A new city, a new time, new mission types, a new lovable character and you’ve got yourself one of the greatest games of 2009! Say hello to Ezio who stars in Assassins Creed 2. But is it much better than the 1st part? Continue reading the Assassins Creed 2 PC review!
What’s hot:
- Brilliant brilliant graphics
- Ezio is an amazing character
- Nice variety of missions, weapons and stealth missions
What’s warm:
- Some newly added elements don’t seem well weaved into the game
What’s cold:
- The DRM – always on internet connection needed.
- Expensive – but well worth it. Could have been cheaper though.
The Review:
Picking up from where it left off in the earlier game, Desmond is sprung from jail and is introduced to the Assassins at their secret hideout. Here they have access to the same technology that allows Desmond to relive the past. In the last game, his brain was forcibly used to reveal powerful artifacts hidden in 12th century Jerusalem. This time Desmond temporally relocates to 15th century Italy by choice to learn the ways of the Assassins through the life of Ezio Audituerre de Firenze.
Here’s where you’re introduced to Ezio, a character you’re not gonna like at first, but he’s someone who’ll grow on you as the game progresses. In the early missions you’re introduced to a lot of free running and the first thing you’ll notice is how much it has improved in terms of speed and movement compared to the first game.
The animations are still excellent, and Ezio’s body realistically adjusts to his environment as he climbs and vaults past obstacles. The only downside of free running is that there are moments when the camera doesn’t present the best view of what’s over the next rooftop. Overzealous free runners will take more damage from falling off buildings than they’ll ever take from a sword.
We really liked the stealth element which moves away from the splinter cell and metal gear series and leans towards crowd covers; this really makes the game that much more fun and intriguing. You’ll also see the familiar hiding places like hay stacks and roof gardens; a new addition is the underwater escape route and the coolest of them all is the crowd covers as mentioned earlier – you can throw money at the crowd to create a small commotion, hire hookers, thieves etc. as diversion acts and a few other interesting methods which I won’t spoil for you.
If you choose to fight instead of hide, another plethora of options opens up. On the weapon selection wheel, there are swords, daggers, smoke bombs, throwing knives the dual assassin blades, and a surprise weapon I won’t spoil. Each weapon has its benefits in terms of strength and speed along with its own slick set of animations. New weapons can be permanently purchased through shops, or temporarily stolen from an adversary in the heat of battle. Weapon variation has done a lot to improve the variety of combat; late in Assassin’s Creed II you’ll be looking for a fight instead of turning tail.
Even without sword, the way you engage an enemy has depth. A notoriety meter and enemy awareness indicators give players a fair warning over what sets off the guards. Once engaged, there are sidesteps, special combat moves (like throwing sand in someone’s face), and grapples. Novice players will fall back on slamming a single attack button, which quickly becomes repetitive, but experts can turn combat into an oh! so satisfying affair.
There’s a whole bunch of other new stuff that’s so satisfying, like the new monetary system, building your villa and the much already talked about ‘tombs’. It’s a very long and satisfying journey; 18 hours at least without the extras; and then if you should choose to go with finishing all the extras – you’re talking about another 8-15 hours of gaming goodness.
All in all, an excellent game; it’s rare to see an epic of this nature improve over itself. A very well done game, despite the annoying DRM, but either way, well worth the time and money spent on this. Our verdict : buy it!
System requirements:
Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel® Pentium® D or AMD AthlonTM 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
RAM: 3 GB Windows XP / 2 GB Windows Vista
Video Card: 256 MB DirectX® 10.0-compliant video card or DirectX 9.0-compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)*
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0-compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
Hard Drive Space: 12GB
Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360® Controller for Windows recommended)
We give it a 5/5.
