Ezio Auditore da Firenze is one of the most beloved protagonists of gaming history, for good reason might I add. His young fervour, his charismatic leadership and empathy towards the downtrodden, and finally his ever humble quest for enlightenment has secured him a place in the pantheon of gaming's all time best. Aside from the narrative however the games Ezio starred in have always lacked true depth and a ported collection is obviously not the place where this will change.
With AC 2 firstly I would like to address the graphical "overhaul" it received, because aside from including the DLC and the Deluxe content it is the game's most striking feature included in the collection. Ezio's first outing received by far the biggest facelift of the bunch, acting sometimes to it's detriment. Although the new environmental textures look great and add extra detail to a game that already looked great in 2009, the characters lack the same polish, which the improved resolution exacerbates.
This game's almost mythological status among the fans can be accredited to the expertly written revenge tale of a young, charming fighter, who by accepting his family's heritage gains the means to combat the greedy enemies of humanity and by doing that, giving hope to not just his time but the future as well. To set the story in Renaissance Italy was an inspired choice. Firenze, Venezia and all the smaller towns are beautifully rendered, each with their own atmosphere, which invites exploration of their nooks and crannies as well as their rooftops. Now, climbing puzzles were never difficult in any AC game because there were plenty of other things to keep the player busy. The parkour system is simple and effective if a little choppy at times. This is true to all aspects of gameplay. AC 2 is not interested in skill-checking you, it merely ensures you have the necessary tools to live in it's world while you complete it.
Brotherhood here is an interesting beast. If by inches, it is probably the best game of the package, even if the story is shorter and more stripped down than 2's and none of the core gameplay systems received a substantial upgrade. The answer lies in said systems finally starting to overlap. In Brotherhood in order to meaningfully explore you have to either fight or sneak and kill for the chance by eliminating the Borgia towers, which in it's place unlocks the town and assassin management aspects of that region, along with unveiling the location of the much deepened side content of the game.
It is fun and more tailor made to be an open-world game than the previous entry, still I can't feel the beating heart of it all.
Revelations is exactly like a spry grandpa. It still knows all the tips and tricks to keep up with the youth, even picked up a few surprises along the way and the stories he can tell ... good god! But ultimately he's just getting to old for this sh*t.
So by this point the yearly release cycle started catching up with Ubisoft's top franchise and to tell the probably still greatest story of AC they had to dial back the meaningful side content of Brotherhood and throw in more lifeless fluff just to keep the game somewhat sellable as a completely new entry. Don't mistake my words for lack of love though. Constantinople is as beautiful if not more detailed than any previous city we've seen so far but the lack of innovation in game mechanics and ever broadening, meaningless toolkit drags the experience down significantly compared to the predecessors.
P.S.: Just as a footnote I would like to call out Ubisoft's porting team because the thing that the fps is still locked at 30 regardless of the generation leap is one thing (game logic and all, though the PC ports can run in more than 30 so no idea about this decision) but the drawing distances for geometric detail and foliage is laughably bad, especially in AC 2. This collection is good because the games it contains are good, but the mistreatment and lack of care those games were showed in here with is a travesty.
With AC 2 firstly I would like to address the graphical "overhaul" it received, because aside from including the DLC and the Deluxe content it is the game's most striking feature included in the collection. Ezio's first outing received by far the biggest facelift of the bunch, acting sometimes to it's detriment. Although the new environmental textures look great and add extra detail to a game that already looked great in 2009, the characters lack the same polish, which the improved resolution exacerbates.
This game's almost mythological status among the fans can be accredited to the expertly written revenge tale of a young, charming fighter, who by accepting his family's heritage gains the means to combat the greedy enemies of humanity and by doing that, giving hope to not just his time but the future as well. To set the story in Renaissance Italy was an inspired choice. Firenze, Venezia and all the smaller towns are beautifully rendered, each with their own atmosphere, which invites exploration of their nooks and crannies as well as their rooftops. Now, climbing puzzles were never difficult in any AC game because there were plenty of other things to keep the player busy. The parkour system is simple and effective if a little choppy at times. This is true to all aspects of gameplay. AC 2 is not interested in skill-checking you, it merely ensures you have the necessary tools to live in it's world while you complete it.
Brotherhood here is an interesting beast. If by inches, it is probably the best game of the package, even if the story is shorter and more stripped down than 2's and none of the core gameplay systems received a substantial upgrade. The answer lies in said systems finally starting to overlap. In Brotherhood in order to meaningfully explore you have to either fight or sneak and kill for the chance by eliminating the Borgia towers, which in it's place unlocks the town and assassin management aspects of that region, along with unveiling the location of the much deepened side content of the game.
It is fun and more tailor made to be an open-world game than the previous entry, still I can't feel the beating heart of it all.
Revelations is exactly like a spry grandpa. It still knows all the tips and tricks to keep up with the youth, even picked up a few surprises along the way and the stories he can tell ... good god! But ultimately he's just getting to old for this sh*t.
So by this point the yearly release cycle started catching up with Ubisoft's top franchise and to tell the probably still greatest story of AC they had to dial back the meaningful side content of Brotherhood and throw in more lifeless fluff just to keep the game somewhat sellable as a completely new entry. Don't mistake my words for lack of love though. Constantinople is as beautiful if not more detailed than any previous city we've seen so far but the lack of innovation in game mechanics and ever broadening, meaningless toolkit drags the experience down significantly compared to the predecessors.
P.S.: Just as a footnote I would like to call out Ubisoft's porting team because the thing that the fps is still locked at 30 regardless of the generation leap is one thing (game logic and all, though the PC ports can run in more than 30 so no idea about this decision) but the drawing distances for geometric detail and foliage is laughably bad, especially in AC 2. This collection is good because the games it contains are good, but the mistreatment and lack of care those games were showed in here with is a travesty.