Surpasses AC1, but not worthy of all the praise rained on it.
Let's start with the story. Ezio is given a back story, as opposed to Altair, who we really didn't know a single thing about. It may be just me, but I felt as though the game took a bit too long to really take off. I also thought that it was kind of strange that Ezio knew quite a few special skills before becoming an assassin.
It's no secret that Ezio becomes an assassin after his family is murdered, and this particular plot point is carried out in a great way, making you care about Ezio that much more. As I said before, however, it takes a bit too long to get to this point.
It is during this first part of the game, when you are just plain Ezio, that most of the "sexual content" that helps constitute the M rating comes from. There are a few jokes that may elicit a chuckle or two, but are not important to the story. There is also a scene with Ezio's squeeze, no nudity is shown and sex is only implied, and I suppose some might say it adds depth to the character, but I disagree. It's no way near the worst thing ever seen in a game, but when you have company, it borders on awkward. Especially since the scene is interactive. Then Ezio's mom makes a comment that is supposed to be funny, but just made me face palm, literally. Overall, most of the sexual content in this game feels forced and/or unnecessary.
Now, the Conspiracy. Maybe I just have trouble suspending belief, but I really had trouble with this. In the first, I could swallow it. But here, as they delve deeper into the whole deal, I kept finding myself shaking my head at the screen in disbelief. I could see how religion could be caused by this artifact, but it just became involved in way too much. As you slowly unfold the mystery, things become unsettling to be sure, but then I would be shocked out of my uneasiness by some outlandish 'fact.' I don't know, I just think it could have been more creepy and believable if the artifact's true power was as yet unrealized.
And don't get me started on the ending. I don't think it a spoiler to say that it has a twist. After all the hype about it, I was disappointed. It's a surprise, to be sure, but not, in my opinion, a good one. It is just very weird.
Now, being religious myself, I am a bit biased here, but I find the entire conspiracy and revelation at the ending altogether much harder to swallow than Christianity, Catholicism, or Judaism. Once that you believe that there is a God, then the rest is explained. But here, it just seemed like I was constantly suspending belief. Okay, enough with that. I'll talk more about the twist at the end.
Ezio's assassin robes look much cooler than Altair's. My only gripe is that the huge, scintillating assassin symbol on his belt is glaringly obvious, and should have alerted any and all enemies. But anyway. Ezio's accent sounds genuine, unlike Altair's. He also has many more weapons at his disposal. But more on that later.
The game developers chose, I think, a very nice time period. The art design is very rich and detailed, and the textures are, for the most part, very nice. At least, they are on inanimate objects.
For all the talk about how detailed and amazing-looking this game was going to be, I honestly expected a lot more. As I said before, the textures on the ground, walls, and most clothing meets the next-gen console standard. In my opinion, Resident Evil 5 looked, overall, much better, but the two are so different that to compare them in any other way would be unfair.
I'll try not to rant on this too much, but basically here are the problems:
Jewelry- jewelry on characters is not raised, but rather appears part of the clothing or body. Occasionally, tassels on clothing will not move, but stay ramrod-straight.
Hair: this is what irks me most. RE 5 had pretty nice hair animations, if they can be called that. But in AC2, hair does not move. There is one male character with slightly long curls, and they are two-dimensional. You know how older games had bushes or shrubbery that looked like strange cardboard cut-outs? That's what this is like.
Objects pass through others: this probably has a term and probably doesn't quite belong under graphics, but I don't know where else to put it. This was a problem in AC1, and they have only slightly helped it. After killing a main target, Ezio will kneel down by them and have a heart-to-heart. The environment melts away, and they are encompassed by a white cloud. The floor is semi-transparent here, and as the victim lies on the ground, you can make out his cape (if he has one) sticking straight through the ground. It is a problem they could have easily recognized and fixed. People's ribbons, hair, and tassels will often pass through their bodies or clothing as they move.
Shadows will also skip around a lot, and people will pop into existance when you are nearly on top of them.
There is an economy in this game, a new addition. It works well, however I believe that you receive too much money from your 'home base,' so you never have to really be concerned with being able to afford things.
There is a nice selection of weapons and colors that you can dye your robes, although I find them all fairly unattractive. And why change what's already good? I find Assassin White to be very cool-looking. Anyway, the weapons all have their share of brutal kills. The combat is more in-depth than in AC1, which is good, but the game doesn't adequately explain all of the aspects of combat, leaving you to figure out a few things for yourself, such as combo-killing. The weapon-selection wheel does remove you from the action a bit, and I would have liked it if you could decide which weapons/objects were where on the wheel, so you could select the weapon of your choice from the D-pad.
Free running is, like most other things in this game, better than the first, but still slightly flawed. Free running is smoother, but it still sometimes decides that it knows better than you which way Ezio should jump. Also, after playing and replaying the first, I am used to being able to just jump off of viewpoints. For some reason, there are only bales or boxes of hay under about half of the towers. I have no idea why. Slowly climbing/dropping down is a pain.
It seems that assassinations require a lot less strategy and planning than the former installment, which is not a good thing. Find your target while remaining undetected, assassinate him, and escape. I passed them all on the first try! But there are a few times, one in particular, where you kill the target from afar, yet the foggy cutscene shows you standing right beside him. As soon as the cutscene is over, you are back in the spot where you killed him. It is just kind of awkward.
There is a TON of bonus content, some essential to fully understanding the Conspiracy, and searching for it all can be quite repetitive. But luckily, it is optional, and others before me have discovered them and made guides.
The soundtrack is superb, although I did miss that cool escape music. Ezio's gun sounds authentic, and you can hear bones cracking and blades ripping flesh during combat.
Now here is where I have to talk a bit about the twist, so SPOILERS ahead!
My first problem is that Ezio let the pope live. I know they are trying o go for historical accuracy here, and the pope didn't die until some time later, but they could have just had Ezio meet him later! After hunting down and killing every other person responsible for his family's death, he lets the head man live. I know they were trying to have Ezio realize that he can never bring his family back, but it just doesn't fit well.
Then, I have problems with the First Civilization. Desmond's words at the end of that cutscene perfectly describe how I felt. What? Desmond's adjectives where much more vigorous, but you get the idea. Now, I may not have understood this correctly, but I thought that the creatures that made us (forget what they are called) were not originally from Earth, but came here to make the First Civilization. Two people, Adam and Eve (Have you noticed that Christianity is the only religion that they directly say is a sham? The hologram even has the guts to say that we were created in their image. Please.) betrayed the creators. How exactly they did this isn't explained, but it involved the Apple of Eden. Caught up in earthly affairs, the creators did not notice a disturbance (in the force) with the sun. The sun wiped out most or all of life on Earth, but somehow a small population is established (whether they survived the blast or were created, I don't know) and they begin to slowly repopulate the earth. The creators leave Earth, and for some reason decide to leave the Pieces of Eden behind, so that future generations can wreak havoc.
The hologram tells Desmond that the sun will destroy the earth again, and it's up to the assassin's to stop it. What could the assassin's possibly do? It's the sun!
I don't know, it's just so weird. Back when AC1 came out, I used to joke with my friends that aliens had probably left the Piece of Eden on Earth, and when I saw it was actually true, you can imagine the look on my face. But then again, this is only my interpretation of the ending, I may have understood wrong. I find it very strange how the series has switched focus so drastically. First the Templars, that I understand. They are the sworn enemies of the assassin's. Then, the Pieces of Eden. Okay, I guess that works, if the Templars are using it for evil, and it has been used in the past to trick people. Now the sun? There is no reasonable connection. An ancient order using an ancient artifact for ill, okay, that works. But how does any of that connect to the sun destroying the earth in the future? And how can a group of about four people running from the huge Templar army stop the sun from blasting the earth? It just blows my mind.
This game is really nice, and again, well worth the money. I just don't think it's worthy of the 9.5 Gamespot gave it. I'd give it an 8.5. So, here's the recap.
Good:
Textures
Voice acting
Combat/ weapons
Economy
Setting
The fact that you are an assassin
Bad:
Over-hyped graphics and jumpy shadows
Absurd ending
Kinks in free running
The entire game was just blown out of proportion before release
Give me a thumbs-up if you liked it, and a thumbs-down if you didn't. Feel free to message me with comments or questions.
Random fact: If you drop a penny from the Empire State Building it will not gain enough momentum to draw blood, let alone kill someone.