Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre: Action Adventure
Release date: Available now

Imagine that you are attending a public event during the Renaissance where a city official is speaking. The crowd listens to him ramble on about the future of the city and the great things he is planning. In mid sentence, an assassin jumps down from the rooftops and slips a blade right into the official’s heart. The crowd panics and guards scramble. Your heart drops as the assassin scales a building out of sight in a matter of seconds. Assassin’s Creed II puts you in the shoes of that very assassin in an innovative and interesting way.

You assume the role Desmond Miles who was captured by a company called Abstergo Industries, which is secretly the modern day Knights Templar. These secret Templars hook Desmond up to their machine, the Animus, which reads the memories of one’s ancestors through the descendent’s DNA. The Templars need Desmond because his ancestors were part of a group of assassins that for centuries have tried to stop the greedy power hungry Illuminati types of the world. By obtaining rare artifacts, the pieces of Eden, they can do that very thing. You quickly find out that a woman named Lucy, who was working for Abstergo Industries, is really an assassin, and she helps you escape. She then takes you to a hideout with a small band of modern day assassins. They apparently have their own Animus and need you to follow another one of Desmond’s ancestors, Ezio, through his memories. This process leads to the exacting of revenge on those that murdered an entire family and Desmond’s becoming a part of the centuries-long struggle to bring down the Templars.

Assassin’s Creed II is an action adventure game in an open environment that requires many types of actions to navigate it. Climbing up a building or jumping from roof to roof with no effort is common place, and being an assassin does not make friends with the city guard. Your notoriety meter is a handy tool for keeping abreast of their disfavor, however, and shows exactly what they intend to do to you at any given moment. You can either be incognito, where they will not take action unless you perform illegal acts, or notorious, where the guards are aware there is an assassin in town and will recognize you. To decrease your notoriety you can rip down wanted posters, bribe heralds, or kill city officials. You can also blend in with crowds to escape the notice of the curious. There are also many ways to distract the guards you need to, such as hiring courtesans, paying thieves, or even throwing money down to have the townspeople get in the way. The combat system is basically broken down into two parts. The first part is when you are fighting face to face, and allows Ezio the ability to block, counter, disarm, and sidestep. The second is an assassination mode, which is employed when the target is not aware of your presence. And as if you didn’t already have enough to do, there’s money to be made and upgrades to your city to be had. If you purchase better shops or renovate buildings, like a church, it adds value. When more things get renovated or upgraded you get more income to purchase better weapons, armor, and items. As in the original title, you must synchronize memories in order to progress further into the story. Unlike its predecessor, however, there are primary and secondary memories. Primary memories progress you through the game, and secondary memories add extras to enhance the game.

Experiencing the game and the historical fiction brought with it was truly entertaining. Running around the well crafted Renaissance Italian city streets was amazing, and the environment as a whole was beautifully put together. It truly felt like a living city. Assassin’s Creed II also comes with a lot of customizations. You can change your outfit color and buy new armor and weapons. Like a lot of other recent titles, when you buy a new piece of armor, you can actually view Ezio wearing it. Weapons options are plentiful, and each adds a little something to the character stats that only served to improve my experience. I feel in love with the kill combo where you smash a war hammer into your enemy’s stomach, hunch forward grabbing his mid-section, and then smash him in the face with hammer uppercut style. The one aspect that really sealed the deal for me with this game, though, was the well written story. It just kept getting better as the game went on, and its dramatic ending spoke to my gaming soul.

Along with the many good features of Assassin’s Creed II there’s also some not so good. The one that stood out the most was the controls. Even though it was easy to navigate and climb up buildings it was also very frustrating. Many times I would find myself climbing up a building then accidently press the action button, which was very easy to do, at the wrong time and would jump backwards falling ten stories, and take huge damage. Also, when I was balancing and jumping on planks of wood I would sometimes overshoot or go in the wrong direction, even with the slightest movement, and fall. When you think of being an assassin, you think sneaky, but most of the time when walking around the city it felt like it didn’t matter if I killed a city official right in front of guards. Even if there many guards standing in front of the official, I could just plow through them like a power running back and strike. When I would run and jump in the water, the guards that were chasing me would basically become “which way did he go?” mode. I would only have to swim a short distance and would be out of danger. There just did not seem like a lot of tension created when I made a kill.

Assassin’s Creed II is a great piece of historical fiction, and as a game, it both looks great and plays well. Even with a high level of frustration over the controls at times, they still functioned within the open environment. Customization of armor and weapons adds just enough flavor, and the ending of this game truly makes a great argument as to why story in games makes for great entertainment.

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Our Recommendation: