For all of my readers that sent me PM's, comments, ect.. Asking when my next review was going to be, I couldn't give you a straight answer until this very moment, I'm going to try a new segment tonight and I hope it'll work out for the better, I'm apologizing for the delay of about two months since my last one, I've had much going on and not enough time to write blog entries, but now without further ado.. Assassin's Creed II..
Unlike most past games that I have reviewed, I decided to go with the DS this time around!
When I read IGNorants review on this game, they compared it to Sonic The Hedgehog, I know most of you don't buy into this and why would you? These are the same guys who couldn't even nail a Batman: Arkham Asylum prediction on baddies, my readers are smarter than this and anyone that's played this game? Will know they're still far off the money.
The main storyline of this game takes place between the two DLC of AC2~ Battle of Forli, and Bonfire of the Vanities, just so we have the general drift of everything going on in this game, sadly even though the game takes place in Ezio's universe and is after the time he got his dual-hidden blades, he only sports one in this game and you never really get the chance to use two blades anyways.
This game sports up to seven memory blocks that you must complete, over the time of which you will discover the Templars plans on discovering the 'New World', every mission consist of what I saw to be three types, which is: Normal/Stealth/Chase.
Normal:
You can indicate what type of mission it is by the Abstergo logo in the top right of the screen, this level was a straight shot from point A-B with no real special tasks to complete aside from finishing the level in the play ****you choose, of course there is a set amount of things you must do in order to achieve 100% synch in the end of that run, but you can go through multiple times to try and find everything to increase your synch 'HP' meter.
Stealth:
(Failure is not an option.)
Stealth is indicated by the Eye in what appears to either be an Abstergo logo, or possibly a glyph?
Either way, you have to make your way through the mission as silently as possible, you have a total of three chances to make it through the entire level without being caught, every time that you get caught a red marker will fill one of the pieces around the logo/glyph until finally it finishes and the mission is a failure, you can still kill everything in sight and make it through without one alert, but you have to be extra cautious on your timing.
Chase:
Chase is indicated as you can tell by the double arrow, every mode comes with a map that gives the location of your enemies and possible points of interest that come in various forms, mostly seen as hiding places though, these missions are all based on speed and your ability to counter/defend from enemies in your path, the faster you get these levels done? The better your synch score will be at the end of the level, most times you don't even have to kill anyone.
You can see the result of your doings at the end of each level, I did this one as fast I could while taking screenshots and sadly enough, I only needed four more kills before I reached the hundred percent synch tile, there are many factors that can weigh in one what kind of score you get, how much damage you take from enemies when fighting, how much time it takes you to run through the level, how many kills you get by the end of the level, you will also find maps and wanted posters that you can rip down, maps will unlock hidden challenge levels that can take some serious patience and timing to get yourself through, posters don't do much aside from acting as sort of a save point for your game.
This is what a wanted poster will look like up close, In game you can see it clearly upon the walls of the lower floors of a level, I've yet to see one that was higher up than that! But they're a major contributing factor to you being able to hit 100 synch to that level.
If you're a graphics junkie that's always living off the high of HD, as this is a DS game? You're not going to get that from this game by any means, but if you're looking for that perfect game to kill some of your time during a wait in some sort of lobby, or just a long ride in the car? This can kill of a couple of your hours till you get where you're going, the negative part to this game is there is no replay value to the storyline portion, however there is a multiplayer mode which i've yet to tap into, my guess would be that it's based on speed runs, or some kind of mini-coop trying to get from point A-B.
As seen here, you can continue your story wherever you've left off from, Wanted! Is the name of the mode that requires DS Wi-fi with a friend, or the Animus hacks that you can run through once you've completed enough levels to get enough points, they're sort of like cheats and upgrades to your experience!
The game is full of adventure, If you're a fan of the series and the first handheld AC game got you down, you should have no fear! This game should be enough to redeem the sad quality that Altair failed to present us, the AI isn't exactly top notch, but that's to be expected with a handheld game, as they will chase you for a good portion of the time and will fight you on sight, but if you roll under a surface to escape from them? The guards will literally run back and fourth to try and find you, like in my photo above! Even so at $20, you can't do much better for the money and it'd even make the perfect gift for someone.
As always.. Thank you for being such loyal readers, keep on rocking!
(Look forward to a Christmas Game Review!)
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