Assassin's Creed II (PS3)

I first heard about the Assassin's Creed series the year it came out when I found my friend playing it on his XBOX 360. I tried it out and immediately fell in love with it. I didn't get a console of my own until 2008 and didn't own Assassin's Creed until 2009. Luckily for me, that was the year that Assassin's Creed 2 was coming out. When it came out, it blew me away at how innovative and amazingly detailed the game was when it came out. Now, four years later, it still amazes me how fun the game is.

The first thing I have to talk about is the improvement to the graphics. There weren't really cut scenes in the original game, unless you pressed a button during some glitchy effect during a story bit. But in AC2, there are full story cut scenes and they are beautifully done. Not done as well as another game that came out that year, but still a huge improvement over the original.

There is also the variety in the different weapons throughout the game. In the original, you wouldn't get a new weapon until you complete a certain mission. In AC2, you can buy new weapons and armor, along with different bits of equipment like bullets and throwing knives, and the variety in weapons really lends to the game.

The combat is much faster than the original too, with a larger variety in counter kills and combo kills. You can also disarm enemies and take their weapons for yourself.

The game feels more action oriented than the original which focused more on stealth, but there are a lot more stealth options in this game with things like throwing money to distract guards, dropping smoke grenades and hiring mercenaries, thieves and courtesans (prostitutes) to distract guards.

Something else that adds to the difficulty of the game is that when you do illegals things like pickpocket, kill or even complete a certain story mission, you will become Notorious which will cause the guards to recognize you the second they see you. To lower your notoriety, you have to rip down wanted posters, bribe heralds who are talking baldy of you or killing false witnesses. This can get rather respective though when you can raise your notoriety up just by bumping into a guard.

Finally, I have to say something about the music. The music is a huge improvement over the original and the music in the original was good. The music in the first was slow for the most part, representing the slow and patient Assassin with that very catchy chase theme after an assassination is complete. The music in this is about the same, but it has a much wider variety of tracks and all of them are great. I do miss the chase theme from the original though. I would've like to see that return for this game.

This game is really amazing, but there are some problems with it. First of all, there are some small bugs and glitches in the game, but most of them can be really really funny. This mostly centers around dead bodies. Here when they fall, they do some sort of jerk and some times the bodies end up in weird positions. In the original, the bodies just stayed down and didn't do any type of jerk or twitch right after they landed. Something that I also didn't like and this was a problem with the original game was that when you're in combat and you're surrounded by enemies, they take forever to attack and if you attack, that's right when someone else attacks you and stops your attack. This can make combat frustrating sometimes, but when someone finally does attack, you can easily survive the encounter. The game also feels easier than the original game. In the original, combat was very difficult and you could end up dying a lot and getting away from the enemy would take a very long time just to get out of their line of sight. While the difficulty in the first was frustrating, I actually missed it a little in the second game.

However, those problems are very small compared to all the great things about this game. Assassin's Creed 2 is one of the greatest games ever made and it's also the game that got me into checking gaming news and updates. I would recommend this game to anyone who loves Renaissance settings and assassin's.

I haven't played Assassin's Creed before so I started with the second installment.

It's worth every penny I must say. The gameplay is fun and addictive. The story is compelling and filled with lots of details and backgrounds.

There might be a little glitch here and there however it didn't bother me that much.

Assassin's Creed III is available now. It's a must for those who like Assassin's Creed II.

assasains creed II is about assasain ezio auditore following his life in nine different sequences.I suppose the only reason i gave it a four star overall is because after you have played ACB ACII seems realy bad.Things that are easy to like about it are for one thing you can continue playing after you have completed every sequence , also the weapons in this one are alot better than in AC 1.the only trhing bad about this game is the fact that the graphics are not the best graphic ever.Everything that is on the back of the box describes every last thing on ACII so read that and you will get all the info about the game.Definetly worth buying although if you have a choice of ACB or AC2 then choose ACB

Where Assassin's Creed had the tendency to feel bland at times, AC II managed to shuffle it all up and bring us a fresh second installment in the Assassin's Creed series. New armour, new weapons, new moves, and a new Assassin, and it all comes together to keep you entertained!

Just for those who are interested in what Assassin's Creed is about, I will go into simple details what this is about and what you can expect.

Assassin's Creed is akin to a freeroaming Action Adventure. You play Ezio, a 15th Century assassin and you follow his progress throughout the years as he grows from an immature teenager to a fullfledged assassin, and it is quite the adrenaline rush. Your job description as an assassin is simple, but its execution is not. as your target will be expecting you, making the approach an interesting one. Perseverance and good thinking will be rewarded will rash thinking will not.

Another positive aspect about the Assassin's Creed series is that pretty much everything you see is usable in some way, allowing you to climb up and over anything you encounter, giving the player almost limitless freedom in how he goes about his business in town.

For those who like an interesting backstory, good gameplay and spending time hunting down every last objective for 100% completion: Rest assured, you will almost certainly enjoy this game.