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Assassin's Creed II - The |OT|

TheSeks said:
Okay, so I left town. Will I be able to return to places later in the game for the feathers, or am I hosed?
Yes you can always come back, even after beating the game. I got all my feathers, and Auditore Cape and platinum. Very fun game. If you need to see how many feathers are left and from which city and district. It's in your DNA option.
 

TheSeks

Blinded by the luminous glory that is David Bowie's physical manifestation.
Cool. Met Mario (It's-a Me! *groan*) and got some weapons, finally starting to feel like Alitair again, just need the cape.

I'm really digging all the new things they added. Notorious being one. Removing the posters (-25%), killing the cops (highest one to do -75%) or bribing the news people (-50% but lose gold :(). All are varied. Very nice.

Seems I suck with the PS3 controller in multi-person battles at times, can't get through them without being hit once or twice. Ugh.

I'll be getting the feathers and those box thingies that I've seen once I've gotten further/nearly done with the game. IIRC, AC1 had a few feathers that only unlocked later in the game, so I want to make sure they're all unlocked and easy to get to before I do them.
 

Princess Skittles

Prince's's 'Skittle's
Sevket-Erhat said:
And trust me it has one of the best endings in video games
AC I and II are the best examples of video game endings making you want the sequel with extreme fervor.

Except MAYBE Kingdom Hearts secret endings..
 

X-Frame

Member
My brother just got me AC:Brotherhood for Xmas but I haven't beaten AC:II yet so I am playing through it now and there's a huge difference between this and AC:I.

Liking it so far!
 
I'm really trying to get into this game, guys, I really am, but god, this story is seriously getting on my nerves. I just don't give two poops about it! How long is my hand going to be held for?

(Note: I just got into the first area, in Spain or whatever)

I'm trying to be patient but I hate having to sit through dialogue/cutscenes. Does it get any better?
 
CoffeeJanitor said:
I'm really trying to get into this game, guys, I really am, but god, this story is seriously getting on my nerves. I just don't give two poops about it! How long is my hand going to be held for?

(Note: I just got into the first area, in Spain or whatever)

I'm trying to be patient but I hate having to sit through dialogue/cutscenes. Does it get any better?

The start is a bit slow but it picks up after that.

And Spain? :lol
 

DaBuddaDa

Member
CoffeeJanitor said:
I'm really trying to get into this game, guys, I really am, but god, this story is seriously getting on my nerves. I just don't give two poops about it! How long is my hand going to be held for?

(Note: I just got into the first area, in Spain or whatever)

I'm trying to be patient but I hate having to sit through dialogue/cutscenes. Does it get any better?
The future of gaming right here folks.

The game is full of dialogue/cutscenes throughout. Try giving a poop!
 

Zoso

It's been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely time.
The story never gets very good. The beginning is actually the most interesting part imo. But the gameplay gets better and better as you progress. Keep playing.
 
DualShadow said:
The start is a bit slow but it picks up after that.

And Spain? :lol
Sorry, didn't play the first one....Dudes look Spanish that were around me.

And yeah sorry....I'm not big into huge stories in games, more the actual game part but that's another topic entirely.

I'll definitely log a few hours in tonight.
 

VanMardigan

has calmed down a bit.
Seriously, what the fuck? Shitty ass level design where in the fucking third mini mission in the game you have to race your brother, with no fucking tutorial on how to fucking climb and shit, and really, don't even try to beat him unless you go and check out a guide that shows you you're supposed to ignore his ass and take a shortcut straight to the building ahead. Every other game, EVER, you follow the character in a sequence this close to the beginning, you get taught how to do the critical jumps needed to beat that character (I didn't play the fucking first game, assholes!!) and there's no way this early on that he's supposed to be fucking Usain Bolt of parkour when you don't even know how to properly jump around. To top this garbage, on the frickin restart (cause there's literally no way you beat him the first time you play this), HE HAS A HEAD START ON YOU. He's already at the top of the first building, he won't make a mistake, and you ain't catching his ass unless this is your third playthrough of the game and you have mastered the touchy parkour physics.

/rant
 

kamspy

Member
ProTip for PC gamers:

AssCreed 2 is one of those games that inexplicably gets an extra 20fps with d3doverrider instead of in game v sync.
 

Roto13

Member
VanMardigan said:
Seriously, what the fuck? Shitty ass level design where in the fucking third mini mission in the game you have to race your brother, with no fucking tutorial on how to fucking climb and shit, and really, don't even try to beat him unless you go and check out a guide that shows you you're supposed to ignore his ass and take a shortcut straight to the building ahead. Every other game, EVER, you follow the character in a sequence this close to the beginning, you get taught how to do the critical jumps needed to beat that character (I didn't play the fucking first game, assholes!!) and there's no way this early on that he's supposed to be fucking Usain Bolt of parkour when you don't even know how to properly jump around. To top this garbage, on the frickin restart (cause there's literally no way you beat him the first time you play this), HE HAS A HEAD START ON YOU. He's already at the top of the first building, he won't make a mistake, and you ain't catching his ass unless this is your third playthrough of the game and you have mastered the touchy parkour physics.

/rant
I beat him on my first try. Is this, like, your first video game or something?
 

Ranger X

Member
VanMardigan said:
Seriously, what the fuck? Shitty ass level design where in the fucking third mini mission in the game you have to race your brother, with no fucking tutorial on how to fucking climb and shit, and really, don't even try to beat him unless you go and check out a guide that shows you you're supposed to ignore his ass and take a shortcut straight to the building ahead. Every other game, EVER, you follow the character in a sequence this close to the beginning, you get taught how to do the critical jumps needed to beat that character (I didn't play the fucking first game, assholes!!) and there's no way this early on that he's supposed to be fucking Usain Bolt of parkour when you don't even know how to properly jump around. To top this garbage, on the frickin restart (cause there's literally no way you beat him the first time you play this), HE HAS A HEAD START ON YOU. He's already at the top of the first building, he won't make a mistake, and you ain't catching his ass unless this is your third playthrough of the game and you have mastered the touchy parkour physics.

/rant


If you had followed him in the second mission you would have learned how to parkour. But you didn't follow him like you said it should be at the beginning of a game, you did run on the ground...
 
Ranger X said:
If you had followed him in the second mission you would have learned how to parkour. But you didn't follow him like you said it should be at the beginning of a game, you did run on the ground...

Like a nancy pants.



It's a bleeding parcour game. I'd be climbing stuff from the start.
 
Just finished and felt the need to chime in.

This game is in the upper-echelon of games this generation and needs to be played. If you have half a brain, you can piece together the story without playing the first game.
 

AniHawk

Member
I started the game yesterday and I'm about 2-3 hours in and it still feels like I'm going through the tutorial. It's getting better, but man it's a fucking slow start. Is there a way to skip cutscenes I'm not aware of?
 

Ranger X

Member
AniHawk said:
I started the game yesterday and I'm about 2-3 hours in and it still feels like I'm going through the tutorial. It's getting better, but man it's a fucking slow start. Is there a way to skip cutscenes I'm not aware of?

No. And in this game you BECOME an assassin, it's not slow start, It think it's just something different.
 

Xav

Member
Finished Brotherhood the other day and in my opinion Assassin's Creed II is still my favourite in the series. I think Venice will go down as the peak of the series, Rome sucked.
 

AniHawk

Member
Ranger X said:
No. And in this game you BECOME an assassin, it's not slow start, It think it's just something different.

No, it's definitely a slow start. Like I'm sure there's actually zero fucking reason I needed to be a baby. I mean, at all. It tells me absolutely fucking nothing and without context pushing buttons is meaningless. And the point it comes in at the game ("WE HAVE TO ESCAPE!!! but be a baby for a sec lol") makes the scene even more fucking ridiculous.

And so far it feels like I'm on John Marston's ranch. Yeah, I get it. I can run around rooftops. It's awesome. Now can I please get to the reason why I bought this game?
 
Sevket-Erhat said:
And trust me it has one of the best endings in video games
QFT.

just amazing. that and "The Truth" fuck with my mind today. "What if?"

AniHawk said:
No, it's definitely a slow start. Like I'm sure there's actually zero fucking reason I needed to be a baby. I mean, at all. It tells me absolutely fucking nothing and without context pushing buttons is meaningless. And the point it comes in at the game ("WE HAVE TO ESCAPE!!! but be a baby for a sec lol") makes the scene even more fucking ridiculous.

And so far it feels like I'm on John Marston's ranch. Yeah, I get it. I can run around rooftops. It's awesome. Now can I please get to the reason why I bought this game?
but bro...it's a game where your DNA contains memories. MEMORIES. in the DNA. the premise alone is lol. just gotta go with it.
 

AniHawk

Member
Dreams-Visions said:
but bro...it's a game where your DNA contains memories. MEMORIES. in the DNA. the premise alone is lol. just gotta go with it.

I understand there's a lot of disbelief to suspend here, but the way the early part of the game was structured was seriously fucking stupid.

I didn't need to play as a baby because they dumped me into a fight scene kinda quickly right afterward. Then they go ahead and tell me I'm going to be a great assassin. So they start me off in a fight against Douchebag McGee (which I thought was a dumb name for an antagonist, but whatever), which at that point was like the second or third tutorial. And like, the part I'm at right now, when I'm about to be taught how to "survive" seems like it would have been a much better starting point if they wanted Desmond or whatever his name is to learn the ways of a master assassin.

Basically, the storytelling has made for bad design so far.
 

Ranger X

Member
The baby is like 1:30 mins. Desmond part is like 10 mins. Sequence 1 (most mission are tuto-like missions) lasts for like 20 mins. You can't be 2-3 hours into the game complaining it's slow. It might just not be the game you thought it would. Also, the game is story based, that and the point of the game is not Assassinations. There are like 8 assassinations in the game, it's just one aspect of it all. If you don't want to know what's up about a part of Ezio's life, you might not want to play this game.
 

GQman2121

Banned
I beat it this weekend and thought it was dramatically better than the horrible original game.

The beginning is super slow, however I did enjoy most of it.

I could careless about Desmond and friends, but that portion doesn't last very long. And once the training wheels come off, the game really does pick up for Ezio, who's revenge quest is a joy to play out.

Overall though, the story is pretty poor. That ending is a complete cop out of Soul Reaver proportions. I mean, what the fuck was that? And that glyph video? Give me a break; or better yet give me more story involving Ezio because that shit was interesting and made sense.

Note to Ubisoft Montreal: if your lead character and Nathan Drake are asking WTF questions as part of the narrative, what chance do the players have to know the hell is going on?

Having said that, I do plan on checking out Brotherhood sometime soon. So I guess that weakass ending served its purpose.
 

AniHawk

Member
Ranger X said:
The baby is like 1:30 mins. Desmond part is like 10 mins. Sequence 1 (most mission are tuto-like missions) lasts for like 20 mins. You can't be 2-3 hours into the game complaining it's slow. It might just not be the game you thought it would. Also, the game is story based, that and the point of the game is not Assassinations. There are like 8 assassinations in the game, it's just one aspect of it all. If you don't want to know what's up about a part of Ezio's life, you might not want to play this game.

Well I'm more into it now and aside from some touchy controls and a camera I need to babysit, it's really picked up. I wasn't expecting little platforming dungeons, so those were a great surprise. And renovating my city is sort of a guilty pleasure. Aside from that, the actual assassination things and various weapons are pretty good.

Anyway, the point about the start of the game isn't just that it's super slow, it's that it's also extremely and unnecessarily repetitive. If UbiSoft wanted this to be a game set in Renaissance Italy, they should have made a game set in Renaissance Italy. If they wanted a Da Vinci Code video game, they should have cut out the repetitive early stuff. It does not take 20 minutes for
Ezio's family to die. Not at all.
And even then, the game is still not done teaching you new tricks. Seriously, if they had all that fast-forwarding super technology, it should have started right when Ezio learned about blending into the crowd. The game doesn't feel like it starts until about 2 or 3 hours after repetitive Not-Saying-It's-A-Tutorial tutorials and unskippable cutscenes. I'm glad I stuck with it, but it's probably the worst start to a game I've played in a long damn while.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
Yeah, it wouldn't hurt the game to cut out a lot of that nonsense. The beginning of the game was a grind.

Stilworthit, though. It just has moments, if you know what I mean. Like when you're scaling a building that towers above the city, and you stop to look over it as the amazing OST plays. For a moment, it's like you're there. It hits a certain note that no other game does, and it's fucking great.

I haven't played the expansion pack yet, but I can't get excited about a new sassin's creed until they overhaul the tedious combat. It's so boring that I started to just run from enemies so I wouldn't even have to bother with it.
 

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
I finished this just recently having never played the first game. I enjoyed the core gameplay but I thought it got pretty repetitive after a few hours, I had to ration myself to short bursts of playtime otherwise boredom quickly set in. The environments were beautiful but personally I think it had one of the worst stories of recent years. I would have been fine with a 15th century Da Vinci Code, but this combined way too much science-fiction with it and it spoiled the whole thing. Being booted out to Desmond was a chore every single time. I don't see why they couldn't just keep the games locked to their time period and just have a 3rd game where you play as Desmond in a modern AC setting, rather than dropping into his warehouse every hour or so.
 
Snuggler said:
Yeah, it wouldn't hurt the game to cut out a lot of that nonsense. The beginning of the game was a grind.

Stilworthit, though. It just has moments, if you know what I mean. Like when you're scaling a building that towers above the city, and you stop to look over it as the amazing OST plays. For a moment, it's like you're there. It hits a certain note that no other game does, and it's fucking great.

I haven't played the expansion pack yet, but I can't get excited about a new sassin's creed until they overhaul the tedious combat. It's so boring that I started to just run from enemies so I wouldn't even have to bother with it.

You'd like Brotherhood.

I loved 2, and brotherhood basically refines the mechanics further. The crossbow is a win button, though.

Although if you didn't get touched in 2, I can't imagine that changing in Brotherhood. Once you get the hang of it, you are unstoppable.

And this is still one of my favorite games. I remember after I got the last trophy, I just stood in the courtyard of the Villa, looking over the countryside, listening to the soundtrack. That was the best way to end it.

Can't wait for AC3.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
Boombloxer said:
You'd like Brotherhood.

I loved 2, and brotherhood basically refines the mechanics further. The crossbow is a win button, though.

Oh yeah, I'll play it eventually. I didn't think I'd like either AC's, but I ended up enjoying them both a lot when I got around to playing them. I'm just waiting for the PC version of the expansion pack and I'm in no rush.
 

kuYuri

Member
So I collected all 100 feathers, put them in the chest, but got no trophy. Shit glitched and it looks like I have to do it all over again in a new game. =/
 

AniHawk

Member
Ushojax said:
I don't see why they couldn't just keep the games locked to their time period and just have a 3rd game where you play as Desmond in a modern AC setting, rather than dropping into his warehouse every hour or so.

Because Games Are Art™.
 

MjFrancis

Member
That seems like a common problem in all of the Assassin's Creed games so far, and II is no exception; stealth is not essential unless forced upon by a mission. Whether it's Altair, Ezio, or Desmond, combat becomes a nuance rather than a challenge rather quickly into each game. Brotherhood is particularly guilty of this, between the new combo system, the crossbow and your ephemeral ninja followers, there's no reason not to strut your way through the latter part of the game unhindered.

Because of the visual charisma alone, I'd have to say II was my favorite. As it's been said before, Venice is far better looking (and more diverse in landscape) than anything else in the AC world. Brotherhood's Rome was bland and rushed, though not as monotonous as the cities in the first AC. Each one looked a little different, but within the city walls it was all one big blur save for a few landmarks.

If only they could ramp up the difficulty in places, or make combat more of a last resort, rather than easier as they did with Brotherhood.
 
AniHawk said:
Well I'm more into it now and aside from some touchy controls and a camera I need to babysit, it's really picked up. I wasn't expecting little platforming dungeons, so those were a great surprise. And renovating my city is sort of a guilty pleasure. Aside from that, the actual assassination things and various weapons are pretty good.

Anyway, the point about the start of the game isn't just that it's super slow, it's that it's also extremely and unnecessarily repetitive. If UbiSoft wanted this to be a game set in Renaissance Italy, they should have made a game set in Renaissance Italy. If they wanted a Da Vinci Code video game, they should have cut out the repetitive early stuff. It does not take 20 minutes for
Ezio's family to die. Not at all.
And even then, the game is still not done teaching you new tricks. Seriously, if they had all that fast-forwarding super technology, it should have started right when Ezio learned about blending into the crowd. The game doesn't feel like it starts until about 2 or 3 hours after repetitive Not-Saying-It's-A-Tutorial tutorials and unskippable cutscenes. I'm glad I stuck with it, but it's probably the worst start to a game I've played in a long damn while.

I just started playing last weekend, and I completely agree. Once they did the blending into the crowd tutorial, it really started to pick up. I've done 2
tombs
and they have been a blast. I can't wait to keep going now, but it was a rough start.
 

AniHawk

Member
Well that was a pretty big turnaround from my initial impressions. I don't love the game, but I was in awe of a lot of it. Despite the muted color palette, it's very beautiful, and it all seems to build to Venice being this incredible thing.

It was a game I appreciated more as I kept playing. I think it's super repetitive, but for some reason, always satisfying. I played for about 20 hours, and despite the architecture looking the same, combat being pretty much the same all the time, and the platforming being pretty much the same bag of tricks until 70% into the game, it's not frustrating or annoying. And that's even taking into account some weird control stuff (especially when it came to the B button) and a not-okay camera.

The only part of the story I liked was seeing historical figures. I think everyone learned about the Medici in school, but I didn't know about the assassination/attempt. Stuff like that was kinda cool. Plus, just being in Renaissance Italy was a real great change of pace for settings for a video game. Being able to climb pretty much everything was really awesome.

And that brings me to the tombs. Those were the highlight for me. Going into this game, I had no idea that it would have little platforming dungeons like that. Great surprise.

I don't have a desire to jump into the first game or Brotherhood right now, but I'll probably be ready for Assassin's Creed III, depending on the setting.

EDIT: Oh, and one last thing, the music in Venice was great. The music was nice throughout the game, but Venice in particular was wonderful.
 

pakkit

Banned
Am I the only one that almost immediately changed the language settings to Italian? The English dubbing with "hey let's throw in a few words of Italian dialect to remind the audience that this isn't in America" really annoyed me, although now, as a consequence the introductory non-Italians in the real world are all Italian too.

Why can't developer's have a "let's have people of certain dialects speak in their own language" option? The game has full English and Italian dubbing, so it shouldn't really be all that hard.

And yes, I'm absolutely nit-picking because otherwise, this game is fabulous so far. I can't wait for a Mirror's Edge/Assassin's Creed cross-breed. They both have their strengths and weaknesses in their platforming.
 

Acquiesc3

Banned
pakkit said:
Am I the only one that almost immediately changed the language settings to Italian?

I thought the english with some italian thrown in was fine, but that's a really cool idea (it's fully subbed though right?). I'll probably do that if I play through AC2 again.
 

Ranger X

Member
pakkit said:
Am I the only one that almost immediately changed the language settings to Italian? The English dubbing with "hey let's throw in a few words of Italian dialect to remind the audience that this isn't in America" really annoyed me, although now, as a consequence the introductory non-Italians in the real world are all Italian too.

Why can't developer's have a "let's have people of certain dialects speak in their own language" option? The game has full English and Italian dubbing, so it shouldn't really be all that hard.

And yes, I'm absolutely nit-picking because otherwise, this game is fabulous so far. I can't wait for a Mirror's Edge/Assassin's Creed cross-breed. They both have their strengths and weaknesses in their platforming.


I loved playing in english because it was with an italian accent + some italian words thrown in. It's cool and fitting because it's explained in the game. The Animus traduces on the fly what people are saying but the soft isn't perfect. I like that.
 
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