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Product Details |
- Explore the deadly, shadowed world of the assassin with new assassin Ezio
- Roam freely through the lush and dangerous world of Renaissance-era Italy
- Do whatever it takes to complete your missions in the game's all-new open world and mission structure
- Thrive in an environment rich with power, revenge and conspiracy
- Practice your assassin's art with all-new weapons and instruments created by Leonardo da Vinci
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Video Reviews |
 No video reviews found for this product.
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Customer Reviews |
 One of the best games of 2009! |
| Review Date: November 21, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Jason Bean, Iowa City, IA |
I'll say I was not a HUGE fan of the original Assassin's Creed. It had beautiful graphics, a great open-world environment and a fun gameplay engine, but was hampered by level repetition and a horrid use of a dual story. Thankfully this sequel not only fixes these issues but surpasses expectations as a game itself.
Like the original, AC2 begins in the future with an escape from the first game's institution. Thankfully this segment is acton-packed...and short. Within minutes you're back in the "game" world in late 1400's Italy. This (like the first game) is where AC2 mostly takes place. If you're like me and absolutely HATED the bits in the future of AC1, don't worry. You spend maybe 10 minutes a piece split up into three segments (though the middle one seemed a bit longer) in the future world. I still hate that you have to leave the game world proper at all but at least it's only for 30-40 minutes in an otherwise 30+ hour game. Yes the game's THAT LONG!
Your hero in this game is Ezio. He's an Italian noble and has alot more personality and is alot more fun than Altair from Assasin's Creed 1. He's sort of cross between Nathan Drake, Casanova, and Batman. The story (ignoring the future bits) is a great revenge-conspiracy plot set through 30 years of Ezio's life. While I won't pretend all the character's are memorable, they're all played with personality and wit and the voice actors never strike a false note (you can even switch to playing the gamein Italian with english subtitles!).
The gameplay is also MUCH more fun and more varied than AC1. They leave out all the investigation bits of an assasination but add more story-based, action-packed missions for you to work through up to your assassinations. These again are VERY fun and each mission you go on feels completely unique to the one before it. Even the optional assassinations have more rules an complexities as you work through them.
Speaking of varied, aside from the basic story missions which will see you fighting, flying, riding horses, piloting boats and escorting/protecting characters there's also a villa you can upgrade to get discounts on weapons/armor/clothing/medicine etc. I've never played a game that gives you so much to do in so many different ways. While none of the custimization and mission structure is new to games I don't think all of these elements have been brought together so seemlessly before which is the big reason I like it so much!
Also, if this isn't the best game of the year it has one of the best soundtracks. The music is not only original and cool it changes perfectly to match the action in the game (chase scenes, flying, hiding etc). The developers really went out of their way with this one.
Aside from a slow first few (story based) hours Assassin's Creed 2 will hook you and never let go. I still think the Animus is an intersting but failed idea, but it doesn't even remotly take away from the awesome things you can do in this game. There's still time before the end of the year but I can't think of too many games that will be able to top this one. |
High quality entertainment
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| Review Date: November 18, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Mr. Hui Cheng, Oakland, CA United States |
ACII should be summarized as great story telling mixed together with fun, realistic game play.
The story really flows from the beginning and draws the players into the history and the intrigue. The amount of detail and effort put into the game environment is amazing. And the open world reminds me of the play in GTA4 where you can jump onto basically anything, swim in the water, run around the rooftops and hide in all sorts of places.
In addition to the main game story and missions, there are a ton of side quests!
If you are into action/adventure games, ACII is definitely worth getting! |
Great game but a couple of minor dings
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| Review Date: November 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Peter Marreck, Boston, MA USA |
Incredibly captivating adventure/fighting/3D-platformer game with tons of real Renaissance history, artwork and architecture. Batman:AA didn't hook me, and I haven't finished Uncharted 2 yet, and I never even finished Assassin's Grind 1 =) , but everything is going to wait until I finish Assassin's Creed 2. This game is certainly worth your gaming time! I won't restate what everyone else who gave this game a good review has mentioned, so I will focus on...
A COUPLE OF DINGS NOBODY HAS MENTIONED!
1) Savegames are COPY-PROTECTED. I am visiting my family for Thanksgiving and I wanted to bring this game to show my nephew while making a little progress on my latest savegame, only to discover that I cannot copy them to a USB stick! Ubisoft failed here. What if my PS3 hard drive dies? I've been able to back up EVERY SINGLE OTHER game's files but this one's. That's pretty sorry!
2) A few times now my character has, in the middle of running across a floor portion of a map, acted as if he's at a roof edge, and "looked over the fake edge"... right at the floor 6 feet away. And come to a complete stop! I would have to wiggle around to get unstuck. Unfortunately this seems to crop up when least desired such as timed courier/race missions!
3) Some of the timed race missions are extremely hard with very little margin for error (at least for me). Combined with the ease with which you can screw up a jump or accidentally climb a wall you merely wanted to run past, 1 error and you pretty much have to Abort Memory.
4) Big battle axe and pike, which you can disarm from an enemy, seems unobtainable in-game. (The disarm ability is cool as hell, though! Try the pike, watch what happens when it breaks!)
5) In-game mace weapons suck. A sword was almost always available that was better. What if I prefer to bludgeon instead of gut enemies? :) I think each weapon type should excel at 1 stat... Maces for damage, daggers for speed, and swords for parrying, but that wasn't really the case.
That said, my favorite parts are certainly the map details (Venice is amazing!), the fighting variety, the historical footnotes, the Renaissance art, having a "home" you can upgrade for more income, and basically being made to feel like a total badass while within an unfolding story. Love the "suddenly there missions" like catching thieves, offing messengers and whatnot. Some people like the extra information-gathering stuff (codex pages etc.) but I'm more into the action and attention to detail. ;) Scaling a wall using any handhold available and leaping from rooftop to rooftop doesn't get old!
As far as they went with the fighting, I can tell it can get even more interesting with well-timed combos and whatnot, I hope they push the next game in that direction more! |
Immersive Experience
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| Review Date: December 4, 2009 |
| Reviewer: cybergel78, Singapore |
This is what an action/stealth/role-playing game should be. In fact, as I was playing this game, my thoughts harkened back to the days of Ultima. This game should have been what Ultima 9 was. A pity that EA had to bury that franchise.
After completing this game, I felt an immense epiphany; it is as if I have just finished viewing an epic onscreen. The story itself is epic. Following the grand tradition of movie sequels, this one picks up right after the first game. As Desmond Miles, you find yourself captive in a research facility run by modern day Templars. This time round, one finds himself transported back to the Renaissance era in 15th century Italy.
The sandbox world itself requires many moments of just gazing at its beauty. The various synchronisation points offer the gamer a kaleidoscopic view of the various Italian cities. The views are simply breathtaking and spectacular. Venice deserves special mention. The scope of the city is really immense.
Ezio Auditore, the protagonist, is a likeable rouge. More so than Altair. He starts off as somewhat a rich playboy but progressed into a master assassin through extraordinary circumstances. I like the fact that historical characters and even architecture features figures largely in the game. It's a joy interacting with Leonardo Da Vinci, Il Magnifico, Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander IV), even the dastardly Machiavelli makes a cameo appearance!
This review is in regards to the PS3 version. I must say that I'm a bit disappointed with the quality. As [...] pointed out, there were a few visual glitches. Throughout the course of my gameplay, the game crashed thrice. Twice at the same spot, with me performing the same action - double assassination 4 guards in succession. I really do hope Ubisoft addressed the buggy issue and fix them in the near future.
UPDATE (24/1/2010): Ubisoft did a slight upgrade patch and there are no crashes so far. Kudos to Ubisoft for quick response time! I can't wait for the DLC to hit! |
A successful Sequel
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| Review Date: December 5, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Kenneth Lambert, |
I'll start out by saying that this game is an improvement in every way over Assassin's Creed. I started playing it right after Uncharted 2 so the graphics at first seemed a little rough at first, but considering how much more massive the game is compared to Uncharted 2, it is barely fair to compare. It didn't take long to adjust when the game sucks you in so quick. But don't get me wrong the game is beautiful, and the detail that has gone into each building and city is amazing. It is great to look from a view point and decide where you are headed next, knowing you can reach all of it.
So first off the gameplay is a lot of fun, if you hadn't played AC or just hadn't played in a long time it will take some adjusting again to get used to the control set up. But they do ease you into the controls starting out with the most important aspect, free running. This is the only part of the game I found a flaw in. Ezio has a tendency to jump of things and grab onto things you don't really want him to, you can let go of X to avoid this, takes practice to time it right. It also doesn't help that the buildings have slanted roofs so you can't tell how far a jump is. This isn't Ubisoft's fault, but the mini map does help to see if it is a jump you can make. Other then that, the controls are great and a lot of fun to use.
Now the story has improved greatly. It is slow at first, but toward the end things really start to pick up. I don't want to give anything away, but unlocking "The Truth" is worth the trouble. After unlocking the video I actually had to take a step back and remember that it was just a game and it was actual footage. I can't wait for ACIII to see what happens next. |
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Tags: assassins, creed
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