Assassin's Creed II

Blog Post: Assassin's Creed gets it right

Adventure Seeker 1 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 23:18:00 GMT

I have seen the missteps of AC 1 and I can guarantee you that AC 2 is a 100 times better. The story weaves it's web so well that you feel as though you are actually in Renaissance Italy. You see Ezio become a novice, bumbling assassin to a master of death. The side distractions keep up the fun for a long time afterwards until you are satisfied. The visuals and scale of the city are grand and further engrosses you into the 16th century. The characters are as much lovable as they are hateful and help drive home the fact that Ubisoft is going to be better. If there are flaws, then they are very minimal and are things that can be worked around and improved in the next game.

Blog Post: Assassin's Creed II: Exactly what Ubisoft needed.

xX-w0lf_r3b0rn-X — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 01:28:00 GMT

This game deserves the title of "Best Assassin's Creed, so far." AC: Brotherhood was really good, but short. AC: Revelations has the potential to be better than this game, but that remains to be seen.

Now,.... AC: II. This game was the gateway game to my addiction with the franchise. I've never played AC: 1, until couple months ago. The first one was repetitive, and didn't get fun until after the halfway point. When I played AC2... I thought I was so stupid for never hearing of this game. I WAS.

Assassin's Creed 2 provides a nice blend of stealth, action, platforming, and strategy. By strategy, I mean you really have to think about your approach. You can go all out, but that could lead to death. But it works. I prefer to be more stealthy, though. It gives you the chance to experience what it's like to be an Italian bad ass.

The graphics are amazing. Not as overwhelming as Battlefield 3 or Uncharted, but AMAZING. I really thought "That's how Italy looked like in the 1500's!!!!?" This game is truly amazing.

The combat.... Fluid.... Stylish... Bad ass. That's it..... It's fun and addicting. THAT'S WHY MANY PEOPLE WHO GET THIS GAME KILL EVERY SINGLE B*STARD IN THEIR SIGHT.

Story..... Lost + Inception = Assassin's Creed. This is amazing. It's a story of drama, romance, adventure, drama, action.. etc etc.

That's it...... I won't say how good the sound is because.. Frankly, it's hard to screw up a game like this. The voice acting is great. The animations are fluid. Replayability is very high, thanks to side missions and free roaming.

Blog Post: This game really makes you feel like an Assassin

Skynight2513 — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 04:27:00 GMT

Assassin's Creed 2 is a real hard pounding game that really tests how good of an Assassin you can be. This game is full of action, strategy, a little comedy, and drama. I really enjoyed this game the fighting style is a real step up from the first game but in my opinon could have been modified a little bit better.I think the option to do stuff beside the main mission is a whole lot better in this one than the first game. Really this game was just great and if you are thinking about buying this game I highly recommend it.

Blog Post: Assassin's creed 2 review

my xbox tag — Mon, 30 May 2011 18:47:00 GMT

pros

The pros in this game out weigthed the cons easily. I high recmmed this game to any one. The story was flowing and varited in mission type. The new mechecnies were a inteteresting change to the comat and free running. The different place you can travel was nice to keep the game feeling new. After I compeleted the game I felt like I needed to compelete every thing left, like the feathers and seals.

cons

The combat at times is slow but when in free running chases you will have no shortage of high flying fun.

Blog Post: A masterwork

ShadowDragyn — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:57:00 GMT

I liked the first game a lot, but it had its issues. This sequel improves on every single aspect of gameplay and even trims off some of the stuff that didn't work.

Forum Post: Assassins Creed 2

Hahnasty — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:03:00 GMT

They fixed a lot of the critiques from the first game. What I liked about ACII was that there was three or four main stories going at a time. You had the real life Desmond story, the Ezio story, the subject 16 story, and then the past assassins story. These all wrapped up made the game always interesting because there was a new storyline to follow if you got bored of one.

Blog Post: Amazing game

Masterassassin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:47:00 GMT

After beating this game the only word i can think of is amazing. The story,the gameplay,the graphics all combine to make the best game i have ever played. almost everything has been improved from the first game the climbing is faster the weapons are better and your new gadgets make you feel more like a assassin. Ezio is a more likable person over the first games hero and so is the game it's self. So one more time BEST GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED.

Blog Post: AMAZING!!

Taten — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 23:01:00 GMT

I loved the first one, but this one is even better!!! I can't wait for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, but i really think that they should make a RPG with the same elements of this game. It would be absolutely amazing! i love RPG's!

But this game has a good story (but confusing)

Really good gameplay (like amazing)

Amazing graphics

Just buy it if you haven't yet OK?

Blog Post: Great Game! - Assassin's Creed 2

Hist — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:26:00 GMT

When I got home from my vacation at the end of March, my lovely wife had Assassin's Creed 2 for the Xbox 360 waiting for me. Unfortunately, our TV problems meant I couldn't play it for a little while. When I finally did sit down for it, though, I was in pure heaven. This is an awesome game.

I had really enjoyed the first game, where you played an assassin during one of the Crusades. The historical detail was wonderful, with a story intricately woven in with the real history. Assassin's Creed 2 takes place in Italy during the late 15th century. You play as Ezio, a young man from an Italian family that gets caught up in the political struggles on the Italian peninsula during this time period. Your father betrayed and executed, you vow revenge on his killers, using the skills acquired both from family heirlooms as well as friends of your father. While your mission starts out as one of revenge, you soon discover that there is something much bigger going on, something that's carried forward from the Crusades, or maybe even from the beginning of time.

The conceit of the game is that this war between the Templars and the Assassins has been going on for centuries, and even now is still going on. You are also Desmond, a descendant of both Altair (from the first game) as well as Ezio. Through a technology called "The Animus," you are reliving these memories, learning the skills, and trying to stay one step ahead of the modern day Templars.

Unlike the first game, which had way too many modern-day sequences, you only play Desmond a couple of times, and at the beginning and end of the game. The rest of the time, you're in Italy, and the game designers have made this stay extremely inviting (if also quite violent).

The gameplay is marvelous, even more so than the first game. Ezio moves very fluidly through the wonderfully-portrayed cities of Italy, from Florence to Venice.

The fighting controls are much the same as before, with "X" being your attack button (with whatever weapon you're holding, or with your fist). The "B" button will allow you to grab on to somebody, and so forth. However, there are a few more wrinkles. You also have the option of throwing money on the street. If you're on the run from guards, throwing money will get the people around you going after the money, getting in the way of the guards and helping your escape (greedy bastards!). You can also throw dust in the eyes of your enemies, employ smoke bombs to give you cover to either escape or go in for the kill, or pick up a fallen guard's weapon to improvise. You can even steal your enemy's weapon!

One complaint about the first game was that it was much too linear and boring as you set up your assassinations. To get your assassination mission, you had to synchronize Altair's memories by climbing viewpoints, and then get information on your target through a couple of other minigames (like beating up an informant or picking somebody's pocket). In Assassin's Creed 2, everything is much more varied. You don't need to "prepare" for an assassination mission before you do it. You just go to the Memory Start spot and go to it. On the other hand, there are other missions around the city that you can do as well: assassination missions for Lorenzo, races, beating up wayward husbands, and stuff like that. There are also treasure chests to be found all over the place.

That's another difference between the games that I think makes this one even better: there's money involved, and you have to build up your family's estate. You can buy new weapons, armor, paintings for the house, medicine so that you can heal on the fly. Money adds quite an interesting flavour to the whole thing. It also hires courtesans to give you cover, mercenaries to fight with you, and thieves to lure guards away from places you need to sneak into.

While you have swords and stuff like that to fight with, the primary weapons of the assassin are the daggers that spring from your wrists. There's nothing more satisfying then jumping off of a wall and landing with your daggers in two of the guards' throats (does that make me sick?). That's also what you use in most of your assassination missions, though if sometimes you just beat them in a clean fight.

Assassin's Creed 2 has so much other stuff to find as well. There are 100 feathers all over the various cities and outlying areas that you must collect. There are 20 strange glyphs in various places around the map that, if you decipher them all, will give you a video memory of your immediate predecessor, giving even more hints about what's really going on in the overarching story.

The graphics must be seen and experienced to be believed. Everything is so fluid and well-rendered. When you're up on a high building, it can be truly breathtaking looking out over the city. Sometimes I just had to stop and marvel (which almost cost me my life once or twice).

Assassin's Creed 2 is a must-buy for anybody with a 360 or a PS3. With lush graphics, awesome gameplay, and lots of blood (and the occasional swear word as well, though most of those are in Italian and thus subtitled), you can't go wrong with this one.

You'll have hours of great gameplay.

Note: You know those glyphs I mention? The 20 glyphs that, when you find them and solve their puzzles, will give you a video memory from your predecessor? Yeah, those glyphs. Many of them are f-ing impossible to solve. After tearing my hair out to the point where I was going to go bald, I just used a Glyph guide for them if I couldn't solve them fairly quickly. It saved me lots of headaches.

Yes, I'm a wuss. Get over it.

Blog Post: This Time It's Personal

Matt-boy — Wed, 26 May 2010 23:23:00 GMT

Starting off, I want to say that for all of its flaws, I like Assassin's Creed 1. It was repetitive, somewhat boring, and the story wasn't overly original, the combat wasn't overly fun, but it did impress me. Alot of people weren't fans of the first one, and I can understand why. Now throw all of that out the window.

Ubisoft took all the good elements from their first try, kept them on the shelf and then tweeked everything so that at the end of the day, Assassin's Creed 2 really stands on its own two, almost perfectly formed legs. Everything is improved here, pacing (somewhat), story, combat, characterization, hell even voice acting gets a bump up.

If you're a gamer that loves their story, this is the game for you. I can't go into depth without mentioning spoilers, but lets just say that jumping from past to present isn't so much a burden anymore. You get attached to the main...kinda.... protagonist "Desmond" and his ragtag bunch of underground rebels. But that's only one facet of the story, the show stealer is the memories of Desmond's ancestor "Ezio". Basically, from the word go, you watch as this youthful boy gets plunged from the decadent, care-free life of an Italian noble to a skilled assassin. The secondary characters in the plot help you and drive you forward, making you wonder more about them, even if you do get flooded with uninteresting text documents concerning their "real" history. There are points where the time frame jumps and that's ok... until whole years go by with just the blink of an eye and the wave of a hand. All in all, it works out all right with no major problems. You feel motivated, you feel angry or sad or even confused, but you continue on because you want to.

Gameplay is better than ever. There are a few bugs which cause missteps, but very rarely do you find yourself in a hard place because of the physics. Combat, while still a bit of a broken record of waiting to counter-attack, has been revamped. Emphasis is on stealth and silent kills, which if you're good enough, should be all you need. You'll feel an accomplishment when you dispatch an entire platoon or room full of guards and no one is the wiser. The only complaint I have is that the targets for elimination all turn out to be scheming old men. I suppose that's who held the power then in the renaissance, and who still holds it today, but i just didn't feel overly threatened when I got to them. New weapons also help to spice up game play, and now you can SWIM! Need to get away from armored soldiers? Take a dip and back stroke to a safer place. Yes, everything here has been retooled. No more rinse repeat pickpocket or interrogation quests. No. Just pure, hands down fun.

I can't praise this game enough. Minor issues keep it from perfection, but goodness, this is as close as gaming has come in along time in my eyes. Graphics are beautiful and very pleasing, music isn't half bad but not striking, and replay value is fairly moderate.

If you have mixed feelings about this game after tepid feelings of the first, if you rent this game, I can almost promise you'll end up buying it. If you hated the first one, then you'll probably think this is an improvement, but I cant guarantee this will completely shift your feelings on this series, but it might. Overall, It was great and immersing to me and everyone I've ever seen play it.

a solid 9.25 out of 10.

Blog Post: Almost perfect

redbob2400 — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:31:00 GMT

Everything about this game is amazing, the free running feels so natural, the missions are fun, my only complaints are fighting the agiles, it's basically just waiting for a counter and the dlc was BORING, and the don't get noticed stuff was frustrating in it.

Wiki: Assassin's Creed II Guides

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:55:00 GMT

Guides for Assassin's Creed II

Wiki Page: Assassins creed 2 help to get stuff

Mastersnake — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 18:55:00 GMT

If you are having some trouble finding that last weapon check to see if you have collected enough feathers. Also how to get last armor and cape are listed below.

Condottiero war hammer - Given to you by uncle Mario after finding 50 feathers and then putting them in the feather box.

Auditore cape- Given to you by mother after finding 100 feathers and then putting them in the feather box (makes you notorious in all major locations execpt the Villa)

Altair's armor- In basement, unlocked after finding 6 seals in the respective 6 assasians tombs found in all major locations. (This is the Armor that was worn by the Assasian Altair in the first game)

Blog Post: Assassins Creed II Review

Le-D911 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 00:48:00 GMT

Assassins Creed II

Whether you like to jump off buildings and stab people in the head or counter a brutes attack and swing his axe into his own neck is up to you. Or you could go with the even funnier taunts in the game in which you talk about your enemy’s mom. Either way Assassins Creed II was one of the best games I have played on my PS3. ACII blends cinematic with beautiful violence, drugs, sex, and woman. And you cannot forget the humor.

Assassins Creed II takes you over many great Italian cities and why go site seeing with your parents when you could go kill some random guards for the great effect. Go get some guards p.o.ed by throwing sand in their face or poisoning them and running.

Story:

Assassins Creed II takes you on a quest to find and get revenge on the people that hurt your family. Along the way you will learn many new tricks from your Uncle Mario (the one who mocks Super Mario by saying: "Ezio! It is me! MARIO!"). You also meet many great philosophers and inventors along the way who will help you in your quest to get revenge on the people that hurt your family. Such people include the great inventor Leonardo DaVinci. Surprisingly DaVinci is much younger in this game which proved my theory wrong. My theory was DaVinci was born 80 years old.

Game play:

Although the game play is not perfect it almost is (if that makes any sense). Compared to the first Assassins Creed Ubisoft has done so much to create a new sense of being a legit assassin. Ezio, by the end of the game, has a bunch of new weapons ranging from the swords to the smoke bombs to the daggers. And of course there is his most notable weapon that, in my opinion, defines the Assassins Creed saga...his hidden blades. With his new trusty blades, Ezio can now perform air attacks, jump attacks, and he can also stab two guards simultaneously. The game play will take you from simple attacks like swinging a sword to being able to dodge a brute’s heavy attack. The character progression makes you feel as if you are an actual assassins on a quest for vengeance. The only downside was the repetition of the attacks. After awhile I felt I could predict what Ezio was going to do based on how he moved and countered.

Visuals and Sound:

I don't think it is necessary for me to say how beautiful the game looks. It could be the way Ezio's outfit sways while running or it could be the blood the pours of a guards head that you just stabbed, after insulting the guard’s mother. The game incorporates cinematic with game play that flows almost to perfection. The voice actor is also top-notch. Many might have recognized Desponds voice as the same man that voices Drake in the Uncharted series. There are the occasional poor voice actors but they're so many great ones that the crappy ones almost don’t seem so bad and honesty, are you going to be listening to what the people are saying around you as you are countering a brutes attack?

Overall:

I rate games based on how much fun I had playing; how much fun I had following the story; and how much I enjoyed the graphics. The story was basic in the beginning but became complicated in the head, which is a good thing because it showed great character progression which games need more of. The game play was also amazing yet there were some setbacks. These setbacks include awkward camera angles (at some points). Another would be when you are running to climb a wall but you actually jump against the wall and go back to the beginning. But there are so many great game play moments that the few don’t matter and although I didn’t say it in the "game play section" the AI was done very well. They payed attention and even if you liked the slightest bit suspicions they would follow you (which proved to be faulty on their part). And the graphics and sound (no pun intended) speak for themselves. The graphics were beautiful to look at and the voice acting made me seem as if I was in an actual conversation with someone.

Wiki Page: Locations on where Assassin's seals are

MallRat666 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:55:00 GMT

Darius	Hidden Blade	Santa Maria Novella
Iltani	Poison	Santa Maria Del Fiore
Wei Yu	Spear	Torre Grossa
Qulan Gal	Bow	Rocca Di Ravaldino
Amunet	Snake	Basilica di San Marco

Blog Post: Assassin's Creed 2: An Exciting Journey Through The 1400s

DrJoeystein — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:00:00 GMT

My name is Ezio Auditore Da Firenze, and I'm an assassin.

In AC2, you play as Ezio. Born to be an assassin, to live by the creed. Your father and brothers are killed by a group known as the Templars, and you try to avenge their deaths by hunting done these corrupt people. A game that can't be missed, the story pulls you in. There are mysteries at every turn, leaving you with many questions, but with some answers too. It's so well put together with actual history, the story baffles you. This is the highlight of AC2. You want to know more about the characters and events, and it pulls you in. The Truth is a WOW moment that you must see in the story.

The graphics are very nice. The buildings and architecture of Venice, Florence, and other cities make you feel like this is how it really looked back then. The thing I didn't like was that in some cutscenes, the characters hands, hair, etc. go through clothing and stuff like that. But it's not a major issue, it's only one small thing I didn't like. Other than that, the characters are very detailed, and their expressions look pretty good.

The gameplay is simple, but fun. You don't have to have skill to play, the controls are easy to learn. One thing I wished for was that combat wasn't so easy. It's basically just counter-attacking. It should require more buttons to push instead of just pressing the square button. Nevertheless, it can be fun. The kill animations are awesome. Like when Ezio sticks a spear into somebody, the enemy falls back. But their body is supported by the spear, so they're just suspended in the air! Then their body slides down the spear. I don't know if you can picture how I described it, I'm bad at that. LOL There might be over 25 kill animations, and when you pull one off, it makes you feel like an epic assassin.

The game can last over 17 hours. But you could put over 30 hours into the game if you want to complete most of the game! I got the platinum trophy for AC2, and it was worth it. Plenty of extra missions on the side, Assassin Tombs, Assassination missions, Glyphs, etc.

Overall, I loved AC2 a lot. A fantastic game that is better than the original in every way. You can't miss it. But I recommend playing the first game. Don't get me wrong though, it's good too, just not nearly as good as the second one. And with DLC coming out, you can put an extra 3-5 hours into the game! I played DLC 1, and it was good. Short, but good. Anyway, just go buy AC2, you won't regret it.

Joseph114

Blog Post: finally....i understand!

SmellyKoochie — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:01:00 GMT

I played probably 30 minutes of the first Assassins Creed and did not understand what the heck was going on. Now, the 2nd blew me away. Everything about this game is amazing, the storyline, gameplay, graphics, and the ability to keep me awake at all times(unlike the 1st). You feel like your in Italy with Ezio. You have the ability to explore, and do missions at your own pace. The weapons are great, but are a little over priced. People look so realistic, and when you slice them like pie, you see lots of blood. Overall you will like this game. I would say game of the year, but Uncharted 2 is the best.

Blog Post: Assassin's Creed II

joshtl95 — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:19:00 GMT

After playing Assassin's Creed 2, I find myself desperately searching for a reason to go to his house so we can play more and more. This game is incredible, everything from the graphics to the gameplay have been revamped and improved for this new story. I love the character, Ezio, because he is actually fighting for a reason, unlike Altair who we know nothing about. I also like the fact that the sections where you are outside of the Animus 2.0 are actually fun to play. I do like the fact that you can now swim and use the hidden blades in combat. Also now you can buy new armor, weapons, and even armor colors for Ezio. This adds a slight RPG element to this game. I don't like that you have to buy health and repair armor because i liked how in Assassin's Creed you just regained you synchronization bar over time. All in all this game is amazing and reaches new heights of excitement and fun. Hope they make another Assassin's Creed but I'm not sure it can top this.

Blog Post: What A Game!!!!!

TheLostMarauder18 — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:22:00 GMT

Assassin's Creed II is a step up from its predecessor in many ways. Ubisoft did a great job replacing the very stale information gathering segments from the first game. Instead it implements a mission driven system that does its job by keeping thing interesting rather than repetitive. The voice work is pretty well done with Kristen Bell and Nolan North doing their jobs well as Lucy and Desmond respectively. Musically the has a great score that fits the current mood or setting quite well.

One thing this game has that is better than most on the market is its stellar graphics. With gorgeous textures, shimmering water, and a remarkably realistic crowd, Assassins Creed II posesses some of the best visuals out there. Gameplay wise this sequel requires a great deal more strategy because of all the new soldier types and different weapons they use. The fighting is a lot of fun and each fight can be different if you try to use all of the weapons and accessories you can acquire.

Each assassination throughout the game is unique and fun while still being slightly challenging. At a certain point of the game you will gain a base of sorts that can be upgraded and can earn you discounts on essential equipment, weapons, armor, and medicine. Another new feature is the health system that requires the medicine you purchase.This replaces the auto-regeneration from the first game.

Between the great story, gameplay, and visuals, Assassins Creed II is one of the best action games of all time. I mean who doesn't love running along walls.

Blog Post: Assassin's Creed 2 is one you must definitely check out.

David Arendt — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:23:00 GMT

A much better improvement off of the first game. I can see this as being one of the hit adventure games of the year. It took the repetition of kills and flow of missions out completely from the game. Added many great new things such as customizing outfits and weapons. Has great improvements on the environment. Not to mention this game also has a great story line taking off from where the first game left off. I could not put this game down. I was late to class twice during the week I was playing it.

Go buy it now.