Assassin's Creed II
I finally picked up ACII (like a year after I first wanted to) because it was finally being sold at a reasonable price - so thank you, Brotherhood. I probably won't play you but you have done me a service.
They've made a lot of changes for the better, outside of the obvious stuff that I knew was going to be there, like less repetition. I appreciate that I'm not being constantly warped around and that I get the chance to move my guy back and forth as I please. That said, when there's a timeskip it's a little... not obvious? Apparently I've been away from Florence for two years by the time I go back. I could have used maybe a "NOW LOADING MEMORY BLOCK" in between there to demonstrate. I like that they cut a lot of that out but SOME of it had it's place.
I also appreciate that the cutscenes now come with, like, cutscene angles. I think you might have been able to do this in AC1 by pressing a button, but I never figured out what button that was, and as such I was halfway done with the game when I realized the guy sitting at the counter being a dick to me was Malik. Oops.
Also holy shit there are women in this game. I mean, there was like, one in the other game, wasn't there? And that was among a pretty small cast of characters to begin with. It's nice to have a greater variety of characters, but it's unfortunate that I can still pick out what is going to happen and who is going to betray me immediately. Al Mualim didn't exactly keep me guessing, but I wondered now and then, considering he was a pretty good teacher when he wasn't busily stabbing me in the back.
ANYWAY YEAH GIRLS and two of the old assassins of yore are female, which is nice. Demonstrates the inclusion the first game was sorely lacking. I am not exactly impressed with any of the women thus far but I appreciate their existence, with the possible exception of whoever is voicing Rebecca Crane.
There are so many things to waste time on. The kinds of things I like to do, though. Patching up the villa is my favourite. I wish they'd let me get out there and paint things different colours and maybe hang some signs up and customize in other little ways like that, but repairing it is a fun goal. I love clothes dye and I fully intend to waste my money there when they start selling dyes that aren't ugly. It's a shame that my armor covers my outfits. I must be more chic.
I DO HAVE SOME COMPLAINING TO DO however. First of all, and this is not really a fair complaint... I miss Altair. I preferred him to Ezio - Ezio is much more easygoing and relateable and the kind of guy we're supposed to relate to and I hate him for it. Seriously! I hated Altair at the start of AC, actually, but when the game opens with calling him out for being a douche for all the reasons I thought he was a douche, I am impressed. He grew up over the course of the game, if you ask me, and for all of his brash arrogance he was never quite so bad as Ezio.
Ezio is probably a more decent guy, actually? I am just kind of offended that this is what they think is relateable, and I'm really not digging this "JUST FOUND OUT HE IS AN ASSASSIN, TYME TO LEARN" shit. I would prefer he already knew. Also the quest for vengeance is tiresome. I do not care about your murdered family, especially not when I knew they were going to be murdered and who was going to do it by the time the opening credits rolled.
So I miss Altair, and I kind of miss the middle east, too. I'm not exactly an expert on Renaissance Italy but it's certainly more familiar, or... something. I don't dislike it, I just miss Jerusalem. We'll see how I feel when we hit Venice. I hope they don't stay in Europe for the next game. Egypt? India? Brazil? Russia is sort of in Europe but I'd take Russia too. Gimme somethin' distant.
So, minor quibbles, and a lot of great stuff. I am enjoying myself a lot so far.
They've made a lot of changes for the better, outside of the obvious stuff that I knew was going to be there, like less repetition. I appreciate that I'm not being constantly warped around and that I get the chance to move my guy back and forth as I please. That said, when there's a timeskip it's a little... not obvious? Apparently I've been away from Florence for two years by the time I go back. I could have used maybe a "NOW LOADING MEMORY BLOCK" in between there to demonstrate. I like that they cut a lot of that out but SOME of it had it's place.
I also appreciate that the cutscenes now come with, like, cutscene angles. I think you might have been able to do this in AC1 by pressing a button, but I never figured out what button that was, and as such I was halfway done with the game when I realized the guy sitting at the counter being a dick to me was Malik. Oops.
Also holy shit there are women in this game. I mean, there was like, one in the other game, wasn't there? And that was among a pretty small cast of characters to begin with. It's nice to have a greater variety of characters, but it's unfortunate that I can still pick out what is going to happen and who is going to betray me immediately. Al Mualim didn't exactly keep me guessing, but I wondered now and then, considering he was a pretty good teacher when he wasn't busily stabbing me in the back.
ANYWAY YEAH GIRLS and two of the old assassins of yore are female, which is nice. Demonstrates the inclusion the first game was sorely lacking. I am not exactly impressed with any of the women thus far but I appreciate their existence, with the possible exception of whoever is voicing Rebecca Crane.
There are so many things to waste time on. The kinds of things I like to do, though. Patching up the villa is my favourite. I wish they'd let me get out there and paint things different colours and maybe hang some signs up and customize in other little ways like that, but repairing it is a fun goal. I love clothes dye and I fully intend to waste my money there when they start selling dyes that aren't ugly. It's a shame that my armor covers my outfits. I must be more chic.
I DO HAVE SOME COMPLAINING TO DO however. First of all, and this is not really a fair complaint... I miss Altair. I preferred him to Ezio - Ezio is much more easygoing and relateable and the kind of guy we're supposed to relate to and I hate him for it. Seriously! I hated Altair at the start of AC, actually, but when the game opens with calling him out for being a douche for all the reasons I thought he was a douche, I am impressed. He grew up over the course of the game, if you ask me, and for all of his brash arrogance he was never quite so bad as Ezio.
Ezio is probably a more decent guy, actually? I am just kind of offended that this is what they think is relateable, and I'm really not digging this "JUST FOUND OUT HE IS AN ASSASSIN, TYME TO LEARN" shit. I would prefer he already knew. Also the quest for vengeance is tiresome. I do not care about your murdered family, especially not when I knew they were going to be murdered and who was going to do it by the time the opening credits rolled.
So I miss Altair, and I kind of miss the middle east, too. I'm not exactly an expert on Renaissance Italy but it's certainly more familiar, or... something. I don't dislike it, I just miss Jerusalem. We'll see how I feel when we hit Venice. I hope they don't stay in Europe for the next game. Egypt? India? Brazil? Russia is sort of in Europe but I'd take Russia too. Gimme somethin' distant.
So, minor quibbles, and a lot of great stuff. I am enjoying myself a lot so far.