Assassin's Creed II (PS4) Review

 Assassin’s Creed II (PS4) 7/10

“Nothing is True; Everything is Permitted”

Hello fellow Assassins. Today, I’ll be reviewing the start of a trilogy: Assassin’s Creed II. This game was originally launched on November 17, 2009 for PS3 and Xbox 360. The game was then remastered for the Ezio Trilogy for PS4 and Xbox One on November 15, 2016, with the game being developed and published by Ubisoft. I played the Ezio Trilogy Remaster of the game, so I will be critiquing this version of the game. I played this game back when I was in middle school and have played it at least 2 more times since then. This is one of the games that slingshotted me into my love of games (with InFamous being the ice breaker). I love this game and I always will, but it does have some issues. Let’s jump into it.

Our story continues off from the first game. Lucy breaks Desmond out of Abstergo and they retreat to a secret warehouse where we meet the rest of her team: Rebecca and Shaun. Rebecca runs IT support for the group and tags along with Desmond as he goes into the Animus 2.0. Shaun is the booksmarts brains of the group. He researches any info that might be useful for Desmond while he’s in the Animus. He also runs comms and support for other Assassin cells. At the new warehouse, Desmond officially joins the Assassins and undergoes training. Due to time constraints, Desmond’s training is going to be much different from other members. He’s going to follow in the footsteps of his ancestor Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Because of Desmond’s Bleeding Effect, he can absorb the training that Ezio receives as his own. While learning from Ezio, we get to learn about Subject 16, the guy that was kidnapped by Abstergo before Desmond. Subject 16 discovered something extraordinary in Italy and Desmond needs to find out what through Ezio. On Ezio’s side of the story, late 1400's Renaissance Italy, we follow him as he exacts his revenge against the men that killed his family. Along the way, he’ll learn the ways of the Assassin’s Creed and unfold a conspiracy that’ll take him all the way to the Pope.

I love this story. It’s an excellent revenge plot that leads to something much bigger. I will say though that the ending sucked, but I understand why the dev team ended it like this. Can’t be killing the Pope too early now can we. Anyway, the plot for AC 2 is good, but I can’t help but feel like it’s not as solid as the first game. I know this is the first part of Ezio’s story, but I can’t help but feel this way.

The characters are where the game shines, story wise. I love Ezio. He’s charismatic, charming, and has a great moral compass. The supporting characters are great too. My favorites being Uncle Mario, Leonardo da Vinci, Catarina Sforza, and Antonio de Magianis. I will say that the assassination targets were a disappointment. Minus Uberto, Vieri de Pazzi, Emilio Barbarigo, and Rodrigo Borgia, all the targets aren’t developed as well as the first game’s targets. So in the first game, you have to investigate your targets and, in doing so, you get to know them and learn about how they act and what deeds they did to warrant an assassination. In AC 2, none of that happens. Yeah sure you have bios provided by Shaun to help showcase how terrible these people are, but Ezio never sees it himself. In the first game, you see first hand Talal’s slave trade, Garnier’s fucked up hospital, Abu’l Nuqoud’s lavish parties which is bought using Jerusalem’s tax money. You see all of your targets’ misdeeds up close and personal. With AC 2, you hardly see any of this. Uberto did what he did for revenge against the Auditore family, Vieri did what he did because of his long standing feud with Ezio, Emilio wanted complete control of the Venetian market, and Rodrigo wanted absolute power. Everybody else was downgraded to “another target for you to kill”. Sure you took down corrupt bankers and shitty politicians, but we never got to see the full extent of their misdeeds. Because of this lack of development for a good majority of your targets, you don’t feel as connected to Ezio’s journey of revenge as opposed to Altair’s journey of redemption. At least, that’s the way I see it. Back in modern day, I enjoyed our new comrades. Shaun is a dick but there’s a loveable side to him. He’s super intelligent and lowkey reminds me of my brother. Rebecca is cool too. She’s a gearhead, constantly tinkering with the Animus and other shit. She has a chill personality and feels like one of those people that you can chill and have a beer with. Lucy was decent. She’s like the strict mother of the group, trying to maintain control. I didn’t really care for her too much.

Special shout out to Leonardo. You meet Leonardo very early in the game when you run an errand with your mother. Ever since then, he becomes a very integral part of the story. He deciphers your Codex Pages and gives you new gadgets to use. I love his personality and his quirkiness. I love that he’s so willing to help Ezio on his journey and I love the two’s relationship. Leonardo helped carry the game and using his flying machine to kill Carlo Grimaldi was an awesome moment for the series.

I love the aesthetic of the game. The game takes place during Renaissance Italy, during the late 1400’s. Because of this, the whole mood of the game feels much brighter and different as opposed to the crusades of the 1100’s. Florence is so lively with people working and chattering and there’s no constant talk of a war. I love the lush, green fields of Tuscany, the floodlands of Forli, and the beautiful canals and architecture of Venice. As I was playing through this, when I first got to Venice, my head was flooded with nostalgia and euphoria as I was freerunning on the rooftops as “Dreams of Venice” was playing in the background. I love Venice. It’s one of my favorite open world maps in gaming (next to the Carja lands in Horizon Zero Dawn and Empire City in InFamous).

The graphics for this are a mixed bag for me. Because I played the remastered version of the game, the visuals got an upgrade. For the landscapes and overall look, the graphics are great. When it comes to facial animations though, they kinda look bad. I know they were trying to make the characters actually emote emotions, but it just looks wrong. When Desmond first agreed to join the Assassins, he gave Lucy this smirk and it’s hella awkward. This ain’t even the remaster’s fault. These facial animations were in the original version and it didn’t look good back then either. At least it’s not Mass Effect: Andromeda lmao. Seriously though, the game looks really good for the remaster.

Music is great here too. Jesper Kyd went with a different feel this time around. Assassin’s Creed 1 was very dark and grim, so he made a soundtrack to fit that. He did the same with Renaissance Italy. I love the theme for Florence and Venice’s theme is just bea-u-ti-ful. I love the battle theme and how it changes depending on where you’re at. I love the notorious theme for when your Notoriety meter is full and I love the Catholic choirs that play when you’re near/in the churches. The best theme in the game is the main theme “Ezio’s Family”. It starts out peaceful, but there’s a sense of dreariness to it and when it kicks off, you can’t help but rock out to it. Another awesome song is “Flight Over Venice”, which plays when you use the flying machine. I love the energy and sense of urgency in this track.

Voice work is great here. I love the voice for all the characters. Roger Craig Smith (Ezio), Fred Tatasciore (Uncle Mario), Carlos Ferro (Leonardo), Manuel Tadros (Rodrigo), and Andreas Apergis (Francesco de Pazzi) were the best performances. I love Ezio’s thick Italian accent and Leonardo’s voice is great too. Every time I hear Leonardo’s voice, I can’t help but hear “You brought another one! How exciting!” Idk why, but I love Francesco’s voice too. It’s so rough and loud, it perfectly fits his character. Also shout out to Nolan North (Desmond), Danny Wallace (Shaun), Eliza Jane Schneider (Rebecca), Cristina Rosato (Catarina Sforza), Alex Ivanovici (Lorenzo de Medici), and Yuri Lowenthal (Vieri de Pazzi).

Gameplay is a step in the right direction for the series, but isn’t quite there yet. Combat has been improved from the first game as well as parkour. Ezio sometimes won’t listen to you, but it’s much better than in the first game. They added some RPG elements to the series, but it’s still fairly linear. You can have different weapons and can even dye your clothes. There’s now a currency system in which you can buy new armor sets, new weapons, ammunition, and health. They also introduced a new mechanic: Monteriggioni. Monteriggioni is your base of operations. Here, you can upgrade the settlement and in doing so will increase revenue. The more you invest in Monteriggioni, the more money you will earn. It’s basic finance and investment and completely worth investing in. Because of this, I had more than enough florins to buy everything. Also, the more things you collect (weapons, armor sets, feathers, Codex Pages, and paintings), the more your revenue increases. It pays to be a collector lmao.

As opposed to the first game, there’s a bunch more stuff to do here. There’s 100 feathers to collect, 20 glyphs to solve (in regards to Subject 16), Assassination Contracts from Lorenzo Medici, Beat Up events, Races, 6 Assassins Tombs, and a bunch of treasure chests for you to find. I do appreciate the variety of stuff to do here and going for the 100% was extremely satisfying. The game notices you doing this and rewards you with more side content. For example, if you unlock a certain race in Forli, you get a side plot for Ezio to do. Finishing this race will reward Ezio some of that good good ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD! He and this chick don’t go anywhere private or anything. She just pushes him down and starts getting on top while there are other people walking by. It’s hilarious and totally worth doing the other races for. For the Assassination Contracts, all the work you did for Lorenzo gets noticed by this bounty hunter, so you have to track down the bounty hunter which leads to this wild goose chase. I wasn’t expecting this to happen at all. I love these little rewards as it makes these mundane tasks not as bad. Collecting all the feathers grants you the cursed Auditore cape, which is only useful for the trophy “Show Your Colors”.

I do wish the devs brought back investigations for your targets. I think these investigations would’ve helped pan out the game more and to give the player a better understanding of their target instead of “go kill him because he’s a Templar”. In the original game, the more investigations you did, the more knowledge you had on your target and how to kill them. The game kinda pushed you to kill your target in a specific manner, but you were still able to do it however you wanted (within the game’s limitations). Although this is still prevalent in AC 2, I feel like the way you kill your targets isn’t much of a priority anymore. Unless the game specifically says that you need to remain undetected, the game tells you to go wild. Nothing wrong with this in theory, but doing it like this severely breaks immersion. Imagine you trying to kill a monk and you get detected. Out of nowhere, the monk pulls out a fucking sword and starts fighting you. If something like this happened, the game should tell you to restart, but it doesn’t.

A new thing the game added was Notoriety. Notoriety is when you do socially unacceptable acts (such as killing guards and entering restricted areas). If you do too many of these actions, your Notoriety meter fills up and you become a wanted man. Guards will be much more suspicious of you and will chase you if you stay in their range for too long. To remove your notoriety, you’ll need to make it so that the city forgets about you. To do this, you can either: tear down wanted posters, bribe heralds, or kill witnesses. I love this addition to the game as it helps emphasize the stealth aspect of the series and you have to be careful of your actions.

Another great addition to the series are factions. To help Ezio on his journey, he’ll employ the help of Courtesans (prostitutes), Mercenaries, and Thieves. These guys are all extremely helpful. Courtesans can distract guards, making a way for you to go through restricted areas; Mercenaries can become your private army, and Thieves can lure guards away from posts and can parkour with you on rooftops. These factions are a complete game changer and I’m really glad they were added to the game.

Another thing they added was Assassin's Tombs. These Tombs are scattered throughout northern Italy and there are 6 of them. Each one is a trial for Ezio to complete. At the end of a Tomb, is the burial of a famous Assassin and with them is a seal for Altair’s armor. These were great additions to the game as it helped expand the lore of Assassin’s Creed. I only wish that the game series focused on these characters as it seems like blatant advertisement for future games. Anyway, my favorite Tombs are: Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, San Marco in Venice, and Visitazione in Venice.

So with the remastered version of the game, you also gain access to the two DLCs: “Battle of Forli” and “Bonfire of the Vanities”. These take place after Ezio obtains the Apple of Eden from Rodrigo and before his trip to Rome. “Battle of Forli” gave us some much needed character development for Catarina Sforza as the DLC goes over part of her family. This DLC is why I like Catarina so much. “Bonfire of the Vanities” takes place after Ezio loses the Apple to a monk after being stabbed by Checco Orsi. Ezio goes to investigate where it went and it leads him back to Florence. Now with the masses under the control of Savonarola (the monk that stole the Apple of Eden), Ezio must kill his lieutenants in order to bring peace back to Florence. I really enjoyed this DLC as it gave you more content and assassinations to do that’s not just random madness like with “Battle of Forli”. Some of these assassinations were a lot more fun than a couple of the mainline assassinations. Trying to do these assassinations without getting spotted was very challenging, but thrilling. I hope assassinations like these pop up more in the later titles.

This is a great game and totally worth playing through. Platinuming this game was a great use of time. I’ve been wanting this platinum trophy for several years now and I’m glad I was able to do it. This is a decent introduction to the series if you don’t want to play the first game. It does have some problems, but nothing like the first game. I can only recommend this to those that can drop maybe 40-50 hours into a game. If you do play this, try to go for the plat. It’s very satisfying to get, even if the journey to it is tedious to all hell.

Grazie per la lettura e ci vediamo la prossima volta.

This is Zorgak, signing off.