Assassins Creed 2 (XBOX 360)

Gamecow’s Price	RRP $109.95     Save $30.00 $79.95
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Genre	Action Adventure
Platform	XBOX 360
Release Date	19/11/2009
Rated

Assassins Creed 2 (XBOX 360) Product Information

Betrayed by the ruling families of Italy, a young man embarks upon an epic quest for vengeance in Assassin's Creed™ II. To his allies, he will become a force for change—fighting for freedom and justice. To his enemies, he will become a boogey man—dedicated to the destruction of the tyrants abusing the people of Italy.

His name is Ezio Auditore di Firenze. He is an Assassin.

Features:

• EZIO, A NEW ASSASSIN FOR A NEW ERA : Ezio Auditore da Firenze is a young Italian noble who will learn the ways of the assassins after his family was betrayed and he looks to seek vengeance. He is a lady’s man, a free soul with panache yet has a very human side to his personality. Through him, you become a master assassin.
• RENAISSANCE ITALY : Italy in the 15th century was less a country and more a collection of city-states where families with political and economic strength began to take leadership roles in cities like Florence and Venice. This journey through some of the most beautiful cities in the world takes place in a time in history where culture and art were born alongside some of the most auspicious stories of corruption, greed and murder. 
• A NEW-FOUND FREEDOM : You will be able to perform missions when you want and how you want in this open-ended world that brings back free-running and adds elements such as swimming and even flying to the adventure. The variety in gameplay adds another layer for you to truly play through the game any way you choose.
• DYNAMIC CROWD : Discover a living, breathing world where every character is an opportunity for the player. Blending in with the crowd is easier, working with in-game characters provide ample rewards but can also lead to surprising consequences.
• BECOME A MASTER ASSASSIN : Perfect your skills to become a master assassin where you brandish new weapons, learn to disarm enemies then use their weapons against them and assassinate enemies using both hidden blades.

Source XBOX

Assassins Creed 2 (XBOX 360) 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 MY360