Quick ‘n Dirty Review: Assassin’s Creed 2 (Xbox 360)
Assassin's Creed 2 is an improvement on the first title in every single possible way. Before you haters of the first game think that means you'll like this, know you probably won't. At its core, it's still very much the same game: a sandbox-style title with some stealth and a very simple, yet highly intuitive, combat system. That said, I could not put it down from start to finish.
The game picks up immediately where the first game left off and even though you spend some time outside the Animus in the sequel, the rigmarole of entering and exiting the high-tech thingamabob has been limited to a few specific and necessary instances where it's important to the plot. For the most part, you're in the nitty-gritty with Ezio and it's bliss.
That's not to say the game is perfect, however. Ubisoft has a long way to go in fixing the buggy AI issues (easily outsmarted guards, allies being stuck behind walls and other spacial-recognition inconsistencies) and there's still a lot of unnecessary running around -- though the fast-travel system does help that a lot.
Highs
- Much more refined version of the first game's unique formula
- A greatly expanded scope adds more varied missions, plenty of new cities that have their own unique feel and districts to explore, and many more events
- Far less time outside the Animus
- Ezio is much more acrobatic and navigates the environment much more fluidly than Altair
Lows
- AI still needs improvement
- Still some repetition in missions and sidequests
- Storyline assassinations are much more linear this time around
- Little-to-no replay value once you've collected everything and done all the missions
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Quick bio:Hi! I'm David Hinkle, Contributing Editor for Joystiq, former Lead of DS Fanboy and Wii Fanboy and co-host on the Xbox 360 Fancast. Basically, I write about games, talk about games and play games -- all the time.
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November 27th, 2009 - 01:16
The “storyline assassinations are much more linear this time around” is so sad considering I felt they were already pretty linear in the first game.
I can’t wait to play this one, though.
November 27th, 2009 - 02:04
They really weren’t, though. It was basically: “here’s your dude that needs to die, make him die” in the first game, whereas in the sequel it’s “here’s the dude that needs to die, go here to start the murdering.” See the difference?