Backlogged Gamer Review: Assassin’s Creed II

     Like a lot of gamers circa 2007, I purchased Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed, played it for several hours, then grew tired of the repetitive nature of the game. It had lackluster controls and required endless traveling on horseback to get from one city to another. The arduous task of acquiring enough evidence to finally assassinate a target was a lionshare of the gameplay. The assassination missions were in very public locales where stealth was highly difficult if not near impossible. Having never finished it, I moved on and put Assassin’s Creed on the shelf. I took notice as other games in the AC series were released, always reading reviews and keeping up with where Ubisoft was taking their IP. I even picked up my copy of the original game a couple times over the years, never getting more than a few minutes into it before remembering why I had put it down in the first place.

     Cut to July of 2013 when Assassin’s Creed II was offered as a free download as part of Microsoft’s “Games for Gold”. I’d read Ubisoft had listened to gamers’ complaints of their first outing and had made several improvements for the second installment. So, I decided to give the franchise a second chance.

     The Assassin’s Creed series is built around the conflict between Templars and Assassins, with a twist. The majority of gameplay is actually a virtual reality simulation of DNA memories inside a machine called the Animus. AC2 sees current day protagonist Desmond return shortly after the events of AC1. He and his undercover handler Lucy break out of the lab run by the Abstergo company, the current day Templars that AC’s Altair was always after during the Crusades. They meet up with two new characters - Shaun and Rebecca - at a hidden warehouse where a makeshift Animus lounger is setup for Desmond to jump back into history. This time however, he begins to relive the memories of a different ancestor, Italian born Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

     Ezio’s father and brother are publicly killed in the town square early on which sets the stage for the main revenge plot of the game. One of AC2’s biggest faults is that from that point on its extremely difficult to figure out what Ezio is really accomplishing. Around halfway through the campaign a portly Spaniard named Rodrigo Borgia appears. You’re told he was the mastermind behind the death of Ezio’s relatives, but its unclear why. Along the way you discover most of Ezio’s cohorts are actually members of the assassins brotherhood and he is destined to fulfill a prophecy. The game also continues the search for magical artifacts know as “Pieces of Eden”, in particular one know as the “Apple”.

     There is a decade long jump late in the game wherein Borgia becomes Pope even though he never appeared to be a priest, bishop, cardinal or even a young Ewan McGregor. This missing period was later released as DLC, but its a bit jarring to leave out a large chunk of story from the core experience.

     In the end, Ezio corners Rodrigo in the Vatican where he is attempting to open a door with the Apple. This is where the game takes its biggest left turn and attempts to inject more of its sci-fi storyline. Behind the door Ezio is greeted by a hologram of a woman called Minerva who tells him that she’s part of a race of beings that have been around since long before humanity and a giant disaster is about to fall mankind. She then tells Ezio she isn’t actually talking to him, but through him. According to Minerva the fate of the world rest in Desmond’s hands, to which both he and Ezio aptly reply with a big WTF.

     The high point of the AC2 narrative is Leonardo Da Vinci. Ezio befriends a young Leonardo who deciphers codex pages that are found throughout the world map. He uses these to upgrade Ezio’s arsenal and even invents a glider used in a small amount of missions. The interactions between these two characters are humorous and engaging, plus they add a copious amount of alternate history to the storyline.

     The assassin tombs are another highlight, albeit entirely optional. These short segments are devised entirely of platform jumping and climbing through enclosed maps. The objective is to locate the final resting place of fallen assassins where you are rewarded with keys. If all six are located you gain access to Altair’s armour and sword, which rest comfortably behind a gate beneath Ezio’s palace at Monteriggioni.

     Released in 2009, Assassin’s Creed II holds up fairly well graphically. The textures are high res and never appear pixelated. There is some draw in of objects and textures as you run through towns, but its not overly distracting. Ezio’s armor is rendered with great detail and his flowing robes are the high point in a rather impressive and vast open world. The one area this 4 year old game shows its age is in narrative cutscenes. The character models appear crude and blocky and these scenes seem much lower resolution than the rest of the game, which is odd given how well the rest of the open world is rendered.

     While the controls have been improved over AC1 they are still fundamentally broken. Any time you are required to chase a NPC you can bet that at some point Ezio will take a 90 degree jump from the direction you intended and you’ll end up losing your target. You’ll have the right trigger held down for 90% of the game in order to run, which becomes second nature but begs the question as to why the analog control sticks weren’t utilized better for foot speed. There is only a context sensitive jump button, so Ezio will only jump with the right trigger pulled and if he is near a jumping point. Combat is basically a game of wait until the guard strikes and press X to counter. If you try to hit an adversary with your sword or dagger before a counter they will always deflect the hit. You never quite feel like you are a master assassin, but instead are waiting for prompts to trigger kill animations. These all combine to be very frustrating elements that a game based on free-running swordplay should have addressed out of the gate, especially since they were all faults of the initial outing.

     Where AC2 shines is the inclusion of RPG elements such as using currency to upgrade Ezio’s armor, weapons, and accessories. You even have the ability to dye Ezio’s robes a handful of various colors. The shops in Monteriggioni can be reopened for a fee, but in turn earn you money every twenty minutes, and eventually you’ll find yourself with more money than you know what to do with. These are mostly optional objectives, but they add depth to the open world’s non-mission gameplay, and I found myself spending more time outside of the campaign because of them. You can also use your florins to fast travel to multiple points in every city, negating the scenic horseback rides required in the original AC game.

     Assassin’s Creed is based on an idea of being able to relive history via virtual reality memories, but ultimately it is an unnecessary one. Desmond’s role in the game is short. Even with his ability to gain assassin skills through cyber osmosis it doesn’t feel like the Animus adds anything to the game other than a minor sidetrack that makes you appreciate Ezio more. Perhaps its yet to be revealed to me exactly why they went this direction with the story, and a grand plan is indeed at work. I can’t help but think the overall experience would be just as satisfying if the overall arc of the series was told game to game with different assassins throughout history sans the sci-fi element altogether. Ubisoft did make vast improvements in the follow up to Assassin’s Creed, but still left a few things to be desired. All in all, AC2 was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and I’m glad to have given the franchise a second chance.

 Written by: fluoddity