Assassin's Creed 2 Preview: What Makes it Better?

Assassin's Creed was one of the most anticipated releases of 2007 and while it didn't do as well as expected critically it exceeded sales expectations and became the fastest selling new IP ever released in the US. Ubisoft Montreal is hoping to outdo its previous effort with Assassin's Creed 2, set in Italy during the Renaissance and including many new features aimed at improving the critical reception of their sequel.

While not much has been said about the plot, it has been revealed that you will play as Ezio Auditore di Firenze, a young nobleman out for revenge after the brutal murder of his father by rival families. Ezio is also an ancestor of Desmond like Altair in the original game. It has also been hinted that you will also be searching for artifacts in this game, much like in the previous one.

The main criticism leveled at Assassin's Creed was the repetitiveness of the gameplay. Ubisoft Montreal hopes to remedy this by increasing the amount of weapons and gadgets available. One interesting example of the new weapons they are including is a poison blade, this blade can be used on an unsuspecting victim without them noticing and it results in them going berserk, causing a commotion, and eventually dieing. Players can also disarm guards and use their weapons against them, instead of being forced to use the same weapons throughout the game. They will also be able to buy gadgets and weapons from Leonardo Da Vinci. In fact, one mission has players using Da Vinci's flying machine to infiltrate a target's castle.

Another problem with Assassin's Creed was the lack of variety of the side missions. Most of the time you either pick pocketed someone, listened to a conversation, or had to follow them and beat them up. Unfortunately these missions were boring, and provided little to no benefit in helping players plan their assassination. This time, Ubisoft plans to introduce some variety in the missions by including numerous unannounced mission types as well as giving them benefits that will make the assassination easier to complete without any problems. They have announced that they will be accessed from carrier pigeon stations on the rooftops and gave the example mission of players assassinating a rich man without being detected by his bodyguard to get information from an informant.

One of the other popular complaints was that the combat was easy and all you had to do was counter enemies to be successful. Fortunately Ubisoft heard this complaint, and although it is still going to be based on timing and more slow than other games, different enemies will require different tactics. These changes along with the variety of weapons available should improve the combat significantly. Along with these major changes there are also some small, but noticeable changes to combat. For example, Ezio has two hidden blades instead of one so that now players can simultaneously assassinate guards. Another change is the ability to fight unarmed, so players can disarm guards and use their weapons against them. Hiding places can now be searched by guards, but Ezio can also assassinate guards before they search and stash their bodies in his previous location. The health system has also been redone, now more serious wounds will require players to find a doctor to replenish Ezio's health.

In Assassin's Creed 2, money can be used to buy gadgets, weapons, other useful items, and to hire NPCs to help you in various ways. In Assassin's Creed players were only able to pickpocket thugs who would give them throwing knives, but in Assassin's Creed 2 it is possible to steal money from anyone by pickpocketing them. Another important change is that water doesn't kill Ezio on contact like in the previous game, and Ezio can even pilot small boats. Ubisoft has also tweaked the notoriety system, as Ezio becomes more well known it becomes harder to stay hidden but he can lower his notoriety by removing wanted signs, killing witnesses, and bribing people. One particularly annoying mechanic in the first game was that Altair could only blend in with scholars clothed in white, this felt unrealistic and cheesy. Fortunately, in Assassin's Creed 2, Ubisoft has given the player the ability to blend in with any small group in the game. Additionally, missions will be able to performed in either the day or night now that Ubisoft has added a day/night cycle to the game.

One major addition to Assassin's Creed 2, is the catacomb gameplay sections. These sections are classic platformer areas that focus on using Ezio's free-running skills to reach the end of the level. Ubisoft recognizes that not all gamers would enjoy these sections, so out of the 4-5 hours of gameplay they provide, only one section is mandatory for completion of the game. Even though they aren't mandatory they do provide substantial rewards so most gamers will want to complete them all. Ubisoft has also made many small improvements on the free-running system to make it more natural and more realistic than in Assassin's Creed.

Ubisoft hasn't given much information on the lab segments of the game where characters play as Desmond, although they have said that Desmond won't just be walking around this time. Ubisoft is probably going to progressively give Desmond the same abilities that his distant ancestors have, much like how at the end of Assassin's Creed Desmond was given Eagle Vision. This should be a massive improvement over wandering around the lab like in the previous game.

Assassin's Creed 2 is shaping up to be an excellent game that will improve significantly on Assassin's Creed in nearly every aspects.. Players will love the added variety, lack of repetitiveness and more polished gameplay that Ubisoft is promising to provide. Ubisoft has also promised downloadable content to extend the value of this game, although this was also mentioned as a possibility for the first game that never materialized. The first game was well worth full price and if Assassin's Creed 2 lives up to Ubisoft's promises it will be too.