The first Assassin’s Creed had promise and a huge lot of hype when it arrived in stores back in 2007 however many gamers found the game to be a massive disappointment – repetitive tasks and lengthy travelling made the whole experience feel like a chore.
Ubisoft Montreal has done a great job of fixing most of the issues with Assassin’s Creed in its second installment – actually, it’s done more than that, it has improved the whole gameplay to make it one of the year’s best games.
The game is set in the Italian 15th and 16th century and is focused around a new character, a charismatic Florentine named Ezio. Unlike the robotic Altaïr before him, the protagonist breathes life into the game’s storyline and injects a little human touch to otherwise cold-blooded missions. The visual flair also adds to this vibrant feel of the gameplay; from carnivale in Venice to the beautiful reconstruction of Florence, everything looks stunning and really add to the game’s overall appeal. With five of these highly detailed and expansive city states to explore, you’ll find it even more fun to leap from roof to roof, stalking, stabbing and sneaking around in the environment’s cinematic style.
Like the first game, at times you find yourself controlling Desmond – a character set in the modern who uncovers that the Templar Knights from the first game still exist and are trying to take over the world. Ezio is a member of The Assassins – as the name of the game clearly suggests – the medieval version of the Inglourious Basterds, if you like, and is trying to stop them and expose their global conspiracy.
The game starts off slowly as early missions involve running errands for your family, but quickly picks up the pace once you finally don your assassin’s outfit. Both the nature of the missions and Ezio’s character give the beginning of the game a light-hearted and human touch, which, despite the slow pace, is very much fitting for story that unfolds later.
Cutomisation options are broad, with many different combinations of armor, weapons and outfits to collect. The game also boasts a (very) loose levelling up system, as this armor and other collectables increase health, attack and defence powers. Though it could perhaps be argued that the wide range of collectables is almost too large, as finding each and every feather, statue and codex page can prove somewhat tiresome and a needless extension to the game’s already 20-25 hour-long gameplay.
Apart from this and a few niggling graphics glitches from time to time, the game is very worthy of its place in any self-respecting XBOX or PS3 owner’s game collection.
Metacritic score: 91
