FINITO
Final stats: 29 hours, 96% completion. Nope, didn't rush through the story missions as you can see.
I think this is the best way to enjoy the game, take your time to do lots of side missions, a lot of them are actually pretty inventive, rarely are the side-assassinations the same. Don't know what am I gonna do with all that MANNY MANNY MONEDA COIN!
What a difference from the previous game. The first one was some sort of weird experiment in the non-existent assassination genre.
AC2 on the other hand is a proper, epic action adventure game. Gone entirely is the three-step game structure as Patrice Desilets said, chucked away into a black hole. The progression here flows very nicely according to the plot, a revenge tale that keeps escalating all the way into the stratosphere. It has proper cut-scenes to move the story along which thankfully are all pretty short, there's really no need for an option to skip them. Presentation is great and some of the characters are truly memorable. Especially Leonardo. The game needs more Leonardo. More I say.
This game is impossibly beautiful, pictures and online videos aren't enough to truly appreciate the work that has gone into the game. However, I don't know if we should applaud Ubisoft for that or the many architects that worked on the real life cities the game takes place in.
I'm guessing that choosing Venice and Florence made their job easier to make this game looks all kinds of pretty. Venice is the true star of the game, as huge as it is beautiful, bigger than anything in the first game. Just massive, it almost seems like Ubi Montreal rendered the whole thing.
Many times I got shivers just looking at some of the structures, coupled with Jesper Kyd's masterpiece of a soundtrack
The core gameplay is relatively unchanged from AC1, that's a good thing though, at least for me as the combat and the freerunning were the two things...well...the
only things I loved about it.
The cities in AC2 REALLY exploit the freerunning though, and so do the missions. You feel even more like a badass running over the italian rooftops. The level design in the game is expertly made. There are also some linear platforming areas in the game, which by the way, have
better platforming than all the Prince of Persia games combined. Yes,
all of them. So good. I feel sorry for the current PoP team, there's just no point to them anymore.
What a fucking great game, truly. It's one of those sequels that renders the previous game useless and worthless. It improves upon it in every single aspect, and actually goes beyond what you hoped for. I guess all I have left now are some side-missions and feathers.
Here are the only issues I have with it:
- A disappointing framerate on the PS3 version. Still manageable and playable, but it's really annoying that they still couldn't bring it up to par with the 360. The slowdown and stuttering annoys.
- A somewhat unsatisfying ending. It's not bad like AC1, but it doesn't bring any conclusion to Ezio's life, which I was hoping for. The broken videos you keep collecting also spoil much of it.
Anyway, Assassins Creed 2 and Uncharted 2 may be my two favorite games this generation so far. It's an excellent season for us gamers that care little for multiplayer-oriented crap and prefer awesome single player experiences.
