Battlemouth

Between rounds of Ground War on Modern Warfare 2, I have been playing Assassin’s Creed II. With the massive, record breaking release of Modern Warfare 2, and the hub-ub surrounding Left For Dead 2, it seems to me that Assassin’s Creed II was swept under the table. I am here to remedy that situation with a review of my game experiences so far.

For those unfamiliar with this franchise (which shouldn’t be anyone reading this because you are clearly a gamer and clearly interested in the sequel), Assassin’s Creed was released in 2007 and has graduated recently to the Platinum Games group. In a nutshell, you are plunged into your own ancestors memories through a machine called the “animus”. The idea is similar to that of genetic memory in birds, ie: how does generation after generation of bird know to migrate south? The theory posits that the memory of what to do is embedded in the genes of the species and thus travels with each generation and is kept in the subconscious somewhere. So taking that idea and applying it to the game, your character Desmond is forced to take control of a past ancestor, in the first game a gentlemen Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad living in the Middle East, and free roam through his memories. The company forcing you to search these memories does not tell you what you are looking for at first, only that at some point in the year 1191, this ancestor of yours came into contact with an item of power that the corporation is looking for. Enter the Assassins. Your ancestor Altair (pronounced in the game as Al-tie-eer) becomes a member of a secret order known as the Assassins fighting against their sworn enemy The Knights Templar. The Knights Templar have their fingers in all sorts of levels of local government throughout the Biblical Middle Eastern region, and of course, being a bunch of radical Christians, they are up to no good. A little Dan Brown I know, but entertaining none the less.

The second installment picks up almost immediately where the first game left off. Without giving away the ending to the first game, you find yourself back in an animus and searching through your memories yet again. The most notable (and publicized) difference between I and II would be the time period, most of Assassin’s Creed II takes place in the late 15th century, in Italy. I found this both refreshing, and lame, all at the same time. I have to say that the first hour or two I played the game I was not impressed in general…that is not to say the game is not just as beautiful, graphically, or creative as the first game, it was more that it felt exactly like the first game, only with slightly different costumes…and now your character has an accent. This opinion changed in some ways as I progressed through the game, I will get into why in a moment. Lets step back to the story line for a moment. This time when Desmond connects to the Animus, he is sent back to visit the memory of his ancestor Ezio Auditore da Firenze in, as stated before, Italy. After running about the city completing some trivial errands designed to reintroduce you to the game play you know and love, the story picks up proper. Upon completing a curious couple of delivery’s for your father to some rather seedy folk you return home to discover Ezio’s father and brothers have been dragged to jail…for what you do not know. This entire beginning of the game took me far too long to complete, I think I sat down to play at least five times before making it to the part of the story where Ezio actually figures out what the hell is going on. Like I said earlier though, as I progressed, the game became much more enjoyable, and the differences between the first and second game became more apparent.

One of the first characters you are introduced to in the game is a young painter and inventor, named Leonardo Da Vinci……
Ok, I think it is admirable that a game try to remain accurate to actual historical events, however, I felt this one was a little silly. It makes sense for the story, Da Vinci loved inventing things and does so in the game as well, in fact he is responsible for the fixing of your trusted wrist blade…and it’s matching partner (that’s right two of them in this game)… Something about him though, every time I have to talk to Leonardo I get irritated, and don’t get me wrong, I secretly loved The Da Vinci Code…but I think Dan Brown has still soiled any non mystical opinion of Da Vinci I had and the game only adds to the mysticism. Until that book and this game, as far as I knew, Da Vinci was kind of a nut job who painted well and came up with some neat “ahead of his time” inventions…that didn’t work…and lets not forget that he liked dudes, or dressed like a woman, something like that. And unfortunately, for me, Da Vinci is in the game quite a bit, as your decoder of ancient codex pages that contain the key to what you are searching for and inventor of assorted tools for you to use. The next character of not you bump into in the game brings with him more new content to the sequel.

Your Uncle Mario lives in the Auditore Villa in the Tuscan Country side, and you know what country side means in this game…MORE HORSE RIDING! Here is where a large amount of the new features in the sequel show up. The Auditore Villa is surrounded by a small town, this small town contains a couple of stores upon your arrival from where you are instructed to collect some gear. There is a blacksmith that sells everything from armor to weapons to ammunition (ammunition meaning bullets for your gun or throwing knives…pretty neat, right?), there is a tailor that allows you to dye your clothing to match your current city, and a doctor who will sell you medicine pouches and the medicine to put in them. While this is neat in theory, I though it unnecessary and a bit cheap to call new content. While new weapons and armor become unlocked and have different stats that increase over time, if you know how to counter kill (a move you re-learn early on), it doesn’t matter what the stats are on your weapon, you win every time. I suppose armor did end up being helpful as many of the guards can now follow you up onto rooftops faster than before and frequently catch you, as well as the new guards who wear much heavier armor. Again, if you know how to counter kill, they all die equally fast. As for dying your clothes…well…that’s just silly, at least two thirds of the way through the game it has yet to be necessary, it doesn’t even effect your notoriety. Which brings us to yet another new feature in the sequel, notoriety. Essentially like before, the more you killed guards and such the more their comrades would look out for you, however, now you can tear down wanted posters and kill town criers that pass word of your “evil doings” to lower your notoriety. In addition to tearing down posters and killing loud mouths, you can now also “blend in” with any group walking as opposed to just monks. You can also hire different groups such as a group of thieves that will help stay with you to blend and then attack anyone that attacks you, as well as whores, who will flaunt their boobies at the guards as a distraction. Believe it or not of all the new features I seem to use the whores the most….who knew? Back to your little villa, upon searching your massive new home you discover a room that will allow you to hang paintings or put up sculptures you find or purchase along your journeys (it is the Renaissance after all). You are also encouraged to upgrade your little village with more stores and refurbish some of the existing establishments. This will bring your city more business and therefore you will gain an income from the sales! Pretty handy for buying new armor and weapons. I will say that being given an option to upgrade my towns thieves guild as well as the brothel seemed outrageous from a local politicians stand point, but whatever. Of course all of our familiar favorite tasks are still available, syncing all of the eagle points, collecting the mini statues, and other assorted mini-game type missions. There is certainly more to do in this game than there was in the first game.

The bottom line is, Assassin’s Creed was a brilliant game…II has taken the first game, thrown in a few new things to keep you interested, but ultimately kept everything the same. So is it a great game? Well, I think great is a strong word, as anyone who played the first game will tell you, it is a LOT of fun….for the first 5 or 6 hours. Then you put it down for a week or so, and come back when you feel like climbing real high and diving into some straw and maybe slitting a few wrists. The story line, though weak at times, is ultimately well done. There are usually some good twists and turns as well as some creative ideas and as I said earlier, the mix of fact and fiction through the use of historical characters and places makes things fun as well. The announcement today that two rather large DLC packs will be coming out in January and February respectably, will certainly be interesting to see. All that has been said about both packs so far is that you should save at least 1 gig on your drive for each…which if you have gotten much DLC you will recognize as a significant size. Pretty neat except we look for a Modern Warfare 2 DLC pack to be released within the next few months (thanks to my insider information) as well….I know which one I will spend my money on.

I can’t say that you should not go buy Assassin’s Creed II, but I don’t think I can really add it to my list of games to buy for the year either, it really depends on how well you like the first game. I do think that it is worth playing even if that means only renting it. Give it a shot and tell me what you think… while you do that, I gotta go play Modern Warfare 2…LATER