Ezio Auditore De Firenze will take you to Italy in a way you never thought possible, Requiescat in pace...
The story begins right where the first game left off; Desmond's memories with Altair are complete and Abstergo now have the map showing the locations of the remaining Pieces of Eden, with which they can control everyone in the world. After leaving the Animus and returning to his cell, Desmond discovers that he has obtained an ability that belonged to Altair via the bleeding effect due to his prolonged exposure to the machine. With the help of Lucy Stillman, undercover assassin, Desmond escapes to a secret location in which several other assassins' are hiding. The plot then leads to the memory tree of another ancestor, Ezio, so that Desmond can be trained in the ways of the assassin through the bleeding effect.
One of the most incredible things about Assassin's Creed is the fact that it's a Science Fiction setting; as most of the story is set in the 15th century during the Renaissance most would assume that the entire game is set there. The plot works in memory blocks, when the player completes a memory they are ejected from the animus, the story serves this as Desmond needs to rest, however it grounds the story providing some diversity and changing the game play entirely. Due to this setting, most of the heads up display is seen as if the protagonist is looking through a computer screen, with heavy whites and silvers dominating the pallet. Beyond those elements of sci-fi however, the game is heavily based around an Italian style, with incredible art, clothing styles and fantastically designed buildings, the setting of Italy provides a beautiful setting and a breathtaking presentation for the game.
As with most action adventure games, there is a heavy basis of running, jumping and climbing, these three core abilities are central to how Ezio is controlled. The player can walk/jog by simply pushing forward on the left stick, and control the camera with the right. The R1/Right Bumper button controls the profile the player is in; low profile being for stealth, when the button is pressed high profile is activated, this allows for spiriting and free running which is the fastest mode of transportation around any city. When it comes to controls, each section of the body is assigned a button, the head, left arm, right arm and feet. The weapon arm commands are for anything held in that hand, such as the hidden blade or short sword, whereas the free arm is used for grabbing, tackling or pick pocketing. The feet commands are used to blend into the players surroundings or jump, predominantly anything involving the feet, finally the head command, which is generally used for Eagle Vision, this is used to find targets based on colour, yellow being the main target, blue being allies, red being enemies, and so on.
Assassin's Creed is heavily based on free running and climbing, very similar to the other Ubisoft IP Prince of Persia; the way the mechanics work in fact is very similar to the triple A title, it would appear the Montreal based company took the 'if it isn't broke, don't fix it' route as the game became renowned and loved because of it's climbing mechanic, Assassin's Creed 1 featured the same and worked well. In the first title, on occasion the collision would be a bit buggy, the player would land and then fall out of place, which could make the character fall off a ledge or a building, which would hinder progress, that has since been fixed for the second title.
Beyond the climbing/running mechanics, another heavy basis is on combat, the player will be unable to run in certain situations, and thusly it's very important that the player can defend themselves. The game features a variety of weapons such short swords, long swords, daggers and other such blades which can all be wielded, generally it's difficult to be defeated in combat due to the counter system, with the press of a button the player can parry almost any move, beyond that simply bashing an enemy with a combination of fast and heavy attacks would be sufficient, despite it fitting the game, it could perhaps be refined by improving the AI in the enemies, perhaps making them counter also.
One of the most critically acclaimed sections of the first title were the collectibles; within Assassin's Creed there are several cities and a world map, each area had around one hundred collectibles, adding up to around five hundred of them. The items that had to be found were small flags, and with no way of actually keeping track of those collected, it became very difficult to find them. The second game rectified this problem by simply reducing the amount of them to a hundred; also creating a small sound clip to loop whenever the player came close to one of the feathers as they were in the second game, made finding them that much easier.
Another problem with the first games collectibles was the fact that besides Xbox achievements of Playstation trophies, there was nothing to gain from finding them, whereas in the second game, the feathers unlocked new weapons, and additional collectibles such as the Glyphs appeared, which when found triggered a small puzzle like mini game. The mini game was quite remarkable as it showed certain moments in time, be it video or picture form and related it to the game, several instances had important people in history such as Ghandi and George W. Bush actually having pieces of Eden, showing that they controlled their followers, this was a clever addition as it made the player want to find them all; also, once the player found all of the glyphs, a video unlocked showing a back story to a mysterious character that is constantly mentioned throughout the story and perhaps hinting at the location to the sequel.
Jesper Kyd once again returned to compose the soundtrack with his unique style of ambient and orchestral pieces. The Danish thirty eight year old is well known within the games industry having worked on such titles as Hitman, Gears of War and Borderlands, his pieces tend to combine various instruments such as pianos and electronic Synthesizer's, which is perfect for Assassin's Creed due to it's merger of Science Fiction and Renaissance; evidentially the soundtrack became available for digital download featuring all his works.
One of the few downsides to Assassin's Creed 2 is the replay value, once the story is completed there isn't really much left to do, after completing the story and finding the collectibles all that is really left is to simply run around and earn unlockables, the point remains however that if the player has found all of the collectibles, the entire map has been explored due to them being scattered in pretty much every nook and cranny in the environments. This could have been easily rectified however, and in fact has been in the next Assassin's Creed title; there were talks of a multiplayer aspect of the game, pitting players against one another to assassinate a target, collect a flag or fight one another, this was however hinted at to collect feedback, to see whether it was well received or not, and due to it's positive reception, is being a main aspect of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the next title in the series.
Other third person adventure games such as Prince of Persia and Infamous all tend to follow the same formula, with a heavy base of running, jumping and climbing, Assassin's Creed sets itself apart from all of those games with the realism found within it, players of the game find themselves unable to fly or run along walls which adds a sense that anything Ezio can do, the player can do with the right training. The story is also true in this respect, players will think that the spin Ubisoft have put on history makes sense and could potentially be true, which makes the game that much more enjoyable.
When Assassin's Creed first game out players loved the title and wanted more, thusly Ubisoft once again pleased its fans and released not only a fantasy sequel, but a perfectly refined adventure game with a gripping story and incredible visuals. Gamers of all consoles and genre's should at one point of another enter the shoes of Ezio, as the fantastic title leaves a great feeling of satisfaction whilst playing it, that it's perfectly just right, which is very rare in modern games.