Assassin's Creed II (Part 2)

Well I beat AC2 last night and I am impressed enough to warrant another blog. The first game had that "plot twist" I told you about (that you learn about in the first three minutes of playtime). AC2 also has a plot twist, but this time it is very skillfully done. The story is truly viewed through the eyes of Ezio who is the main character. The game never stops the story to explain itself to you the gamer, which is a huge plus. Personally, I hate games and movies which assume the viewer is so stupid that they have to slow everything way down and explain it all to you when it is much more stimulating to figure things out on your own. AC2 definitely assumes that you are not a moron and instead of being condescending ends up being extremely rewarding to the player. There are literally tons of stories, clues, and puzzles that can be skipped entirely during the regular playthrough that substantiate and fill out the story, and missing them would be a huge mistake. For those of you who are playing I refer to the hidden glyphs, and reading the codex pages. As you find these scraps of information a huge and foreboding worldwide conspiracy begins to take shape which does a pretty good job of accrediting major wars (contemporary and ancient) to a certain factions trying to assert a New World Order. The game culminates during and just after the last boss battle where the curtain is literally ripped away and the basis for everything in the game is explained in a way that gave me chills. It was like a hundred shards of information were floating about in my mind and I was trying to make sense of them and suddenly all the answers clicked beautifully into place so that the plot twist was really more of a revelation.

In addition to the above it should also be mentioned that the music in this game is awesome, the graphics are leaps and bounds ahead of its predecessor and all the varied mini-missions really keep the game going right through to (and beyond) the end. Another new addition to this game is finding the Assassin's tombs and removing critical artifacts from them. What makes these so much fun is that while much of the game involves finding a way to get from point A to B, these normal movements are not specifically set up to be puzzles. Each of the tombs are set up as a miniature level that must be conquered in a way that draws on platforming skills and requires on-the-fly problem solving skills as many involve timed elements. This really felt like Ubisoft going back to its venerable Prince of Persia series and really ended up feeling like a big shiny present in a game that is already outstanding. You really should consider buying or renting this game.