So I got Assassins Creed in the mail a couple of days ago, a day early since the shop I preordered it at mailed it out ahead of schedule.
I bought the first AC at the same time I got my PS3 since it was dirt cheap (platinum edition or whatever), and after playing it through I was pretty ambivalent about the game. The story was done and presented quite well, even if it was a fairly run of the mill conspiracy thing, the graphics were gorgeous and running along rooftops killing arabs and crusaders was fun. The gameplay execution was lacking though, the missions were essentially a big for-loop. Climb some towers, sit on a couple of benches, beat up an old man, kill some arabs/crusaders who are beating up old men, then assassinate some guy you've been told to kill but know basically nothing about. Repeat about 10 times. Get left hanging without the game even ending.
It still felt like a decent game somehow, so i decided to preorder the sequel which is supposed to do everything better. So far I agree, even if there are still weak points.
First impressions, spoilered for your protection (some very minor story points might be revealed):
Graphics are still great, not much have changed though except the environment being perhaps a bit richer, more buildings have insides and people have more facial expressions. There is a day/night cycle, although people don't seem to care much.
Running around the rooftops works the same, no need changing something that already worked well.
Ubisoft isn't afraid of throwing the f-bomb, which is refreshing in a game. You might even learn to swear in italian if you pay attention.
"Blend" isn't totally retarded anymore! I guess someone at Ubisoft had an epiphany and realized that folding your hands and walking really, really slow doesn't actually make you more inconspicuous. This time they've got it more or less right, you blend in with any crowd in the streets just by hanging near groups and pretending to know them. You learn how to do this from some prostitutes.
You can pickpocket people on the street for cash. You learn this from prostitutes too.
Combat is less button-mashy and there are new combat moves, like kneeing people in the groin and headbutting them. Supposedly you can disarm the goons you're fighting and use their weapons, but the prostitutes haven't taught me that yet.
Oh, and enemies don't just get in a circle and attack you one by one anymore. They'll happily move in and stab you in the back while you're busy with three others.
Leonardo da Vinci lives next door and essentially acts as your Q/Amanda Carter equivalent. Likes to hug guys.
You can buy armor, clothes and weaponry (and for some reason, art) in shops, although don't expect RPG-level variety. The selection is quite limited. There's also doctors and healing potions. Armor can get damaged and need repair.
One thing hasn't improved. Since the plot is that you're a guy inside a simulator, they use that as an excuse to dumb down the gameplay. Everything you can do is marked on the map and lights up like a beacon when you're near them, and makes the missions and "sidequests" feel like minigames. You can't really interact with anyone who isn't somehow related to an ingame action either (apart from randomly killing them I guess). There's also a lot of popups and huge white flashes and fancy effects as you do things or even just move around, which is distracting and breaks immersion. Some of it can be turned off but not all.
They've fixed how the story and missions are presented to you though. In the first game you got all your assignments by returning to the head assassin, which gave it all a "next level" feel. In the sequel the progression is much more natural and driven by you, even if it's still about going to the next map marker.
Even with the "playing a guy playing a game" aspect I do enjoy the game. The atmosphere and game world is good and the gameplay is definitely much improved and expanded upon. They've set up a very fancy DLC system for this game too, so it'll be interesting to see what they'll offer.
Author
Topic: Assassin's Creed 2 (Read 7370 times)