I had seen trailers for this game some time ago but it wasn't until earlier this year that I decided to pick it up. A holiday to Dubrovnik in Croatia (where the old city has very "Venice-esque" rooftops) and a very brief spell in Venice for work made me more impressive by the game and had me imagining running around in this world in the game. Being hit by infinite explosives on MW2 also helped me decide to pick up a few more games. Having not played the first game I was happy that the game gave me a bit of time to get into the story and the controls (important since my instruction book had been incorrectly printed so half was missing).
The story is a revenge tale but with this constant "bigger picture" very much in the foreground as well, so while Ezio seeks revenge for the murder of his family, the path he takes also brings him into the world of the mystery that the modern day Assassins are trying to learn more of. These two threads work very well together and are well told without being too cut-scene heavy. My interest in the story is important because, although AC2 has been praised for having more variety than AC1, there is a reason that my girlfriend refers to the game by the name "rooftop running" – because every time she looks at the screen I appear to be running along yet another roof somewhere. This is a fair comment because there is a lot of running around but it is part of the game and does pose its own challenges as the free-running movement style is not as easy to master as it looks. I was glad to get to Venice so at least when I accidentally threw myself off a roof without knowing where I was going to land I would hit the water and live (as opposed to hitting the floor and dying).
The gameplay is enjoyable. In the main story there is a good mix of things to do, even if essentially the majority of them do boil down to "go there, kill that guy". Personally I could not be bothered collecting all the feathers in the game but it was a good addition to have side missions early on to collect things that boost your income as this is important early in the game. Combat is quite fun but once you get the hang of it, it is a bit easy. The blocking and counter-attacking generally works fine, while the special moves that you can learn (like throwing dust or multiple throwing knives) generally seemed to expose me to injury more than just the standard block/counter moves – which is a shame as the combat could have benefited from these moves being an advantage rather than a disadvantage. I liked the navigation objectives as it feels good to open up the map as well as showing off the graphics (some of the bigger climbs were very tense for me as I struggled to not accidentally fire myself into the void without warning) Similar to this the game is pretty easy. There are a few harder missions that relate to not being seen but even these I was able to do after only a few tries (albeit when I got close to my target I generally just rushed in to kill him). Otherwise the main story is on a good difficulty curve because nothing every held me up for long. Fortunately the story is long enough to mean that even getting each mission first time there is still a lot of time here. The various side quests are a bit more testing – personally I find the thief races to be pretty tough. Although I am always grateful to be able to escape, the NPC guards are probably too dumb. Even the searchers don't do that good a job of finding you and it is pretty easy to escape even when vastly outnumbered in an open area.
Design wise the game is stunning – large cities with lots happening and seamless graphics. OK Venice doesn't smell of damp in the game like it does in real life but otherwise the locations are convincing. The ability to sandbox around and interact with people is not at your GTA4 level but you do still have the freedom to explore and just run around picking fights with guards if that is what you want to do.
Assassin's Creed is a great game and one I enjoyed a lot whenever the mutliplayers I mostly do just got too much for me. It is a good length with plenty to do even if it is never as difficult as I would have liked. The gameplay is fun and flows well through a story that is engaging even if it is all a bit mumbo-jumbo. Good characters, great design and fun to play. I "finished it" last night (in terms of the story) but still have loads to do and am looking forward to it.
The story is a revenge tale but with this constant "bigger picture" very much in the foreground as well, so while Ezio seeks revenge for the murder of his family, the path he takes also brings him into the world of the mystery that the modern day Assassins are trying to learn more of. These two threads work very well together and are well told without being too cut-scene heavy. My interest in the story is important because, although AC2 has been praised for having more variety than AC1, there is a reason that my girlfriend refers to the game by the name "rooftop running" – because every time she looks at the screen I appear to be running along yet another roof somewhere. This is a fair comment because there is a lot of running around but it is part of the game and does pose its own challenges as the free-running movement style is not as easy to master as it looks. I was glad to get to Venice so at least when I accidentally threw myself off a roof without knowing where I was going to land I would hit the water and live (as opposed to hitting the floor and dying).
The gameplay is enjoyable. In the main story there is a good mix of things to do, even if essentially the majority of them do boil down to "go there, kill that guy". Personally I could not be bothered collecting all the feathers in the game but it was a good addition to have side missions early on to collect things that boost your income as this is important early in the game. Combat is quite fun but once you get the hang of it, it is a bit easy. The blocking and counter-attacking generally works fine, while the special moves that you can learn (like throwing dust or multiple throwing knives) generally seemed to expose me to injury more than just the standard block/counter moves – which is a shame as the combat could have benefited from these moves being an advantage rather than a disadvantage. I liked the navigation objectives as it feels good to open up the map as well as showing off the graphics (some of the bigger climbs were very tense for me as I struggled to not accidentally fire myself into the void without warning) Similar to this the game is pretty easy. There are a few harder missions that relate to not being seen but even these I was able to do after only a few tries (albeit when I got close to my target I generally just rushed in to kill him). Otherwise the main story is on a good difficulty curve because nothing every held me up for long. Fortunately the story is long enough to mean that even getting each mission first time there is still a lot of time here. The various side quests are a bit more testing – personally I find the thief races to be pretty tough. Although I am always grateful to be able to escape, the NPC guards are probably too dumb. Even the searchers don't do that good a job of finding you and it is pretty easy to escape even when vastly outnumbered in an open area.
Design wise the game is stunning – large cities with lots happening and seamless graphics. OK Venice doesn't smell of damp in the game like it does in real life but otherwise the locations are convincing. The ability to sandbox around and interact with people is not at your GTA4 level but you do still have the freedom to explore and just run around picking fights with guards if that is what you want to do.
Assassin's Creed is a great game and one I enjoyed a lot whenever the mutliplayers I mostly do just got too much for me. It is a good length with plenty to do even if it is never as difficult as I would have liked. The gameplay is fun and flows well through a story that is engaging even if it is all a bit mumbo-jumbo. Good characters, great design and fun to play. I "finished it" last night (in terms of the story) but still have loads to do and am looking forward to it.