GamesRelay

Name: Assassin's Creed II

We've had to endure the first game's cliffhanger for the past two years, but now we finally see the continuation. Assassin's Creed II dives into the Renaissance period with gusto and force, but what does it do to address the problems of its first iteration?

Desmond's latest genetic memory dive takes him into the Assassin Garb of Ezio Auditore da Firenze at the closing decades of the 15th Century. After watching his father and two brothers get executed as part of a political power struggle by Templars seeking to gather power, Ezio, with his father Giovanni's assassination equipment, begins a journey throughout northern Italy to kill all those associated with their deaths, eventually leading to the leader of the plot and finishing what was started – only to end on another cliffhanger. Another joyous couple of years of waiting awaits!

The story is definitely one of Assassin's Creed II's greatest triumphs. Ubisoft has thoroughly researched the period, and excellently picked many of the great things about the time to fill the gameworld with personality and exuberance. Many real historical characters make an appearance, particularly Leonardo Da Vinci, who creates weapons and is generally a great chap, and Niccolo Machiavelli. All characters, famous or fictional, are voiced profoundly well. It is easy to become deeply involved in the conversations, and the game frequently puts in lines of Italian or Latin that continue to add vibrancy to the characters. It's also really impressive how, despite the amount of English used, the voice-acting does not have hammy accents. This was mostly done by hiring many Italian speakers for the voice cast, once again adding a layer of believability to the experience. Thankfully, Ubisoft have also added subtitles to this one, which also translate the other languages into English for easy reading. In fact, the game is incredibly enjoyable to play in complete Italian with English subtitles, which should make fans of Il Postino or Cinema Paradiso gush with glee.

Much of the game will be instantly familiar to those who played the original title. You spend your time switching from Low Profile to High Profile at the touch of a button, which will make your actions more calm and quiet or dramatic and violent. Switching between them quickly becomes a matter of instinct, and you'll find yourself switching often, as structures can only be navigated when in High Profile. The face buttons are linked to Ezio's body parts – the top for Head, the left and right for his arms, and the bottom for his feet. Climbing is also much the same, with each window ledge and shutter being a handhold to reach the rooftops. Just like the first game, movement is intuitive and easy, but there are extra improvements to the navigation of the world. Simply by going into High Profile, moving forwards, and holding the Feet button, any path is open to you, from seamless leaping from beam to beam over busy Renaissance streets, to swinging around corners by grabbing hanging pots. Sometimes, the accuracy of jumps can outright fail, where you can sometimes jump at an angle and miss your intended target completely. While a directional Grasp command can save you from some inglorious plummets to Terra firma, the amount of poor jumps you initiate as you play will leave you cursing at your television.

Combat, while visually and functionally identical to the first game, has seen its own measure of additions. Attacking is as simple as pushing the left face button, Ezio will go into a slew of attacks lasting as long as you can attack unmolested. Any drop in your guard will be exploited by the numerous other enemies you face at any one time, so blocking and countering become key parts of the fighting. By timing a button press as the blow lands, you can initiate a deadly Combo Attack that finishes your foe off. Weapon types have been greatly expanded, with maces being able to be utilised instead of a sword, a flintlock gun attachment for a long-range instant death, and Double Hidden Blades, which increase your assassination fatalities by a factor of two. Very much unlike the stand Hidden Blade, it is also available for general combat.

While impossible to purchase and carry, two-handed weapons can be disarmed or scavenged from the corpses of enemies. This makes short work of the one-handed fighters you come against, and are almost essential for taking out the enemies who carry them. Ordinary counters are painfully useless against them, but when you use a two-handed weapon to counter an enemy, you lose possession of it, usually leaving it occupying a place in their torso or brain. The combat is strikingly more violent, particularly when using the new weapons. These have completely new animations for all moves, making the same sword and dagger animations taken straight from the first game grow repetitive very quickly.