Assassin's Creed II

Anyone else playing it?

I only got about 30 minutes into it tonight. I loved the first one, even though it was repetitive. They helped with the repetition in this one, gut I'm still not sure about the whole Leonardo DaVinci thing.

I like the fact that there is an economy now so you can steal money and buy things. That helps. I'm still WAAAY too early into the game to see if I like it more than the first. So far though I think it's a pretty good job at starting right where the other left off. Heck, I hadn't played AC in almost 2 years and i picked up the controller without looking at the instructions and remembered exactly how to play. It just felt "natural"

My brother loved the first one, but for some reason, it just gave me a headache...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20QBe43tyVM

The visuals were great on the first one. Didn't care for the game play. Won't be getting this one.

Haha. I love it.

If anyone hasn't see the E3 trailer on youtube, you should check it out.

I think this was a pretty unbiased review, and I have to agree so far. The game isn't perfect but I think it's an improvement over the first one. I loved the first one, so I should enjoy this one. I think some people who disliked the first may enjoy the 2nd. People who hated the first still probably won't like it.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-assassins-creed/58372?type=flv

EDIT: It's also more mature now...in the first 30 minutes I've heard an F bomb or two and more swearing...and there has already been one sex scene (didnt show anything, but highly suggestive).

Mega 64 is great. I like their one on Hitman.

I'm loving this game. Much more of a storyline behind it than the first. Lots of in game puzzles too...kind of like the old Prince of Persia games.

Is it as repetitive as the first one?

It's more repetitive than some games, but not as repetitive as the first one.

In AC there was only 5 types of missions you could do. Now there are 15. And you don't have to collect all those flags and climb towers and stuff to unlock achievements. There are hidden feathers and you can climb towers to see the map better, but you don't have to do them.

There are hidden clues that you find and then you have to figure out a puzzle to unlock each clue. I think there are about 30 clues, I've only done 4 so far but they are pretty cool. Then the 30 clues must be arranged in another puzzle (not sure what happens when you solve it).

There are also hidden tombs of your ancestor assassins scattered around. When you find them, you unlock that assassin's armor. When you unlock them all, you get Altair (AC 1's main character) armor.

Your villa is something you can upgrade and the more you upgrade it, the more income you get to buy weapons and armor.

When you are being chased, you can hire prostitutes to distract the guards, or throw money on the street to distract them. I thought both of these were cool. Oh and when you are a wanted man, the guards put "wanted" posters up around the city, and if you tear them down, your wanted level goes down. I thought that was kind of cool.

When you blend into crowds you do it just by walking with them. You don't have to "lock" into a crowd like before. It's more natural now.

Plus there are cool assassinations now like jumping out of a bale of hay and then dragging the body into the hay, or while hanging on a ledge you can attack and then throw the body over the ledge.

There are also hidden blueprints and when you find them you take them to Leonardo DaVinci and he will build you new weapons.

So yeah, some of the missions themselves are still a little repetitive but there are enough of these other side missions or mini-games to help break the monotony of it. If you just want to race through the game and do the storyline it may get boring. if you are like me and want to find EVERYTHING...well it's going to take awhile and it breaks up the game a lot more.

EDIT: Right now, there are so many options I don't know what to do first. I want to continue the story line, but I also want to search for the tombs and to get better weapons.

That's awesome, thanks for taking the time to write all of that out. I think you swayed my decision to buy it. All of those changes are exactly what I wanted from the first Assassins Creed. I think I'll be picking it up when I get bored with Forza 3 and MW2.

I love it...

Been playing since thanksgiving and it has been the cause of many late nights already. Not perfect but it's close. Umfan gave a fair appraisal of it I think.

Effin. Rocks. Buy it as soon as you can rob someone. Okay, maybe it aint THAT serious, but it should be.

Yeah and parts of my long post above were wrong. I just wanted to correct it. I wasn't far enough into the game.

1. Going to the tombs does not give you that assassin's armor. It's only after you have unlocked all six that you get Altair's armor.

2. The codex pages (what I called blue prints, but there are 30 of them) form a puzzle that you must solve

3. The hidden glyphs (20-30 of them) each have a mini puzzle to them and IMO made for hte best storyline of the game. It was really cool conspiracy stuff. Each time you find a glyph and solve the puzzle you unlock a tiny video. Once you have done them all, you get to see the whole video and learn more.

So those are the "mini" things that make it fun.