Assassin's Creed II...
Well I picked up Assassin's Creed II a week or so ago in atticapation of my PS3 being fixed and I played it for a good while.
I was one of those odd fools that enjoyed the first one in all of it's flaws, the game still had alot of good things going for it and had alot of great ideas that only need nuture into something that you could call a fantastic game...but they released Assassin's Creed II instead.
All reviewers have called this game "an improvement over the first" in all honesty I think that it took the first game and added unnessessary fluff to every aspect that was good. The good is still good but it wasn't enhanced it was just bulked with hollow dreams.
I will admit that the story of the game is much better presented in this second installment. Rather than having a blend of stories that were in all honesty hard to follow and not well explained, the gave each part it's own story line.
In the game the main character needs to jump into his own ancestors memories to relive them in a way to learn how to become an assassin to fight the never ending war against the templars of old. Ezio, however, is on a quest for vengence in this past state. I find myself more interested in the over-all consperacy with the templars in the "real" world rather than with Ezio. Which wasn't the case with Alteir, who was the central figure in the first Assassin's Creed.
The first one had some common complaints about it: Repetitive, flawed combat, no real meat to it or unexpansive. The developers went to fix all of this but again instead of fixing, they just fluffed and cleverly disguessed the aspects to make them seem better. Like a chicken dinner, no matter how big that bird is...it's still chicken.
For instince: The combat was expanded from the first to include actuall equipment like armor, and you can buy verious swords and equip them. They even have their own stats but those were not made too clear of the benifits. In fact, the combat is exactly the same as the first. No matter what weopon you pull out they all work the same and you will find yourself constantly just waiting for the enemy to attack so you can counter him until he finally dies. You can add all you want to that but at the end of the day you are doing what you did in the first game only with more stuff. There are no special abilities, special moves just the same attacks, blocks, and counters of the first. So they added nothing to the combat, yet people think that it's improved because now you can equip different weapons.
However, what this game was really all about was it's stealth. You are an assassin after all so stealth has to be in there somewhere, right? In the first game it was a passive stealth system where you mearly had one indicator of how well you were blended and that was a flashing light on your life HUD. This wasn't too effective as you often didn't know who spotted you or why you went into full alert. Or even why they didn't pick you out of the crowd since you were dressed like a bloody ASSASSIN! So Ubisoft decided to go out and "improve" the stealth. Instead of a basic system that alerted you to whatever, now every enemy has an indicator above their head that lets you know the level of threat that you are giving them by your presence. Better? Kinda, in a "let's make the game simpler" kind of way. The trouble in it is the new "Incognito and Natorious" meter.
Whenever you do something that goes against the stealth: Kill a gaurd (loadly) steal some coin and get spotted, bump a guard, you become more natorious and the guards are move active about you. However, you have to do an ass-tone of stupid to become natorious and they even give you simple methods of reducing your level by ripping off posters that liter the cities or bribing/killing politicians. I've never ever been natorious since the innitial default. Meaning you pretty much have to start swining at guards to get their attention, meaning you don't really have to care about stealth when out on the town.
Another thing they added to the stealth was the "improved blend" feature that allows you to synce with groups of people to hide yourself from guards. Neat..in theory. Since you are hardly ever natorious you don't have to worry about blending at all. Some instances in the game it forces you to perform this blend, and when this happens you have to move through stationary guards. You can blend with moving groups of people yes, but you have to stand somewhat in the middle of the group of 4 or more and there isn't that much space. In fact the NPC's will often push you out and prevent you from blending but not on perpous but because they are bunched to close together.
So what about the actual assassinations? Eh. Not much to say about them as half of them have you unable to use stealth in any stretch of the imagination and have you bolting after the target as they spot you from across the map. They even added assassination mini-quests with mini targets. For these they introduced you too little trinkets and things to make the job easier. Things like poison that makes the guards flail about wildly killing everything in there path. Neat right? Not so much. In the demo of the method they had the dude flailing about and had your target run into them. When I did it, the target just watched the guy die and stood their until another one respawned. There isn't an assassination that doesn't involve the simple act of distracting gaurds and just walking up and knifing the guy. They give you option after option and they all do the act of distracting gaurds. Nothing more than that. So the stealth system is still the same system its just been over fluffed with to much of the same.
In one part you had to take out a handfull of gaurds without letting them spot you. On one rooftop I decided to wait till the fools back was turned and then chuck a throwing knife into him. No one told me that anytime you do that it goes into the alert phase for a split second wether he dies or not. This was an issue in the first game and it's ashame it wasn't fixed.
They also said that they would expand the quest buy hidding tombs of deadly assassins all across the game for you to find and go through. Guess what? That's a part of the story, and they tell you were each and every one is.
The biggest crime of this game is that Ezio looks exaclty like his decendant. That has never ever been cool. It's like the family tree doesn't fork.
Hell the game itself has taken a HUGE graphical hit from the first. The graphics are muddy with loads of texture pop, background pop up, and screen tearing.
In conclusion this is a stealth action without the stealth or action. A wormy flasid little guy in a muscle suit.
In review:
Graphics: Muddy, glitchy, and overall downgrade of the origanal.
Gameplay: The stealth eliment is non-existant and the combat has been added too but not improved. The side-missions have been expanded however and more varied.
Sound: The voice acting is decent and the accents are well done, there is noticably less ambient noise than the first, but overall nothing too bad to say.
Fun Factor: It's simple, easily picked up and the assassinations that go right are very satisfying. It's still got potential and there is still much more that can be done.
Note: This was writen only after 3/4 of the game has been complete. I have yet to finish the game and see the ending.