My review of Assassin's Creed 2

I started off my Assassin's Creed experience with this game. I beat this one before I started with the first one and I found myself just not caring enough about the original to continue with it. I suppose that I wanted to see where the story went next as opposed to where it had been.




The story follows Desmond Miles who is caught up in the present day war between the Templars (bad guys who want to enslave the world) and the Assassins (The people trying to stop them from doing that). He goes into a machine called an 'Animus' that allows him to relive the memories of his ancestors so he can figure out modern day secrets. The ancestor he lives through in this game is Ezio Auditore Da Firenze (Florence) and he lives through Ezio's memories as Ezio attempts to kill the people who murdered his father and brothers as well as unraveling the mysteries of the pieces of Eden while fighting the enemies of the Assassin order. The makers of this game clearly put a lot of effort into the story and it definitely shows here. The game has a great story (complete with end-of-game cliffhangers of course) that leave the player coming back wanting to play more. I like the story because while it offers a lot of gameplay, it is not so long that you start to lose interest in the game itself.


Speaking of the gameplay, I had a blast playing it. The controls are not difficult to master at all. They kind of are at first because the game shows you symbols of what buttons to press. So, instead of saying press E to go into 'Eagle Vision' it shows an icon of a yellow head and eventually the player learns that this means press E (Unless the player has set the controls otherwise...also, as a side note, I played this on a PC). Thankfully the game teaches you how to fight pretty early on so you looking at an icon of a blue hand will make sense to you when it comes time for combat.

Another thing about this game that is really cool are that assassinations. Hiding in a haystack? With one click of a button you stab a guard in the back and pull him in. Hanging off the edge of a building? Click and stab a guard in the nuts and pull him off the building to his doom. You get the idea. One addition to this game that I loved was the duel hidden blade feature. You can now walk up to two guards and stab them BOTH in the face. With one you have to pick which one you stab and then fight the other one. In a game like this, cool kills are a must and this game totally delivers on that.


ON the flipside, this game flirts on the edge of what David Wong of Cracked.com calls 'padding the length of your games' There are moments (few and far between) where you have to run or ride to a destination that is far away from where you are going. It doesn't happen often and when it does you usually have something to occupy your time with (such as throwing guards off of the carriage you are driving). But it flirts the line.


Another negative of the game is the minute side missions that you can do. these are things such as delivering letters, races, and beating up people. I gotta say that while I can see why they are int here, I don't feel that they need to be. Why may you ask? Because only the most devoted player to the game will actually start doing them once the main story is over and even fewer are going to do a lot of them during the story. I mean, which would you rather do? Deliver a letter to someone else's lover or sneak into a restricted area patrolled by dozens of guards to stab an evil Templar in the back of the neck? The second one of course. This is Assassin's Creed, not Paper Boy. Get someone else to deliver your darn mail. I have to save the world dang it!

Having said that, the assassination missions, while still missions that few will actually get around to doing, are okay because when you start one you actually get to finish it by stabbing some bozo in the neck....twice if you want.

Also, the glyphs that 'Subject 16' leaves in the game (I'd go further into that but it is best if you play the game to get the full info on that) are great because they add a new challenge to the game and it adds a new element to the already great story including famous moments in time that are given the Assassin Vs. Templar touch.


Also it must be said that the graphics of the game are spectacular. I doubt that anyone knew that we would go from this kind of story game graphics

To this kind

It's amazing isn't it? That is definitely a plus.




I know that there is some controversy about these games for being too violent and especially for its religious themes. Well come on people, it is a work of fiction. Does Ezio say some stuff that I disagree with? Of course. But it is a fictional game and unless I see otherwise, I doubt that the designers would say 'Let's make this game Ubisoft's official policy on life and religion." There would be no way to get away with that.

One more negative, throughout the game you are running around and you run into people called minstrels. They run in front of you and try to sing to you. They are only there to get in your way and nothing else. No they cannot be killed. You can pickpocket them and they go away. My point is, they are absolutely pointless. There is no reason to have them at all. I hope the 4th one doesn't have them at all.

Overall, this game is really fun and I would highly suggest getting it if you haven't already. It isn't amazingly violent either. Is their blood? Yep but its not like a geyser spews out every time Ezio stabs someone. Cool kills combined with a spectacular story combined with excellent graphics game this a game worth having and worth playing.



My official rating of the game: 9.4/10