Assassins Creed 2 | Xbox 360 | Third-Person Adventure | November 20th, 2009

The original Assassins Creed, released in 2007, was a highlight of the year with its parkour adventure model. The only problem it had was that it was too rigid and confined to be considered a classic. Now, here we are 2 years later and in comes Assassins Creed II. Building off the same model as the first game, Assassins Creed II completely reinvents what the first game did and adds on a new experience on top of that. What we have is a game that is what the first one should have been. Is the game able to take the next step into becoming an instant classic?

To put this review into perspective a little bit, I never completely finished the first Assassins Creed. I liked the idea, presentation and even the full open world design that encompassed that game. However, once you got in touch with the gameplay, that’s when it all fell apart. It got tiresome doing the same quests over and over again before going to your assassination. Yes, you do get a bit of variety by doing your assassination in different ways, but there wasn’t enough to do after that. None of the characters stood out and you never get a sense of who Altair really is. I will say this; however, I love Assassins Creed II.

All of the core mechanics from the first game remain the same. You have a big open world with various cities to travel to. You are again back in the role of being an assassin, or according to the game; an assassin in training. There are then many different objectives you have to complete before heading to your kill. There are all kinds of variety between each city you visit that each one is memorable. For instance, Venice is huge and if you manage to complete all your viewpoints you won’t have a problem traveling through the streets. The missions themselves make you feel like you’re actually moving the plot along and feel like a new experience each time all just from the story content alone. In addition to that there are side quests you can complete if you feel the need as well as collectibles, like feathers, treasure chests and more through each city. This also includes Assassin Tombs, which are probably the highlight parts of the game. You’ll also find side quests like beat-ups, speed runs, courier quests and more, all of this being optional. Completing all of these grants you rewards like weapons, money and so on, although if you manage to save up enough money you can always purchase those rewards.

Speaking of money, there is an economy system in place allowing you to purchase health potions, weapons and armor to keep your character in check. There are even art stores that sell maps to help you keep track of it all. The economy is also unbalanced by the Villa, which is a town all to your own. This is where you can add plenty of shops for money as well as civil services. The more people that live in the Villa the more money you get and if you manage to control your cash through upgrades, it’ll pay off greatly in the end. You’ll eventually make more then enough money that you can handle thus rendering the collectibles pointless since you can buy everything. While the maps may get cluttered with all the side quests and mission objectives, there is still one path to the end of the game. Without completing all the side quests you’ll get anywhere from 18 to 20 hours out of Assassins Creed 2 and more depending on your investment in the game.

Exactly like the first game, the gameplay is made up of combat and parkour sequences. It all has the same issues as the first game but still manages to be exciting. Traveling from point A to point B is helped by the auto-jumping when scaling buildings and climbing structures. There is also a bit of automation that occurs, meaning you’ll find spots where you wont make that jump and have to start over. The combat has been improved but still has the same issues as the last go around as well. You can counter attack all you like this time around and your enemies will stand there waiting for that happen. Enemies can also disarm you and use your weapon against as you can do the same to them. While the horses are nice use for transportation, you can still warp between cities to get around faster as well as using Leonardo Da Vinci’s flying machine. The blend button helps you hire either hookers or a small army of thugs to blend in with the crowd and get away from the guards.

With Da Vinci’s workshop open for business, your codex pages will be of great help to get you new weapons and upgrades. You’ll also get to use his famous flying machine and the final component of the game is water. You can dive into any nearby river to evade enemies, or hop on a gondola to travel quickly. While it may look like Ubisoft managed to make Assassins Creed 2 a more polished game, its issues from the first time still linger. Poor AI still exists making combat boring and your counter attacks just fun to look at instead of useful. The parkour is still fun but gets more annoying when you’re asked to be precise.

If there’s one thing Assassins Creed 2 manages to do well is its presentation. The graphics are quite astounding in the replications of each city in Italy. While the inside details of the cities aren’t completely recreated, the major landmarks are certainly a sight to see as they are created down to the every last brick. If interested, there are even historical entries inside the main menu to look at if you want to learn more. It’s about as close as you can get to visiting the real thing. Details like shadows draw themselves into the environment, as things don’t look so great up close. The 360 and Playstation 3 versions of the game are pretty much the same when it comes to graphical load times as well as the animations being smooth. The counter kills are cool to watch and the character models look a little goofy up close and the framerate will jump when getting into new areas. With details like Etzio aging as you move along through the game as a bonus and a nice attention to detail.

The voice acting is of top quality and couldn’t have been done any better. This is also thanks in part to the top notch writing through the game. Every character has its own distinct voice and place in the story and you can feel the tension when things heat up. Don’t forget the soundtrack which is also still of top quality much like the first game and manages to set the atmosphere no matter which city you end up in next.

Although the shock and awe of the parkour adventure model that the first Assassins Creed is diminished a bit for this sequel, the game still manages to be a grand adventure in the long run. Assassins Creed 2 has everything you can possibly do to make this an updated adventure. The game has a great attention to detail and manages to portray historical Italy with style. The characters are quite entertaining and actually manage to have personality. The game also has a bigger sense of adventure considering the larger amount of side quests and objectives you can complete outside of the main plotline.

Assassins Creed 2 is a nice update to the first game giving the series a good turn in the right direction.