[PS3][X360] Assassin's Creed 2 - CloudShepherd

The sequel to Assassin's Creed. Assassin's Creed 2 was probally one of my all time favourite games. The beginning of the game starts in the year 2012 with the main character, Desmond Miles, has just escaped from a scientist named Abstrego Industries with an employee, Lucy Stillman, after he was forced to relieve genetic memories of one of his anchestors, Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, using a machine dubbed, "Animus." After escaping, he again uses an improved version of the Animus, dubbed, "Animus 2.0," to relieve the memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze who lived in Italy in the late 15th century during the Renaissance period. At first, the player is not an assassin, but after a turn of events, a friend betrays the family, and Ezio's Father, and 2 brothers are killed. After these events, Ezio hunts down all traitors to his family, until his journey takes him to Roma....

Presentation:

The game is a real-world enviorment with civilians, guards, merchants, etc. The maps in the game are enourmous, taking a several minutes to run across, while the other means of transportation is by horse, gondola, and in one occasion, a flying machine. It dissapoints me, that Ezio can sprint for as long as he want without ever taking a break. A nice feature to really get to know the game, is the use of in game tips. Tips showcase a lot of information to help you take out guards, not lose health,etc.

Graphics
The graphics are what you've come to know from the PS3 and Xbox, superb, and Assassin's Creed 2 graphics are just that. Superb. If you fall, you can execute a roll at the moment of impact, and take no damage. Leaping off a tower and landing in a bale of hay and not getting hurt is kindaa pushing the limits. Civilians can sneeze also. The Visuals are superb, and the details are very remarkable. It feels like your actually in the game.

Sound

Sound effects are amazing. The sound of clashing swords is in perfect sync with the game. Grunts when landing hard, splashes when diving into water, rustling when landing in hay, people yelling at you when you run into them, the sound of metal hitting flesh, footsteps when sprinting, wherever you land somewhere, it always has a sound effect, e.g. landing on rooftops, landing on the ground, landing on boats, water, etc.

Gameplay

Whether if you like sneaking and stabbing, or running in with an axe, this game exceeds all expectations. Being stealthy in this game doesn't attract much attention, and you can usually walk away unoticed unless another gueard spots you. Going all in and killing someone in a full crowd will certainly draw a big mob of guards toward you. So if you want to get the job done, go stealthy. If you're looking for a good fight, go all in. The amount of story in this game is incredible, 60+ plus missions, with multiple side-missions, which include races, assassinations, etc. Also compared to the first Assassin's Creed the amount of weapons in Assassin's Creed 2 almost triples the amount in the first one. While you have a hidden blade, a long sword, knives, and your good old trusty fists, Assassin's Creed 2 offers many ways to kill your enemies. Whether it will be by your double hidden blades, your poison blade, or your miniature firearm, there are many many ways to kill enemies while engaged in a fight, or without being detected. One of the more noticiable feature in this game, is being able to blend in with everyone. While in the first Assassin's Creed, you could only blend in with scholars, and if you started sprinting, you were instantly detected and chased. In the 2nd however, whenever this is a group of 3 people or more, you can walk towards them and instantly blend in, the effect of this is guards ignoring you, and turning anonymous. The Notoreity system is a feature where if your Notorious, meaning that you're well known, and guards will usually react to just your presence. Or Incognito, where you are completely anonymous, and almost everybody ignores you. You can get your notoreity level by killing guards in front of civilians, killing civilians, or even stealing money from people. You can reduce your notoreity level by tearing down wanted posters, bribing heralds( in which, I would just steal my money straight back after bribing him), and killing corrupt government officials. Sometimes this becomes a nuisance when your notoreity level prevents you from completing a mission where you have to remain undetected. Also very troublesome to reduce your notoreity. Very time consuming and gets very annoying. In my opinion, AC2 might have been better off without the Notoreity system, but it adds more challenge to the game.

Lasting Appeal

Assassin's Creed 2 has over 20 hours of gameplay. The end is very mystifing and suspensful as was the first Assassin's Creed. At one point of the game you miss a few years, and when you get to the end of the game, your wondering if you'll ever find out what happened during those missing years. But, Ubisoft released a DLC for the missing sequences called, "The Battle of Forli," and "The Bonfire for Vanities." Playing these sequences, it was just assassination after assassination. If you want a full complete story, I would recommend downloading these, if not, don't waste your money.

Overall

I would definately consider this a must-get ps3/xbox game. Everything about this game appeals to me, and the gameplay never gets old. You could really give yourself a good laugh pulling stunts off in this game.

Presentation: 8.5
Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 9.5
Lasting appeal: 8.0