What'd you think of Assassin's Creed 2? (SPOILERS)

[Alexander The So-so]

I got this game for Christmas and just recently beat it. I snorkin' loved it. Thought it was an awesome game with a great story and atmosphere. The ending absolutely blew my mind. I had always thought that the premise of the Assassin's Creed series was gold, but because of the mixed reviews it got, I held off on getting the first game. But after this one was praised so highly, I went for it, and was not dissapointed.

The main thing I liked was just the setting and atmosphere. I'm a history buff, so anything that brings together all the Italian Renaissance historical figures and settings is A-OK with me. Mostly, though, I loved the real-life historical settings. I think my biggest mark-out moment was the Assassin's Tomb level in the Santa Maria del Fiore. Having been to the actual church in Florence in real life, it felt so cool to climb up to the top of a virtual recreation of it.

The only big complaint I have against it is the control. It's a bit too sensitive; there were too many times when I found myself running up a wall when I didn't want to, picking pockets when all I wanted to do was walk quickly through a crowd, and picking fights just by pressing one button at one instant. I get that it's a tough problem to fix, but it was frustrating at times.

But, overall, I loved the game. Has anybody else here beaten it? How'd you like it? What were your favorite parts?

["Gentleman" AJ Powell]

I personally loved the game although, I felt the final boss was easier during the fist fight than during the blade fight. I have found my favourite strategy is to disarm my enemies & pick up dirt as they retrieve thier weapon & then blinding & One Hit Killing them

[Perigryn]

I'm halfway through it and am enjoying it tremendously. It's massive improvement on the first game what with the economic system, new skills and side missions that aren't as dull as the first game. I wonder how the DLC will turn out...

[Grendel]

Very fun game. A lot of fun can be had by just exploring ... And Ezio is such a better character to play as than Altair or however you spell the name of the guy from the first game.

[Mozenrath]

I love Ezio's absurd manwhoring.

["Gentleman" AJ Powell]

Ezio is funnier and more entertaining than Altair

[Threadkiller [Classic]]

Wow, talk about a convenient thread. I JUST beat this game a few hours ago. Tremendous stuff, and a huge improvement on part 1, which I loved. The storyline, especially the ending, got a huge WTF from me, and not necessarily in a good way.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler} I could have done without the whole "2012 solar flare" dilemma. Just felt really, really tacked on, and didn't seem to have much else to do with the rest of the plot. The story was much more compelling when it was simply Abstergo wanting to deny free will and subjugate mankind to their will, with the Assassins trying to stop them.

That said, I'm very glad that they didn't go the standard route with the characters. I spent the entire game waiting for Lucy or Mario ("it's-a-ME, Mario!" - Yeah, I marked out) to turn out to be traitors, and I'm SO glad they turned out not to be. Okay, Lucy might still turn out to be, but I doubt it after that ending. At worst she just has ulterior motives.

And how much does it suck to be Ezio? To basically be a pawn in a mission to get a message to your descendant 500 years in the future. I felt bad when Minerva disappeared and he was yelling "But I have so many questions!"

By the way, did anyone successfully solve The Truth video? I did, and it's pretty crazy stuff that I only half-understand. But solving all of those little puzzles was among my favorite things in the entire game. That and the Assassin Tombs, all of which were dedicated to gymnastics instead of combat, which is awesome.

Best parts of the game:

-I love finding all the viewpoints. Among the first things I do in any town I get to. I find them ALL. And man, Venice was a PAIN. But a fun pain. There are few thrills I get in a videogame that are more intense than the pit in my stomach from a Leap of Faith.

-The aforementioned glyph puzzles.

-The combo animations for the different weapons. Anything with the war hammer is amazing.

-Believe it or not, the ability to dye your clothes. I guess I'm a fashionista like that.

-The new stealth kills. In fact, all the new implements of death.

-Great voice-acting. Even if some of the Italian accents weren't as strong as they could have been, it's still one of the best all-around casts in any game I've played.

-The gymnastics-heavy Assassin Tombs

-Ezio Auditore. A thousand times more awesome than Altair, and one of my favorite game characters in a good long while.

-Leonardo da Vinci as the Otacon to Ezio's Solid Snake.

-The upgrading Monteriggioni aspect. I just liked how it goes from this dank place where the sun never shines to this sprawling little cradle of merriment.

-How little time we spend with Desmond Miles and the others. Couldn't care less until the very end, and even then, I only cared because it's Kristen Bell with him.

-The way they work around history. Especially in the final battle when

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler} Ezio chooses not to kill Rodrigo. It turns out his actual death is much more gruesome than anything Ezio could have ever done to him.

What I Didn't Care For:

-The middle portions of the plot. Just dragged on and on, plus the amount of political intrigue made it so that all the villains sort of ran together. I didn't understand why

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler} Silvio Barbagio was any worse than the final boss, other than that the latter was the final boss.

But then, maybe I didn't pay that much attention.

Awesome start, lacking middle, awesome end.

-THE SINGING BARDS. OMG. Almost as bad as those beggars from the first game. At least here you can stop them by knocking the instrument out of their hands by running into them.

-The combat gets a little repetitive at times, but it never gets as repetitive as the first game (which I adored), so it's not really a complaint given that there's so many new ways to kill someone.

-I didn't really care for the final battle.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler} I mean, the Pope has a crazy magic staff and you have an insane magic apple and...it just got a little ridiculous for a game which, up to that point, had done a pretty good job existing in a believable version of reality. I know, I know, no sense complaining about realism in a game in which you're a guy strapped into a machine that lets you explore your ancestral memory. But whatever. It's really just a minor complaint and didn't really hurt my enjoyment of things.

***************

Anyway, did anyone see those "Assassin's Creed: Lineage" videos? Pretty cool. And I love that all the actors carried over into the game, models and voices all.

I'm now really excited to know when the next game is going to take place, if anywhere at all. I could see it all taking place in the present. But that would really suck, since the historical aspect is part of what makes the series so fantastic. Although getting to do a Leap of Faith off the Empire State Building would...okay, not even I could suspend disbelief that much. But it'd still be awesome.

[Enrico Palazzo]

Incredible game. Really enjoyed it. There is so much to do, for example the Assasination missions, and the gylphs.

Usually I just try to go through the plot but in this game I spent countless hours killing all the rooftop guards for no reason.

There are rumours that the sequel will be set during WW2, which sounds like a let down to me, as prefere the use of swords and daggers to guns.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Dec 30, 2009 16:16:34 GMT -5 Enrico Palazzo said:

Incredible game. Really enjoyed it. There is so much to do, for example the Assasination missions, and the gylphs.

Usually I just try to go through the plot but in this game I spent countless hours killing all the rooftop guards for no reason.

There are rumours that the sequel will be set during WW2, which sounds like a let down to me, as prefere the use of swords and daggers to guns.

You'll still probably use daggers. The hidden wrist blades are the series trade mark.

Though, I think WWI would be better. Plus we can't believe it'll be WW2 just yet, remember when AC2 was supposedly set in the French Revolution?

[Deleted]

Dec 30, 2009 16:28:37 GMT -5 Koda, Master Crunchyroller said:

Dec 30, 2009 16:16:34 GMT -5 Enrico Palazzo said:

Incredible game. Really enjoyed it. There is so much to do, for example the Assasination missions, and the gylphs.

Usually I just try to go through the plot but in this game I spent countless hours killing all the rooftop guards for no reason.

There are rumours that the sequel will be set during WW2, which sounds like a let down to me, as prefere the use of swords and daggers to guns.

You'll still probably use daggers. The hidden wrist blades are the series trade mark.

Though, I think WWI would be better. Plus we can't believe it'll be WW2 just yet, remember when AC2 was supposedly set in the French Revolution?

I read that they don't want to do it during WWII anyway, just because of the fact they feel that's been overdone and they try to focus on less well-known periods or events. As for the game itself...gameplay-wise and graphically, I love it. It's one of the few games I have that I really, really got wrapped up in just because of how much fun it is. My only problem is with the nature of the plot and the outright premise of why anything's being done.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}I'd much rather be an assassin and spend my time killing people instead of being Desmond hooked up to a machine and reliving memories while being part of some contrived "SAVE TEH UNIVERZ" plot. Eh.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Dec 30, 2009 16:41:39 GMT -5 @mightykretzler said:

Dec 30, 2009 16:28:37 GMT -5 Koda, Master Crunchyroller said:

You'll still probably use daggers. The hidden wrist blades are the series trade mark.

Though, I think WWI would be better. Plus we can't believe it'll be WW2 just yet, remember when AC2 was supposedly set in the French Revolution?

I read that they don't want to do it during WWII anyway, just because of the fact they feel that's been overdone and they try to focus on less well-known periods or events. As for the game itself...gameplay-wise and graphically, I love it. It's one of the few games I have that I really, really got wrapped up in just because of how much fun it is. My only problem is with the nature of the plot and the outright premise of why anything's being done.

SPOILER: Click to show

{Spoiler}I'd much rather be an assassin and spend my time killing people instead of being Desmond hooked up to a machine and reliving memories while being part of some contrived "SAVE TEH UNIVERZ" plot. Eh.

So you basically want another game like Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines for the PSP? In that game you play as Altair, and even better, the game takes place after AC1, as far as I know, you just play as Altair, I haven't seen anything that said Desmond gets hooked up again, so it is, to my knowledge, just you as Altair, not you as Desmond as Altair.

[default]

I absolutely loved it. A few random thoughts...

The feathers were actually fun. I know, I'm one that usually hates collecting random stuff (i.e. Prototype's TWO different things), but I think ACII worked around it really well. For starters, it was worked into the story. I really wanted to do it and felt happy afterwards after his mom finally showed some signs of life again. The weapon and cape were cool as well. Well, I didn't actually use the mace as I loved the Sword of Altair, but the cape was great for getting some of those combat chivos, namely Sweeper. Finally, I loved how the DNA held the feather info for you so you could know what areas you completed and how many were left.

I agree, the fist fight was hella easy. I just countered every punch he threw, no sweat. The fight before that was easy as hell too. I just stood back while he was distracted and knifed him.

I agree the singing bards were annoying as hell. I got pissed a few times and assassinated them, but mostly was just checking them. Although at one point due to the slightly buggy controllers, I crashed and burned off a leap. As I saw my corpse, a bard ran over and started singing to me.

With the controls... easily the most frustrating thing. After learning the high jump/grab, there were a few times when the controller just decided I was trying to jump away from the wall and boom-death. I barely made it out of the one final tombs alive. I used up all 15 of my medicine and was down to two health.

The run on the final level was a blast. Although, that horse seemed sorta useless. Seconds afterward I hopped on it, I was dismounting due to the gap. Mowing through the guards was awesome though. Especially since I didn't bother to pick up any smokebombs beforehand and was looting corpses for them and the throwing knives.

Smoke bombs were great, but easily the "bitch weapon" of the game. Also the easiest way to snag No-Hitter. Smoke bomb. Four assassinations. Smoke bomb. Four more. Smoke bomb. Chivo unlocked.

I really enjoyed the puzzle elements, although I'll admit I cheated on some of the final ones as well as some of the feathers.

[Alexander The So-so]

I definitely agree on the point about liking the games better if they just centered around the Assassins rather than working in Desmond and Abstergo. The main sell of the game is to be an assassin within atmospheric historical settings. The Abstergo storyline isn't bad, but I don't think it's necessary (besides it seeming a bit cliched and Da Vinci Code-esque).

But I am definitely looking forward to seeing the setting of the third game. I've actually heard that some of the possible settings are Medieval England or (what I'd love to see) feudal Japan. I'd love to have it be in the Edo period or something like that; there's a lot of great environments and sites to work with, and it could add a new twist to the religious themes of the series by touching on Shinto and Buddhist themes.

And yeah, I effin' hated the minstrels. Many is the time that I just lost it and smacked them; getting chased by the guards after it was worth it.