Review of: Assassin's Creed II

Reviewer: David Lam

Title: Assassin's Creed II

System: PlayStation 3/Xbox 360

Genre: Third-person action-adventure

It is 2012 and you enter a device called the Animus which analyzes your DNA and finds the stored memories of your ancestors inside the DNA. You now clearly see a beautiful city and it is the late 15th century. Your ancestor is Ezio and you are a member of a very notable family in Florence known as the Auditores. It is the renaissance a period where science ,culture, and art flourished. As your ancestor you enjoy your life as an Auditore. You get into fights with the rival family the Pazzi, visit your girlfriend, and have races on the rooftops with your brother. Suddenly you learn that your father and brothers where convicted of treason. Your father was going to expose the corrupt Pazzi family and reveal a huge conspiracy that would tear apart Italy's unity. They are executed and you continue your father's line of a work as an assassin. You escape with your mother and sister and proceed to learn more of the conspiracy and hunt down the men involved. You gain abilities, weapons, allies, and information that will change the way you think of the world in a philosophical way.

                As you travel through Italy to hunt down these men you gain newer abilities which provide distractions or stealthier kills. This will allow a whole new set of strategies to be used when hunting down your target. As you take out the conspirators you learn of their past and how they came to gain power. As you kill them you learn more about the conspiracy and the society in the city you are in gradually becomes better. One Emilio Babarigo controlled Venice's trading market with force and as you stop him you help free the people from his grasp. You become a true follower of the Assassin's and you learn of the war between the Templars and Assassins which has been going on since the crusades. Both groups are trying to get their hands on pieces of Eden which grant immense knowledge and power. The Templars plan to dominate the world with these pieces of Eden and create a society ruled by Templars. The Assassins wish to protect these artifacts and help stop corruption.  As Ezio you steal, kill, and sneak your way to your targets. For those who love to sneak around like splinter cell fans you will enjoy this game. It is harder since you have to literally sneak up behind your enemy to use your hidden blade.

                The combat allows you to counter your enemies at specific moments before they strike. There is a range of different enemies meaning the timing is different for every enemy. It is a challenge to fight them and so the game tries to steer you to not go charging into battle. The point of being an assassin is to kill your target with stealth and so you are given the hidden blade, poison blade, throwing knife, and various other weapons or methods to dispatch your enemy and his guards to go through the mission safe and sound. The guards are more intelligent although there are limits and sometimes you wonder why they are so stupid. The game still rewards those who have the courage to fight head on. The different kill combos are more gruesome and you can disarm your opponent and use his own weapon against him. Taking a pike right out of the hands of a guard and then slashing his neck as he is distraught gives players this sense of expertise and triumph. Not only will you fight swiftly like an assassin the game has different puzzle glyphs which make you think like one too.

                These glyphs are complex forcing you to unlock files and number sequences. You have to look for hidden messages and analyze the dialogue of Subject 16. He was the previous subject in the Animus and he found the truth to the origin of humans. He has scattered the pieces of the video and it requires decoding in order to be accessed. So you must analyze the clues in his speech and look at the pictures and words carefully to find the hidden answer. When solved you will feel like Sherlock Holmes and you will think differently than before. On the other hand you could get stuck and become frustrated at the puzzle that seems impossible to solve. If that happens you could persevere and solve this puzzle or look it up on the various online guides. Although if you do cheat you won't get that satisfying feeling ,but once all of the puzzles are solved you are given a big clue as to how humans were created. Throughout these puzzles you see letters from Templars and you learn how Thomas Edison was a Templar who stopped Nikola Tesla's funding with an experiment.  You get clues as to how the Templars tried to stop other famous people from spreading the truth about the pieces of Eden and the creation of mankind.

                Assassin's Creed II is ten times better than the first one. The graphics are just as good if
not better and the soundtrack is much more fitting of the setting, yet it is also good to hear. The added weapons have allowed for different strategies and the puzzles gives players a challenge. The
game encourages thinking about how to kill your targets and how to figure out secrets to discover more about the Templars. Assassin's Creed II forces the players to think just like in the first game. Finally a game that requires deep thinking and assessment instead of hack and slash games involving mindless gun shooting and killing. No more will we have to walk mindlessly into battle simply to kill the
enemy or save the world from aliens. Now we must discover and investigate in order to find out more about the Templars which your ancestors have been at war with since the crusades. You are given a purpose and simply killing your way to your goal isn't enough you must steal and eavesdrop on conversations to acquire the information you need to have the upper hand in this ancient war. Assassin's Creed II gets an A+ for being both an intellectual game and a game full of suspense/ action.