Assassin's Creed II

The acclaimed sequel to the hit Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed II took the already hit formula and ran with it. Assassin's Creed was an amazing game, but ACII blew it out of the water. The story of Desmond picks up immediately where the first on ends. As you and Lucy escape Abstergo and reach the Assassin safe house, you learn a lot more about the overplot that was hinted at in the first game. As the plot thickens, and you begin to learn the true significance behind the search for the Pieces of Eden.

What really amazed me about the game, was that I wrote my review of Assassin's Creed before I started playing the second (although ACII was long since out). Almost every problem I had with the original was addressed, even if not perfected. Ezio's character was far more fleshed out than Altair. His motives were more clearly defined, and his drive for justice for his family creates a sense of immediacy and real engagement for the player; so much more than provided by Altair more or less simply following orders.

One of the best parts about Ezio's character that makes him far more enjoyable to play than Altair is the lack of monologuing. He doesn't sit and engage in a one-way conversation every time he kills someone, blatantly and unimaginatively spelling things out for the player. Instead, Ezio engages in active dialogues with his allies, and while he occasionally mutters to himself, it's more natural, and not nearly as intrusive.

The story is far more coherent, and the past and present are much more closely linked. In the first one, especially if you took long breaks during play, you could almost forget about Desmond's story. What Desmond goes through is only tentatively related to what Altair is doing. In ACII, however, while the cuts to the present were still rare, you did at least get voiceover contact that helps provide background about the other characters, and some of the in-game objectives. While this may not seem like much, it is enough to keep the player anchored to Desmond's storyline.

While combat and other gameplay is very much the same as in the first, Ezio comes with a slightly larger bag of tricks than his predecessor. A variety of weapon types are available, including upgrades to the iconic wrist blade, including the ability to poison, and a double blade, allowing for killing multiple targets. With these, comes new ways to kill your targets. Poison tends to be fairly discrete when the situation demands it, but can be difficult to execute without notice. More fun are the opportunities offered by the double blade, which allow you to perform air assassinations (descending upon one or two victims, driving your blade in as you land) and double assassinations where you can walk up to two targets and down both at once.

A few new weapons provide some interesting gameplay. First, the smoke bombs. Using this to distract guards in tight spots gives you the option of either running away, or just slipping through the chaos executing them with your wrist blade. The second new addition to your personal armory is a pistol attached to your wrist blade. It's loud, it attracts a lot of attention if used in populated areas. But it has the benefit of one-shotting enemies at a good distance. You are also given daggers, but I found little use for these.

However, while they tried to expand on the weapon selections in the game, they missed the mark. They gave the weapons a wider range of stats, attempting to give you an option between being able to hit harder against better armored targets (using mauls), being more defensive with the ability to deflect incoming strikes, or simply dealing more damage. However, because the mauls and defensive weapons were more suited to individual enemy types, and you couldn't switch equipped weapons on the fly, it wasn't much of a decision. I really think they could have taken that decision a little bit further.

One of the new features in the game was the use of money. You could use it to upgrade your stronghold, increasing your income, you could purchase upgrades and other items, and you could hire citizens to help you out. You can gain money in a number of ways. You can find treasure boxes scattered around every city, you can pick pockets, complete small jobs around the city, or you can earn it from your stronghold. It was a good idea, but one that quickly becomes trivial. First, after a few upgrades to your stronghold, and keeping up on clearing out your stronghold's moneybox, and you will quickly have more than enough for expenses and filling out your upgrades. This quick trivialization of the money system distracted from the novelty, and could have been better developed.

Another feature that got woefully undeveloped was the use of dyes to change the color of your clothes. This change is purely cosmetic. I felt that this had a lot of potential for providing possible camouflage and disguise in cities, but the idea was completely undeveloped. It was a fun idea (even if I stuck with classic Assassin white), but other than that, it served no purpose.

All things considered, the deeper plot and character development gave a great boost to the already strong game. The story was well-paced, and the character development was a great deal deeper than the first. I haven't started on Brotherhood yet, but if Ubisoft continues to build on and improve the features of their game, They will have one of the best games ever made on their hands.