Assassins Creed II deviates so greatly from AC1 but fans lump 1 with the Ezio trilogy, I personally think there is a major shift here with some good changes, and some bad.
Let's start with game play, this is no longer a stealth focused game. I know, this may sound crazy, but this is an action game more than anything else. A huge majority of missions involve big set-pieces and fighting large groups of enemies head on, I'm pretty sure out of all the villains you only stealth kill 2. This was a bummer to me personally as my favorite aspect of 1 was being elusive and disappearing from guards, but here there is almost no reason to as Ezio is literally an un-killable god in combat, and it takes more time to run away than it does to just fight and kill everyone. I'd reckon this is due to guard placements and how they are literally everywhere, it feels sloppy.
Combat is more in-depth than in 1 luckily, but not by much. It is still just mindless button mashing or just waiting for counter, it is simply boring and tedious. This is amplified by how spongy enemies feel, by the end of my play-through my finger actually hurts from having to press the attack button 1 million times on every enemy.
Parkour is pretty much on the same level as 1, with a few moves added. The problem with parkour though, is that cities are laid out in such a way where it is much more difficult to get around. Buildings are much taller, there is much more space between buildings in the streets, and Ezio cannot grab on to A LOT of things that look grabbable. Many times I'd have no way to progress through the city without just having to jump down to the streets then climb back up, which takes a lot of time due to how tall buildings can be.
And on mission objectives, they feel very repetitive at times, idk if it's just because I was getting burnt out or if it really is that repetitive, but doing like 6 fetch quests in a row wears on the soul. I personally found this game WAY more repetitive than 1.
Collectibles are far more aggressive than in 1, as there are like 4 different types, all pretty meaningless and not worth collecting. There is one type, the codex pages, which the player is FORCED to collect all 30, this is not brought to their attention until the end of the game, where they must collect all 30 to actually complete the game. Luckily I had collected 20 already so it wasn't a big deal, but man, pretty lame stuff.
Also, I like the assassin tombs, I thought those were really cool and more of what I'd like to see out of these games.
Now finally onto the story, it's OK! I personally see it as much more of a traditional heroes journey, which is less interesting than 1 in my opinion. Where the story in Altair's game is much larger than him and isn't personal to him, in Ezio's game most of the stuff happening revolves around Ezio. I also prefer the more serious and dark tones of 1 compared to this game. This is just personal preference really. The one thing I will argue is just a flat out downgrade though, is that the villains in this game are just comically evil. While villains in 1 had genuine philosophies and a cause, the villains in this game just want power, which is so boring. Big downgrade there I think.
I've done a lot of complaining, but this is still a good game I'd reckon. The world is beautiful and well crafted, despite the previous paragraph I think the story is entertaining enough, and the novelty of parkouring is still here. I'd suggest giving this game a shot.
Just some final thoughts, I think this game has been widely over-hyped as "the best in the series" from nostalgia or just mis-remembering what this game, or what all old AC games, really are. Combat was never good, stealth was always average at best, and the games always had a level of repetitiveness to them. The Assassins Creed fantasy, sub AC1 or Unity, has always been ignored for bombastic action-heavy titles where good beats bad, everyone's just been tricked into thinking stealth is more focused on because they give us hoods and hidden blades. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just saying, people don't look at these games as what they really are.
If you wanna see my rankings as I go through the series, click here.
Let's start with game play, this is no longer a stealth focused game. I know, this may sound crazy, but this is an action game more than anything else. A huge majority of missions involve big set-pieces and fighting large groups of enemies head on, I'm pretty sure out of all the villains you only stealth kill 2. This was a bummer to me personally as my favorite aspect of 1 was being elusive and disappearing from guards, but here there is almost no reason to as Ezio is literally an un-killable god in combat, and it takes more time to run away than it does to just fight and kill everyone. I'd reckon this is due to guard placements and how they are literally everywhere, it feels sloppy.
Combat is more in-depth than in 1 luckily, but not by much. It is still just mindless button mashing or just waiting for counter, it is simply boring and tedious. This is amplified by how spongy enemies feel, by the end of my play-through my finger actually hurts from having to press the attack button 1 million times on every enemy.
Parkour is pretty much on the same level as 1, with a few moves added. The problem with parkour though, is that cities are laid out in such a way where it is much more difficult to get around. Buildings are much taller, there is much more space between buildings in the streets, and Ezio cannot grab on to A LOT of things that look grabbable. Many times I'd have no way to progress through the city without just having to jump down to the streets then climb back up, which takes a lot of time due to how tall buildings can be.
And on mission objectives, they feel very repetitive at times, idk if it's just because I was getting burnt out or if it really is that repetitive, but doing like 6 fetch quests in a row wears on the soul. I personally found this game WAY more repetitive than 1.
Collectibles are far more aggressive than in 1, as there are like 4 different types, all pretty meaningless and not worth collecting. There is one type, the codex pages, which the player is FORCED to collect all 30, this is not brought to their attention until the end of the game, where they must collect all 30 to actually complete the game. Luckily I had collected 20 already so it wasn't a big deal, but man, pretty lame stuff.
Also, I like the assassin tombs, I thought those were really cool and more of what I'd like to see out of these games.
Now finally onto the story, it's OK! I personally see it as much more of a traditional heroes journey, which is less interesting than 1 in my opinion. Where the story in Altair's game is much larger than him and isn't personal to him, in Ezio's game most of the stuff happening revolves around Ezio. I also prefer the more serious and dark tones of 1 compared to this game. This is just personal preference really. The one thing I will argue is just a flat out downgrade though, is that the villains in this game are just comically evil. While villains in 1 had genuine philosophies and a cause, the villains in this game just want power, which is so boring. Big downgrade there I think.
I've done a lot of complaining, but this is still a good game I'd reckon. The world is beautiful and well crafted, despite the previous paragraph I think the story is entertaining enough, and the novelty of parkouring is still here. I'd suggest giving this game a shot.
Just some final thoughts, I think this game has been widely over-hyped as "the best in the series" from nostalgia or just mis-remembering what this game, or what all old AC games, really are. Combat was never good, stealth was always average at best, and the games always had a level of repetitiveness to them. The Assassins Creed fantasy, sub AC1 or Unity, has always been ignored for bombastic action-heavy titles where good beats bad, everyone's just been tricked into thinking stealth is more focused on because they give us hoods and hidden blades. I'm not saying this is a bad thing, I'm just saying, people don't look at these games as what they really are.
If you wanna see my rankings as I go through the series, click here.