‘Assassin’s Creed II’ is a masterpiece

by Pramath Parijat

Fun factor: Fun

Worth to: Buy

It revitalizes the series and makes good on the original game’s true potential with a complete, masterful package -- the closest you can get to a perfect game.

THE VERDICT: Assassin’s Creed is reborn in this powerful sequel that finally realizes the series’ full potential. As it stands now, Assassin’s Creed II is the closes thing to perfection that we’ll ever get.

The original Assassin’s Creed was a game that split gamers right down the middle. There were some who, though initially found the premise interesting, were turned off by the game’s inherent repetition and monotony, in spite of its very obvious high level of polish and production value. Then there were those who found it to be an atmospheric and unforgettable outing - -- a memorable experience that sticks out in a generation where most games end up adhering to conventions so much that it is hard to tell one apart from the other.

I myself fall in the latter camp. To me, Assassin’s Creed was a breath of fresh air, and it was a wonderful attempt at something different by a studio that was in grave risk of losing relevance. But I still recognized the game had its own flaws, and that it needed a few more layers of paint. There was an extremely good game buried deep somewhere in Assassin’s Creed, one that had the potential to be included in the upper echelons of gaming over time, but it would have to be properly nurtured before its true potential would be realized.



Ubisoft now brings us the sequel to the original, and I think it may not be too bold for me to claim that Assassin’s Creed II is, very easily and without any exception, the best game this generation, across any platform. Featuring a beautiful and moving story, gorgeous visuals that are a treat for the eyes, excellent sound design that is an inextricable part of the overall experience, and gameplay that is as fresh as it is refined, Assassin’s Creed II revitalizes the series and makes good on the original game’s true potential.

One of the very best

For the uninitiated, the first game was built around the interesting idea of setting a stealth centered game in medieval Europe. There were some other gameplay concepts thrown into the mix, so that eventually Assassin’s Creed ended up being more like a GTA game with daggers and swords than anything else. The plotline of the first game, on the other hand, was an extravagant sci-fi blast, that borrowed heavily from other popular works in the genre such as The Matrix.

Assassin’s Creed II picks up right where the original game left off, and for those who were left disappointed by the original’s rather abrupt ending, it should come as welcome reassurance, because the game immediately takes it upon itself to resolve all plot holes and loose ends that the first game skated over.

The story grabs you from the very beginning, and then holds you throughout, never relinquishing its hold on you for even an instance, until the very end. The game begins with Desmond, the kidnapped bar owner from the first game, escaping his captors and meeting up with the Assassins who are out to rescue him from the Corporation, which is the modern face of the Knights Templar. The Corporation had designed a method to extract what is known as “genetic memory,” which is essentially a moment to moment reliving of one’s ancestors’ lives, and they intended to use Desmond’s memories to unearth the locations of some all powerful objects that were stolen from the Templars many centuries ago.

This time, however, Desmond teams up with the Assassins, and voluntarily decides to relive the past through the eyes of Ezio, an Assassin who was also his ancestor, who lived in Renaissance Italy, so that he can equip himself to face his quarries. The setup is a bit hard to follow, and more so if you didn’t play the original game, but on the whole it should be enough for you to know that there will be some manner of time travelling involved.



The game builds up the character of Ezio Audituerre de Firenze deliberately and slowly, taking the time to elaborate on all details of his life. Seemingly trivial incidents from his life, such as his escapades with women, are shown in great detail here, and yet nothing that is shown is unneeded. It all comes together in the end, in a moment of wondrous revelation. It won’t be too much of a stretch to call the story featured in Assassin’s Creed II to be one of the very best to be ever featured in a game.

Reinventing stealth-action

However, the story itself takes a back seat to the main attraction of the game, which is its gameplay. Building upon the somewhat rocky foundations laid down by the original Assassin’s Creed, the sequel nullifies any gameplay and overall structure faults the predecessor may have had, introduces several new concepts, and then refines the entire engine to the point of perfection.

Veterans of the first game will find themselves right at home in Assassin’s Creed II. The free flowing nature of the original game’s movement and combat has been adopted here, with numerous improvements. It is a joy to watch Ezio running through time and vaulting over rooftops as he struggles to lose his pursuers, and all of it with feline agility and grace that is perfectly conveyed to the player by fluid animation and swift character movement.

The meat of the game, however, lies in how it handles stealth. It is an unspoken axiom that stealth in gaming shall largely be dictated by Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid games. Certainly, the MGS series has laid down the norms and conventions that other games have followed, almost as if it never occurred to developers that stealth could be played out in other meaningfully ways. Assassin’s Creed II, however, boldly defies the norm, and offers us a fresh take on all the established conventions of the genre so far, to the extent that it almost renders them all obsolete and irrelevant.

The first game had its own fair share of stealth, but it largely culminated in a one of several predetermined events, so that it took away the illusion of choice from the player, and also ended up being somewhat repetitive. Assassin’s Creed II, on the other hand, jacks it all up a notch.



I suppose the closest and the most apt comparison I could make to describe the stealth (and eventually the combat) of the game would be to compare it with a Jason Bourne movie. Just like in the Bourne movies, fast action, quick thinking and good reflexes are needed to ensure survival. Improvisation is a must if you’re to lose your pursuers, and more often than not hiding in plain sight is the way to go. It really defies convention, and injects a new lease on life into a genre that has been in danger of growing stagnant for several years now.

To traditionalists who may not find this to their tastes, though, Assassin’s Creed II offers a dose of conventional gameplay. So you can hide yourself in bales of hay, or in barrels, ducking out of sight so your enemies simply won’t see you. For the adventurous, you can even dive underwater to shake your tail, though you’ll eventually have to surface to breathe.

This fast paced gameplay is not just limited to stealth, however. Combat in Assassin’s Creed is as free flowing and free form as the stealth, and just as limitless. Assuming you’re the kind of person who prefers to face his quarry rather than to run, Assassin’s Creed II offers a plethora of options for you as well. There are the staples like swords and daggers, and the dual wielding Assassin blades; there are knives that you can throw at foes; there are smoke bombs that you can use as distractions... It’s basically a full-fledged medieval arsenal here, and you’ll never be left wanting for any type of weapon. Truly, the variety and the freedom that Assassin’s Creed II exhibits in its overall structure is represented in its weapon design as well -- there will always be something for everybody.

Relentless immersion

However, it would all have been a mess if graphics could not have kept up with all the action, and happily, the visuals of Assassin’s Creed II oblige. The framerate is steady, and there are no slowdowns to speak of. The animations, as I have already mentioned, are extremely fluid and on the whole the camera manages to keep up with the action, though there are several instances when the camera wheels to the player a moment too late and you find that you’ve mistakenly plunged to your death, or run into a wall, or maybe into the arms of a waiting guard. Yes, it becomes frustrating, but I assure you, it does not ever detract from the experience.



Complementing the astounding visuals is the game’s great sound design, which really does bring Renaissance Italy to life. All the sounds of the city are recreated with painstaking detail, and the same treatment is extended to all the characters, as well as other inanimate objects as well. It all come together to create an authentic experience, and consequently adds to the immersion of the game to such an extent that the atmosphere of Assassin’s Creed II bests the atmosphere of even the first game, which is no mean feat as the original title was easily one of the most atmospheric titles of all time.

Assassin’s Creed II is a romp from start to finish, and it never relents or relinquishes its hold on you. The main game itself is suitably varied and interesting enough that you’ll keep returning to it, and in a rare feat that is becoming increasingly infrequent, the side-quests and auxiliary missions are all fun to play too. Adding to the game’s immense lasting value is the fact that the single player mode, without any of the side-quests, will easily last you well in excess of twenty hours. For the perfectionists, there are tons of hidden extras -- in this case the hidden tombs -- to unlock, whereas the very structure of the game will dictate that players spends time maxing out each skill via a rather ingenious monetary system.

Summary

Assassin’s Creed II is a masterpiece. It is without question the best game we have had this generation. Great graphics, sound, gameplay and story come together to form one of the most accessible and yet compelling experiences in history, and the accomplishments of the game are further accentuated by the marvelous atmosphere that it weaves.

The original Assassin’s Creed was always a wonderful game, which in hindsight let players down by some poor design decisions on the developers’ part. With this sequel Ubisoft has not only done away with the errors of the first game. It has also realized the potential of the series and maxed out on it. It’s difficult to see where the series will go from here, because as it stands now, Assassin’s Creed II is the closes thing to perfection that we’ll ever get.