A game which offers everything you can ask for..........
Assassin's Creed 1 though beautiful was a terribly repetitive game. Splinter Cell Double Agent was bad, Far Cry 2 was just killing and Prince Of Persia 2008 just sealed the deal by being as abysmal as it can.
Ubisoft was a really great company atleast for the PC one time. Where games like Devil May Cry and God Of War were ruthlessly for the PS2, Ubisoft produced masterpieces like Prince Of Persia - Sands Of Time Trilogy for the PC which ran as smooth as possible.
But it seems Ubisoft seems to care less about PC gaming now making a masterpiece like Assassin's Creed 2 but putting an annoying, bitter, smelly etc. DRM that has ruined many gamer's experience. But Ubisoft can really cry as the game has been cracked and people are able to play it without the internet connection. But trust me, this is one of the games that you will guilty of playing with a crack. Immediately after finishing the game i went to my store and bought it (Though i still have to play with the crack as Ubisoft Server Sucks).
Anyways on to the game. This game is truly one of the Best games created for a long time. The last time that i felt like that when i played an action adventure per se was Prince Of Persia - Warrior Within which had the same superb feel for its time.
The story of AC 2 is just awesome. The way its presented is superb. The ending of AC 1 was just a put off. However you will have no such issues in this one. The game starts off right where AC1 left, Lucy has blood all over her and she helps Desmond escape the place where he was captured by that bastardi Vidic.
I hated Altair in the first game. He had no soul whatsoever and was boring protagonist. It was almost like Kratos was wearing a hood and going on killing everyone in his path of destruction. Ezio on the other hand is simply one hell of a dude. The start is slightly falloutish with Ezio being a baby. You have quicktime events to press and the baby will move his various parts. Then ofcourse you will get to play with the 17 year old Ezio. Kind of reminded me of Sands Of Time when the Prince was 15 year old. Ezio's attitude is similar to that of the Sand Of Time prince. Brash, arrogant but still a really good guy. He is just not a killing machine like Altair.
When it comes to the gameplay it is a fact that Assassin's Creed gameplay is based of two of Ubisoft's former best games - Prince Of Persia Sands Of Time Series and Splinter Cell Series. The stealth mechanism is from SC and the platforming and combat is a slower version of POP. Also supporting this fact is the fact that most of the people working with AC were once part of Splinter Cell and Prince Of Persia. There are infact tributes to Prince Of Persia in this game where you have to get the Six Seals from the Six Assassin Tombs. I really loved those levels as they were really challenging and brought some nostalgia.
AC 1 and POP 2008 surely were two of the best next generation platforming games. But they lacked everything else. AC 2 hands down has the best platforming with Ezio able to leap futher and also able to catch ledges while falling (like in POP Warrior Within) and able to make larger climbs. This really saves time unlike in AC 1 where i got terribly bored of climbing the towers. In AC 2 platforming is a pleasure and i climbed all of the 73 towers.
The COMBAT of AC 2 is vastly improved and makes a really good combat system of AC 1 pale. You have dual hidden blades now. Seems to me like Ubisoft taking the same approach like they did with POP. First game single wield and second game is dual wield and you are able to pick up other weapons. Hopefully AC 3 turns out to be a lot better than Two Thrones and not inferior to AC 2. Counter kills are as always sweet. You have other stuffs like Poisoned hidden blade, you can throw money, hire prostitutes, mercenaries, throw smoke bombs and you even get a arm pistol later. There is a lot of thing you can do in AC 2. You will never get bored.
One of the biggest complaint of AC 1 apart from the repetition of Main missions was the pathetic Side Missions. The Side Missions in AC 2 have the same ones from one but there are many more and really fun. For eg: You no longer have to punch the same bearded guy again and again. Infact you get missions like the wife tells you to bash her cheating husband up. Also surprisingly the race missions were never boring. I really liked the side missions of AC 2 though i did not perform much as i was too involved in main mission, climbing towers, opening treasure chests, collecting codex.
The graphics of this game is actually same as 1 but in some areas slightly inferior. For eg: Shadows are worser than AC 1. But due to the vast variety the cities don't all look the same. Unlike in AC 1 which had three cities this has 4 cities and cities like Venice are really vast and really fun. The best thing about AC 2 is that you have day/night cycles. I gotta say that AC 2 looks really impressive at nights.
Voice acting is superb. One of the best voice actings. Italy is spoken as sweetly and as accurately as possible. You really will feel like learning Italian after playing this game. My plans were to learn spanish after completing Resident Evil 4 (which also had a similar feel). Now i will learn both that and Italy.
OVERALL, Assassin's Creed 2 is easily one of Ubisoft's Best Ever in recent years. The effort that they have put in creating the game shows. But the DRM also shows their stupidity and their regard for PC gamers which is sad as Ubisoft was one of the few companies that really cared for PC gamers.
As a game Assassin's Creed 2 offers everything to every gamer. Be it whether you are Shooter Fan (This game has pistol), Role Playing Fan (Highly customizable weapons, armor and even the dress color and did i mention this game has money using which you can buy and sell stuffs. Also you can buy and customize a whole city) and ofcourse mainly the Action Adventure Fan (Scintillating combat with some great platforming). I really believe it should have won more awards last year. The only nitpicking issue that i had with this game was that though the platforming of AC 2 is great it still lacks the fluidity that the Prince Of Persia Sands Series games had. AC3 hopefully improves on that. Lastly, this is definitely more intense and fun than Demon Souls and way longer than Uncharted 2. AC 2 took me 30 hours which is huge for an action adventure game (only RPGs have that length eg: Dragon Age). Assassin's Creed 2 - 2009 GOTY IMO.
Inspite of the DRM, Assassin's Creed 2 for the PC is a must buy because of the classic that it is. If Ubisoft implements DRM for its future games like POP Forgotten Sands or Splinter Cell Conviction nobody is going to buy it. I hope Assassin's Creed 3 doesn't have DRM.