series that need to be smoothed out, but with the success and popularity of both games and the note the story ends on in AC2 we are sure to see the next evolution of Assassin’s Creed in the near future. Since there’s no multiplayer and this game and all of its achievements can be completed within a few days, I’d give it a very strong rental recommendation. I finished it quickly, but I also couldn’t put it down once I started.

My Score: 8/10

You can find other reviews, as well as downloadable games, mods, and other game related content on my website: PhantomTap.com