A game that doesn't fix the problems of its predecessor so much as it polishes them to a fine sheen. If the first Assassin's Creed was effectively an unfinished tech demo, then this is the game that the developers at Ubisoft must have truly wanted to make all along. There's just one problem - no matter how much polish you apply to a bad idea, it remains, as ever, a bad idea.
To start with a few minor positives: this game looks excellent, and the different cities that Ezio explores actually stand out as unique and different in a way that never lands in the original game. The gameplay also controls significantly more smoothly in nearly every facet, from the parkour (still mildly enjoyable) to the combat (still unconscionably repetitive). Most importantly, the narrative is a drastic improvement. Granted, it's not anything outstanding - characters having two dimensions rather than one is nothing to be proud of - but this is the Assassin's Creed game that first introduced some of the insane goofiness that Ubisoft would double down on in later games. This is a game in which your character's passage through the birth canal is a playable event, a game that ends with a one-on-one brawl against the Pope in the Vatican basement. It would be wrong to call this stuff good, but it certainly makes for some hilarious, pulpy fun.
Alas, the majority of my time with ACII was not spent enjoying the bizarre campiness. Instead, the vast majority of this game's content consists of some really bland questing. As in the first game, the same basic structure is repeated throughout - complete a few short preparatory quests before attempting to take down an assassination target. Although the preparatory quests are significantly more varied than in the first game, they still tend to consist of banal check-listing (i.e. rescue three groups of allies, light five signal fires, etc.). The assassinations themselves are also more creative, which would have made a bigger difference had I been not just relying on the same unwieldy stealth concepts and ponderous combat from the original game.
Seriously, try to consider how cool some rough contemporaries like Hitman (the old ones) or Dishonored allow you to feel, and then compare it with underwhelming lack of payoff that comes after you are inevitably spotted and are forced to sprint past all of the enemies to clumsily tackle your target in this game. That's how the majority of the assassination missions in this game ended for me - a huge letdown. I've had my share of fun with this series, but these early entries are more than a little tough to come back to.
To start with a few minor positives: this game looks excellent, and the different cities that Ezio explores actually stand out as unique and different in a way that never lands in the original game. The gameplay also controls significantly more smoothly in nearly every facet, from the parkour (still mildly enjoyable) to the combat (still unconscionably repetitive). Most importantly, the narrative is a drastic improvement. Granted, it's not anything outstanding - characters having two dimensions rather than one is nothing to be proud of - but this is the Assassin's Creed game that first introduced some of the insane goofiness that Ubisoft would double down on in later games. This is a game in which your character's passage through the birth canal is a playable event, a game that ends with a one-on-one brawl against the Pope in the Vatican basement. It would be wrong to call this stuff good, but it certainly makes for some hilarious, pulpy fun.
Alas, the majority of my time with ACII was not spent enjoying the bizarre campiness. Instead, the vast majority of this game's content consists of some really bland questing. As in the first game, the same basic structure is repeated throughout - complete a few short preparatory quests before attempting to take down an assassination target. Although the preparatory quests are significantly more varied than in the first game, they still tend to consist of banal check-listing (i.e. rescue three groups of allies, light five signal fires, etc.). The assassinations themselves are also more creative, which would have made a bigger difference had I been not just relying on the same unwieldy stealth concepts and ponderous combat from the original game.
Seriously, try to consider how cool some rough contemporaries like Hitman (the old ones) or Dishonored allow you to feel, and then compare it with underwhelming lack of payoff that comes after you are inevitably spotted and are forced to sprint past all of the enemies to clumsily tackle your target in this game. That's how the majority of the assassination missions in this game ended for me - a huge letdown. I've had my share of fun with this series, but these early entries are more than a little tough to come back to.