This is my second time playing Assassin's Creed, as I had played the 2009 release originally. Obviously I'm going to play with nostalgia glasses, but the game itself does hold up exceptionally well in my opinion. This felt like such a step-up and refresh from the original AC1 release (which I had loved at the time), with some re-scheming of the controls and a lot of quality of life improvements. Compared to some of the modern releases, the graphics aren't exactly holding up against AAA budgets, but it was largely serviceable. It's not a game that I'd say was "aesthetically stunning" beside the moments of cinema like the Viewpoints and "The Truth" sequence. The sound design was pretty on-point too and captured a Renaissance Italy vibe! With that said, I can say that it was hampered by a few big things. The collect-a-thon aspect with treasures/feathers were a bit overkill, killing pace and just acting as a time-filler. Cutting both to half the amount would have made it a little more enjoyable. Sequences 11 to 12 (originally DLCs) were BRUTAL to play as they functioned as a hard stop in between what is meant to be the climax to the conclusion. The final mission also felt a little silly as a raid on the Vatican. I would have preferred a more secret-silent assassin ending, possibly even spread over 3 or 4 missions. Still, the story as a whole was perfect (otherwise I wouldn't have been as enraptured as a child and into my adulthood) in the way it interweaved historical fiction and science fiction. The gameplay was great, besides those end-game pacing issues and the fact that I have been exposed to improvements on parkour fairly recently, like Brotherhood and Ghost of Tsushima and Sekiro. I give AC2 some extra grace for being an older game straddling technological improvements at the time, and for being as fun a game as I remember (most of the time). As a side note, I ended the game with 966k florins (retconned to 50k in Brotherhood), a fully complete 100% sync, and 1200+ enemy deaths.

2 pts for Story - 2
2 pts for Graphics - 1
2 pts for Sound/Music - 1
4 pts for Gameplay - 3
Bonus Points:
1 pt for my Nostalgia
.5 pt for Improving over AC1
Final Score = 8.5 (Leaned 8/10 over 9/10)

story in this game was great.
gameplaywise its a bit clunky but much better then AC 1
characters are really memorable.
sometimes in cutscenes when scenes are switching it feels a bit unnatural.
overall very good game with some small gameplay issues.
haven't played brotherhood yet but i hope it will be better then this one :)

SÍNTESE ;
- jogabilidade - 4/10
- história - 4/10
- arte - 8/10

PARTES BOAS ;
em geral, o jogo tem uma direção de arte estupenda, desde a composição geral das cenas até as músicas. os personagens também são bem carismáticos e aparecem algumas figuras históricas que podem te tirar boas risadas quando reconhecê-las.

PARTES RUINS ;
apesar de se sobressair na qualidade artística de composições gerais, o jogo peca em outras partes essenciais. acredito que valha a pena pontuar:
- quantidade considerável de bugs
- sistema de combate chato e arrastado
- movimentação dura e conflitante. você eventualmente acaba caindo e tendo que reescalar todo o prédio sem querer ou, na pior das ocasiões, morrendo.
- simplesmente mal planejado em algumas ocasiões. como o fato de você não poder trocar seu equipamento fora do armazém de monteriggioni.
- câmera mal planejada e alguns níveis pouco intuitivos e/ou confusos

EM SUMA ;
AC II é um jogo bom, mas bem superestimado. a nostalgia e a estética do título podem fazer um eu mais jovem ficar bêbado com as coisas boas que o jogo entrega, mas ao rever o jogo anos depois, você provavelmente vai perceber que não era lá tão bom assim. a história é bem mais ou menos (salvo o final) e o fato de ser arrastada por vários títulos seria muito mais legal se jogos fossem mais acessíveis que são. é um jogo que me diverti jogando e platinando, mas duvido um pouco que pegaria pra zerar ou jogar de novo.

Aunque saqué el Platino en su momento en PlayStation 3 y se trate de un juego de 2009, la verdad es que sigue siendo un videojuego bastante redondo, siendo su punto más fuerte la ambientación italiana del siglo XV. El parkour no se hace pesado y el combate, aunque mejorable, tampoco está nada mal. La variedad de localizaciones me sorprendió, ya que pensaba que Venecia formaba parte de La Hermandad por algún motivo pero resulta que es un buen trozo de este juego. La historia es interesante, aunque mentiría si dijese que recuerdo el nombre de la mayoría de personajes, pero se disfruta. El final es pura ciencia ficción, que contrasta con el carácter histórico-alternativo del juego.

Volví a jugar el clásico y para muchos el mejor Assassin’s Creed: el segundo. Como resumen general, creo que es un juegazo excelente en prácticamente todos los aspectos excepto en los controles y movimiento del personaje. El resto, es espectacular. Sigue mucho texto siendo detallista e insoportable, como siempre.
La historia y personajes son de lo mejor del juego. De entrada te atrapa y te mete en la historia. Literalmente vemos a Ezio desde su nacimiento. El inicio del juego siempre se siente genial. La escena de los títulos con Ezio y su hermano es una belleza. Cada vez lo juegue me va a encantar ese momento. El desarrollo que hace Ezio a lo largo del juego, todo lo que pasa en el camino, los aliados y enemigos que hace, todo se siente parte de una historia coherente. Las interrupciones en las que volvemos al presente con Desmond son pocas y no molestan, porque lo queremos (y extrañamos) a Desmond.
El período histórico y ambientación es una belleza. Italia y Renacimiento, no se puede pedir más. Los sonidos/diálogos de fondo de los NPCs hacen que el mundo se sienta vivo. Además hay una buena densidad de NPCs en las ciudades. Recuerdo cuando lo jugué la primera vez y estaba viendo en la carrera que estudiaba, justamente, el Renacimiento y quedé fascinado viendo los edificios, obras de arte, personajes históricos, plasmados en un juego tan bueno.
La música es todo un logro aparte. Creo que tiene unas de las mejores bandas sonoras de los videojuegos que recuerde. Porque no es solo el famoso “Ezio’s family” (que es un temazo), sino todas las músicas de ambiente que complementan la experiencia. Realmente la música es uno sino el más alto punto de esta entrega.
Las mejoras de equipo y demás son muy simples y eso se valora. Tenés una sola moneda que la usás para municiones, medicina, mejora de equipo, compra de equipo nuevo, etc. En lugar de tenerte juntando recursos genéricos como se suele hacer en juegos más modernos, acá fueron por una sola moneda y mejoras simples, eso me gustó.
El juego tiene varias actividades extras y secundarias para hacer, pero mientras lo jugaba me gustó que no te obligaban directa ni indirectamente a hacerlas. Yo en este caso quería ir por la historia principal y nada más. Y me venía encantando poder hacer eso. Por eso mismo me pareció muy pero muy flojo que, para poder jugar la última secuencia, el juego te obligue a juntar todas las páginas del códice. Es cierto que está justificado dentro de la historia. Pero a mí me resultó muy anticlimático. Veníamos del final emocionante de la secuencia anterior, con el discurso de Ezio en su Firenze natal. Y de la nada me encuentro teniendo que ir viajando de nuevo a los distintos mapas para buscar qué páginas me quedaron pendientes. Me bajó mucho el envión con el que venía enganchadísimo para terminar el juego.
Ahora, sabemos que en todos los Assassin’s Creed hay algún que otro problema con el parkour, que queremos saltar para un lado y salta para otro, cosas así. Pero, la verdad, no recordaba que los controles fuesen tan toscos. Creo que esto y lo que comentaba de la secuencia final, fue lo único que me hacía dejar el juego por momentos. Son las dos únicas críticas concretas que realmente me estropearon un poco la experiencia.
El combate no es muy bueno, safa. Con pocos enemigos safa, mejor dicho. Me pasó de que sobre el final se me acumularon una banda de enemigos y se me hizo eterno hasta eliminarlos a todos. No porque sea difícil, sino porque la manera de eliminarlos casi siempre es esperar un ataque, esquivar o contraatacar y listo. Y tenía por ahí diez o más enemigos rodeándome y no atacaba ninguno. Podía atacar yo, pero no es lo más práctico por el modo que tiene de combate.
En definitiva, el juego es casi perfecto. Los defectos que digo son dentro de todo entendibles, aunque me hayan molestado. El parkour, se entiende que es recién el segundo juego de la saga y que es algo que fueron perfeccionando con el tiempo, son sus mejoras y defectos. Y el final de juntar todas las páginas, es entendible teniendo en cuenta que es Ubisoft y si hay algo que les gusta es estirar innecesariamente los juegos con actividades de relleno.

How does it feel like to get into a franchise such as this one in 2024?

After playing so many open world games that were inspired by it, and abandoning them after a few hours, I guess Assassin's Creed II still manages to have a tight open world design and a compelling story of revenge, one that made me want to at least play to see where it goes.

The game can feel unresponsive at times with what you want to do (and it doesn't help that I was playing through Remote Play in an average connection), but if I were to compare it with a game from its time, it has more freedom to traversal than most. I can only think of inFamous being better in this aspect.

Combat sucks, though. It's janky, the character moves awkwardly, and there’s no real variety. The puzzles were equally bad - something out of a Flash game. But the open world structure is strong enough to compensate for some of the mechanics. It was fun as hell to parkour around Renaissance Italy, and the mission structure didn’t feel like it got in the way of it.

I've come to accept that open world games are the type of game I like to play the most, but the fatigue from them is real. I did get the Platinum but didn't bring myself to do absolutely everything it had available. But it's interesting to experience one of the earlier examples of the design that's became a standard in most of AAA games today: an interesting concept buried in bloat, that grew every year with each new game.

For now, I'll wait a while to try the next game in the Ezio saga.

What an amazing game.

Ezio continues to be one of the best characters I've ever experienced.

One of my favourite games ever.

The game is guilty of all the usual dialogue surrounding awesome and cool and based Ubisoft collectathons. I will just discuss why I think this game is better than the first while also highlighting some problems that I believe are unique to Assassin's Creed II.

The biggest and most obvious improvements are from gameplay changes and additions. The new addition that had the greatest impact on gameplay and just simply my enjoyment of the game is the inclusion of more assassination techniques. In the first game, assassination boiled down to walking up next to someone, stabbing them, and walking away. The build up towards the assassination attempt is what made the game as the actual killing was quite boring. In Assassin’s Creed 2, you get to jump from ledges and pull people off ledges and… I guess they really just added interactions with ledges. A simple change yet very important as it opens up the ways you approach playing the game a lot more. You can actually have the ability to be stealthy and sneaky if you are able to lead from unseen places to kill.

The parkour in this game was also greatly improved over the first. Though it still has massive flaws, it feels a whole lot better to run around in this game. You move significantly faster while performing actions like climbing and you have the ability to parkour off and on things you were unable to in the first game. Additionally, it seems like they put a little bit more work into creating environments that would be more interesting to traverse. It still has the problem of buildings repeating which causes the late game to become a real drag as all you’re doing is climbing the same buildings you already have 10 other times. However, there is significantly less repetition than there was in the first game, which is a meaningful thing to say as the game itself is much bigger.

A complaint I do have for this game, compared to the first, is found within the combat. Something about the combat in this game really bothered me. In the first game, the combat was quite fun even with how repetitive it was. It felt really good to perform counter attacks and the really basic combos, there was some weight going on. This game changes a couple things though. The combat feels lighter and the timing for moves in combat just seems sort of… off. This is not a situation of, “I can’t perform the combos, so I think the game is broken.” No, I can do all the things the game asks for just fine. The problem is that I needed to adjust myself. The rhythm to the combo attacks and counterattacks, which is supposed to be determined by visual and audio ques during the fight (mostly just the clink of swords hitting) do not actually match when you are supposed to attack like they do in the first game. There is some discrepancy that forces you to adjust your own rhythm. This does not affect how playable the game is, but it affects how satisfying the gameplay is. Given that there is a lot of combat in this game, and it is all basically the same fight copy-pasted, you would really REALLY hope the combat feels good. Alas, it feels mediocre.

Assassin’s Creed 2 also sort of just fails its main premise. This is a problem that the first game has and a problem that all the games after it that I have played also have. It fails to allow you to be a sneaky little guy. You can totally do some sneaking, and there are some fairly well rounded stealth sections. However, those sneaky little guy parts are outnumbered 1 to 5 compared to all the open combat encounters. Even still, virtually all the sneaky little guy portions head with you forcefully being RIPPED out of stealth and thrown into open combat without any ability to stop it. I wish they had invested more time and effort into making you feel like an assassin. I think they were aware how limited your “assassining” options are so they limited how much of the game could be spent being sneaky, as you would quickly realize how repetitive it is. I could write a whole other essay on this, but I will stop myself here. Just know, your sneaky little guy expectations that you might expect from a game called ASSASSIN’S Creed probably will not be met.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is slightly more visually appealing than the first and the music is about the same. I will say, the voice acting in this game was a big update compared to the first. Neither game has great voice acting, but I think the performances in this game were much more believable and immersive.

The first game had virtually no story. It was short and sweet. Assassin’s Creed’s lack of story was better than Assassin’s Creed 2’s inclusion of one. None of the characters are that likable and absolutely none of them have any depth at all. I do not find myself disliking any of them, but I am given almost no reason to care. The plot of this game is also just batshit insane. Like, genuinely, it is fairly disgusting. Ezio’s personal life and personal story are serviceable. But the overarching Assassin’s Creed plot is a disaster and honestly distasteful. They really jumped the shark with this on try #2. Can’t wait to see how brotherhood goes!

I have more to say about this game, but I am not really sure if a game like this is worth talking this much about. It is a simple, mind-numbing game. It certainly numbs the mind, so it is doing the job. The few improvements I mentioned over the first game are enough to push it a half star further than its predecessor, putting it in pretty alright game territory. It is a little bit of dumb fun and that is just about it.

One final note: DO NOT TRY TO PLAY THIS DOGSHIT ON THE SERIES X. I was forced to buy the remastered version of this game for the ps4 even though I had the 360 version. The 360 version on the series x and xbox one simply does not work since ubisoft's weird DRM shit is guaranteed to corrupt your save. I lost 5 hours of progress before switching over to the ps4. Please do not be like me.

Joguei Assassin's Creed até Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag na época do PlayStation 3 e havia gostado dos jogos.

Mas agora, com a oportunidade de revisitar toda a franquia com calma, que jogo bom! Toda a jornada de Ezio Auditore é marcada por vingança, dúvidas e amadurecimento.

Sobre a platina, ela é bem tranquila e não possui muitos desafios, então vale a pena tê-la no seu perfil!