Started playing the 360 version this morning and am loving it so far. Having just finished AC1 I can easily spot even minor changes / improvements and ACII feels almost like its running on a different engine. The textures are much cleaner and the framerate is quite improved. Overall, a much more polished game.
Anyone with EU PS3 version, did you manage to unlock the Premium theme on uplay? I got an error and it didnt appear in my DL history on psn store either :/
Nope, I redeemed my 10 points, got a download error and was told i'd be able to re-download it from my DL history, trouble is it isn't there - guess SCEE haven't put the theme up on the servers yet, and as I can't re-redeem stuff Uplay thinks it's already unlocked I guess that means i've lost the exclusive theme.
Nope, I redeemed my 10 points, got a download error and was told i'd be able to re-download it from my DL history, trouble is it isn't there - guess SCEE haven't put the theme up on the servers yet, and as I can't re-redeem stuff Uplay thinks it's already unlocked I guess that means i've lost the exclusive theme.
I just finished the main story and have completed a lot of the collections. Post-game impressions with minor game spoilers (story/plot-related ones are tagged):
Pro's
Less Tedium - The large amount of flag collecting for little reward was extremely tedious in the first game. While there is more collecting in AC2, you are rewarded better for it, which is more satisfying. Treasure chests give you money to upgrade your villa. Glyphs lead to mini-games which unlock a 'secret' video. Codexes increase your health meter and are an integral part of the plot at the end.
Better Story/Characters - The story was pretty shallow in the first game, and Altair had little motivation for his actions. The story in this game was better fleshed out and Ezio was more likable. The cast of supporting characters was really well-done in this game. The NPC's you work with as allies and friends is great.
Investigations Removed - This was a pointless part of the first game which made it even more tedious. Thankfully, it's gone in the sequel.
Highly Polished - The first 70% of the game is extremely polished and free of bugs. Frame-rate remains consistent and very little screen tearing on 360.
Less Desmond - The hokey Animus portion of the last game is toned down significantly in this game, which is great because I hate any time I am not in the Matrix.
Fast Travel - Fast Travel checkpoints were added, so you can quickly move between towns and to other sections of town instantly. A major improvement (and much needed) over the first game.
Upgrading the Crib - Love this addition. Gives value to the monetary system and is a great trophy case for your achievements. Wish they did more with the monetary system, which I'm sure will be improved upon in the third game.
Con's
Ran Out of Time - The last 30% of the game is extremely unpolished. The difference is night and day when comparing the cities Florence and Venice. In Venice alone, I saw screen-tearing, major texture dropout (half the city constantly disappearing or popping-in), loading screen freeze, fighting on invisible collision, mission objective radar missing, etc. Venice feels like it is at an alpha state, which is extremely unfortunate. The entire city of Rome is missing also, which feels like it should have been there (Act III).
Still has Desmond - Areas of this game where you are outside of the Animus/Matrix are unpolished and not fun to play. The two new characters introduced in these sections are also undeveloped. Lastly,
the story hints strongly that Desmond will be the main character in the third game, which makes me want to cry. He is the worst part of this game and is a generic, underdeveloped, unlikable protagonist.
Psychobabble Storyline - While the story provides better motivation for Ezio's actions,
it also takes a turn for the worst towards the end.
There is also an undercurrent of conspiracy theory and pseudo-deep psychobabble which runs throughout. I don't wear a tin foil hat, so this element of the story was a major turn-off.
Combat is Boring/AI is Dumb - AI/combat is exactly the same as the first game. Enemies still stand around in a group of 10, waiting for one to attack you at a time (so you can counter). I assume this is a design decision, so the game is more 'fun' and accessible to casual players, but there is little depth or challenge to the combat. They added a few new counter finishers which are flashy and nice, but this gripe still remains largely unchanged.
Platforming is Sketchy - The bounce off a wall and jump backwards move happens when you don't want it to. Considering how rarely it is used in gameplay, it hurts the game more than helps it by having it in there, and it is so easy to mistakenly do. It's especially annoying when you perform this move and land in water, then have to swim back to the start and do everything again. This happens a lot in
the last tomb in Venice where you learn the wall-run, which is another terrible move (looks unrealistic and the interface is poor)
.
Latter Puzzles are Annoyingly Hard - The glyph puzzles start out fun (there is logic to solving them and they provide a mild challenge), but the last 6 or so are unnecessarily brutal. If there is a proper solution for solving them, I didn't figure them out. Instead, I had to brute force my way through via process of elimination to 'solve' the puzzle. I dreaded entering a glyph puzzle towards the end of the game.
Slow Start - The first two hours of the game are very slow and not fun. I won't be surprised if some players never make it past this point. A game should be engaging within the first 15 minutes, not taking two hours for the real game to start.
Stats:
Synchronization 63.2%
In-game clock - 27 hours
Real time spent playing - ~36 hours (in-game clock is not accurate)
Viewpoints 66/66
Tombs 6/6
Feathers 30/100
Treasures 253/330
Codexes 30/30
Glyphs 20/20
All armor collected
Missing one weapon
Missing one cape
Ran Out of Time - The last 30% of the game is extremely unpolished. The difference is night and day when comparing the cities Florence and Venice. In Venice alone, I saw screen-tearing, major texture dropout (half the city constantly disappearing or popping-in), loading screen freeze, fighting on invisible collision, mission objective radar missing, etc. Venice feels like it is at an alpha state, which is extremely unfortunate. The entire city of Rome is missing also, which feels like it should have been there (Act III).
The investigations weren't removed, they are just better integrated into the story.
In AC1 to gather information for a target you'd magically know what you needed to investigate by climbing a tall building, and then your investigation would be something like collecting flags in a certain amount of time or pick pocketing some random dude. There was no rhyme or reason as to why you were doing what you were. Now the story flows like a normal game like fallout 3, oblivion, mass effect, etc-- investigation parts are just built into the quest system. And the extra stuff is stuff you actually want to do because a lot of it builds on the lore of the world.
Eggo said:
Combat is Boring/AI is Dumb - AI/combat is exactly the same as the first game. Enemies still stand around in a group of 10, waiting for one to attack you at a time (so you can counter). I assume this is a design decision, so the game is more 'fun' and accessible to casual players, but there is little depth or challenge to the combat. They added a few new counter finishers which are flashy and nice, but this gripe still remains largely unchanged.
In real life I'm not sure how a group of 10 would approach a sword fight with one guy. If they all charged in and flailed their swords they could easily chop off each other's arms. I do agree they could work more on making the sword fights a bit more challenging though. I remember Prince of Persia 1/2 just gave you a simple block and attack button but the sword fights were extremely challenging because there was a lot of back and forth and your timing had to be good.
Ran Out of Time - The last 30% of the game is extremely unpolished. The difference is night and day when comparing the cities Florence and Venice. In Venice alone, I saw screen-tearing, major texture dropout (half the city constantly disappearing or popping-in), loading screen freeze, fighting on invisible collision, mission objective radar missing, etc. Venice feels like it is at an alpha state, which is extremely unfortunate. The entire city of Rome is missing also, which feels like it should have been there (Act III).
Your the first person to say this. Nothing I've read from anyone else suggests otherwise. Have you perhaps tried on another console? or another copy of the game? Just odd that you would experience all that.
Your the first person to say this. Nothing I've read from anyone else suggests otherwise. Have you perhaps tried on another console? or another copy of the game? Just odd that you would experience all that.
Who is playing completely HUD free? If you are doing this are you constantly accessing the map through the pause screen or is there some other way that you know how to get around? I really want to play HUD-free because I hate HUDs
And that is a unfortunate thing. Though things getting cut happens all the time in game development as you know, so thats more normal. Though just stating that the last 30% of the game was unpolished and issues abound... never heard of a game really doing that unless production and money was cut severly near the end and they just had to wrap it up. Though again, I mainly wonder if it was just the disc he was playing on or perhaps cache issues with the harddrive since I've read no other reports of this and you confirm that didn't happen yourself.
that's what I'm doing atm, I'm not used to buying health kits. :lol I don't remember doing the same thing in AC1 *memory fails*. also, I noticed that starting a new mission fully restores my health, so that would save me some $$$.
that's what I'm doing atm, I'm not used to buying health kits. :lol I don't remember doing the same thing in AC1 *memory fails*. also, I noticed that starting a new mission fully restores my health, so that would save me some $$$.
So far, I'm disliking everything about the game that isn't the game. Bad voice acting, poor dialogue (Why, exactly, are they flipping between Italian and English at random mid-sentence?...luckily I heard on the bombcast that you can just switch the voices to Italian. Done and much less retarded), and the pathetic attempts at facial animations with dead eyes all combine to make the cut scenes pretty much unwatchable.
The game itself, though, is a blast so far. I'm early in obviously but I liked the first, mostly like this one.
Because it's awesome? I dunno, it kind of adds to the whole "you're in a computer program" illusion for me. It starts out in Italian but slowly and more consistently gets translated into English for you.
You can just hold down A/X also. It makes you fast walk but you auto pick-pocket everyone you run into.
Because it's awesome? I dunno, it kind of adds to the whole "you're in a computer program" illusion for me. It starts out in Italian but slowly and more consistently gets translated into English for you.
I don't mean the part at the beginning when it's fully in Italian, I mean when they drop in a random (I'm sorry) and throw an Italian phrase in the middle of an English sentence, all in a horrible Italian accent.
I don't mean the part at the beginning when it's fully in Italian, I mean when they drop in a random (I'm sorry) and throw an Italian phrase in the middle of an English sentence, all in a horrible Italian accent.
I think they throw in the random mid-sentence Italian when they cuss or use some dirty phrase. It's probably supposed to be funny.
As for the accents, I didn't have a problem with them except one cutscene. You could tell it was probably the first thing they recorded when people were still getting used to their characters. Then again, I don't really know what an Italian accent is supposed to sound like.
Who is playing completely HUD free? If you are doing this are you constantly accessing the map through the pause screen or is there some other way that you know how to get around? I really want to play HUD-free because I hate HUDs
The glyph at the Auditore Villa....I've found it, but nothing happened. I see the numbers below it, but nothing was triggered when i scanned it. Was something supposed to happen?
So far, I'm disliking everything about the game that isn't the game. Bad voice acting, poor dialogue (Why, exactly, are they flipping between Italian and English at random mid-sentence?...luckily I heard on the bombcast that you can just switch the voices to Italian. Done and much less retarded), and the pathetic attempts at facial animations with dead eyes all combine to make the cut scenes pretty much unwatchable.
The voice acting is quite good, I find - it's the dialogue that can be goofy. The voice acting is the one of the few saving graces of the cutscenes (along with some of the action in them), since the character models are indeed very poorly animated. The lip-syncing on that geek chic guy at the beginning of the game was so bad, compounded by the fact that the voice actor speaks quickly, that it was incredibly distracting. Though when you compare it to something like inFamous, AC2's dialogue cutscenes look like UC2.
Personally I think Catacombs/Pop style levels > Tuscany > Florence > Venice.
I'd blame the lack of attention on the non-landmark lods for the noticable popping, not the engine.
Personally I think Catacombs/Pop style levels > Tuscany > Florence > Venice.
I'd blame the lack of attention on the non-landmark lods for the noticable popping, not the engine.
I don't mean the part at the beginning when it's fully in Italian, I mean when they drop in a random (I'm sorry) and throw an Italian phrase in the middle of an English sentence, all in a horrible Italian accent.
There's a conversation midway through the game you can have with the dark-haired chick where she mentions the Animus 2.0 is still having trouble with the translation program and that she's sorry untranslated Italian is slipping into his memories.
