Review: Assassin's Creed 2
Xbox 360, PS3
Gerard Campbell | Tuesday, February 23 2010Perched on the edge of a rooftop, the Florentine guard stands silently, surveying the city, unaware of the fate about to befall him.
Just inches below him, hanging by his fingertips from the terracotta tiled roof, is Ezio Auditore di Fireze, ancestor of the famed assassin Altair and out to avenge the death of his father at the hands of the Templar order. It’s going to turn bloody.
Silently, Ezio extends one of the retractable blades hidden underneath the folds of his tunic. Reaching up, he grabs the startled guard, puncturing his chest with the blade, causing him to pitch forward onto the street below. Ezio pulls himself up, and bounds across the rooftops heading to his next objective.
It’s moments like this that make Assassin’s Creed 2 one of the standout games of this year. Forget everything you hated about the original Assassin’s Creed – a game with some stunning moments but ultimately let down by its repetitive nature: AC2 has learned from its predecessor’s mistakes and is all the better for it. AC2 is the game that Assassin’s Creed always wanted to be.
Told through the deep DNA memories of Desmond Miles, a descendant of both Altair and Ezio, AC2 is set in 15th Century Italy and while it takes a few moments to warm up due to a rather pedestrian series of tutorial levels, once you’re let loose to explore the rooftops, alleyways, towers and crypts of Venice, Tuscany, Florence, and a brief flutter in Rome, Ezio’s quest to avenge his betrayed family comes alive.
Ezio can still blend in with crowds to hide from pursuing guards, like Altair from Assassin’s Creed could, but he can now also hire courtesans or groups of thugs to create distractions while he goes about his crimes. He can also toss coins on the ground to attract the attention of troublesome guards or get annoying minstrels to bugger off. Ezio can also tackle the main missions at any time, a welcome departure from the first game’s rigid mission structure. In addition, a huge number of side distractions, which include pick-pocketing, races, assassinations and other missions, will ensure you’ll sink plenty of hours into the game.
The combat has been much improved in AC2 and Ezio can now disarm foes and pick up their weapons, as well as grabbing them and headbutting them to the ground. There is also more flexibility when it comes to assassinations, too. Ezio can now kill targets from hiding spots, ledges, and even the water. Now, that’s how a real assassin does it.
The star of feature Assassin’s Creed was always the free-running – the ability to climb just about everything and bound across the rooftops, either to make an escape or stealthily approach a target – and it’s better this time around, with the athletic Ezio able to leap what at times seem almost insurmountable chasms and latch onto a handhold in an opposite wall.
There’s a city management feel to Assassin’s Creed, with Ezio able to restore shops and buildings in his home base of Monteggiori, generating income for him, his uncle and his two sisters, which he can use to buy better armour and weapons. At the same time he has to track down pieces of a mysterious document called the Codex that will solve a puzzling mystery.
The game world of AC2 feels so much more alive than in AC1, with townsfolk reacting impressively to Ezio’s actions: they’ll back away in fear after Ezio has knifed a guard; they’ll complain as he barges into them, knocking their belongings to the ground; they’ll comment in amazement as he scales the side of a building.
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