-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Assassin's Creed II - The |OT|
- Thread starter Costanza
- Start date
indigo-cyclops
Member
ThePeacemaker02 said:
Yikes, did you read the the OP? Previews? Interviews? Watch gameplay videos? Unless the game people are playing now really isn't AC2, the buzz seems to indicate that there's a ton more variety. Sorry, don't mean to be a prick; I think anyone that appreciated something about the first game won't be disappointed.
I just pre-ordered Assassin's Creed 2 (360) with release date delivery from Amazon for $20.99. Using $30 Credit ($20 from MW2 and $10 from Brutal Legend) + $5 pre-order coupon. Amazon Prime release date shipping, the ECA discount (while it lasted) and all the rollover pre-order credit incentives helped me buy everything I wanted this holiday (ODST, U2, BL, MW2, AC2) for under $200. Of course their guaranteed insane Black Friday deals will make me break my $200 limit but as of right now I'm extremely happy with their service.
I <3 Amazon
I <3 Amazon
Jesus christ this game is amazing. I loved the first one, but they have gone so far above and beyond what needed to be fixed in this game, I am stunned. I have been playing all day today (about 9 hours now) with zero breaks and I am in no way bored.
Kudos to you Ubisoft Montreal. Absolutely fantastic experience.
Kudos to you Ubisoft Montreal. Absolutely fantastic experience.
Just got to the 2nd city. 8 1/2 hours has me at 38% sync. I've been going after the collectibles hardcore, they're actually valuable and interesting this time.ezekial45 said:
I just had probably the most satisfying AC experience ever a few moments ago. I threw one of those terribly annoying minstrels to the ground after he wouldn't leave me alone, but this attracted guard attention. It's then I realized I was about halfway up the notoriety scale. 4 guards approaching me now on a moonlit bridge in Venice, fight or flight response kicks in. 2 of them are too close to each other, they've made a very large mistake. I raise both arms to their necks, each hidden blade connects opening their throats. The 2 remaining guards reach for their weapons but I'm already a step ahead of them. My smoke bomb explodes where their comrades lay dead. I push past the guards that are now blinded and struggling to breathe, launching myself into the canal and disappearing into the night.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
I haven't really been following this game, but I didn't know there were other cities.
I thought it was all in Venice.
I thought it was all in Venice.
Ether_Snake
å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®
Actually there are 4 cities. Two big ones (Florence and Venice) and two small ones (San Gimignano and Forli). There's also the villa.
MyEpitomeCliché
Member
So who else never played the first title but have utmost interest in the sequel? I do. I had my intentions, but I admit that once the impressions rolled in on AC and entailed the redundant mission structure and such, I lost most of my immediate interest. I'm quite excited for ACII, however. This is going to be a hell of a week for gaming (New Super Mario Bros., Left 4 Dead 2, and this).
MirageDwarf
Member
Street date breaking is like norm now.
iamcool388
Member
Loudninja said:
Its running quite well. There is tearing and framerate dips, yes, but its not too bad or noticeable for me. One time I DO notice it is when you climb a viewpoint and synchronize. The camera panning around you very makes it very easily noticeable. Other than that, I have no complaints.
This game seems much less frustrating than the first one (not that difficult a task.) I do miss the controls of inFAMOUS, thats the king of free-running games control schemes imo. Quite a few times I miss making jumps which I really shouldnt have and get penalized for it. For example, when you are climbing something and want to go right or left on the same wall, you can press right/left, but if you press 'x' along with it Ezio decides to jump off into oblivion instead of jumping in a direction along the wall. Its frustrating, but you get used to it after a while.
Also, very minor spoiler as its been in dev diaries, but still...
I just opened up Ezio's Villa's economy
MirageDwarf said:
Pretty much. I'm in NYC, so...
iamcool388
Member
Well, since I am taking a break, let me expand a little bit more before heading back to the game.
I think one major difference between AC2 and its predecessor is its approach to handling the protagonist. In AC, you were already a badass who knew everything, all the moves, skills etc. The progression came not from learning something new, but just from getting your old privileges back. In that world everyone already assumes Altair is a badass and treats him accordingly.
In AC2 we are with Ezio since the beginning... we see him learning new skills gradually and see him evolve into an assassin instead of him already being one before hand. You can relate more to him... especially because he is also given a sympathetic backstory and a cast of characters he loves and cares for. Altair's actions were dictated mostly by his personal gain whereas Ezio does many things for revenge as well as his family.
The motivation for Ezio is to earn respect, for Altair it was to earn it back. This makes AC2 a much more layered experience and gives Ubisoft much more leeway in adding missions/story threads etc. I know its a small point, but it nonetheless struck me as a crucial in the way the game unfolds. Any thoughts by those playing/completed?
I think one major difference between AC2 and its predecessor is its approach to handling the protagonist. In AC, you were already a badass who knew everything, all the moves, skills etc. The progression came not from learning something new, but just from getting your old privileges back. In that world everyone already assumes Altair is a badass and treats him accordingly.
In AC2 we are with Ezio since the beginning... we see him learning new skills gradually and see him evolve into an assassin instead of him already being one before hand. You can relate more to him... especially because he is also given a sympathetic backstory and a cast of characters he loves and cares for. Altair's actions were dictated mostly by his personal gain whereas Ezio does many things for revenge as well as his family.
The motivation for Ezio is to earn respect, for Altair it was to earn it back. This makes AC2 a much more layered experience and gives Ubisoft much more leeway in adding missions/story threads etc. I know its a small point, but it nonetheless struck me as a crucial in the way the game unfolds. Any thoughts by those playing/completed?
Ether_Snake
å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®å®
Pretty much, AC1 was "Ok what do I do next? Ok now what do I do? Ok now what? Am I done yet?". That was pretty much the actual narrative. In AC2 it's a life playing its course.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Leminnes said:I'm really sad that I have to wait until next year to play AC2. As much as I love PC, waiting for games to come out that have already been released makes me sad.
I'm with you man. I really, really liked the first game and bought it on the PC when it got released much later and really enjoyed it there too. The game ran and looked amazing on the PC so I decided I was going to just get the PC version of AC2 and skip it on the consoles. Needless to say the announcement that the PC version would be delayed made me very sad. The game looks fantastic and much better than the original.
indigo-cyclops
Member
Ranger X said:
Such a great point. I hope people see that AC1 was a learning experience for the team and the series. It did some really cool things, my top being the setting/historical time period. However, AC2 is clearly the result of listening to the community and really stripping down the first game and taking it in a new direction. A lot of the things just work. Making it a more narrative piece was the best thing they could do, and honestly, I was surprised when AC1 ended up lacking in that department. The whole economic system really adds to the Renaissance era and from the stuff I've watched I can already tell simply renovating the Villa is going to be ADDICTING.
It's the little things. They really paid attention to detail and to the criticism. I've said it before but I applaud them for that, not many developers really seem to do that anymore. For a team like UbiMon; a team with great ideas and extreme talent in the creative department it's great to see them step it up.
Fuck the naysayers, I've just got this really good feeling about AC2. It will shut a lot of people up.
FML, I had to pass on this game in favor of Left 4 Dead 2 but I'm really looking forward to it, I actually thought the first was a pretty great game so I expect this to be even better. It seems to have been kind of neglected due to all of the other games releasing around the same time, but I expect it to be one of the best games of the year, can't wait until I have the funds to procure this particular game.
indigo-cyclops
Member
Ridley327 said:
What have you heard?
It sounds like it's more or less a low-rent version of the first game; it has some of the essentials down, like the controls and Altair's animation being surprisingly close to what it was, but it sounds like everything else got severely downgraded. Technologically, it has bad character models (one person mentioned that they're not unlike the models in MGS1), cities being chopped up into separate zones with loading in-between and nasty draw-in all throughout. The game also sounds considerably easier than AC1, due to guards not even trying to attack you in the cities even after they see you walking away from a dead body. The story doesn't even really go anywhere, either. :-/
I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since Griptonite Games isn't exactly a highly regarded developer, but it's still disappointing to see. Maybe the concept simply needs better hardware to do it justice.
I guess I shouldn't be too surprised since Griptonite Games isn't exactly a highly regarded developer, but it's still disappointing to see. Maybe the concept simply needs better hardware to do it justice.
I'm about to lose my mind on this puzzle. Only people who have completed the game should highlight this. You have been warned.
On one of the Subject 16 radial code wheel puzzles. It's the captains of industry one, Ford is the current picture. I understand that the code is in a 3 pattern, but there's no key on this one. Usually they have a 4=1 or something and then you can solve it...that's not here. I've tried . as 1, | as 1, I have no idea what's going on now. Help.
Fuck it's been too long I don't remember...
edit
Does it have a collection of other numbers on the screen as well or just the number = symbo hint?
edit
If it's not the one with extra numbers all over the place the number and symbol are hidden IN the pictures if you look you'll see which number and symbol...
SenorDingDong
Member
I hate to harp on this point but seeing how it's my only major concern for the game left unanswered, I need to ask are the guards more aggressive / difficult this time around? Specifically, do they still wait patiently taking it in turns to attack you?
Everything else about the game sounds great, just hoping to get a guage on how lenient the guards are this time around is all.
Everything else about the game sounds great, just hoping to get a guage on how lenient the guards are this time around is all.
About 13 hours on the clock and I'm headed to
for the first time. So far I've done everything possible: all side missions, all collectibles (except the feathers since I might have missed some) and have upgraded the Villa to fully renovated.
Easily one of the top 3 games I've played this year.
Venice
Easily one of the top 3 games I've played this year.
Somewhat off topic but does anyone know any place that has all the 'cutscenes' from AC1 posted to them? I looked around on youtube and found them in pretty much every language but english.
Wouldn't mind a quick refresh on the AC1 story but really have no desire to replay the game
*EDIT* nevermind, found it.. figures taking out the apostrophe would help it turn up.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B7955AF5AA8F23A8&search_query=assassins+creed+cutscene incase anyone cares.
Wouldn't mind a quick refresh on the AC1 story but really have no desire to replay the game
*EDIT* nevermind, found it.. figures taking out the apostrophe would help it turn up.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B7955AF5AA8F23A8&search_query=assassins+creed+cutscene incase anyone cares.
SenorDingDong said:
It's hard for me the tell what you are looking for but it's not a new combat system from scratch, it doesn't become God of War or Ninja Gaiden all of a sudden. It's the same kind of controls and pace but now you also have a grab+attack system, more types of ennemis with different weak points forcing you to use different strategies. The game isn't harder than AC1 so I suppose that if you find AC1 easy, you will find this one too.
For the number of guards, there can be up to 8 or 10 guards around you but you can target only one at a time. Guards that you're not currently targeted to can also attack you.
.
AdventureRacing
Member
Everything is sounding good so far. Maybe this will be able to contend with NSMBwii for GOTY
iamcool388
Member
This game just fucking lost me.
There is a mission where some dude is cooped up in the tallest tower of the city, surrounded by 4-5 other towers where archers are stationed. You are supposed to take out the archers first so thats what I did. Took me 20 fucking minutes but I thought i'd do it the Assassin way instead of playing it in an all out brawler manner. Cleared out every tower, then had climbed on the tallest one and was fighting the 3-4 soldiers there when one of them hit me a few times and I fell off the tower. I died. The game started me up with every single archer in every single tower alive.
How fucking borked is the checkpoint system? There are NO checkpoints in between missions? If you dont have an easy and generous autosave function, then at least let the players have the option to save manually, because not all of are that good as to not die too much, and some of us dont have the fucking time to spend replaying the same mission again and again. This is bloody Three Leaf Clover all over again. Disgusting.
Fuck this piece of shit game. Unbelievable.
Perhaps we should have a rule of showing a receipt with the box of the game? Whatever it takes to make presumptuous assholes shut up.
There is a mission where some dude is cooped up in the tallest tower of the city, surrounded by 4-5 other towers where archers are stationed. You are supposed to take out the archers first so thats what I did. Took me 20 fucking minutes but I thought i'd do it the Assassin way instead of playing it in an all out brawler manner. Cleared out every tower, then had climbed on the tallest one and was fighting the 3-4 soldiers there when one of them hit me a few times and I fell off the tower. I died. The game started me up with every single archer in every single tower alive.
How fucking borked is the checkpoint system? There are NO checkpoints in between missions? If you dont have an easy and generous autosave function, then at least let the players have the option to save manually, because not all of are that good as to not die too much, and some of us dont have the fucking time to spend replaying the same mission again and again. This is bloody Three Leaf Clover all over again. Disgusting.
Fuck this piece of shit game. Unbelievable.
Sqorgar said:
Perhaps we should have a rule of showing a receipt with the box of the game? Whatever it takes to make presumptuous assholes shut up.