Backhand of Justice

Assassins Creed II is a phenomenal open world experience. The depth of combat animation is extraordinary and the detail of the world is tremendous. [Aspect of Assassins Creed II] is [over the top superlative]. Rinse. Repeat. Do you own a PS3 / Xbox360 / know a friend who owns one that you’re pretty sure you can overpower? Play this game.

What went right?

Free Running

Free running, or Parkour (Italian for ‘awesome’), is what makes this game great. You play as Ezio Auditore, and his ability to run, leap and scramble up and down buildings and across rooftops is impressive.

Movement in open world games has frequently fallen into two categories: either it is far too restrictive and cumbersome to get around or it is far too easy and everything is mindlessly streamlined. Assassins Creed II finds the perfect compromise between the two. It is simple enough to traverse the landscape while holding the high profile action buttons, but at the same time you can’t just press up and ‘climb’ to scramble up facades. You have to actively search for handholds to maneuver around.

Water, once the only natural predator of the Assassin, has finally been neutralized! I'm pretty sure the story arc is setting water up to be the force behind the Templars

While Ezio is fairly sticky in terms of grabbing onto nearby ledges, it’s the ability of the engine to interpret what you’re attempting to accomplish that completes the experience. Instead of grabbing every ledge, Ezio will for the most part leap to your target on command. Rarely did I find myself leaping to my death accidentally (only when I intentionally jumped but didn’t look to see if there was a building below me) and similarly you can fall as far as you want in one go and don’t have to laboriously drop from ledge to ledge to move downward.

Finally, the animations are stunning and Ezio never grabs a climbing point that does not exist. Every time he places his hand, it’s on a ledge or a windowsill or something plausible. He also rarely makes superman jumps to the extent that Nathan Drake does in Uncharted 2. I would have paid full price for an Italian Parkour simulator; everything else fun in AC2 is gravy.

Assassinations

The title alone would suggest that assassinations are important to the gameplay; fortunately they don’t disappoint. Most of the game gives you free reign over how you want to approach an assassination. You can go for the generic ‘stab in the face’ technique or the air assassination. You can pull a target off the roof of a building or hide in a haystack and stab them as they pass.

This isn’t even considering any of the non-hidden blade weapon types available to you, all of which have unique and breathtaking animations. Even the assassinations I’d seen many times before remained fresh and entertaining, and towards the end of the game I was discovering new animations I hadn’t previously seen.

One segment in the game teaches Ezio how to appreciate beauty. You have to watch the sunset for 35 minutes real time. Ok, I kid. It's 15 minutes, max

This doesn’t even touch on the combat, which is amply varied. You can use standard attacks. You can grab enemies and throw them through breakable objects. You can disarm the enemy, or counter their attack as they strike. You can throw dust into their eyes or use a smoke bomb to stun them. You can shoot them from afar with throwing knives or a rudimentary pistol. You can distract them with hired courtesans, mercenaries or thieves and then execute them from behind.

The range is mind boggling and while the fights are slower and more deliberate, AC2 rivals Batman for most compelling combat mechanics due to its finishing moves alone.

Stealth

I’m not going to pretend that this game is Metal Gear Solid. The stealth mechanics aren’t integral and it’s easy enough to go through the game with your sword at the ready, mowing down legions of guards. That being said, there are some fantastic moments when you are surrounded by 20 guards, drop a smoke bomb and race up the front of a building. You drop out of sight of the guards and manically search for a hiding spot to evade them before they find you again and pelt you with arrows and stones.

While you’re never really in danger, it’s fun when you’re forced into scrambling across rooftops recklessly and occasionally missing a ledge vs. the usual more measured and cautious running tempo.

You'd think after this guy watches me murder 50 of his friends he'd be less cavalier about attacking

Atmosphere

This is a beautiful game, and although there are pop-in issues, Ubisoft’s recreation of Renaissance Florence and Venice is lifelike. Despite its massive size, it’s not that repetitive. Sure, some of the towers are clones of each other, but each district has its own distinctive feel and I started to recognize familiar landmarks and identify the quickest escape routes when the guards caught on to my stabby ways.

Eat your heart out Batman

Pimp my home

Money is fairly abundant in the world of AC2. Fortunately, there is something to do with it beyond purchasing weapons and armor. You receive a (run-down) villa early in the game and to be honest it looks like a piece of crap. Vines and dirt cover the exterior, and the town in which it resides (your family’s land) is for the most part abandoned.

As you pump money into renovating the town, not only does it start to open up and offer you discounts at the local stores, but everything starts to look shinier. In addition, tax revenues periodically fill your coffers, and your early investments are more than repaid over time.

One mission tasks Ezio with finding delightful flowers for a gala he's hosting. Ok, not really. Unless gala is slang for face stabbing

What were they thinking?

Assassins Creed II: Fish Monsters

I don’t know who was in charge of character models, especially that of the women, but they have this horrendous fish-monster thing going on. One character in particularly clearly grew up in Chernobyl as her mouth is quite simply the gaping maw of hell. Imagining that she might be real is terrifying.

Story

The story in AC2 has high ambition, and while it may have helped if I played the previous AC game instead of just reading the Wikipedia plot summary, I’m pretty sure it would have been crap and cliché regardless. Fortunately, the story gives you just enough incentive to fulfill the missions and experience the gameplay.

House call

While your villa periodically receiving money is a great mechanic, you have to return to the villa to collect the revenues. While this might have been ok if you could go back when you chose, your villa can only hold about 80 minutes of tax revenues and so you’re forced to return to your villa at a minimum every hour and a half if you don’t want to waste periodic inflows.

In addition, you can only change your weapons and armor at your villa. Unfortunately, when you purchase new weapons or armor pieces they are automatically equipped. Because I had the best armor and weapons about 60% of the way through the game, I was forced to return to the villa to change back into the best equipment each time I purchased some of the lesser items just to complete my collection. Considering the stores next to my villa offered the greatest discounts, I did most of my shopping nearby. It was still inconvenient.

Assassins Creed II Hot Coffee mod. AO Rating

Reactive combat (especially with swords)

While the combat is exquisitely animated, it is somewhat reactive. The best moves come from countering your enemy’s attacks, and so sometimes I found myself standing around surrounded by a dozen enemies waiting for one to strike so that I could counter and horrifically murder them.

In addition, many weapon types have special ‘charge up’ attacks which are fun to perform. Unfortunately, the sword is not one of them. What makes this disappointing is that the best weapon in the game is a sword, so you’re forced to choose between quality and combat enjoyment.

Replay story missions

You can replay any past mission that you have completed at any point in the game. Of course, ‘any past mission’ means any non-story mission, so some of the best missions are inaccessible once you complete them. This means you only get one playthrough of some of the best and most unique missions, a disappointing choice by Ubisoft.

Assassins Creed II is the last major release of the year, and fortunately Ubisoft saved the best for last. This is certainly the best open world game of all time, and one of the greatest games I’ve had the privilege of playing this year. Unless you have a phobia of humanoid fish people (in which case you’ll be terrified by this game), go pick up Assassins Creed II.

If you’re not yet sold, consider this: you can both hug Leonardo Da Vinci, and beat up the Pope. SOLD!