Assassin's Creed II Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 17 November, 2009

Past master.

Version tested: PlayStation 3

"Nothing is true," said Al Mualim. "Everything is permitted." The point of Assassin's Creed - apart from establishing a hugely successful new IP for Ubisoft - was to avoid taking the old man's words literally, and to begin with you may wish you'd done the same with the pre-release hype for the sequel.

For months we've been told that Assassin's Creed II will be much better because, not unlike Desmond Miles strapped to the curvy Animus machine, it will be defined by the lessons of its ancestor. Yet the sequel begins as messily as anything I can remember, as friendly lab-tech Lucy helps Desmond escape from the Abstergo facility where he's being held.

Abstergo, of course, is a futuristic front for the Templar Knights (do keep up), and she's busting him out so they can no longer use the Animus to ransack his genetic memories for the location of super-powerful objects called Pieces of Eden (seriously, keep up). Lucy and Desmond escape by running down corridors, doing clunky stealth and having an awful fight in a carpark. When they get where they're going, it turns out Lucy's fellow Assassins are rejects from Scooby Doo, who live in a snazzy loft conversion at a warehouse. And then they strap Desmond in an Animus anyway.

Desmond is reborn inside the Animus as another of his ancestors, Ezio Auditore, who lived in Florence in the 15th century, and your first experience of him is as a baby in his father's arms, wiggling your legs, arms and head to make sure you remember how the slightly pretentious "marionette" control system is laid out.

'Assassin's Creed II' Screenshot 2

A new notoriety system determines whether guards react badly to you or not. You can reduce notoriety by ripping down posters, or killing or bribing key people.

Once you're done as a baby, the game nannies you through several hours of awkward tutorials, falteringly entwined with scripted sequences built to establish Ezio. When the young nobleman - not yet an assassin - and his brother sit down on top of a Florentine church and the Assassin's Creed II title card appears suspended in the sky, it's evidently meant to be a well-placed breather during a classy opening, and yet it falls flat.

But things quickly improve. For a start, Assassin's Creed II is freed from the burden of narrative expectation, because there's no longer any mystery about those weird graphical effects in the Middle Ages. We know you're a man in a machine, there's a war between Assassins and Templars, and the Templars want Pieces of Eden so they can enslave humanity. There's still lots more to find out, but once you've met Freddie and Velma (or whoever they are) you won't be so bothered about that, so the game has to stand on its own merits.

So it does. You're still an assassin, of course. You still plan for kills by completing little missions within huge cities, and you still spend most of your time clambering over rooftops using a parkour-inspired platform move-set. You get a few new attacks, the range of possible assassinations is better defined, and you learn a new platforming trick or two, but your actions are rarely different to Altair's in the first game. The difference is that the sequel puts them to proper use.

Assassin's Creed was a game where there was little you would go out of your way to do, so you rarely went out of your way. The biggest and most important change is that the sequel is completely the opposite. It's actually really difficult to steel yourself to focus on the story missions, because the cities of Florence, Rome and Venice, and the surrounding countryside, are so rammed full of desirable collectables that you can scarcely travel more than a couple of rooftops without diverting to take care of that tempting icon on the mini-map.

You collect money now. You receive it in payment for certain missions, but you can also gather it by locating glittering treasure boxes all over the country. You can buy maps that show where they are, and rather than cheapening the experience by giving the locations away, this drives you in their direction.

What steers your path is that the money can be spent on things you want. It powers character development by allowing you to purchase new armour and weapons, increasing your health and combat effectiveness. It also upgrades your home town, Monteriggioni. This is where Ezio ends up after the Pazzi Conspiracy first ensnares the Auditores, and he literally rebuilds it, feeding money to a local architect to renovate commerce and infrastructure. The town then starts to produce an income, which feeds back into character development, and the renovations also unearth secret areas where you can jump around to find more money.

Monteriggioni is also where you start to care about what's happening to Ezio, as your uncle Mario tells you a few home truths. You end up on all sorts of extra-curricular hunts. There are feathers. They're the flags from the first game, in effect, but now there's a compelling back-story to them. Then there are codex pages - the enciphered scribblings of Altair, which reveal a grand secret. Not only do they provide upgrades for your spring-loaded hidden blade once you pass them to your friend Leonardo da Vinci, but they can be rearranged like a jigsaw puzzle back at home base. You want to know what the jigsaw shows, so when you see an icon on the map you go after it.

'Assassin's Creed II' Screenshot 4

It's a long game, even if you cane the story missions, and especially because the optional extras do such a good job of compelling you not to do so.

The Scooby Gang, meanwhile, justify themselves with the glyphs, and these are the most exciting bits of all. They're little snippets of video hidden behind simple riddles and puzzles, and when you've unlocked all of them they promise they will tell you "The Truth" about the Animus and the whole goddamn conspiracy. They've been encrypted and hidden on the sides of buildings throughout the Animus' digital version of Italy by a former test subject who went a bit mad and seems to be dead.

There's more about him, too, and Altair, and as it crosses over into the present you're hooked again. The layers gradually coalesce until you've gone from thinking you know everything at the outset to realising you know almost nothing, and that every detour and extra collectable is another step towards finding out what's really going on. Like the first game, Ubisoft makes sure that there are big mysteries in the past and the present, but unlike the first game it uses those mysteries to make the things you do most often more meaningful and fun.

When you do eventually get where you're going, being an assassin is structured more like a Grand Theft Auto game. You go to mission icons on the map and receive instructions, and most of the tasks you perform are unpredictable, imaginative and often slick, even when they resemble things you used to do in the first game and even though the mechanics are roughly the same.

You might be asked to eavesdrop on some plotting, for example. This was rubbish in the first game, but now you might need to follow plotters through the streets, keeping them in sight as you navigate rooftops, or hiring courtesans to mask your pursuit or thugs to distract guards. Unlike Altair, Ezio is a witting participant in local politics, too, providing it suits his own goals, so he ends up helping local freedom fighters, stealing uniforms and gondolas in Venice and releasing prisoners.

He also does lots of actual assassinating. Many of these kills are structured like elaborate versions of the ones from the first game - there's a man on top of a tower covered by archers on neighbouring buildings, for example - but the difference is that there are so many of them that when one or two go wrong and you end up in a boring old fight, you can live with that. When they go right, and you sneak past an entire garrison, creep into a bedchamber and stick a concealed blade through a Templar's back before he even knows you're there, it all seems worth it.

The missions are often excellent, and not all are story-specific. There are six assassin tombs to uncover, for instance, and each is a self-contained, linear episode, comprising Prince of Persia-style platform puzzles and stealth action. They aren't all brilliant, but the calm, beautiful basilica levels in Florence and Venice are probably Ubisoft's best platform-game work since The Sands of Time.

It's also in these areas that you're reminded just how much love has gone into the locations. Florence or Venice may have the same sort of hand-holds and convenient ledges, boxes and cranes as Acre or Jerusalem, but the architecture is distinct and lovingly compiled from extensive research, and when you first see a new landmark, Ubisoft even offers to show you a database entry which explains its heritage from the present-day perspective of the Scooby Gang. Like the first game, the viewpoints - towers marked by eagle icons - are the first things you seek out, partly to get a grip on your surroundings, but mostly to stare out over the city.

'Assassin's Creed II' Screenshot 5

Altair may not be the main character, but he's all over ACII - and the source of many its best mysteries and surprises.

Doing so proved to be the highlight of the first game, but it's a footnote in the second. Assassin's Creed II is a much more broadly enjoyable game, and after a dodgy start it rarely loses its way. When it does - in the odd silly side mission, shocking bit of dialogue or enduring quirk of the imperfect controls - it's forgivable next to the whole in a way it never was before. The only big criticism is the AI within the Animus, which sometimes undermines the entire Templar organisation with its idiocy. No wonder Desmond escaped!

Ubisoft Montreal has never been afraid to try new things, but after a few missteps with games like last year's Prince of Persia, perhaps the bravest thing it could have done with Assassin's Creed II was simply to make a classic open-world adventure, filled to the brim with things you want to do and the narrative motivation to continue doing them. The fact it's done so suggests we really should trust the studio when it says it's taken its lesson, and fills me with hope for the third game in the trilogy. In the meantime, we not only have the Assassin's Creed game we'd hoped for in the first place to play with, but one of the best open-world games of the year.

9 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (147) 7 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • abelardie #1 2 years ago

    Really wanted this to be good. Hooray!

  • Boomerang #2 2 years ago

    SOLD!

    Busy Christmas for gaming!

  • cianchristopher #3 2 years ago

    Wow, I stand corrected! Never thought this game would be that much of an improvement!

    Good stuff Ubisoft, well played!

    That's two reviews today (along with Left 4 Dead 2) that basically frame it like "this is the game the original should have been"!

    Not sure that's such a good thing! Should I only buy games now with the number 2 (or higher) in the title?
    Edited by 1 at 17/11/09 @ 17:14

  • Peew971 #4 2 years ago

    Damn! I have to choose between this and L4D2 then (for the time being). Decisions, decisions...

  • harzo #5 2 years ago

    Excellent! I loved the 1st game, despite the sameness of it! If this is an improvement then consider me sold! Assassins Creed 2 will satisfy my single-player fix this Xmas!

  • Lionheart #6 2 years ago

    I was so nervous about this review. Very happy bunny now. Thanks EG you rock!

  • Flying_Pig #7 2 years ago

    Wow - really surprised with a 9.

    An amazing month for top quality games. Either that or EG have gone all soft on us :)

  • the_dudefather #8 2 years ago

    Sold! in a week or two so I get get more Dragon age in :)

  • Pedrolot #9 2 years ago

    Argh..

    Not another game i need to buy...

  • HoriZon #10 2 years ago

    So many good games so little time and money!!!

  • breedob #11 2 years ago

    I've bought so many games recently but this is definitley on the xmas list. Glad it is better than the original as I didn't complete that due to how repetitive it got!

  • KTroopA #12 2 years ago

    nice. whoo..

    now take cover.... INCOMING!!

  • ryandsimmons #13 2 years ago

    What about the frame rate and tearing? And does either console significantly outperform the other?

  • Physically_Insane #14 2 years ago

    And that's the end of big games this year.

  • harzo #15 2 years ago

    @ryandsimmons ... wait for the nerd-gasmness of the Digital Foundry to answer that 1 for you :p

  • cianchristopher #16 2 years ago

    So they reviewed this on the PS3, is that right?

    Has that actually happened before for multiplatform titles?

  • Rirekon #17 2 years ago

    Huzzah!
    I'm really happy they pulled this off, it's been on my buy list for ages but it's nice to have confirmation I'd be doing the right thing buying it

  • ryandsimmons #18 2 years ago

    To be honest I don't care if there are minor differences, was just wondering if the PS3 version was as bad as was made out in the forum thread. If they are similar i'll pick it up on friday in whichever format is cheapest.

  • JetSetWilly #19 2 years ago

    Nice review, and what a score!

    /prepares trade-in list

  • Peew971 #20 2 years ago

    @ Physically_Insane: You're forgetting Dora The Explorer out next week on Wii! :D

  • bad09 #21 2 years ago

    Bloody February :(

  • MaFlippinHeadHurts #22 2 years ago

    So glad this turned out good. I actually enjoyed the first one, granted it did get really boring towards the end, however scaling huge buildings and jumping off was pretty fun - graphics were also amazing

  • mcmonkeyplc #23 2 years ago

    Oh for fucks sake! No! I haven't even played the first so this can wait as well.

  • DUFFMAN5 #24 2 years ago

    Mine game is "packing" although what i don't know ;)
    Brilliant stuff, roll on thurs/fri

  • Gunzberg #25 2 years ago

    PS3 in storage, so no linking up with a PSP version of this for the six extra weapons..

    PC version...still SO FAR AWAY..yargh!!

  • andywilkie35 #26 2 years ago

    Fucking get in there, absolutely delightful! This is the only game I could see knocking Batman off its perch for "Game of the Year" (imo of course) and the reviews means my faith has been justified!

  • Eighthours #27 2 years ago

    Awesome stuff. Do you need to have completed the first one to know what the hell's going on in the story? Or does Ubi know that many people (including me) abandoned it pretty early on?

  • telboy007 #28 2 years ago

    But but... I've only just got Dragon Origin and MW2!

  • Hunam #29 2 years ago

    That sounds amazing to be honest, just became a must buy.

  • hardtech #30 2 years ago

    I was pretty sure that I was going to get this...And now I have an urge to replay the first one while I'm waiting for this to be released.

  • el_pollo_diablo #31 2 years ago

    Hmmm....... Nah, I'll wait until it's cheap.

  • bad09 #32 2 years ago

    @ telboy007

    You only just started gaming? EVERY year most of the big titles overcrowd the market from end Sept up till Dec. It's the best way to ensure people miss loads of games or pick them up on the cheap 2nd hand.

  • Restart #33 2 years ago

    Can you please stop giving games 9/10? I'm running out of money to buy them all :(

  • danathjo #34 2 years ago

    another one to buy in a month or two when the price comes down, i'm glad i've gotten over my obsession of buying things on release...so much cheaper this way :)

  • Bigglesworth #35 2 years ago

    Great review, and I'm pleased to see that AC2 is turning out to be well-received. I very much enjoyed the first game, therefore I find it a little amusing that some (only some) of the examples of improved gameplay on the third page sound exactly the same as they played out, for me, in the first game. The difference, it seems, is that the first game made you put in additional effort and self-imposed rules to get rewards, whereas its much better implemented in the new game. Much looking forward to getting into this one!

  • kangarootoo #36 2 years ago

    Yay. Was really hoping for good things from this.

    My rusty bones don't often feel excited by an approaching game these days. Maybe once or twice a year I actually count the days till a release hits the streets. This is one of them though.

  • Binglybob #37 2 years ago

    Dear Eurogamer,

    Do you have an jobs as a professional player of games. I am a working graduate with little/no free time play games, in contrast to the obscene amount of time spent on gaming at university.

    Call it £20,000/annum. Deal?

    Your sincerely,

    BinglyBob

  • Bigglesworth #38 2 years ago

    Do you need to have completed the first one to know what the hell's going on in the story?

    I think that would probably help. Still, nothing that a few minutes on Wikipedia couldn't fix.

  • TopKatt #39 2 years ago

    Dammit!

    Another quality game!! Don't you people know there's a recession on???

  • Vice.Destroyer #40 2 years ago

    Sold. There was never any doubt in my mind. It's between this and Batman for my own personal Game of the Year.

  • neilka #41 2 years ago

    There was no "mystery about those weird graphical effects in the Middle Ages" in the first one either - it told you at the very start what was going on.

  • Tomo #42 2 years ago

    :o

    Another game I suddenly want. I think if this had been an 8 or less, I'd have probably let it pass me by having not played the first... but now. Hmm.

  • BartonFink #43 2 years ago

    Excellent I was hoping this was going to be very good.
    Loved the first one (except for the flag collecting nonsense).

    Definitely on the Christmas shopping list.

  • Trigga_Tybalt #44 2 years ago

    wow. i wasn't interested much but will be getting this now.

    will it make sense if you haven't played the first?

  • bunglebonce #45 2 years ago

    @ telboy007: Quit your complaning and get on Eve ;)

    I fell in love with the concept of Assassin's Creed and was pretty underwhelmed with the original. This sounds pretty good, I hope you're right Tom!

  • KTroopA #46 2 years ago

    Not as old as mw2 mp ehhh.. :) my copy shud be here thurs hoping. Cant wait!

  • Retroid #47 2 years ago

    \o/

    Loved what the first one managed to create, despite its faults and lack of variety the world it gave me to run around in / on / over was stunning.

    /Awaits pre-order

  • BM #48 2 years ago

    Oooooooooooooooh, nice one! This is defo one for the xmas prezzie list

  • JayKwon #49 2 years ago

    Crap, I was hoping this game would score high, but I didn't think of it, that I would want the game then.

  • darleysam #50 2 years ago

    Really hoping Play get this sent out in time to reach me on Friday.

  • Wolverfrog #51 2 years ago

    Wow! I know OXM gave it a 9/10, but they always score highly for these kind of games. With a Eurogamer review, I know it's unbiased and true.

    Seems like an insta-buy for me.

  • Rodchenko #52 2 years ago

    No wonder Desmond escaped!

    Indeed, he doesn't look like the sharpest tool in the box... Just started this, and as Tom said, it has to have one of the crappiest openings of any major game ever. I also forgot how different the controls were from other such games and I had to do the first mission (a climbing race) about 20 times... arghhh....

    The odd thing is that I am underwhelmed by the graphics and remembered them to be a bit more impressive from the first one, but that might be due to other recent games (albeit non-open-world) looking much better. And there is in fact quite some tearing on the PS3 version (which I play). Darren will not be happy ;)

  • Nephirion #53 2 years ago

    I paid £20 for this with a trade in, good stuff indeed :D

  • Gaol #54 2 years ago

    Well if last years PoP was a 'mis-step' in the mind of this reviewer then I'm buying AC2 forthwith. I loved it!

  • sneetch #55 2 years ago

    Absolutely loved the first one, delighted this one is even better, wish it came out next month. Oh well, I'll definitely make a space in my busy game playing schedule for this (Dragon Age, Borderlands, Torchlight, L4D2, Uncharted 2 sheesh, so many excellent games). :)

  • zoweewowee #56 2 years ago

    stab fest

  • Bennicus #57 2 years ago

    GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLLLL EZZIOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

  • Bennicus #58 2 years ago

    Come on I wasn't the only person who thought that when the 9/10 came up at the end?

  • Rizob #59 2 years ago

    As long as the annoying beggars from the first game are gone, then this is mine!

    http://www .youtube.com/watch?v=_NxV5YhFchs

  • tmatharu #60 2 years ago

    its not uncharted 2 (which is game of the year in my opinion).....

    And its not worth a 9.... maybe a 8, max, when u put into perspective with Uncharted 2 and MW2.

  • FooAtari #61 2 years ago

    Played it tmatharu ?

    Anyway, it amazes me how easily influenced people are. Several comments about how someone had no interest but now it has a good review from one site, ITS AN INSTUBUY!!!1111!11. Odd

    And another one saying if it got an 8 he would give it a miss. What if every other review ever scored it less than 9? What if the reviewer is a harder critic than you?

    Another dude saying he was nervous about this review. WTF? It's just a fucking game. I have a biopsy next week, I am nervous about the results of that, but a game. Not exactly that important is it...

    Most of you are a strange breed indeed.
    Edited by 1 at 17/11/09 @ 18:38

  • Gaol #62 2 years ago

    I'm not surprised this seems all seems trivial if you are awaiting a biopsy FooAtari.. anyway good luck with that.
    Edited by 1 at 17/11/09 @ 18:46

  • Ryze #63 2 years ago

    Ooooooooooooh!

  • sargulesh #64 2 years ago

    ... can't trust reviews, sorry.

  • VicViper #65 2 years ago

    Ah pre-order hurry yourself up, can't wait the story is as big a draw as the game mechanics.

  • peteb #66 2 years ago

    @FooAtari

    I thought this was a place for people who were interested in games?

  • makeamazing #67 2 years ago

    Excellent... they would have had to really screw up to get a bad score.

    I loved the first game, though i probably should have played it more (was very busy at work at the time)... if its an improvement on that, then i think it could easily be in the top 3 or 5 best games of the year. For me so far its UC2, Batman, Infamous....trying to think what else has come out this year that Ive really enjoyed...lol. So AC2 can easily slot in there.

  • sirtacos #68 2 years ago

    Wow. Didn't expect this.

    I was very excited for the original but ended up thinking it was shit (or rather - a shit game buried within a good concept). I was completely indifferent towards the sequel but apparently it's brilliant.
    Looks like I have to stop looking forward to games.
    In the meantime though I'm definitely picking this up.

  • asphaltcowboy #69 2 years ago

    Sounds fantastic. I knew as soon as I played the first game, that the sequel was going to be something really special! Can't wait to start running and jumping around Italy! :D

  • foamy #70 2 years ago

    Awesomeness. Gonna buy PS3+ACII pack. Woohoo.

  • kendoji #71 2 years ago

    Nice little Top Gear-esque review... Start by slating everything, and just when everyone thinks it's all bad TURN IT AROUND. Works for me.

  • Widge #72 2 years ago

    BASTARDS. Will good games stop getting released please?

  • penhalion #73 2 years ago

    Yea I'm going to ignore this EG review and instead wait for my mate to play it and tell me what it's really like.

  • HokutoNoKen #74 2 years ago

    EDGE magazine reviews Assassin's Creed 2 (PS3 version tested)

    [link url=http://www.edge-online.com/magazine/revi ew-assassins-creed-ii?page=0%2C0
    ]http://ww w.edge-online.com/magazine/revi...[/link]

    Score: 8 / 10

  • rare_uk #75 2 years ago

    YES! finally, for the man who didn't have a clue what to get the Mrs to buy him for Xmas, this gem pops up!!!
    "wife, buy me this game forthwith!"

  • Trafford #76 2 years ago

    Nice one.
    Looking forward to this slice of historical fiction.

  • Scimarad #77 2 years ago

    Very tempted but I'm a bit wary considering how the actual game part of the first game was so utterly, utterly dull.

  • KTroopA #78 2 years ago

    sounds makes it real. music makes you feel....

    [link url=http://www.jes perkyd.com/music_alt.php
    ]http://www.jes perkyd.com/music_alt.php
    [/link]

    :D

  • IronGiant #79 2 years ago

    Can we please have at least a mention of the graphics and the sound in reviews, these things are important to a lot of people.

  • Bigglesworth #80 2 years ago

    @Scimirad

    *blink*

    You read pages 2 and 3, right?

  • Caspar_Esq. #81 2 years ago

    Did not read like a 9!

    Sellouts!!

  • Les #82 2 years ago

    Can't get excited for this franchise

  • beckyh #83 2 years ago

    Well I heard the game had improved but I never realised it had improved that much. Great review from EG, what started out as sounding like a bad review review brought the game into its own.

  • Lawlost #84 2 years ago

    Amazed, was absolutely sure this was going to get panned, with chants in the forum of you're .........Don't get me wrong glad it was well received wallet is getting a hammering though :-(

  • chrisola #85 2 years ago

    so it's a game which has boring fighting which you get stuck doing, but because of the sheer number of missions, you might get a few which work out OK as proper assassinations, and there is also loads of collectibles!


    "Well, the aiming on this new FPS is so sluggish that i only sometimes hit the bad guys, but luckily I have infinite bullets to keep trying, and i can collect things which do nothing but give me some text i probably won't even read!!"

    Seems like AC 1.2 'extra levels' expansion pack.
    Edited by 1 at 17/11/09 @ 22:05

  • Scimarad #86 2 years ago

    @ Bigglesworth

    Yes, but I'm not convinced it's changed THAT much.

  • muscleblade #87 2 years ago

    Been playing this since Friday and 9/10 was not a surprise at all to me. Looking at pictures i took in Firenze and going in front of different places ive been in real life with Ezio is an incredible feeling. Firenze (Florence) hasnt change all that much since the late 1400s.

  • Ced_Flanders #88 2 years ago

    Whoa! wasn't expecting this at all, even the first paragraphs made me think this wouldn't be better than AC1, glad to be wrong though!

  • mcmothercruncher #89 2 years ago

    Just how shagged is the PS3 version EG?

  • Blackthorned #90 2 years ago

    Wanted to like the first one, loved the world it was set in, just not the gameplay. Sounds like this is worth getting!

  • Skorms-Boss #91 2 years ago

    no one is getting a christmas prezzy this year.... I need all my money for games!

  • FortysixterUK #92 2 years ago

    Bloody hell that's a surprise...now how the heck am I gonna get the original finshed along with all my other new titles AND play this....damn you Ubisoft....I am now forced to purchase the collectors edition.....

  • M_of_the_sys #93 2 years ago

    All my blue ray plans go out the window. I'll be buying this. Forget buying people xmas pressies too.

  • Matthew_Hornet #94 2 years ago

    The calm, beautiful basilica levels in Florence and Venice are probably Ubisoft's best platform-game work since The Sands of Time.

    That, my friend, is high praise. I hope you're right; I've been waiting for Ubisoft to wise up and do some returning to their roots.

  • Harmonica #95 2 years ago

    It sounds like it's an improvement, although I get the sense that it's still less of an open-world game than something like Morrowind; you can do things in any order you might like, but when it comes to the prescribed game elements, you're going to be performing them as directed.

    That kind of faux-freedom mixed with linearity doesn't really do much for me.

  • schachmatt #96 2 years ago

    Well, to me this sounds like a big-budget, fancy-pancy picture-search: 66 viewpoints, 100 feathers, 330 treasures, 30 codex pages, eight statuettes, 30 paintings, 22 weapons, 5 sets of armour and 6 predecessor emblems plus the 20 glyphs.
    What's open-world about that? You can get them in any order you want?

    If the assassinations are done properly this time around, then at least there's something of a game in there. Last time they botched this and the combat overall massively.

  • muscleblade #97 2 years ago

    My only really gripe with the game is the total absense of a challenge. I play MW2 on veteran both in campaign and special ops so i play that game for some andrenaline and AC2 for relaxation.

    If you hated the first i dont think you will like this. Its the same game but improved in every possible way without becoming something else. If you loved the first this is GOTY for you.

  • Sloober #98 2 years ago

    Odd, other sites gave this game a 9, shouldnt eurogamer give this a 6 then, like with dragon age??

  • ryandsimmons #99 2 years ago


    @IronGiant
    Can we please have at least a mention of the graphics and the sound in reviews, these things are important to a lot of people.

    I asked if the screen tear still happened and got -20. Asking about graphics seems to be unpopular for some reason.

  • actionfitz #100 2 years ago

    wow the start of the review gave me the scrotal chills...
    but the end score makes me all kinds of trouser-happy.
    \o/

  • tnt_2008smum #101 2 years ago

    @tmatharu

    “its not uncharted 2”

    Really genius what gave it away? Was it the name Assassin’s Creed 2 that tipped you off, or was it something less subtle?

  • Boom #102 2 years ago

    "As long as the annoying beggars from the first game are gone, then this is mine! "

    +1

  • Shinetop #103 2 years ago

    So does the main character still have an American accent? That kept annoying me in the first Assasin's Creed. Desmond having one, fine, but couldn't they have made it a bit more immersive by at least making Altaïr sound middle eastern as well?

  • butler` #104 2 years ago

    I wasn't going to get this as the first one massively underwhelmed me... but this sounds like the game it should have been.

  • ZuluHero #105 2 years ago

    i wonder how accessible it its if you haven't really played the first. Is there a "previously on" or something? Can you still understand whats going on if you treat it as a standalone game?

  • TheJuriel #106 2 years ago

    Good thing I just finished Dragon Age. Left me enough time to now be going through Assassin's Creed 1 in preparation for this. :)

  • sublitterat #107 2 years ago

    I do hope that the game keeps its mechanics consistent throughout this time. I played the first as a stealth/assassination game most of the way through - only to get destroyed by an unavoidable confrontation with a dozen templars towards the end. I'd never needed to really use the combat system that intensely up to that point, so with no learning curve I was doomed. Give up, game over. I'm hoping there are no such cul-de-sacs in AC2.

  • Waldo #108 2 years ago

    I was so nervous about this review.

    Why? Were you not going to buy it if someone you've never met didn't give it a high score?

  • ZuluHero #109 2 years ago

    @Waldo

    Erm, because reviews give you an insight of if a game is good or not giving a person the basis for deciding whether to purchase it or not?

    Besides, it's not like he is going to decide this on the basis of one review, rather the general consensus of many reviews. But a lot of ppl hold EGs opinion in high regard so it’s important to them what they think. To many, EG isn’t just a “random guy of the street”, they’ve seen us through a lot of games over the years…
    Edited by 2 at 18/11/09 @ 13:32

  • Les #110 2 years ago

    I really can't get excited for this franchise. And that gets you negative votes... Nothing trolling about it but apparently people use the '-' both to hide trolls and to signal their approval / disapproval with the statement. In other words, it just doesn't work the way it is intended. As far as I'm concerned that makes it a pretty useless system.

  • EMULOUS #111 2 years ago

    Didnt bother playing the first as stories of repetitiveness put me right off, but this sounds like a goer. Once the price comes down a bit of course.Im not made of money you know!

  • Zebula77 #112 2 years ago

    Very much looking forward to this one. AC1 was a flawed masterpiece imo. I was totally immersed in that game long after the original quest was over. This just sounds like, "more is more". Me like, very much.

    Getting this first thing tomorrow. Well, first thing after work that is. (Gamestop doesn't open till nine!)

  • Antaios #113 2 years ago

    I seriously don't understand the "really hated the first, will be getting this though" comments. Because basically it's the same game, isn't it? Tweaked and improved on, but the same concept, the same type of gameplay? Wonder how this is going to be your cup of tea when you hated the first one.

  • ZuluHero #114 2 years ago

    @les

    Well to just drop into a comments section and say, "I really can't get excited for this franchise" and leave it at that seems a bit pointless. Why did you feel the need to come in and just post that? There are plenty of games that i don't like on this site, but i don't drop into every thread and say "I don't like that" or "I can't get excited by this".

    Was there any reason for your lack of enthusiasm? Are there any niggles that you still have that perhaps haven’t been addressed by the sequel and from reading the review? People are going to be more leinent with you if you express real concerns. Because as your statement stands, fans of the series will just attack you and dismiss you as a naysayer.

  • hjarg #115 2 years ago

    Antaois, first one was really easy to hate- and to love at the same time. Research for assissinations meant hunting some timed timed flags or sitting on the bench, listening to some chaps. And that was basically just as repetitive as it gets. Riding through kingdoms was annoying. Combat was holding block-button and countering at the right time. I managed to assassinate properly only 2 first victims, rest turned into swordfight (read: holding block button). Too much repetition...
    But... but I still remember climbing that cathedral in Acre and the magnificent view from there. I loved climbing the rooftops in Jerusalem. Or sneaking up on a poor guard and getting him with my hidden blade. Overall feeling of the game was just... brilliant. Masterpiece hiding beyond tons of bad gameplay decisions. So it's perfectly normal to love the game, and still hate it- and hope that AC2 is everything AC1 wasn't and everything AC1 was. Simple as that! :p

  • Antaios #116 2 years ago

    @ hjarg: that sounds more like thinking the first one was "meh", not hating it. :p But I mean the comments of people who really, really didn't like the game. You know, pick it up, play it for an hour and put it away, never to touch again. Those people. How're they going to love this one when they couldn't even cope with the basic principles of the first game?

    Oh wel, blah, doesn't matter anyway I guess. Can't wait to pick this up. :D

  • Turrican #117 2 years ago

    I was hoping this game would fix the problems of the first and hence it goes on my shopping list.

    However it won't get bought because the best other 3 games of the year just came out as well - I know that the publishers don't particularly care about the communities like this one who read the reviews before buying, they're after the xmas shopping brigade, but really, I lament the state of an industry that compresses all its releases into a 1 month period each year! I spend most of the summer replaying old games from Steam instead of playing genuinly great new IP like this one!

    Argh. Will just wait for the new phenomenon of pre-xmas sales which happened last year, hopefully get this on the cheap.

  • Les #118 2 years ago

    "Was there any reason for your lack of enthusiasm?"

    Yeah, you have a point there. ;)

    I've stated in other threads that the whole virtual reality setting is a big negative for me. But of course I can't expect everyone to remember what I've posted in other threads on the same game. Story isn't very important in games IMHO as long as it's not annoying. ACII's setting is annoying to me.

    I'm not too big a fan of open world (or lack of focus) games either and the art style doesn't do a thing for me. All those elements combined make that I just can't get excited for this franchise. TBH I couldn't get excited ever since it was first revealed before the HD consoles were even on the market.

    /edits: lay-out
    Edited by 2 at 18/11/09 @ 17:33

  • solidSnake04 #119 2 years ago

    oh my god this xmas is gonna be insane ! this + bayoneta + mw2 + uncharted + forza + l4d 2 ? chuck in batman and fifa 10.... come on...Epic year

  • lockload #120 2 years ago

    9/10 from eurogamer .. sold picking up on friday

  • schachmatt #121 2 years ago

    Dan Whitehead on the AC1 for PC: "Tom may have given the 360 version 7/10 back in November but even though the PC version is virtually identical I always found Assassin's Creed to be a 6/10 experience wrapped up in a 9/10 game engine. Waiting six months for what amounts to some minor tech tweaks and four additional mini-games certainly hasn't changed my mind, so...6"

    After watching GameTrailer's review I get the feeling even more that nothing's changed. Their impression of the combat is it's lacking in the same way as the first and the only assassination they show is while surrounded by half a dozen guards, which makes it no real backstabbing assassination.
    It seems they took their time to invent just more of the same old mini-games.

    The reason me and others were so annoyed at the first one and are so sceptical now is because of the fantastic game-engine and how Ubi could have done so much more with story and gameplay.
    Give me another Hitman!

    Hope Dan does the re-review for the pc-version again.

  • kangarootoo #122 2 years ago

    @Shinetop

    An Italian accent.

    Whether its a good one is debateable, but its there :)

  • Grayvern #123 2 years ago

    The problem with the original was that it was a faf to get anywhere, since apparently hurrying is highly suspicious, never mind how rubbish the game elements were.

    And I dont fancy having to fetch quest it just to be able to move freely. That and no mention of whether the upgrades were actually meaningfyl or just textureful.

    No go for me.

  • smelly #124 2 years ago

    HMMMM.... VERY TEMPTED here...

    But i was burned by the last game... Is this REALLY that good? I want to play this - but i think i'll wait to see what the publics consensus is on this rather than relying on reviews...

    Edited by 1 at 18/11/09 @ 22:39

  • speed182 #125 2 years ago

    Hmm, PS3 or 360 version?

  • smelly #126 2 years ago

    @speed182 : I imagine the difference in negliable.. i'm gonna get 360 as i hate the faff with installing ps3 games

  • Sar #127 2 years ago

    Sweet. Getting this and Batman: AA from the Mrs for Chrimbo. :D
    Edited by 1 at 18/11/09 @ 22:37

  • smelly #128 2 years ago

    >HMMMM.... VERY TEMPTED here...

    WTf? 2 negatives for saying i want the game?!?

  • smelly #129 2 years ago

    @Sar : RENT batman... it's VERY good, but also VERY short.. can be completed in a day (even the riddler puzzles!) with very little reason to go back to it.

    Trust me on this one - then ask for something longer for xmas... :-)

  • darc #130 2 years ago

    I can't help but remain skeptical about this one. Everyone was in love with the first AC, as well, for about a month. Then the rose-colored glasses came off. Unfortunately, I'd already bought a copy by then, and found it pretty dull from the get-go. (Excepting the first leap off a wall into a haystack, have to admit that was a cool moment. :)

    This one will have to wow me as a rental before I even consider buying it.

  • smelly #131 2 years ago

    "Everyone was in love with the first AC, as well, for about a month. Then the rose-colored glasses came off."


    That's my fear too.. but the hype is making me want it... gonna hold on until January i think.

  • db3 #132 2 years ago

    Sounds rather promising although don't fancy "several hours of awkward tutorials".

  • riz23 #133 2 years ago

    Can't actually see much difference here as we are playing it in the office. Still its early days but so far..meh

  • darc #134 2 years ago

    smelly: "That's my fear too.. but the hype is making me want it... gonna hold on until January i think."

    The other thing that gives pause - reviewers were luke-warm on Prince of Persia, but the one thing they all praised was the fluid controls... which for whatever reason felt completely counter-intuitive and borked to my hands. Too many hours of Tomb Raider right before? Or maybe I just don't "get" Ubisoft.

    db3: "Sounds rather promising although don't fancy "several hours of awkward tutorials".
    riz23: "Can't actually see much difference here as we are playing it in the office. Still its early days but so far..meh"

    These posts go hand in hand. Didn't the first game start out with several hrs of awkward tutorials. And interminable horseback riding.

  • CUTZ-SIX #135 2 years ago

    Played about 8 hours and its pretty much boring and awful to me in the same way the first one was. Well I tried at least.

  • callum9999 #136 2 years ago

    Not played it for very long, but it doesn't seem very different from the last one.

    I'll have to give it another go though, I gave up when I randomly fell through the floor and could only run about underground, watching the scene above in the first mission in Italy!

  • MrsPacMan #137 2 years ago

    I really hope that all you wankers don't buy this fantastic game. You pricks don't deserve i

    Edit - PS3 ouch, buy the 360 version if you can
    Edited by 2 at 21/11/09 @ 23:00

  • Velios #138 2 years ago

    I never even played the first Assasins Creed game, but decided to take a punt on the sequel, and boy am I loving it! It almost reminds me of Ocarina of Time once you get out of Florence and start collecting treasure, riding the horses and generally kicking ass however and whenever you like. This is a really great game and I have only just began to scratch the surface.

    9/10 from me so far!
    Edited by 1 at 22/11/09 @ 16:15

  • poopmonster #139 2 years ago

    Loved the first game until it's repetitiveness set in (which didn't take long), and was looking forward to this only because of the blasted cliff-hanger at the end.

    However, I played it on the 360, and got the PS3 version this time (thanks wifey). Get the 360 version.

    Screen tear is EVERYWHERE. It can't even fade to white without tearing up, and in combat it tears to hell if you spin quickly, which you're going to do a lot.

    After you've played the intro, you'll be greeted with the Assassin's Creed logo fading onto the screen at about 10fps, which isn't far off the framerate on the map screen too.

    Stand still on a rooftop (the only place you really see shadows cause the streets are so low), and watch the shadows. They glitch 2-3 times a second. Piss poor.

    The screen buffer is tiny. You can tell immediately because all thin horizontal lines and highlights shimmer like crazy.

    And as for controls... I gave up trying to pick up a box in a doorway (if I say vagina, you'll know which one I mean) after 30 minutes of pressing the circle button and watching the idiot Ezio wave his hand in front of him uselessly.

    And I'm sure the game gets better, but why does it have to start with the boring parts of the first game? We were assassins, and now we're treated as noobs once more. Already done that! Boring!

  • kangarootoo #140 2 years ago

    So I played this on Sunday. I got the 360 version. Very quick summary.


    Takes bloody ages to get going. Not a massive problems, but a bit of a pain. It took me about 4 hours to get to the point where I was free to go do assassin things.

    No screen tearing that my eyes are seeing. All looks very pretty to me. A bit of crowd pop in, but I'll forgive that as the crowd are damn expansive.

    Shit loads of stuff to do. I won't list things the review has already covered, but it reminded me of an old school RPG at times, where you look at the the map and feel a little overwhelmed and feel like you have to do some housekeeping from time to time (not a bad thing, just too much choice at times).

    As in the first one, I occasionally find myself leaping from a building into the street below at a crucial point during a chase, resulting in purple coloured words issueing from my mouth at volume. Ezio does not handle well under pressure all the time, but its one of those problems that although infuriating when it happens, is mostly absent.

    And I spent all my cash on classic paintings for my villa. Investment is better done early, right?

    For me its currently floating between 8 and 9 / 10. Though its clear at this stage that there are lots of gameplay hours ahead of me, and thuse far I've enjoyed almost all of them.

    Oh, and as a final note. Since getting into the character of Ezio in adulthood, I've not been out of the animus. Its a great change compared to the constant hopping in and out of the first one.


    If you hated the first one, this may work for you but there are likely better things to spend your money on.

    If you loved the first one (or even if you liked it, but felt it had some rough edges), you will love AC2. Its just more of the same, with less bad bits and shed loads more good bits.

  • Miths #141 2 years ago

    I love this game. I've been completely hooked on it the last two days (haven't found time to spend a single minute in MW2 multiplayer), and while it was indeed a bit slow to get going, I've been blown away by the look of the cities and towns (based on preview videos I actually thought it looked a bit worse than AC1, but particularly after arriving in Venice tonight, that certainly isn't the case), and there are definitely many improvements to both basic gameplay and the mission structure.

    Having you own villa (and village) to upgrade, along with armor and weapon upgrades has also been an excellent addition in my opinion - although I really wish they had expanded on it even further. According to a mission list I've seen I'm only a little over half way through the main quests, but I already have my villa upgraded 75%, and I pretty much have all but the last level of armor and weapons.
    All the money I'm earning through my villa now is pretty much going to be useless as I won't have much more to spend it on, and I'm also having a bit of a hard time seeing myself doing all the sidequests just for the sake of completion (no need for the money I'm earning from those either, just as it's now become pointless to search for treasure chests).

    Those flaws aside, AC2 is definitely one of my favourite games of 2009 - up there with Uncharted 2, Dragon Age (I'm playing the PC of that one) and... crap, I've already half forgotten what we actually got here in 2009 :p.

    * Minor spoilers below *

    @jstar
    "PLus there is absolutely no explanation as to how Ezio goes from a spilt rich kid to a master assassin in about 2 seconds."

    We're shown that he was already a very skilled freerunner at the beginning of the game, so I guess that's just how spoilt rich kids might spend their time :). He was also shown to be a guy that wasn't afraid to get into a brawl, and while it's quite a jump from punching someone in the face to gutting them with a blade, the traumatic events might explain how his first kills seemed to come so easily to him.
    And if you notice the years on the memory sequences, after first arriving at the villa he actually spends what appears to be around two years in training with his uncle before he goes on his next mission. Although this passing of time is definitely pretty poorly conveyed in the game if you don't go into the menu and look up the DNA sequences.

    If I recall correctly he arrived at the villa in 1476. Where I am in the game now the year is 1481, and I'm sure several years more will pass before the main quest comes to an end.

  • kangarootoo #142 2 years ago

    @Miths

    Yeah, the current datew is shown pretty regularly throughout. Its not as clear as "6 years later" subtitles would have been, but regardless I didn't have an issue with the apparently sudden gaining of "super powers". On that basis, a great many games and films could be dismissed as fiction (which of course, they are).

  • XdarXideX #143 2 years ago

    (May be minor spoilers... I don't know, haven't decided yet!)

    @jstar

    You're starting to come off as a bit of a troll.

    AC2 has PLENTY to do. It's rich with content as well as beautiful graphics and a great storyline. You say you've been playing for hours and have been to Venice for your "first proper assassination"... yet you seem to have missed the point (as well as the many Assassination missions which you CAN be stealthy about most of the time). Ezio is not Altair. He is not a "proper assassin" and in fact he's not even part of the Assassins' group until later in the Venice missions. His story is first about vengeance, and then about being an Assassin (and then something else I'll let you discover when you finish the game). Also, an assassin is someone who kills for profit so the client doesn't have to do it themselves. It's not about stealth, it's about getting the job done! The free-running is a game mechanic. Don't be so bloody picky.

  • muscleblade #144 2 years ago

    Great game. Loved the ending. The best sandbox game ive played this year.

  • MrsPacMan #145 2 years ago

    10 on x360 then!!

  • 8bitMofo #146 11 months ago

    Another boring, repetitive outing of AC. This will be the last time I give this series any attention.

    Laughable how some people have praised how different this is from the first one.

  • murrell96 #147 7 months ago

    This is one of the best games ive ever played