There Is No Truth

Sometime in either late 2008/early 2009, I picked up the first Assassin's Creed on Steam for $5. I then pulled out my trusty Xbox 360 gamepad and proceeded to have 15 hours of delight with the game. When Assassin's Creed II (AC2) was announced to come out this last fall, I was excited, but also a bit disappointed that it wasn't going to come out for the PC right away. In October of last year, however, I picked up my first "next-gen" console: a PS3.

Back when I was playing Prince of Persia, I had a terrible graphics issue that basically made me stop playing. I realized at that time that unless the PC version of a game really adds something new or benefits from the mouse/keyboard controls (or is super cheap), it just isn't worth it to pick up a PC version over a console version. With that knowledge in hand, getting AC2 for my PS3 instead of waiting for the PC was a no brainer.

Due to a brother who is VERY good at taking hints, (It's on sale for $40! Get it for me for Christmas!) I received it as a Christmas present. You don't have to be a calendar wizard to see that it's taken me two full months now to finish it. It my defense, I had a LOT of PC games I had purchases during the Steam sales and only got around to really sitting down to play it recently. I was very glad I did.

AC2 picks up, for better or worse, exactly where the first game left off. You once again take the role of Desmond Miles, a reborn assassin who can revisit the memories of his ancestors. With the help of a friend, you escape from Abstergo, the evil corporation that was taking advantage of you in the first game. Before too long, you are back in the Animus reliving the experiences of another of your assassin ancestors, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. This is the beginning of my first real annoyance with this game: it starts too slowly.

Between escaping from Abstergo and reliving Ezio's early life (including his birth!), you spend multiple hours in the game before you ever even get your assassin weapons. I started and stopped playing this early section twice because it just didn't suck me in at all.

I also didn't enjoy the fact that this game didn't explain the Creed at all. The beginning of the first game did a much better job explaining what assassins are, what they stand for, and why you should care. Even after you obtain your assassin gear here, you are basically just sent off in the world on a crazy mission of revenge. I was quite a ways into the game before I really started to feel like a proper hardcore assassin instead of a cocky, spoiled brat who was good at fighting and climbing buildings. I will admit that while I initially found Ezio to be remarkably unlikable at first, his character grows immensely as the game progresses and ultimately becomes much deeper and interesting than Altair ever was.

While the beginning of the game may start slowly, it picks up shortly afterward and then rushes forward at a ridiculous pace. In fact, while I thought the story in the first was a little more interesting, the story in AC2 was much more substantial. The overall pace was quite good and each memory sequence was well contained. Even the end of the game was more or less satisfying. The second game definitely has a stronger story overall, despite the fact that the Creed plays a much smaller (almost non-existent) role. I did miss the more planned-out assassinations that the first game had, but the second game was much more varied and dynamic throughout.

Perhaps the place where the second game most excels over the first is in the game mechanics themselves. The developers really just took everything that was fun about the first game and made it better. The 1-2 button platforming was brought forward along with some additions such as being able to leap up to higher ledges while climbing. The mechanics felt very familiar, but somehow better. Additionally, the combat in the game was worked on a bit too. First of all, the developers added a pretty big handful of new weapons. In addition to the sword, knife, throwing knives, hidden blade (you get double blades in AC2) and fists, you also get: medicine, a wrist pistol, a poisoned blade, smoke bombs, and the ability to throw money on the ground to distract guards. While they weren't all great additions (the poisoned blade was pretty worthless), it was just really nice to have more variety in combat.

In one particularly fun moment, I was fighting two heavily armored, long sword wielding guards. After performing the dance with them for a bit, I was getting frustrated with my inability to damage them much. I then remembered my pistols, switched weapons, and shot them both in the face. The Indiana Jones scene flashed in my mind and I ran about my business.

Finally, in addition to the weapons you can carry, you can also pickup two handed axes, polearms, spears, and even things like brooms and fishing poles. You can also train additional skills in your special weapons, like sweeping people off their feet with spears and throwing sand in the face of your enemy while unarmed. If you wished, you could fight every battle a little bit differently, and I thought that was great.

Despite the combat improvements, combat was also one of the areas where this game really faltered compared to the first. Mostly in the fact that this game was WAY too easy. Basically, the developers gave us a plethora of new tools to use that make us more effective, but they neglected to make the enemies we face any more challenging. In the first game, to even assassinate an enemy you had to sneak up behind them otherwise they'd merely throw you off and attack. In AC2, you can walk right up to a group of guys and simultaneously stab two of them in the face with your hidden blades. You can then throw a smoke bomb on the ground (which stuns everyone who runs into it except for you) and stab the the rest of them two at a time. Get hit a few times? Not a problem! Merely use one of the 15 medicine vials you are carrying and go about your business. If you ever die in combat while playing this game, it'll be within the first few hours, because you are drunk, or because you are so mind numbingly terrible at games that you should be instantly euthanized. You'll definitely jump off a building a little bit a wrong a few times and die that way, but when it comes to the enemies you face, Ezio is borderline invincible.

In addition deeper story and more involved combat, they also added something pretty significant to this game: money. You collect money by looting people you kill (so little as to not be worth it), from chests strewn about the world (again, not significant enough to be worthwhile), from completing missions, and finally from your villa. Pretty early on, you take control of your family's villa in the country side. Your villa generates money every 20 minutes of in game time. It generates more money the more you put into it, i.e. spend money to improve your blacksmith, bank, and fix your mine (as examples) and it'll generate more for you later. You also get discounts at the vendors in your villa if you upgrade them. I figured out pretty quickly that it was smart to upgrade as much as possible early on, so sunk most of my money into getting everything fixed up. I was glad as I did, as I had plenty of money to buy all the new weapons (22 in all), armor upgrades (4 different, 4 piece armor sets to buy), and was evening able to buy paintings to further my villa's value. You also use money to get healed, refill your ammo (smoke bombs, bullets, and throwing knives), and to top off your medicine and poison pouches. While I thought that money was a great improvement to the series overall, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of endgame money sinks. In my current playthrough, I literally have 10 times as much as the single most expensive item ever cost. It would have been nice to have had something to drop money on even late in the game.

As you probably could tell so far, I basically spent the entire game comparing it to the first. While I felt like this game was stronger of the two, I kept thinking that the first game had done a bunch of things better. To see if I was right or not, I decided to fire up the first game. I didn't even spend 15 minutes there. Despite my complaints, the second game truly is a full improvement over the first. That's not to say the first game is bad or even that the second game is better in every way, but as a complete product AC2 was a very solid upgrade. I'm very anxious to see where they take the series next (throwing my vote in for 1700's England or France).

Finally, I'd like to discuss the downloadable content. I picked up both pieces of DLC, Battle of Forli and Bonfire of the Vanities for $4 each. I also bought the additional three tombs that come with Bonfire for an extra $3. All told, I thought that both pieces of DLC were solid additions. Battle of Forli adds some great open combat sections while the Bonfire of the Vanities adds the best assassination missions in the entire game. I thought both of them were easily worth $4, even if neither of them were very long. I was, however, disappointed by the fact that they each felt like they were pieces of missing content from the main game. Instead of feeling like something new, that would add to the game, I felt like I paid $8 to fill in a gap in the story. While that did annoy me, I really thought they were both worthwhile. Even the additional tombs that I paid a $1 each for were fun. If you are considering the DLC and haven't played the game yet, I would recommend buying them before you finish the game, however, as they fill in memory sequences 12 and 13 (14 is the last one), so if you buy them before then, they'll nicely fill in a missing piece of the story.

Let me sum it up for you: Assassin's Creed II is an absolutely brilliant game. It's a worthy addition to an exceptionally solid franchise and a very fascinating universe. If you enjoyed the first game, you absolutely have to play this one. If you haven't played the first game, you absolutely have to play them both. Trust me. You won't be disappointed.