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Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 17 Mar 2010, 01:42
by Tanuki
Beat it. Thoughts.

Spolier ...
I think this was the first time I fought a Pope in a game.


The mechanics are basically the same as the first with some tweaks/bells/whistles. So any play-control problems from AC1 have been faithfully reproduced.

It is more story-driven than AC1. You get the Deus Ex "everything is a conspiracy" vibe throughout most of the game but it comes together endgame. Nothing great, but at least you are not left feeling like you just watched your first episode of Lost.

Performance is more demanding than AC1 but the environments look a lot better. There is object pop-in I do not now if it is from small draw distances or maybe a loading queue.

Some of the new items are useful while others are too specialized to be of any practical use. Poison is fun to mess around with. Dual-blade kills can be addicting.

Collecting money becomes pointless once you get about half-way through the game.

The follow and rooftop-chase missions can be frustrating. The hit/wakeup animations are long which can result in Ezio getting mob throttled for significant periods of time.

If you enjoyed AC1 you should enjoy this. If you did not enjoy AC1 for reasons other than a lack of characters/dialog/cutscenes then there is really nothing new to see here.

Just some pics.









EDIT - You can see from the first pic that when ragdoll animations kick in the dying have some serious knee issues.

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 17 Mar 2010, 05:16
by StingingVelvet
I think if you disliked AC1 because of a lack of variety in things to do you will like this game a lot more.

Also I think AC1 looked better, at least on PC, due to less pop-in. The pop-in in this game is just terrible.

On everything else I agree though, and I am enjoying the game very much.

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 17 Mar 2010, 10:44
by Paradigm Shifter
OMG... those guards are obviously those weird pan-pipe playing half-goat things from Greek mythology... backward knees FTW! :rockout

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 17 Mar 2010, 22:51
by scavvenjahh
Except satyrs :roll: look manly. (What's that technique anyway ? Olfactory kills by unwashed hands ??)

One thing I didn't like in AC1: any soldier can climb and jump and make his way to the rooftops as fast as you, the ultimate assassin. Then again, in The Saboteur (my AC-ersatz of the month) the most trained and angry of nazi soldiers will never climb a ladder to get you, the Irish guy with bombs weighing down his pockets. Unbalanced AI does not only plague FPSs and strategy games...

Anyway. Thanks Tanuki for uploading 921.600 pixels of solid black. :mrgreen:

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 17 Mar 2010, 23:42
by Tanuki
Anyway. Thanks Tanuki for uploading 921.600 pixels of solid black.


I converted them to JPEG just for you guys. So they are not all black.

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 17 Mar 2010, 23:43
by Paradigm Shifter
Except satyrs :roll: look manly.

So I forgot the name of them. :P

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 18 Mar 2010, 04:46
by StingingVelvet
One thing I didn't like in AC1: any soldier can climb and jump and make his way to the rooftops as fast as you, the ultimate assassin.


This is true, though they climb and jump a lot slower than you can. AC2 has speedy free-runner guards that are actually quicker than you, the ultimate assassin.

Though I guess in this game you are actually an amateur assassin.

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 19 Mar 2010, 06:24
by StingingVelvet
Venice is about 10 times cooler to run around in than the previous cities.

Also, I got my first "please wait while the connection is reestablished" message tonight... lasted about 5 seconds, then I was right back where I was. Didn't bother me too much honestly, but only because the DRM is still working.

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 19 Mar 2010, 15:38
by yogibbear
I'm not buying this game or pirating it or even caring about it due to the DRM it has chosen.

Will buy at bargain bin prices when it ceases to have any DRM that requires constant online for an SP game.

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 20 Mar 2010, 21:59
by scavvenjahh
Anyway. Thanks Tanuki for uploading 921.600 pixels of solid black.


I converted them to JPEG just for you guys. So they are not all black.
I was only referring to the letterboxing...
Man, am I so bad at cracking jokes ? :cry: :cry:

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 20 Mar 2010, 22:21
by Tanuki
Man, am I so bad at cracking jokes ?


No, but you apparently need work at recognizing them.

The jpegs will bleed the black letterboxes to lighter colors near the rest of the image. Resulting in colors other than black.

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 25 Mar 2010, 20:42
by scavvenjahh
Oh. Well, I've been locked inside fridges. I don't care what the HTML code is. Black is black.

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 25 Mar 2010, 23:06
by Paradigm Shifter
Oh. Well, I've been locked inside fridges.

Dood... why?

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 25 Mar 2010, 23:32
by MobsterOO7
[quote]Oh. Well, I've been locked inside fridges.

Dood... why?Stop re-enacting Indy 4. It was terrible. What they did to our friend...

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 30 Mar 2010, 08:50
by scavvenjahh
[quote]Oh. Well, I've been locked inside fridges.

Dood... why?To see the light go out. What else ? (I just realized the proper word would be "coldrooms", but hey, same difference.)

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 30 Mar 2010, 17:23
by The_cranky_hermit
Never heard of a "coldroom" before, though I'm guessing it means the same thing as what I call a "walk-in freezer."

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 30 Mar 2010, 22:23
by Paradigm Shifter
Coldroom, chilled storage, freezer... all pretty much the same thing. :) In a lab environment, a 'coldroom' is simply an insulated room which is kept at a constant low temperature... usually either 4*C or somewhere around there. You can work in them (and I often have) although staying in for too long is not recommended.

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 31 Mar 2010, 04:10
by Abram
Gotta keep your edible victims somewhere, right?

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 09 Apr 2010, 11:01
by scavvenjahh
Never heard of a "coldroom" before, though I'm guessing it means the same thing as what I call a "walk-in freezer."
One does not simply walk in a freezer.


Game ordered (18€). I thought it'd be a while before the price would match the DRM annoyance, but it seems I still underestimate the Power of UK Import. :bowdown

Re: Assassin's Creed 2

Posted: 09 Apr 2010, 16:02
by Paradigm Shifter
Frankly, €18 is still too rich for my taste with that DRM...