Assassin's Creed 2 In-Depth Preview Page 2

02 Nov 2009 at 17:36:20 by

As events unfold, Ezio detaches more and more from his noble roots. By stealing money, Ezio becomes a thief, regardless of his noble heritage, and as time goes on Ezio slowly sheds his indulgences and focuses more on his missions. Still, the missions don't come easy and, according to the developers, they can take between 20 and 40 minutes to complete. Every mission's location is marked on the map and works in exactly the same way as the previous game.

Combat works the same way too, with the A button commanding legs, B button right arm and grab, and X throwing a punch or a vicious stab. You select your weapon by pushing the D-pad and combat still feels good, although there are occasions when it seems a little clunky. This could very well be because I hadn't mastered all the special kill moves, like aerial kills and disarm moves - allowing you to swoop in for the kill, or disarm and kill enemies with their own weapons - which should give the combat a bit more depth. These aren't immediately available, you see, but are unlocked as the story progresses.

Because of your relationships with the variety of characters in the world, you can now really perform assassinations whichever way you please. You can finally conduct the perfect assassination by using the friendships you've built up, and blending into a crowd to get to (or away from) the target is great fun. Even when you're being chased there's unbelievable exhilaration in running across rooftops, skipping from boat to boat and even using water as a hiding spot, and all of this options make it a much easier and less frustrating game to play.

And when you're running across those rooftops, you won't be looking for flags. These are replaced with chests, containing money, and feathers. These don't do anything, but are great for killing ten minutes when you don't fancy doing a mission. Whether you're just wandering around or whether you're executing (no pun intended) a mission, you'll still be making use of staple ability Eagle Vision, which outlines enemy threats and patrols as well as directing players to ancient plaques, which open up mini puzzle sections. Interestingly, though, Eagle Vision doesn't just help Ezio - it helps Desmond too.

Up until this point we've not really spoken of Desmond at all, but he's back once more. Remember Lucy, his nurse?  She's back too, and has helped him break out of Abstergo, the Templar foundation trying to connect with his ancestry for reasons unknown to him. In the opening sequence you fight as Desmond and discovering that he's actually learning to be an assassin; he's picking up skills from his ancestors via the Animus in a process called bleeding, allowing him to apply the gradually acquired skills of his ancestors in the modern world.

Breaking out of Abstergo gives you the opportunity to get into fisticuffs with a few guards only to get away - and be met by the voice of Danny Wallace. Wallace portrays a scientist friend of Lucy's, who turns out to be in charge of the new Animus. It's the hacked and upgraded Animus, and is apparently much more stable. Because he's with Lucy and hasn't really made her explain what it's all about, Desmond agrees to help her with whatever it is she's trying to do (presumably commit suicide, or destroy Abstergo. The latter seems more likely). Desmond enters the Animus - and he's gone. It's a mystery when players will get back out of the Animus, but it doesn't sound like it'll be too regular. According to the devs, this was a decision made to stop the constant back-and-forth travel between worlds. We've been promised that Desmond hasn't been forgotten, but he didn't reappear during our time and we're not sure how his story will change as the game progresses.

Assassin's Creed 2 is shaping up to be an impressive title which resolves its predecessor's biggest flaw: repetition. This is a fresh look at the franchise that feels, at times, like a reinvention, while still retaining the heart of the game. Assassin's Creed II is shaping up to be fun and engaging, and with 30 to 35 hours of gameplay, you're not going to want to miss this, especially if you're a Assassin's Creed fan.

We'll have a review as soon as we can, but in the meantime you can look forward to our interview with the dev team, including producer Sébastien Puel and Francios Roughol - the man behind Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine featured in the game. We'll also have videos containing some all-new gameplay footage, so be sure to check back.

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