Assassin's Creed 2 Preview



£38.99

£38.99

There's quite a bit of pressure on Assassin's Creed 2 (AC2) to provide a well-crafted game that improves on the original and achieves big sales during a release period full of big-name, big-budget titles. Being the second part of the trilogy it not only needs to deliver on the gameplay side, it needs to cement the story and lead us into the final chapter in such a way that we're left wanting more, eager to see how the story ends.

The demo we got our hands on was set in Venice, one of a number of Italian Renaissance-era cities in the game. Venice is an altogether more claustrophobic, intimidating place than the sandy streets and white buildings of the first game, the tightly bunched buildings and increased civilian population creating an altogether different vibe as you meander in and out of the crowd.

AC2 puts you in charge of Ezio, an Italian guy who just so happens to look, act and move in almost exactly the same way as Altair from the original. We got to take charge of Ezio as he is tasked with performing the assassination of a fellow named Emilio at the request of Antonio, the head of a Venetian thieves guild. Precisely who Emilio and Antonio are, and how they fit into the bigger picture, is not information we were privy too, but it did allow us to concentrate on what we were there for - to assassinate some guy we've never seen or heard of.

How you go about disposing of your target depends on your playing style. If you're looking for a fight then there's no better way to find one than by simply walking up to the castle in which Emilio is located, drawing your sword at the gate and charging headlong into the awaiting mass of guards. The mechanics of fighting are largely unchanged, still based on timing and counter attacking as opposed to button mashing or complicated combos. If you can mange to get behind your opponent, or put them off balance, you can step in for a suitably violent killing blow, presented from a variety of interesting camera angles. Indeed, many of the game's bigger adversaries can only realistically be taken down by counter-attacking - simply swinging your weapon at them having almost no effect at all.

New to the fighting this time around is the ability to dispose your foes and take their weapons for yourself. This provides many opportunities to test out different weapons and find one that works best for you. For example, a shorter, lighter sword may be just the thing if you prefer to fight with speed and agility, or, if a heavy-handed approach is more to your liking, then a two-handed mace may just meet the relevant criteria.

Of course, this wouldn't be Assassin's Creed if you couldn't take a somewhat stealthier route, avoiding trouble as much as possible. While walking along the streets you have the ability to blend in amongst small groups of people, in an attempt to pass by suspicious guards without drawing attention to yourself. To do so you need only walk at their pace, making sure to stay within the highlighted area that appears around them as you approach. You may remember that Altair had the ability to pull off a similar trick whenever you saw a group of monks wandering around in the first game, however the ability to use it almost as often as you like (given the high density of non-playable characters) should provide an extra layer of freedom when it comes to traversing the city or getting close to potential targets.