Assassins's Creed 2: Altair In Waterworld

[The 1 2 P]

Yes it's been announced and this time includes 100% more swimming: http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/207472/assassins-creed-sequel-takes-to-swimming/

The first game sold well but received mixed reviews. For the people who played the first game, what did you guys think about it?

PS--I completely made up that title:angel:

[theChad]

Many people complained that the first one was redundant and boring ("you do the same things over and over!" - "um, yeah - what games aren't like that?") however I still enjoyed it and especially trying to be a completionist about it and look for all the templars and flags. Even just roaming the cities looking for flags for hours could be really fun with a well-timed assassination sprinkled in to make for good fights and chases.

I guess I was just really annoyed by how many people said they liked it at first, or 'what an awesome game' etc but then would say "oh, that game sucks" any time after I'd mention I liked it. I welcome a second one with open arms.

[G-Boobie]

Assassin's Creed was the best sixty dollar tech demo/proof of concept I ever returned to Target the day after I bought it.

[roushimsx]

The first game was an awesome crowd and parkour simulator. It's a shame the actual game design was so darn weak. Not worth the $30 I spent on it, but if I'd spent something closer to $15 or so then I might have a higher opinion of it.

If you want to pick it up, just be forewarned that the pacing is garbage, the gameplay structure is extremely basic, and the combat is horribly fleshed out. Oh, and the last hour of the game? It's spent in a giant, drawn out fight.

Yea.

[heybtbm]

I liked Assassin's Creed. I can sympathize with the knee-jerk, anti-hype reaction to a point. The hype machine went a bit overboard before this game was released...but that's no reason not to play it. If you played through the whole game (or most of it) and didn't like it, fine. You're entitled to your opinion. Although, I suspect 99% of the hate is coming from people who either didn't play it or only played it for an hour or two. Oh well.

All I can say is that you're missing out on an fun (and slightly flawed) open world experience that was better than 90% of the games released last year.

[Graham Mitchell]

My fiancee' forced me to pick up Assasins Creed when we got a PS3. She was suckered by the back of the box, which is deceptive. It advertises itself as this big intellectual adventure with heavy religious and philisophical themes. (It's even got a disclaimer about it when you load it). Now, I'm only a few hours into it, but it really hasn't been anywhere near that deep. So far, it's another game from Ubisoft that somebody suckered me into buying that I never touch. I don't know what it is about them, but I've been rather unimpressed with just about every major title they've produced. I agree with G-Boobie. Most of their games are fancy tech demos with little in the way of gameplay.

[GnawRadar]

Many of my friends hate on this game but I liked it very much. It was very good looking and the gameplay was fun, but I do agree it did get a little repetitive. I'll probably pick up the sequel but I won't pick it up right away, I'll probably wait for a price drop or two, but I do look forward to it nonetheless.

[mnkysuit]

Assassin's Creed was the best sixty dollar tech demo/proof of concept I ever returned to Target the day after I bought it.

:above me:

Seriously, I tried my best to like this game. I really did. In the end though it just didn't cut it for me.

[scooterb23]

I bought the game off a friend, and the next morning, lost the game. That's one sneaky assassin.

[SegaAges]

I loved the game. I thought it was awesome.

I don't know what you guys are talking about, I really enjoyed Assassin's Creed.

Tech demo, yes. worth 60, no.
i paid around 20 for my copy from eBay.

Yes the game is repetitive, but anybody that can seriously sit there and tell me they have never enjoyed a repetitive game? Lots of games get repetitive, but we can still enjoy them. You know, Super Mario Bros. was pretty repetitive too. All I did was ran to the right, jumped and stuff, and collected coins. Kidding aside, I obviously don't care if a game is repetitive.

The combat was meh, but the free running/parkour was awesome. I got super good at it. If you do it correctly, you can ninja gaiden up buildings by jumping back and forth super fast. I could never do it, but was told it was possible.

You guys are crazy, Assassin's Creed was fun.

I will get AC2 when it hits 20 again on eBay.

I will agree that the hype was way too much for the game. No, the game was not as badass as the hype made it out to be, still a fun game, but seriously nowhere near the hype.

And why the hell in this day and age are they still making games where the dude dies if he falls in the water?

We have to wait for sequels in order for them to "learn to swim". Seriously. You are telling me that some sweet badass medevil assassin can't swim. He can f'ing freerun over rooftops and leap from building to build and do all of that jazz, but never learned to swim?

I can see why they get rid of swimming: implementing ai in swimming is just an extra step that is not necessary to push this out to the masses. Plus there would be stuff like lung capacity, etc. Gives them more time to focus on everything else I guess. Also, it is easy to have an edge of a map if it is water and your dude can't swim.

Without that, we end up with stuff like in gta3 where you can go to the "ghost town" which is the sprites used in the very first cut scene. It is pretty cool that you can go to the cutscene sprites, but that is an example of why not every single game needs swimming, so they make you die instead.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Bought AC at launch for PS3, played through the main story non-stop to completion and loved the whole experience.

Being in the category of AC players who mastered the play control, maxed out Altair's combat abilities and weapons, took in the entire story, and completed the game I can understand where the "hated this game" reactions come from.

The game itself was not perfect by any means, it was repetitive in nature (and I'll side with those that cite nearly every action/adventure/platform game in the past two decades as being repetitive as well) and it had a few technical hiccups through the course of the main game (but was far from completely broken), but to me the positives of the total experience of the game completely outweighed any list of negatives that could be compiled.

I do feel that a majority of gamers looked at what Altair could "do" at the opening of the game (or in the first few hours) and wrote the game off then and there ... and when I discuss the game with people who absolutely hated it, often times I'll find that they didn't get to a point where Altair begins to learn complex parry and combat skills much less gets his full compliment of weaponry ... and perhaps that is a flaw in "game design" - maybe the devs should have let people know early on that there was more to be had if people "stayed tuned" till the later portions of the game ...

I haven't gone back and done a lot of the flag capturing, as I checked it out and saw that there were no "unlockables" tied to maximum flag completion. I would hope that they would add something of the sort to the next chapter.

I don't think that there was a more polarizing game (amongst critic and gamer opinions) released that year, but I'm very glad that they're moving forward with the series and I'll be there at launch for the 2nd installment.

[titanzguard]

I bought this game last year around Christmas. I was sold on all the hype and when I got the PS3 I figured I would get AC as well. I played through the whole game and yes I can admit there was a lot of repetition but I enjoyed the game as a whole. Yes, there was a lot of repetition but there were more things to do then just complete the missions. Heck I spent a ton of time in each city checking things out and messing with people. I know there are a lot of haters but I thought the story was fun, the cities were beautiful and the controls were awesome(Althought the camera were a bit painful at times).

I think I paid $50 for this game. Had a 20% off coupon but to me it was worth $50.

[chicnstu]

Yes the game is repetitive, but anybody that can seriously sit there and tell me they have never enjoyed a repetitive game? Lots of games get repetitive, but we can still enjoy them. You know, Super Mario Bros. was pretty repetitive too. All I did was ran to the right, jumped and stuff, and collected coins. Kidding aside, I obviously don't care if a game is repetitive.

At least in the Mario series the environments, and the objects in the environment, are drastically different for most levels.

I played the game for about 15 hours and it was enjoyable for a little while, I like his animations and the voice acting....the reasons I didn't like the game have already been said. Though one thing I didn't see mentioned is how the controls were hyped to be something completely new and unique and were supposed to make you feel like you are actually grabbing the ledges. All I felt like I was doing was holding down the right trigger and A and moving the stick, the character would do things for me.

I hope AC2 has more variety.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

At least in the Mario series the environments, and the objects in the environment, are drastically different for most levels.


While I'm not claiming that the items, art assets, and environments in Assassin's Creed aren't repetitive to a degree ...

But ... objects and environments in Mario games DRASTICALLY different (I assume you mean from level to level/game to game)?

Conversely, in the Mario series, repetition of art assets has never been a critical sticking point ... I just find that a highly suspect argument to make against Assassin's Creed - that the Super Mario games are drastically less repetitious than Assassin's Creed.

[Sudo]

I enjoyed the hell out of AC, it was one of my favorite games of last year. The graphics were stunning, and it's still one of the best-looking console games IMO. The gameplay and sense of scale while looking out over the vast cities were great as well. People say the game is repetitive, but really, the same can be said of pretty much any game.

[chicnstu]

While I'm not claiming that the items, art assets, and environments in Assassin's Creed aren't repetitive to a degree ...

But ... objects and environments in Mario games DRASTICALLY different (I assume you mean from level to level/game to game)?

Conversely, in the Mario series, repetition of art assets has never been a critical sticking point ... I just find that a highly suspect argument to make against Assassin's Creed - that the Super Mario games are drastically less repetitious than Assassin's Creed.

People were talking about the repetitiveness of Assassin's Creed and you mentioned the Mario series so I decided to show that Mario isn't nearly as repetitive as AC because Nintendo makes each environment, and the way it is set up, in a Mario game different. I consider it drastically different because they have sunshine and grass levels, snow levels, desert levels, water worlds, special free item mini game levels, etc.


People say the game is repetitive, but really, the same can be said of pretty much any game

Yes, everything (not just games) is repetitive because things have to have the right balance of style and something unique to keep people's interest. But there is repetitive and overly repetitive, and in my opinion Assassin's Creed is overly repetitive. Which caused many people to lose interest in the game quickly.

[not necessarily directed toward Sudo]

I would be willing to bet that if you made two groups of people, gave group 1 Assassin's Creed, and gave group 2 Super Mario Bros. 3, group 2 would play and enjoy their game more, because of the variety.

[/]

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

People were talking about the repetitiveness of Assassin's Creed and you mentioned the Mario series so I decided to show that Mario isn't nearly as repetitive as AC because Nintendo makes each environment, and the way it is set up, in a Mario game different. I consider it drastically different because they have sunshine and grass levels, snow levels, desert levels, water worlds, special free item mini game levels, etc.



Yes, everything (not just games) is repetitive because things have to have the right balance of style and something unique to keep people's interest. But there is repetitive and overly repetitive, and in my opinion Assassin's Creed is overly repetitive. Which caused many people to lose interest in the game quickly.

[not necessarily directed toward Sudo]

I would be willing to bet that if you made two groups of people, gave group 1 Assassin's Creed, and gave group 2 Super Mario Bros. 3, group 2 would play and enjoy their game more, because of the variety.

[/]


Well ... I wasn't the person who mentioned Mario (but I did call out your estimation/comparison) so I'm okay with the misunderstanding on that.

In any case ... I still think you're really grasping at straws in your comparison ... and considering that there is only one console installment of Assassin's Creed, we really have yet to see how diverse they DO get with the series in terms of repetition/variety.

If one were to compare Super Mario Bros. 1 to Assassin's Creed 1 (I know it's silly ... but simply for the sake of 1st installment vs. 1st installment) I think that there's at LEAST the same amount of "repetition" (running, jumping, collecting coins, etc.) in SMB1 as there is in a a game like Assassin's Creed.

You reference what are essentially "art elements" as things that break up repetition ... but if you strip those away, Super Mario 1 is essentially the same exact thing on every level with the exception of the swimming stages.

Of course, I'm not saying that SMB or any Mario game aren't wonderfully (perfectly in most cases) crafted games due to repetition ... but to deny that it's there is just, again, silly.

And as far as repetition in AC ... It sounds like they're going to address that in the next installment, so it's really a wait and see for those that had a serious problem with that.

[Graham Mitchell]

Based on some of the comments I'm hearing, the game picks up as you get further along, no? I'm going to continue on with it and hopefully stuff gets cooler.

[Sudo]

Based on some of the comments I'm hearing, the game picks up as you get further along, no? I'm going to continue on with it and hopefully stuff gets cooler.

I'd say it definitely does get better as you go along, especially in terms of story. Should you find the side missions repetitive, you can simply opt not to do most of them anyway.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Based on some of the comments I'm hearing, the game picks up as you get further along, no? I'm going to continue on with it and hopefully stuff gets cooler.

When you start the game, Altair has a limited set of weapons and combat skills, battles are pretty much push/pull ... and if you wind up surrounded by 4 or more knights victory would be a challenge (if you're lucky!).

By the time you're on the last level of the game you've got plenty of items to choose from, battles are seamless ballets that are as fun to play through as they are beautiful to watch, and you can easily take on 8 or more knights (I would instigate fights just for the hell of it) without breaking a sweat.

The variety of pre-boss-fight missions never really gets deep in terms of variety (hence all the repetition criticisms) but each boss is worth fighting and beating just for their post loss monologues.

[Lothars]

Based on some of the comments I'm hearing, the game picks up as you get further along, no? I'm going to continue on with it and hopefully stuff gets cooler.

I think it does, I really like the game and don't agree with the hate it gets

to me it was definitely worth the full price and I have no regret,

It's a great game overall I thought

[SegaAges]

I'd say it definitely does get better as you go along, especially in terms of story. Should you find the side missions repetitive, you can simply opt not to do most of them anyway.

Yeah, unless you are going for acheivements, there really is no reason to spy on 5 people in every city.

[kupomogli]

I went to eat today, where I ate there was a Gamestop next door. About 7:00PM there was a guy in a sort of trench coat walking through the parking lot, my friend Matt noticed that it was whatever the hell his name is from Assassin's Creed 2. The person made a costume up.

I found out the game is released for sale today. I went over to the Gamestop to look around later and the guy was in there, probably waiting for midnight release, so man, from 7:00 to midnight. Anyways. Some woman supposedly went into Gamestop prior and told the employees some creepy looking guy with a bunch of weapons was walking around in their parking lot.

But yeah. That's all. Some person dressed up as the Assassin's Creed 2 character to try and impress people. I dunno but everyone was probably thinking he looked like a moron dressing up like that, which that was my thoughts on the matter. It was well designed though and looked pretty good.

[8-bitNesMan]

Anybody picked it up yet? On the fence about it and I wanted to see if some fellow DPers had weighed in on it yet. Is it worth the 60 clams?

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Anybody picked it up yet? On the fence about it and I wanted to see if some fellow DPers had weighed in on it yet. Is it worth the 60 clams?

I picked up my copy at lunch.

I'm in the final chapters of Uncharted 2, as soon as I finish that I'll start on this and share my thoughts.

I was a big fan of the original (the standard "repetition" criticisms didn't bother me at all) so I'm hoping that the "improvements" to the gameplay flow of this entry only enhance my enjoyment of the experience.

[technocolor]

I'm going to rent it and then decide. Initial reviews are really good though.

[heybtbm]

I have the 360 version coming from Amazon today. I'll have to change my online status to "appear offline" just to get a few minutes to play. My friends are suffering from MW2 fever. At least with New Super Mario Brothers and the Wii's non-existent online features, no one can interrupt me while I'm playing that one.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I'm not loving the "setup/tutorial" levels. Like the 1st game I'm sure the best stuff is yet to come, and I'll play through patiently - but I fear that UbiSoft may lose the impatient crowd in the same span of time that they did with the 1st game.

[theoakwoody]

I agree but for those who haven't played the first game they should have like a 60 minute tutorial mission. For everyone else, jump right into the action. Why is that so hard? I think Gears of War is a perfect example of how to do this as they give you the option right off the bat. I know they have to weave the story in there somehow but there has to be some way of doing it without me having to play a tutorial.

I also think Desmond's character model looks worse in this game and I'm unimpressed with the lip synching, probably because I'm also playing Uncharted 2 which has amazing character models and lip synching.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Status report - in what minuscule time I've had with the game I've finally hit the first significant story point and Ezio has now donned the Assassin's Robes.

The game up to that point has been (coming from a huge fan of the original) admittedly boring, tedious, and overly "tutorial-y".

Things ARE starting to look up in terms of missions, options and story ... but MAN that first hour or so was less than enjoyable.

[deltoidsteep]

What im wondering is if anybody has bothered messing with the connectivity between the ps3 version and bloodlines. is it worth it? or should i just pick up the better looking 360 version..

[Ed Oscuro]

It seems to me that AC2 has a bit of an uphill struggle against games like the latest Uncharted.

[heybtbm]

It seems to me that AC2 has a bit of an uphill struggle against games like the latest Uncharted.

Assassin's Creed 2 = GOTY. Fucking fantastic. I don't think I've ever seen a sequel answer so many criticisms of the previous release. There's just so much to do in this game. Even the "upgrade your city so you can earn more $$$" system is addicting. I love it.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

Assassin's Creed 2 = GOTY. Fucking fantastic. I don't think I've ever seen a sequel answer so many criticisms of the previous release. There's just so much to do in this game. Even the "upgrade your city so you can earn more $$$" system is addicting. I love it.

I'm really looking forward to getting to all that stuff (especially the new combat features).

Did you find the first hour to be as dry as I did?

[deltoidsteep]

Just picked up my copy. Couldnt decide whether to go with ps3 or 360 version but i could only find the limited edition for ps3 so that cleared that up. Now i can get Bloodlines at some point to mess around with the connectivity. Heres a question though. How do i rip the soundtrack to my computer when its on a blu ray disc and i only have a dvd reader? Cant wait to play it, but i have to wait till im home next week : \

[heybtbm]

I'm really looking forward to getting to all that stuff (especially the new combat features).

Did you find the first hour to be as dry as I did?

Yes. Not having your weapons/armor/costume combined with knowing just a few combat moves was pretty boring. It picks up pretty quick though. By the end of the 2nd DNA sequence you can finally start kicking Templar ass. The addition of the counter move instantly turns combat into something you seek rather than run away from (just like the 1st game).

[jedimind7]

I was someone who hated the first one but I love this game. The first hour is slow but once it gets rolling its very fun. Its very easy to get distracted from the main quest doing various side missions, looking for treasure, pickpocketing people, trying to do the Assassin's Tombs, etc. etc. You also end up getting to buy new weapons, armor, and learn new combat tactics as you go through the main quest. The ingame graphics are gorgeous though imo the cutscenes do look a bit rough. But other than that and the slow start I really have no other complaints.

[exit]

I got this game last week and I've been taking my sweet time with it. It's very rare when a developer actually listens and fixes a large majority of the things that were wrong in the sequel, then goes and improves things even further. What's even better is that they didn't try fix what wasn't broken and add unneeded "improvements" to things that were perfect in the first place.

The controls for Desmond still suck tho, but at least you can sprint this time around.

[robotriot]

I had a similar experience when it comes to the character models, because I dove into AC2 right after finishing Uncharted 2. There are worlds between the two games when it comes to graphics. The gameplay (and ultimately, the thing that really matters) however has improved a lot in AC2. It's really addicting trying to get all the various collections together, improving your home town's wealth, getting all those side-missions and treasure icons off your radar. And every once in a while, there are also story missions mixed in ;) I personally don't know wtf is actually going on, but I don't really care. The game is a major improvement over AC1. The only real downside are the controls imo, it's sometimes really hard to find out where your character is going to jump next or what ledge he's going to use.

[ScourDX]

I was tempted to get the Limited Edition. A lot of the places I checked are sold out. Ebay have them for over $120. :eek 2:

[Ryaan1234]

Assassins's Creed 2: Altair In Waterworld

Did anyone read this and imagine a vintage computer in a shitty movie?

[exit]

Well apparently there's a glitch in the game and of course I'm one of the unlucky people to have experienced it. It's at the part where Desmond dreams he's Altair again, you're chasing a target and at a certain point you have to climb a tower. OK, that's completely normal right? Well for whatever reason there's a glitch where you can't grab onto a pole needed to advance, which is extremely annoying since it makes you think there's another way up, which there isn't. So you have to keep on trying until he eventually decides to grab onto it, which may result in you jumping off of the ledge and into oblivion several times.

Don't see how they didn't catch this one and why it hasn't been fixed yet, because it's extremely annoying. And Yes, he still hasn't decided to climb up yet.

Update: You have to run up the wall on either side of the pole and hit the direction you wish to jump to. If this was intentional, it's a rather poor choice on the developers part.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, but the dialog scene where Ezio meets his uncle on his way to Tuscany is FUCKING BRILLIANT.

Whoever cooked that one line up (coupled with the look for the character) is a genius.

[heybtbm]

I don't want to spoil anything for anybody, but the dialog scene where Ezio meets his uncle on his way to Tuscany is FUCKING BRILLIANT.

Whoever cooked that one line up (coupled with the look for the character) is a genius.

You mean this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63NBYpFeIw4)? (Possible Spoiler)

Pretty funny.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

You mean this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63NBYpFeIw4)? (Possible Spoiler)

Pretty funny.

Yeah :D it's a rare thing when a game can hit on a game-culture in-joke and not have to "break the 4th wall" in any way.

[robotriot]

I laughed pretty hard at that joke as well, but I have to say, the writing gets worse with time. All the good lines are within the first two hours or so of gameplay.

[The 1 2 P]

It sounds like the majority of you are pretty impressed with this title. I was intrigued by the fact that this game has caused many people on my friends list to put down Modern Warfare 2. If this game can do that than it has to be good.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

I'm a few hours deep now, and the hand-holding/coddling potion of the game is officially over and the sandbox play is in full effect.

One of the reasons I wasn't turned off by the "repetition" of the 1st entry in the series is my OCD/completist compulsions ... I didn't mind doing the same things over and over again because it fed into my compulsive "have to do everything" nature.

With the treasure maps, viewpoints, notoriety "wanted maps", codex pages, glyphs, inventory purchases (art, weapons, armor) etc. in this one, I'm like a pig in shit ... so much to do, and this time, a bit more varied (which I suppose has quelled a lot of the criticisms of "do the same 3 things over and over").

Nothing beats an air double-hidden-blade assassination on two guards at the same time leaping down from a rooftop. Woo.

The game isn't perfect by any means, but once it kicks into gear there doesn't seem to be any shortage of stuff to do.

[exit]

Just beat the game yesterday and without spoiling anything, the ending isn't as abrupt as it was in the original. Still gotta go back and find Subject 17's hidden glitches and maybe do some of the other objectives.

[Emuaust]

I finished this last night, the only thing I havent done is grab all the feathers. I have to say this is the first game ive forsaken real life to play for a very long time, it was a little slow at the start but turns out to be really well paced.

Full marks have to go to Ubisoft for this one as they seem to address all the issue I had with the first game and it really does offer a great game to even those that either didnt like the original game or those who hadnt played it at all. Very well thought out and constructed game, put against other sandbox games of the past year, Protoype/Infamous , this game really shows a decent amount of thought has been put into the playing of a a game while not on a mission, yes that means you can get around the city using your "Powers" without constant confrontation.

Although, to be honest the game still isnt all roses, the one gripe I have with the game is the controls, while the game really feels and pushes for speed in movement, if you tend to rush jumping sequences and climbing parts, more often then not you will fall off or go in the wrong direction, pissing you off to no end.

Summary? Well, after the upgrade that this game is and the big plot twists given there are very high expectation placed on Ubisoft for the sequal by this rather happy gamer!