Assassins Creed 2 (PS3)

Gamecow’s Price	RRP $109.95     Save $40.00 $69.95
Availability
Genre	Action Adventure
Platform	Playstation 3
Release Date	19/11/2009
Rated

Assassins Creed 2 (PS3) Product Information

Betrayed by the ruling families of Italy, a young man embarks upon an epic quest for vengeance. To eradicate corruption and restore his family's honour, he will learn the art of the assassins.

To his allies, he will become a force for change - fighting for freedom and justice. To his enemies, he will become a threat dedicated to the destruction of the tyrants abusing the people of Italy. His name is Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

He is an Assassin.

Features:
• The lineage continues... introducing Ezio, the new Assassin
• Experience the freedom and immersion of an all new open world and mission structure
• Master the art of the assassin with all new weapons and instruments, including a flying machine, created by Leonardo Da Vinci himself

Source PLAYSTATION

Assassins Creed 2 (PS3) Review

If Assassin’s Creed 2 has taught us one thing, it’s that games can be based on historic events besides world war II, and be successful. The second Assassin’s Creed is a mixture of historically accurate people and places, and a fictional narrative. More importantly Assassin’s Creed 2 is a much better game than its predecessor. The first game was by no means bad, but it was establishing a new, hopefully very successful, IP. Ubisoft have taken what they learnt from the first game, improved it in almost every aspect and crafted a rather compelling action/adventure game.

The way that the plot evolves after the prologue in Assassin’s Creed 2 is fantastic. Unfortunately the opening doesn’t quite live up to the rest of the narrative; it’s a shame, and I really hope it doesn’t deter anyone from playing further. You begin as Desmond Miles, as an assistant named Lucy is breaking him out of a high-tech lab. The story behind this is rather complex, but it’s told in a fairly boring manner and it’s hard to follow if you have no prior information about the game.

If you don’t care about an engaging story, the action is just as good. Assassin’s Creed has a distinct Prince of Persia feel about it, and that’s by no means a bad thing. You’ll spend a lot of your time scaling walls, climbing roof tops, and jumping between ledges, just as the good Prince has done so many times. The climbing controls are quite basic, as essentially you run into a wall, or to a ledge, and Ezio will either climb it or jump. The simple nature of the controls keeps everything fast paced, just as it needs to be for an assassin running above the city.

Ezio is also a much better assassin than his processor, Altair. While he had some cool moves Altair never really used them to his advantage. That’s where Ezio comes in. His two hidden blades, for example, can (and need to) be used for quick and silent assassinations on two targets simultaneously. If stealth goes out the window Ezio’s trusty sword, along with a range of other weapons, come into play. Using a lock-on combat system you either aggressively attack, or hold back and wait to dodge or counter. The latter is by far the most effective tactic, as the polite guards generally only attack one at a time, at least in the early stages. For this reason running in swords blazing does tend to get a bit tiresome. Finding ways to avoid hordes of enemies, and mastering silent takedowns are much more rewarding, when possible.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is an improvement on its predecessor in almost every way. The story, which starts slow, becomes very engaging and evolves almost perfectly for a videogame. The action/adventure gameplay has the right mix of platforming elements, side quests, assassinations and general combat. Best of all, every one of these things can be done in numerous different ways, leaving the tactics down to the individual player. Assassin’s Creed 2 looks and sounds great, and really immerses the player into 15th century Italy. It’s a great step forward for the series, one of the more mature games out there that uses strong platforming elements, and leaves you wanting more at the end of each mission. This is how to create a sequel for a new IP.

Full review MYPS3