Includes 360 and PS3 version comparison

by AXIS of Reality

© 2009 Alex Baldwin

Assassin’s Creed II has been out for over two weeks now. From speaking to numerous gamers, many people are still sitting on the fence unsure of whether Ubisoft Montreal’s sequel is really worth buying after the original was initially flooded with positive reviews until a slightly sour aftertaste sunk in.

This article is for anyone in that position. You can take the lateness of this review as a good thing for several reasons, and find out why Ezio’s adventure is a perfect example of how a sequel should be done. A brief comparison of the 360 and PS3 versions is also provided at the end of the article to help multiplatform owners get the best version.

To get a better idea of the context surrounding Assassin’s Creed II, let’s jump back to Christmas 2007. Assassin’s Creed was released in a flurry of hype and excitement that was born from the incredible graphics displayed in trailers and the promise of an open world to freely run and leap about.

• Assassin’s Creed 2 Walkthrough

It succeeded on both of these counts, transporting the player into the shoes of Altair tied in with a modern science fiction story that was only hinted at prior to release.

It became one of the fastest selling games of that Christmas season despite tough competition from the likes of Halo 3, Bioshock, Modern Warfare and The Orange Box. Reviewers showered it in praise while players were likewise captured by its freedom and beauty.

That lasted about a week.

Unfortunately the great setting and free-running couldn’t hide some gaping holes in the basic game design. Things turned sour when the player realized they were repeating the same actions over and over, usually using a single button to win missions (hold B to pickpocket) or sometimes none at all (sit on bench to eavesdrop).

This could have been forgiven if the major assassinations in each city allowed the player the level of strategy that the open settings promised.

Once again planning or strategy went out the window when no matter which direction the assassination target was approached from, a cutscene would start as soon as an invisible trigger point was hit that would leave the player standing around without a choice for several minutes as the bad guys proclaimed their badness.

This was then followed by just running up and stabbing them once control was handed back, but this was again short lived as the dying person somehow then mustered up a nice lengthy retelling of their life story despite being stabbed and having their throat slit.

I get the feeling the game’s writers almost wanted the player to lose interest in the baddies’ monologues to hide how overly convoluted the story and each of their motivations were. Yet, I still finished the game and was left with the worst cliffhanger (read: unfinished conclusion) since Halo 2 and nothing to do but wait until the sequel.

And now two years later here I am again with a game that promises the world. The key difference here is that Assassin’s Creed II actually follows through on them.

While still playing as Desmond in the real world, this time you are transported to a slightly more recent time period in the Italian leather boots of Ezio (pronounced Et-zee-o) in Florence, Italy (and later other Italian cities including Rome and Venice).

The first thing that struck me was that Ezio is much less of an empty, personality-lacking shell than Altair. In fact it’ll be a while before he even dons the robes of an assassin. He has a family, he has a lover, and he has a short temper that can get the better of him. Score 1 for the sequel over the Assassin’s Creed I.

And those annoying repetitive side missions from the original? Mostly gone, replaced with more character-oriented side quests that are actually entertaining. You aren’t even forced to do them this time – the main missions are accessible at any time and follow a story instead of just generic assassinations and can have multiple objectives.

Assassin’s Creed 2: = 2, Assassin’s Creed 1: = 0.

The Story is immersive

Speaking of story, you will encounter a range of memorable characters with believable motivations, backstories and voice acting. This helps to make the world a much more immersive place and keep your interest piqued.

The Italian Renaissance setting is also a perfect backdrop for the story with beautiful architecture and costumes that deserve an Academy Award nomination more than most films.

It’s all in all a more multi-layered world with significantly more life than the original game.

Assassin’s Creed 2: = 3, Assassin’s Creed 1: = 0.

Speaking of the world, the giant countryside connecting each city has been cut right down to lower extended travel time between cities as this time missions aren’t simply locked to a single city until that ‘memory’ is over.

You’re free to go between them either on horse of via a useful quick-travel system which is especially useful considering this time around you have a home base city where you can add and upgrade shops for a price and collect rent over time.

Change of character perhaps?

This creates a basic economy in the world where the currency (florens) can be used to upgrade your armour, dye your clothes for some variety and buy new weapons or medicine.

This Role Player Game (RPG) style spin is pitched just right to give a good balance between some customisation without any of the overwhelming options true RPGs have. It all helps you care a lot more about Ezio and the world you inhabit.

Assassin’s Creed 2: = 4, Assassin’s Creed 1: = 0.

And what a large world it is. The result of cutting down on the countryside areas is a larger number of cities that each has their own architecture and colour palette but all looking stunning. The design is now much more organic with less of the perfectly levelled rooftops and more constant running, leaping and looking for the best way to get to your destination.

Confounding this is a much more intelligent notoriety system that sees Ezio getting more suspicious to guards and citizens by doing unusual actions such as looting a corpse or sprinting through crowds.

The same system of hiding in hay bales or roof gardens applies for escaping guards, but now you’ll still hold an elevated chance of being recognised by a guard after this event unless you silence town criers or tear down wanted posters throughout the area you committed a crime. It’s a less superficial mechanic than Assassin’s Creed I and provides more weight to your actions.

Assassin’s Creed 2: = 5, Assassin’s Creed 1: = 0.

So we’ve established that Assassin’s Creed II quite simply fixes almost everything that Assassin’s Creed I was criticised for and adds a lot more depth to the world. But what about the length? In a generation where games are getting shorter and shorter as the detail demanded by players increases, Assassin’s Creed II is a breath of fresh air.

This is not a weekend rental, but a significant adventure with a playing time more in line with RPGs such as Mass Effect.

Far beyond what you’d expect

The size of the world and variety of side quests and objectives provides a lot to do beyond the main missions with a much lower sense of repetition than the first game. Depending on how much enjoyment you get from exploring the world or searching for secrets a playthrough can be in the dozens of hours.

If you’re like me and had just as much fun in Crackdown hunting down the orbs as doing actual missions then you’ll be right at home in Assassin’s Creed II. This is primarily the reason this review is so late out: I was just spending so much time in the world outside of the missions.

If you aren’t convinced yet of Assassin’s Creed 2′s worthiness both as a sequel and a game, I’m not sure what will. Fixing the problems of the first game, adding a large number of new features, a massive increase in depth and layering it with extremely high production values, Assassin’s Creed II is one of the best games of the year.

While I could criticise it for having a few moments where the free running slips up when a ledge that appears to be in reach is somehow beyond Ezio’s climbing ability or AI guards occasionally getting stuck on objects or climbing, these don’t have any significant impact on a fantastic game.

If you found even the slightest bit of enjoyment from Assassin’s Creed I, this game should give you the faith that the series is turning into one of the best of the generation and could easily be considered for game of the year alongside Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2 and Forza Motorsport 3.

Version Comparison

It’s sad I need to start with this, but with the rabid levels of console loyalty this generation I’ll make this clear: at OXCGN almost all of us own multiple consoles (my current collection includes 360, PS3, Wii, PSP, DS, a gaming PC and an iPod Touch), and we pride ourselves on being unbiased.

While the site is focused on the Xbox 360 we will not hesitate to praise a brilliant game not available on our console of choice such as the recently released Uncharted 2. This version comparison is to help the owners of multiple platforms get the best copy of a game.

Recently Dragon Age: Origins was found to have a quite inferior Xbox 360 version in comparison to the PS3 release. Now with Assassin’s Creed II the reverse seems true: PS3 owners are unfortunately receiving the lesser version.

Loading up the city of Florence across both consoles the difference was immediately obvious. It seems a considerable level of the normal mapping including spectacular lighting that is evident in the 360 release and really helps to give a very 3D effect to surfaces and costumes is absent in the PS3 version.

This is quite a serious difference due to the amount of stone buildings used that appear bumped and cracked on the 360 seem flat and slightly blurred on PS3.

The framerate also appears to dip more commonly on the PS3 in certain areas where the same stutter is not apparent on the Xbox 360. While neither version holds a perfect framerate the 360 version manages to hold up more of the time.

• Assassin’s Creed 2: Linage – the movie (2&3)

Differences this obvious between versions really should not be here this far into the generation. However the PS3 version does benefit from connectivity to the Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines PSP game.

This gives access to some additional items, but they do not have any real effect on the enjoyment of Assassin’s Creed II. There is also the unfortunate fact that the PSP game is not even close to the quality of the console versions and is not worth a purchase for most PSP owners.

While still completely playable and a fantastic game across both consoles for anyone who has the choice there is no question of which console handles the game better this time.

While it is possible (but unlikely) the framerate problems could be patched for the PS3 version later down the line the normal mapping missing from the PS3 can’t due to the volume and the technical issues it would throw up loading textures from both the hard drive and disc simultaneously while stream-loading as open world games must do.

Where and When will Assassin’s Creed 3 take place?

Have a vote on our poll and have a read of Part 1 and Part 2 exploring possible locations.

© 2009 Alex Baldwin

“9/10

“Check out TestFreaks for more reviews of this game”

• Other games in genre at discount $’s for ALL OXCGN readers + Bonus Points

Filed under: 3rd Party Games, Console gaming, Game Impressions, Gaming Videos, New Xbox 360 Games, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 Game Reviews, Xbox 360 News | Tagged: "assassin's creed review", "Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 2", 360, Altair, Assassin's creed, Assassin's Creed 1, Assassin's Creed 2, assassin's creed 2 guide, Assassin's creed 2 reviews, Assassin's Creed 2 walkthroughs, Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed II review, Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines, Bioshock, Ezio, Florence, Halo 3, Italy, Leonardo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Modern Warfare, Montreal, PS3, The Orange Box, Ubisoft, Ubisoft Montreal, Uncharted 2