Every so often I love to go back and play older games just to see how far the video game industry has come. Last month I thought I’d try something a little new and wrote a review of Assassin’s Creed. I had so much fun that I decided to go through the rest of the series before the release of the rumored Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok.

The original Assassin’s Creed came jam-packed with a ton of issues back in 2007 and didn’t age extremely well. Those issues were ironed out in the 2009 sequel Assassin’s Creed II. Assassin’s Creed II fixed a lot of the audio issues, character models and improved on the story tenfold. They made the characters more charming and Ezio is one of the most recognized characters in gaming even over ten years later.

Ubisoft created an interesting world in the first game and laid the groundwork for a larger more complex story. In Assassin’s Creed II they managed to weave in an interesting modern-day plot involving cooperate espionage, government secrets and even some good old fashioned British humor to tie it all together. However, it really is the past events of Ezio Auditore da Firenze that make up the bulk of the story.

We start with the literal birth of Ezio, and one of the first things players do is move his newborn arms and legs. Flash forward a few years and Ezio is a brash teen who cares nothing more than to be a carefree ladies man. After his family’s death, he dons his father’s assassin gear and is out for revenge. What starts out as a seemingly simple story quickly thrusts Ezio into the world of the Assassin Order and the hundreds of years-long war between them and the Templars.

I believe that Ezio is one of the best characters we have seen in any big AAA game. He stands the test of time as his character arc is a classic. We see him go from brash, vengeful and ignorant to a Yoda level of wisdom, patience and understanding. He ends his first adventure in a very different place then he began and I love how there is still a lot of room for him to grow even more as his story progresses in the next two games. Ezio isn’t the only great character in this adventure, either. As you progress you will meet his sister Claudia, Uncle Mario and even fan favorite Leonardo Da Vinci. Mario is shown to be a mentor to Ezio, teaching him the ways of the Assassins and how to be a better person. Leonardo is the inventor who helps Ezio and becomes a trusted ally in the ten-year span of the game’s story.

Normally after ten years, games don’t hold up very well, the first Assassin’s Creed had a great parkour system. It may have had few animations but it felt great to run around the city. Aside from making a few improvements, Ubisoft kept the parkour system the same, which was a great choice, because when you are running over the rooftops of Italy it’s an extremely freeing feeling. When you jump from building to building, swing from a pot plant to land on a signpost, double assassinate two guards roll and keep running; It’s an adrenaline rush and one that keeps up the entire game.

As great as the traversal is in Assassin’s Creed II, it still suffers from boring stiff combat and poor stealth mechanics. It amazes me that while the game revolves around being silent and deadly, Assassin’s Creed II makes the silent part difficult, and not in a smart puzzle sort of way like Dishonored or Metal Gear Solid. No, here in Assassin’s Creed II there are is no options to crouch behind walls, or have any real ability to hide guards’ bodies away without being caught with ease. This makes the missions that require mandatory stealth frustrating and repetitive.

The combat is just as half baked as the stealth, just like the first game you will find yourself standing around waiting for enemies to attack you so you can counter and kill them in one hit. The bright side this time around, is that there is a small variety of enemies that require different methods to kill them, but the stance is still the same as your regular counters. Lance enemies require you to grab them from behind first and heavy armored enemies will go down as long as you break their guard and mash on the square button. The combat is made worse when you figure out that if you just throw a smoke bomb you can blind everyone making them all susceptible to an instant kill making the tougher fights in the game a breeze. It got to the point that I would try to avoid fighting all together just so I could enjoy the story.

Open world games are expected to have great side quests these days, however, that was not the case with Assassin’s Creed II. The side content here is a pretty short mix of assassination missions, races, and dungeons in the same vein as Tomb Raider. These tombs are the best parkour puzzles in the game and will test all the skills you have acquired throughout the game so far. Even better, the reward you get for finishing all of them is pretty exciting and well worth the effort.

You also get to build up your own town. Watching it grow over the course of the game was a delight to see and not only added to my overwhelming amount of cash but also added more armor and weapons to shops. Unfortunately, there is not much to purchase besides better armor that adds to your health bar. By the end of the game, I ended up with so much cash that I had no use for at all.

Assassins’s Creed II didn’t suffer from too many technical issues but the ones that were there got pretty apparent the longer I played. The character models would get clipped and stuck in the environment, and music would cut out during key parts of the story which left the fights feeling awkward as you listen to the screaming of enemies. Overall the character models themselves did not age so well and they were pretty funny at times to look at. Some faces were somehow flat and 3D all at the same time.

The jump made from Assassin’s Creed to  Assassin’s Creed II was pretty significant, with a better story, more relatable characters, great traversal, a fantastic score and overall a brighter and more colorful setting in Italy.  Assassin’s Creed II is still worth playing in 2020, especially if you are new to the series or have only jumped in to play Origins or Odyssey give it a shot to experience that start of one of the biggest franchises in gaming.

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Assassin's Creed II

$17.88

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Great Story
• Character Development
• Soundtrack
• Great Parkour System

Cons

• Long Load Times
• Poor monetary system
• Lack of side quests