Assassin’s Creed 2 Review
You still need to climb tall viewpoints to synchronize your surroundings and explore the map. The world of AC2 is quite alive, with residents going about their daily businesses, unless you decide to distract them with Ezio’s antics for a variety of responses. Drop a dead body in the marketplace and the crowd will immediately back away in fear, fight in public and crowds will gather around to watch or cheer, frisk a dead body and you’ll hear someone shouting ‘leave the dead alone in peace!’ The spontaneity and variety in crowd behaviour adds a fresh perspective of realism and may also force you to adopt careful subtlety over rashness in public places.
The game now features a full economy system. No we aren’t talking ‘monopoly’ here, but something similar and more engaging. Player can benefit from a continuous stream of revenue generated at Ezio’s residential location at Monteriggioni which also doubles up as his safehouse for managing everything from economy to apparels! The amount of revenue generated depends on valuation of the town’s real estate that gets enhanced by architectural & art upgrades. Besides revenue and valuation, they also improve building appearance. Ezio can use the money to purchase medicine and poisons from roadside doctors, paintings and treasure maps from art dealers, armour repairs and better weapons from blacksmiths and pouches and dress dyes from tailors. Their importance to Ezio is varied, since health cannot be generated without medicine, paintings add valuation (and hence revenue) to Monteriggioni, armour repairs & better weapons ensure longer sustenance in combat and pouches add additional slots for medicine and other ammunition like throwing knives or bombs. Money ceases to be an issue after half the game thanks to the constant stream of revenue which soon surpasses spending opportunities.
With the sprawling gameworld at your disposal, you can opt for either running or horse-riding for self journey or fast-travel for ‘instant’ arrival at some preset point in another city. Ezio can row gondolas through Venice’s canals or swim to cover short distances; besides an enjoyable chariot sequence available only once. Raiding Assassin tombs brings back fond memories of Prince of Persia levels that required puzzle solving, precise timing and movement control. Some thrilling on-foot chases, similar to ‘Dahaka’ levels from PoP: The Two Thrones, are also available in them. AC2 features a notoriety meter that influences the behaviour of guards towards Ezio. More notoriety leads to more extreme behaviour including attack on sight. Keeping the notoriety down by bribing heralds, assassinating corrupt officials or tearing up ‘wanted’ posters helps reduce city guard’s interference, which is very useful during missions. While its recommended to avoid attention by hiding dead bodies, you can use them to attract attention to a certain point as well. You can also frisk bodies of downed hostiles for money or ammunition, a useful action if you’re running low on any of it. Even ‘Eagle Vision’ to identify targets or glyphs can now be used in third person mode rather than first person, adding convenience for the player.
While its nearly impossible to find flaws in AC2 , some occasional quirks do exist. Despite tighter controls this time around, Ezio will still grab onto the wrong ledges, or even worse, do a painful leap of foolishness, losing a lot of health in the process – a frustrating endeavour during chase, escape or timed sequences. While the AI is quite impressive at detecting and giving chase, not more than two soldiers will attack Ezio simultaneously even when there are ten of them to fight off. Ezio can frisk dead bodies but it’s odd to find him continuing to do so even after the body has already slipped down a roof’s edge! While forgiving perfection for tolerance, these tiny oddities appear slightly irksome for a super-polished title like AC2.
Next Page – Final Words and Scorecard
