This game puts the original to shame and brings you a great Italian 17th century mystery.
The story is center stage once again in this game and it is once again is great. The start of the game is much faster so you are also hooked sooner. Assassins Creed is based on an Italian conspiracy that has to do with the church and the order of the templar's and the order of the Assassins. This conspiracy makes you actually think that something like this could have happened. You will be lost at times if you haven't played the original, that's why I recommend you play the first one so you can better grasp the story. You will travel all over Italy and meet historical figures. The since of being immersed in another world is truly here. You will sometimes wish you were in Florence in the 17 century. The single player campaign will take you around 40 hours to complete, but there is a bunch of side missions to do besides the single player campaign. They don't have to do with the story but if some of the side missions had to do with more history or the main story it would definitely add. The story front is solid and the replay value just in the side missions themselves is great but more interesting side missions would be even better
A major plus to this game is the addition of a currency, in the last game you felt like a ghost controlling this preset assassin, but with the addition of Florins customization takes a place on the stage. You earn Florins by pick pocketing, looting bodies, finding treasure chests, and completing a wide variety of missions. There are so many ways to earn money but what can you buy you can get new robes for your Assassin to look extra good, buy new weapons to cut down guards ,and armor to protect your body. There is always new armor soothe game mixes it up you can never have enough Florins in this game. You will always be spending them. Also you can also buy art for your villa and upgrade your villa to bring in even more Florins. One of my favorite things the money system brings is the ability to fast travel. In the last game this was a major problem for me and it is fixed with the currency. Having money can also give you an edge in the world. You can throw money to the streets to distract guards so you can loot a chest or murder a man. Swords, thieves, and pretty ladies for higher can distract or kill unwanted enemies. This new addition of a currency to Assassins Creed really gives more depth and replay value to the game.
The technical side of the game is good with only a few problems. The controls in this game are much improved over the original but they still take some time to get used to. During my play through for this review I never once had a graphical glitch. Your frame rate might take a dive if you are taking on fifteen or more guys. You will not have this problem because rarely is there fifteen or more guards on the screen at a time. Your consol will not freeze up in this game which is great for extended play. Overall Assassins Creed 2 is well polished in the technical front and is a stunning game to look at.
The biggest problem with Assassins Creed 2 is the combat. You fight guys one at a time, same as the last time. You can easily counter every guy and easily kill them. Combat is very predictable even when heavier units come into play. If there is a large group of guards at a time you might just avoid them because it would take too long to kill them all with the one guy at a time slow combat. Combat is mixed up a little with the wide variety of smoke bombs and hidden daggers. If the combat was fast paced and unpredictable it would have been top notch.
Assassins Creed 2 is a true open world game unlike its predecessor. Thirty minutes into the game and you are free running on buildings and leaping off of them into hay. The climbing in this game has been overhauled which is a great thing. Sometimes climbing in the first game was a bit frustrating but that is no more. Scaling the top of a glomming tower is fun because at the top the beautifully designed area is in full view. The world seems to come alive in this game. Town's people look like people and do people things but sometimes will be caught running into walls for no reason. Another interesting thing this open world gives is the ability to flee well. If you do bad things your wanted level goes up and to decrease it you must do things like Assassinate town criers and tear down wanted posters. These things are all over the open world and you need to look out for them. If your wanted level is high guards will try to keep up with you as you scale walls and run over the city escape. The chasing is great because the guards can keep up with you so you need to be cleaver to escape. Also there is a bit more puzzle plat forming in the world than the last game and this really spices up how you move around the world. The 17th century open world of Assassins Creed 2 is great and it is a blast to just explore it.
Assassins Creed 2 is what the original should have been. You will not forget a single moment in this endless Italian assassin adventure. I give Assassins Creed 2 an 8.5 out of 10 because of its great story, high replay value, great open world, the addition of a currency into the game, its stunning visuals, non- interesting side quests, and boring combat. The things that could have made this game a 10 out of 10 are side quests that are compelling and drive you to compete them just like how you are driven to do the main story because it is so good. Also we as player want the combat to be challenging, so the one guy at a time combat just gets boring so if we had multiple attackers at the same time using different move than Assassins Creed 2's Combat would be great. This game is great and you will remember it to come because it is not like its repetitive predecessor. Pick this game up if you can it is surely a hit and you will love every moment of it. Keeping jumping into hay because it is Assassins Creed 2.