Retrospective: Assassin's Creed 2

It's no secret around these parts that I loved Assassin's Creed 2 (I even included it on my personal best games of 2009 list). Although I first played through it dali-dali style on the Xbox 360 (budgetary constraints prevented me from buying the PS3 version back in November) I followed through on my promise to play through it at a leisurely pace on my PS3 (for the Trophies and to get the "full experience"). And my opinion remains unchanged - AC2 is an absolutely fantastic game, well worth the second-hand price you'd likely pay for it today.

But how did this occur? How did a game that is so similar in spirit to it's predecessor (which was a TERRIBLE game, and one I consider to be the 2nd crappiest title in my entire library, just behind Viking: Battle for Asgard) become so beloved in my eyes? I'll try to explain.


1. Infinitely better level design, and a much more interesting environment to play around in.


Assassin's Creed 1 was handicapped by its stringent focus on recreating the architecture of ancient Jerusalem - the buildings felt very astringent and the design left little room for you to play around in. The "mood" of the city was also very somber, and the monochrome colors chosen for the world in general made it feel very dead. AC2's version of Italy is full of color and life - the beautiful water in Venice that makes you want to take a dip yourself, the variety of people just walking around on the street, the expansive outdoor environments that impress without the horrible frame rate drops. Italy's architecture also lends itself to better platforming: the little chimneys, ropes and steel trellisses dotting the rooftops allow for a much better flow to Ezio's movements as he's running around the city killing fools.

2. AC2 has a far superior storyline.

AC1 had an interesting concept, but that's all it was -- A CONCEPT. Yes, there were two worlds in which you "existed" as a player, but Desmond's real world adventures were so devoid of gameplay or even interesting dialogue that you just sort of forced yourself to slog through it. In Acre, meanwhile, Altair just crossed these randomly assigned guys off his "People to Kill" checklist without it really meaning anything -- you don't know these people, and you have no other motivation to see them go, so in the end you didn't care.


In AC2, the people Ezio knocks off are part of an overarching storyline in which you are emotionally invested - this makes it feel a lot less robotic and forced than the first game. The adventures in the real world were also a lot more interestingly written, with much more complex characterization than the first game. I found myself wanting to find out what happened in both worlds, which is a substantial achievement seeing as I've played so many action-adventure games that I can smell a hack plot from a mile away.

Lastly, another facet of AC2 that I think greatly improves the experience is the far superior lightness of tone. AC1 was overly serious and one-note, and the crappiness of the writing only reinforced this. AC2 strikes a much better balance between suspense/intrigue (Abstergo conflict in the real world, political maneuverings in the Italian, Animus world) and comedy (Ezio is a much more lighthearted and likeable character than Altair, and the way he plays off everybody else puts the occasional grin on your face).

And... hey, it's-a me, Mario! :-)

3. Much greater variety of things to do.

Assassin's Creed 2 is an obsessive-compulsive gamer's dream. There's simply so much more stuff to find and accomplish - feathers to grab, Subject 16 puzzles/videos to watch/solve, Monteriggioni buildings to upgrade, weapon and armor sets to collect, tombs to explore, treasure chests to find -- the list goes on and on. It also cannot be understated how much the simple addition of currency added to the game - not only did it allow you to pay for other methods to achieve your goals (walking through town using courtesans for cover/protection, or paying a group of bandits to cause a perfectly-timed distraction) it also gave you a reward for everything you do: accomplishing sidequests no longer felt arbitrary because you were always rewarded for your efforts with a little spending money to waste on whatever you wanted.


In addition, quests of the same type now felt much more unique and less repetitive - Assassination and Delivery missions in particular gave you a very wide swath of objectives and methods in which to accomplish them. Story missions also offered plenty of variety - instead of always sneaking around looking for your shot at the glowing yellow target, Ubisoft gives you frontal assaults, carriage-driving missions, city raids, the whole nine yards. When you DO get down to actually killing people, AC2 continues to pile on the improvements - there are a million ways to off a guy in this game.

Guns hidden in your sleeve?
Aerial stabs in the face?
Throwing knives?
Pushing the poor sap off a roof?
Hired mercenaries?
Frontal assaults?
Poison?
Dragging dudes into a stack of hay then ventilating 'em?
Using the good old Nathan Drake "There's a guy above you!" method?

"THERE'S A GUY ABOVE YOU, THERE'S A GUY ABOVE YOU!"

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

The list goes on.

It also helped a lot that the sidequests were now completely optional. The first game handled sidequests in a very ham-handed manner: not only were they boring, offering little difference from instance to instance, the game forced you to play them in order to advance the story missions. AC2 shares no such conceit - you could totally ignore the side missions if you chose, at the expense of having a lot less money to work with.

While Assassin's Creed 2 didn't fix ALL of the first game's problems (the control is still a little finicky at times, and minor FPS problems continue to rear their ugly head) it's still absolutely remarkable how Ubisoft Montreal managed to fix so many of the original game's issues in so short a time. Absolutely outstanding work!

I never thought I'd ever say this about an Assassin's Creed game, but... sequel please!

Desmond taking on Japan would have been a much better idea for AC3.
Don't you think?

(Update: It turns out AC3 is already in development. Unfortunately it seems that they decided to continue Ezio's adventure for some strange reason - it makes sense from a story perspective, but not from a gameplay one (Italy was getting a bit long in the tooth by the end of the game)... ah, well, in Ubisoft we trust.