Assassin’s Creed has never been a franchise I particularly liked. The idea of an elite organization existing across history is cool and all, but exploring those historical settings sounded alright in my mind. Good, but not the greatest thing in the world. It wasn’t until I was midway through high school and falling in love with Ghost of Tsushima that I grew a better appreciation for world history. The many cultures and traditions that existed during these time frames, and how we as a human species evolved. Even during that time though I still didn’t fully love Assassin’s Creed. It has a lot of the design choices I hate seeing in open world games and video games in general. A world that is flooded with copy paste activities none of which evolve with player skill or area. A mission design structure that is restrictive and forces you to play in particular ways. Exploration that doesn’t nab you many unique rewards, and lots of towers climbing just to understand where you are on the map. I gave Black Flag a chance several years ago in the hope even the best game could be enjoyed a bit, but nothing would truly get me into this long running franchise. That was until 2022.
That was until a good friend of mine convinced me to check out Assassin’s Creed: Origins. What many consider one of the more divisive entries in the series. A huge departure from the original formula in favor of making what is basically an open world RPG similar to that of The Witcher 3. I thought I was going to abandon Origins at some point, but surprisingly it clicked for me. I had a really fun time venturing through Egypt, seeing all the sites it had to offer, getting caught up in the main side story shenanigans, and helping Bayek grow through gameplay and story. It has a lot of things that would make it terrible to your average gamer, but I enjoyed it for what it was and it convinced me to one day try out another game in the franchise. More specifically one of the older titles. Two years have passed since I played through the entirety of an Assassin’s Creed game and here we are with my latest endeavor, Assassin’s Creed 2. What a lot of people consider one of the best in the franchise and one of the greatest games of all time. Assassin’s Creed 2 is special for a lot of reasons. Not only being the second entry to a series that debuted two years prior and succeeded, but what it managed to achieve. It was one of the biggest games ever during the time it came out. The size of the world, the content within it, and the many hours you could dump in. Easily losing track of time and having no recollection of what you were doing prior.
The story was well praised, the gameplay had been massively improved, and it evolved the open world formula. Assassin’s Creed 2 helped influence a lot of open world sandbox games today for better and worse. It is the blueprint for every Ubisoft game now and a lot of people see it as a bad thing. The company is milking it for all it’s worth and doing nothing to evolve the formula unlike their competitors. It’s been 15 years since the release of Assassin’s Creed 2. The game has either remained a timeless masterpiece for those who played it during release, or aged like milk with how dated the design and look of the game is now. Assassin’s Creed 2 is less of a marvel and a bit of debate. Is this game still good in 2024? My perspective on Assassin’s Creed 2 is going to be strange seeing how it’s a modern perspective. I’ve played a lot more polished games than this classic. I stated Origins was great in my opinion, so my view on Assassin’s Creed 2 should be tainted. Right? Well here comes the shocking twist to all you readers who doubted me and my tastes. I f*cking loved Assassin’s Creed 2.
I’ve been playing it nonstop for the last few days and a few hours before writing this review I rolled credits. This is one of the best open world games I’ve played in awhile. Every aspect of it was captivating, but I don’t know if it was because it was fun. Won’t lie when I say there are a lot of things that didn’t age well with Assassin’s Creed 2 in terms of gameplay. However, it kept worming back into my systems and finding reasons for me to press on. This game is great and has now become what I call, “The Best Outdated Experience.” So today we’re gonna be talking about why I absolutely loved Assassin’s Creed 2 and why it deserves your attention.
Story
Now I could talk about Desmond Miles and the present day stuff, but let’s be real nobody really cares about it and wants to focus on the main attraction. It's the late 1400s and we follow a young brash man who lives in Florentine, Italy. It’s none other than Ezio Audtore, the middle child of the wealthy and well renowned Auditore household. He likes to get into fights, seduce women, and help around with family business. Despite being a reckless child his father well respects him. Hoping to one day see Ezio grow up to be a kind hearted business, carry on the family name, and show all of Italy the greatest the family has brought. Ezio was one day out and about performing a job his father had instructed. Delivering letters and goods to specific individuals. The people for which he is giving goods to are acting strange, and later when Ezion returns home he finds the house has been ransacked. His father, oldest brother, and youngest brother had been arrested for treason, and the city guards are currently on the lookout for Ezio. So he scales the town jail in the hopes of finding his father which he does. He’s given instruction to search his father’s office where he finds a cloak and a letter that is to be given to a magistrate who could help his father. There's a chance for him to live.
The next day Ezio’s father and brothers are put on trial, but the magistrate who was supposed to help them doesn’t. He instead betrays the family and has them hanged in front of Ezio. The angry Ezio runs back to where his mother and sister are hiding, and together they flee the city to the tall fortress their Uncle Mario owns. Yes, he does in fact say “It’s-a-me Mario.” Ezio tells him what happens and Mario helps Ezio plot his revenge. Teaching him how to fight and with the help of the actual Leonardo Di Vinci, is given equipment to assassinate those responsible for the framing and now death of your father and brothers. The game takes place across twenty three years as Ezio goes from being a brash naive man to a stone hearted killer. Wanting to take down all those who are in charge, uncovering a huge conspiracy, and making several allies along his journey. He will learn what it means to be an assassin. To bring order in what is otherwise a corrupt world driven to the brink of madness. Return peace to the world and make sure no one has to endure what he went through.
It’s all for the sake of revenge, and Ezio will enact his revenge.
Gameplay
In Assassin’s Creed 2 you’ll run around the world, pursue goals, collect items that’ll improve the equipment and stats you have, assassinate targets, and play in the way you think is best. Well the game will find ways to restrict you whether that be mission rules or how the environment is laid out for the player, but you do have quite a few options on how you tackle every objective. What I like about the world is how much verticality there is. The older games had a much better focus on placing you in cramped cities where it was difficult to stay hidden, so you’d have to rely on other methods to not be seen. Blend in with the crowd, hire people to keep you hidden, or dash along the rooftops since there’s not as many people up there. The game is always giving you the opportunity to use these options, and sometimes you’ll just resort to them in a scurry. You try one plan in the hopes it’ll work, things go wrong, and then you run away and find another method to quickly hide away. This isn’t Dishonored where you can quickly teleport to the rooftops. No, you have to run up there and use objects in the world to parkour around. No, you can’t hide in a box and hope the enemy AI will stop pursuing you. Ezio has to be far enough for the guards chasing him to not see him, but sometimes he can alert other guards in the area which creates this game of doing something long enough until your enemies lose interest and stop chasing you.
Combat is an option though. You don’t have to stealth around and perform sneaky takedowns all the time, and you can still tackle them face to face if you want to. There’s three weapon types in this game. Light weapons, standard weapons, and heavy weapons. You can probably guess their quirks already if you’ve played any melee combat game. Fights can be a bit tricky when there’s multiple enemies fighting you en masse, but having careful focus and deflect timing can help you survive a bit longer in these situations. You can also heal up using vials if you have any. You do want to be careful with how many enemies you kill though. Killing guards and high officials will raise awareness. The more infamous you are the more of an enemy you are to the public. Guards will be on high alert for your presence, spot you much easier, and do more in order to take you down. So sometimes you have to lower your public awareness. Tear down wanted posters or pay a good sum of cash to bribe public spokesmen to stop talking ill will about you. Your infamy will go down quickly if you do this, so keep that in mind. Missions come in a variety of flavors and the way they play out can vary. You have assassination missions of course, but sometimes you have to tail perform. Stay out of their sight or chase after them as they flee. Some missions shall follow you collecting items, playing a fun minigame, or teach you a new trick.
You unlock new tools and maneuvers as you progress in this game, and they’ll give you more options on how to solve problems. Assassination techniques that’ll keep you hidden but still be able to take down foes without being seen. Weapons like throwing knives and the handgun to take down foes from afar. The smoke bomb to quickly disappear or take enemies down easily. Different techniques to scale the environment or evade your pursuers easier.As you complete missions you’ll gain cash and cash can be spent to afford new upgrades and items. Stats work differently in Assassin’s Creed 2 compared to most open world games. Maximum health goes up when you have better armor, so saving money to afford better protection may help when facing the tougher enemies later on. Money can also be gained by investing in a villa, which is a whole different system of its own that we can talk about later. Assassin’s Creed 2 does these specific things repeatedly, but does them really well. Progression is fun as the character grows stronger in both a gameplay and narrative perspective, and it’s just a joy to play. As to whether it aged like fine wine or not is what we’ll debate in a minute. Hopefully you can hunt down the men who ruined Ezio’s life all those years ago and take glorious vengeance. For the ones that were lost and the ones that were harmed too.
Thoughts
Assassin’s Creed 2 is the best outdated game I’ve ever played. There’s a few core principles that have not aged well mainly in terms of gameplay, but there was always some other core factor. A factor that kept me loving this game and grinding it until it rolled credits. Origins and later titles in the series are more polished, but Assassin’s Creed 2 is still considered one of the best for good reason. The design philosophy of Assassin’s Creed 2 while not perfect and influencing a lot of Ubisoft open world sandboxes now is still really good. The options you are given to tackle each mission and how players who are creative enough are rewarded. I remember there was a mission later on where I had to open some heavily guarded chests. One of these chest spots had a back entry point, so instead of fighting the guards head on I instead swam along the river and climbed up gently enough to loot the chest and swim away. Sneaking through public areas gives you a lot of options. You could make use of passersby, hire maidens to escort you, or thieves to create a distraction for those who aren’t easily swindled by maidens. The social stealth while not being a perfect concept is fun and I did make use of it at times to get close in for a lethal jabbing.
The assassination missions are where you’re given a lot of room for creativity. Often taking place in these big complex environments filled with tons of guards and one key target. You could run in and slice everybody up. Carefully sneak in or scale the environment. Use the passersby like I mentioned, or take out everybody one by one until all but the target remains. I just really like the variety on display when it comes to missions and chapters. The game makes the most over the fifthteen hours it takes to beat the main story. One chapter was a series of carnival games and I had to win each one to progress. Using my nimble hands to steal ribbons, play capture the flag, test my parkour skills, and finish it with a fight in the arena. One chapter has you using a flying machine Leonardo Da Vinci constructed to reach a high point in the world, and let me just tell you Leonardo is a badass in this game. He’s funny yet compelling, and I like what they did. the 2nd to last chapter has you on the hunt for nine targets before the last one, and you’re given the freedom to tackle them in any order you're pleased with. Giving this wonderful sense although a bit overwhelming. I like how the opening hours play out. Using the narrative and characters to pace you into the different mechanics, and introduce new tools with time. Which does bring me onto progression and that I like it unfolds. It works from both a gameplay and narrative point of view. The players are given new equipment to tackle grander assassinations and challenges, and Ezio is being taught new techniques so that he may survive in the field.
That’s not to say every mission is great. I still despise the trailing missions. There’s a bit more challenge to them now seeing how you have to blend in with the public, but they are still rather annoying and at times trial and error. You still have missions where you walk alongside an ally to hear a bunch of exposition, and some missions strip you of creativity to get you to play in a very specific way. I say that this game is very fun to play, but what I have not mentioned up until now is how it feels to play. Assassin’s Creed 2 does not control well at all. The layout of the controls are confusing at first and Ezio doesn’t always do what you need him to do. Platforming can feel stiff and Ezio will sometimes leap off a ledge towards a direction you didn’t want. Seeing him fall down onto the earth below and take damage. The walk fast button is also the same button to steal so sometimes you want to move quickly through a crowded area, but then you steal from someone's pockets and this leads to a fight that attracts attention. Trying to drop down to a ledge is frustrating as it takes a few button presses, and Ezio will occasionally just let go and plummet. You hold the right trigger down to run, but you have to hold the X button along with it to freerun and it can be sloppy at first. Leading to more of Ezio lunging off ledges for no reason to a grave.
Combat is abysmal. It doesn’t feel good at all, there’s two types of lock on to foes, deflecting and dodging feels weird, and eventually you resort to button mashing which works as long as you have healing vials to help tank blows. Not to say this game is hard because healing vials are cheap, enemies don’t do too much damage, and you can always just run. I do not like how this game plays. Yet, why is it still fun to play? Again, it’s more about the design of this game rather than how it feels. Fallout: New Vegas doesn’t have the smoothest gunplay in the world, but it’s every other aspect of it that redeems it and makes it one of the smartest RPGs to ever be crafted. Assassin’s Creed 2 has great mission ideas, choices, and I really like how the world is designed. There’s a lot of verticality and those who can out run enemies and leap across rooftops are to be rewarded. The controls aren’t great, but movement is stellar once you wrap your head around it. The game is more about precision than speed. Aiming your direction so you can make a jump easily, but get back up and keep going. Knowing what you can leap across, grab onto, and get to where you need to be. The game takes place across multiple regions and I like how varied they are. Forli has a central city surrounded by a high wall, but farmland you can run around in it. Venice and the many rivers that run throughout the city. Florence is just a great starting city with the streets and up levels you can use to get to where you need to be. It’s all so majestic.
Art direction for this game is still stellar with how well realized the locations are. The 360/PS3 era wasn’t the greatest in terms of graphics, but the games that do stand out do for a reason. Now I want to talk about the story, because it’s the main reason why I kept playing this game. This is one of the best stories in the franchise for a reason, and I want to say it’s mainly due to the main protagonist Ezio. He’s not just cool, but he’s a compelling character who grows as the plot goes on and he meets different people. He starts off as being naive, careless, and having nothing but joy to look forward to. Then his world turns upside down and he has to learn to fend for himself. The several years this game takes place across sees him changing. Becoming more stern, angry, and frustrated he can’t take vengeance on those who ruined his life. He wants his normal life back, but everytime he comes to terms with what happens. What he failed to stop all those years ago, and grows appreciation for those he still has. His mother, his sister, his uncle, his friends, and all those who help him throughout his journey. Every character in this game is memorable because of how they were written, how you relate to them, and the believability of them. Your uncle is a bombastic yet enthusiastic person who wants to see you in the right place. The thieves you meet later on led by Antonio only want to see justice for the poor and unfortunate. You have the women characters who are stern and know how to stand up for themselves in a society just mainly ruled by powerful men. They become what is basically a secondary family to Ezio, and it leads to a predictable yet epic plot twist where everything comes together.
Sure the plot unravels in an engaging way, you get to see historical figures depicted differently, and each villain is more despicable than the last. Yet, it’s Ezio and his journey as a person that makes me love this game so much. To grow up in a cruel world and seek justice. Not only for yourself, but so others don’t have to go through the same thing you did. It’s like Batman, and I like Batman. You know that if you read my review on the Arkham series, which is convenient, I bring that up seeing how Assassin’s Creed 2 came out the same year as Arkham Asylum. The only thing I dislike about the narrative is Desmond Miles and the present day subplot. It’s just boring and bland. Nobody has liked this aspect about Assassin’s Creed and still don’t two decades later. People want to explore historical settings and see where these assassins go. How their stories play out and where they end up by the end. Getting dragged out of it just to hear some rambling about a basic dude going against a corporation is boring. It’s brief, but man does it suck and if I wanted to fight an evil corporation I would’ve done that in another game. One with a better main character and plot actually focused around the protagonist’s relationship to capitilist driven world. I would've played Disco Elysium or something. A game where you literally meet a businessman later on who gives you a handful of letter to be given to the inhabitants of the low income neighborhood in an attempt to chase them out and build an apartment complex they can't afford. Man I want to replay that game at some point, but I have a massive backlog so....
So after all that you can tell I strongly recommend Assassin’s Creed 2 in 2024. It’s a timeless masterpiece and anybody should experience it even if they aren’t a fan of the franchise. Again, this game did not age well in certain areas. Gameplay, controls, or how terrible the facial animation is. Stick around and you’ll find a wonderful world to run around in, beautiful sites, and a story following one of the most compelling characters to be written in a video game. I love this game and it may have even convinced me to give Black Flag another shot. Who knows. That may be a great idea for a future review. In the end I am going to give Assassin’s Creed 2 a 9.5/10 for being superb.
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