my thoughts on assassin's creed (1&2)

seriously. this year's been nothing but a bag of DEE EYE SEE KAYS for me and i've been pretty much abstaining from any kind of communication as much as possible.

on to lighter news, a review if you will.

my thoughts on assassin's creed II:

i finished it last night after playing it nonstop this entire thanksgiving break especially since i have nothing to do nowadays. overall, it's quite good. no, scratch that, it's really !#@#%ing amazing, especially after the awesome/okayness of the original assassin's creed.

backtrack to late 2008. i always wanted to try out assassin's creed, i dig it's free-running mechanics a whole lot, so a friend of mine let me borrow it. i played it like, once. and it gathered dust upon my shelf til' early '09.

fast foward about...6-7 months, and assassin's creed II is about to get released. after watching a ton of trailers for it on TV, i grew intrigued, read the previews and did some research. i remember coming across a line from a preview that pretty much stated i had to play the first game to "get" the second game.

prior to this, i remember my experience with AC1, about less than an hours worth from some time ago. so i hop on ebay and order me a copy of AC1. super cheap, came to my house quickly, who cares about that.

assassin's creed 1 in my honest opinion had something going for it. pretty accurate representations of crusades era middle east with lush environments and hugely scaled cities. the controls were simple yet contained a ton of commands at your disposal. i really dug that, fight's were nearly perfectly choreographed, but enemy AI sucked a ton of balls, which almost made sneaking around kind of pointless.

but if you do decide to be a pacifist, the game is truly rewarding, it makes you feel like you're the most sneaky, agile killer ever. i really dug that as well. the free-running mechanics harkened back to another franchise ubisoft is most famous for, and that's the prince of persia sands of time trilogy. though this time, it doesn't feel as floaty as said games. the physics of it, the feel of it in general just seemed like the next logical step for the developers, catering more towards realism than total fantasy. and after playing PoP 08, i found myself playing AC more.

what i didn't like:

in order for you to carry out assassination missions, you need to gather some information about your target. and that's understandable, but to do the same missions over and over again, was ridiculous. this pretty much cripples the game's replay factor. at times i had to force myself to get through the game.

but other than that, i think that's all i can say about AC1 it's a good game, it has it's wow moments, and the themes, visuals and gameplay are pretty spectacular, but the mission structures and repetitiveness really slow this game down.

8/10

this game is longer than it should have been, there were times where i was convinced i was through (rushing through it partially because i already had a copy of ACII and was dying to play it, but forced myself to finish the first game beforehand.)


Assassin's Creed II:

wow, this game was boss. it improved on everything AC1 in every possible aspect. unlike altair, you actually grow to love the new protagonist, ezio. the game starts when he's 17 years of age, and ends when he's 40.

unlike altair who is already a skilled assassin, ezio needs to work his way up the ranks of an assassin, and doesn't become a member of the assassin's guild til' about 20 hours into the game (depending on how much time you spend with it.)

the mission structure is incredibly varied, which span from beating up cheating husbands, free running races, assassination contracts, courier missions, timed killings, finding treasures, collecting assassin's emblems, raiding templar temples, finding glyphs and solving it's cryptic messages, catching thieves and robbing messengers. there's so much to be done in this game it's ridiculous.

the story moves at a smooth pace, and spans around the next 20 something years of ezio's life. the moves you have at your arsenal look breathtaking if you time your kills right. you can assassinate while hiding in a haystack, you can assassinate while hanging off a ledge, you also wield dual wristblades and you can pretty much kill two birds with one stone.

my favorite weapon was definitely the wrist-gun, specifically when i hired courtesans to keep me from being spotted, and took out a target without anyone noticing.

my favorite part in the game by far, were the assassin's temples which are located in some of italy's most famous architectural hotspots. and there are basically free-running puzzles, in vein of the prince of persia series. but it's done so much better in ACII. you collect six assassin's emblems in order to gain altair's armor.

this game does so much justice, that it's hard to really nitpick imo.

but if i had to nitpick, i don't like having to constantly switch weaponry. for example, you use RB to access a weapon wheel, and it would be normal for you to keep the weapon you've chosen right? no, instead if you switch to another weapon, and you try to switch back to the weapon you've just selected, it'll be brought back to it's default, causing you to go back into the wheel and selecting whatever weapon you used before.

other than that, there's a ton of fun to be had in this game.

depending on how much you like open world games, and your tendancy to explore everything outside of the main story, it's easily a 40 hour game.

it has this whole religious / da vinci code conspiracy going on, which is pretty amazing for a video game to tread those kinds of waters in terms of story.

so if you liked AC1 but wanted more out of it, check out ACII.

after i finished the game, i was kinda bummed cuz i was so immeresed in the story, it was getting really good and then it abruptly ends, at least leaving it open for ACIII.