ASSASSIN’S CREED: A newbie’s journey - Chapter 2

    Excited as I was after the first installment of the series, I immediately and without having second thoughts kept the Assassin’s Creed: Heritage Collection disc in my PS3 system and installed the second chapter of the Assassin’s Creed adventure. The game demanded to be played and who was I to neglect the call?

    AC2 is one of those games that you begin and, even though you know what to expect, reality exceeds your expectations; from the first scene (even from the menu screen) you start realizing that we are talking about a whole different game.

Assassin’s Creed 2: The birth of a Legend

Storyline

    The game starts at the point where the previous one ended; Desmond, or Subject 16, is in the Abstergo facilities. With the help of Lucy, an undercover Assassin who works at the company, he manages to escape the premises. He is then transferred to a building that resembles a big warehouse, the whereabouts of which are secret. There, he meets with 2 more Assassins: a historian named Shawn and a tech freak named Rebecca. The team possesses its own version of the Animus which means that Desmond will have to travel back to his ancestors’ memories once again, this time in the shoes (or maybe boots) of the legendary master Assassin Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

    We find ourselves in the middle of the 15^th and 16^th century, during the period of the Renaissance in Italy. We follow Ezio’s footsteps to four of the most beautiful cities of the Italian peninsula (and maybe of the entire Earth): Florence, Venice, Tuscany and Forli. Ezio’s story unfolds from the beginning; from his birth to his manhood, from the death of his siblings to his revenge, from him being a naïve and desire driven adolescent to becoming a Master Assassin. During his adventure he makes the acquaintance of numerous historic figures of the era, including Niccolò Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci; all of them are about to become his allies in his quest for justice and truth.

Gameplay

   

    The title’s gameplay is better than its predecessor, mainly in terms of smoothness in the models’ movements and general interaction with their environment. Ezio, like Altair, is capable of climbing almost everywhere and of course performing synchronizations in order to unveil the game’s map around each synchronization point. Eagle vision (a function that enables players to distinct between enemies, allies and points of interest) is also present and essential for the player. What is more, Ezio is able to use swords and guns (as the game progresses) to eliminate his enemies and assassinate his targets. One of the subtle - yet fun changes - is that Ezio is now equipped with two advanced hidden blades, which are what the name suggests and serve as a stealth weapon for our “Renaissance Hitman”. (Before Ezios’s time, Assassins used to have a single hidden blade in one arm, the use of which actually required the removal of their ring finger for convenience!!!).
   

    Side quests include - apart from wandering around the beautiful city of Venice - capturing feathers and bringing them back to Ezio’s mother (this is a way of paying tribute to your murdered little brother), assassination contracts, finding Assassin Tombs (amazing quests, especially for the Tomb Raider lovers), finding “codex pages” (essential for completing the game so do not leave that for the end) and finding “glyphs”.  This is perhaps the most interesting side mission and a very innovative one. Glyphs are supposedly marks that Subject 15 (the Animus Guinea pig before Desmond) left around the cities during the period that he was connected to the Animus. The discovery of those signs means that Desmond will have to solve the puzzles or the riddles that follow, so as to reveal Subject 15’s hidden discovered information about the world and the connection between historical events, the Templars and the Assassins.

Graphics

   The graphics are slightly improved mainly in terms of colors and maybe shadows. There are not many differences between AC2 and the previous title; however it is obvious that we are talking about the next installment in the series. The optical experience nevertheless is not so much boosted by a significant amelioration of the textures as by the amazing resemblance of the buildings to the ones in real life. Florence is amazing and I can guarantee that Venice is a true scaled down version of the actual city, since I had been there few months before I started the game. (It is my duty to confess that a tear rolled down my cheek when I saw the “Piazza San Marco”, “Saint Mark’s Basilica” and “Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari”).

Gavel Slam: Sequels are sometimes believed to be a step below their predecessors; AC2 is definitely not the case. AC2 is one of the best games I have ever had the joy to play and is for sure the best title in the franchise so far (excluding Rogue, Unity and Syndicate that remain to be “tested”). Ezio is maybe the most likeable character of the series with his humor and Italian temperament. The visual quality, the amazingly designed cities and the extremely interesting side missions make this title not only one of the best AC games but also a true masterpiece and a must have for every gamer that respects themselves.

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