Post by Bytor on Dec 8, 2010 20:55:35 GMT -5
-Visuals- 9.2/10
The huge issues with the first installment, the flicker and the pop-up graphics have for the most part been addressed and rectified. The graphics in the first version looked very nice but they were nowhere near as crisp as they are here. The scenery (in the cities) is stunning and the attention to detail is awesome. I do have some issues with the facial expressions but then again most games suffer from this problem. Renaissance Italy was recreated, not only on a massive scale, not only do the towers and buildings look great but the various items both in the market areas as well as the adornments on the outside of the buildings is great as well (I do wish the surrounding scenery in the countryside would have been done as well, getting picky aren't I, lol).
-Sound- 9.4/10
This is an interesting decision....I actually had to think about the music, and normally that's a good thing. It is here as well, what the music does it set the scenes wonderfully without becoming so obtrusive that it detracts from the game. A great synthesis of music and gameplay should meld together, not have the music overwhelm the game. The voice overs area also excellent with a lot of variety and accents which not only are believable but make you not even notice you are listening to accents (of course, you could play the game in Italian and really be authentic, lol).
-Gameplay- 9.4/10
Everything wrong has been fixed. The missions are no longer simply repeats of previous ones, the battles are certainly tougher and require more strategy and the pace is varied and diverse enough to keep the game exciting. There is literally hours and hours of fun to be had following the main storyline, which I feel to much, much more fleshed out than in the previous installment and the side quests will keep you occupied for quite some time as well, to be honest I found many of them to be tougher (especially the quest for Altair's armor, wow, talk about timing/hand eye coordination perfection!) than the main storyline. I also love the fact that you have a home. Here you can store weapons, that's right I said weapons, there are quite a few which can be bought, once again that's right, I said bought! In this game there is a viable market where you can purchase weapons, poison, armor, artwork (to increase the value of your village, more on that in a moment), medicine, and even ammo. All of this can then be stored in your mansion and utilized as you choose. Money is also not an issue, save a lot in the beginning then spend it to upgrade your village which will then generate even more revenue, it's actually quite easy and fun. I do have two small complaints, one is that the jumping actions seem a tad too intuitive, sometimes it would place me where I felt the game thought I might want to go, for instance a hiding place if I were running when really I simply wanted to jump over something or towards a wall perhaps, and two the battles sometimes (to me at least) had too much of a difficulty spike, no rhyme or reason just occasionally I would find a fight that was simply really tough while most times the battles were fair and challenging without being overwhelming, it IS however at heart an assassin game so battles for the most part I probably should have avoided, lol. The assassin aspect is wonderfully done, albeit sometimes a tad too easy and the kill scenes (and load times for that matter) are much shorter than before. It's seldom a sequel address all of the weaknesses of it's predecessor but this is certainly the case here!
-Story- 9.2/10
You play as Ezio, a young "swash-buckler" kind of guy in historical Italy. The story evolves into your family and the various people you meet (including a young Leonardo Da Vinci, lol) dealing with the various factions and groups in Florence and Venice. The story is actually the Matrix meets an historical novel meets a movie based in Renaissance Italy. The shear amount of historical and fictional information is actually mind boggling. The story continues what the first one started but delves even deeper into the mystery of the Templars and the Assassins. And, best of all, the ending will, I promise blow you away!
-Overall- 9.3/10
A great game. It's loads of fun, challenging yet not overwhelming and especially if you like historical type games it will blow you away with information on the architecture and the movers and shakers of the time. Simply hours, hours and hours of fun in the main story and enough variety and challenges in side quests to keep you occupied for quite some time. I cannot wait to see what historical time and place Ubisoft takes me next!