CUTSCENES!
THE MUSIC!!
FEDERICO!!!
I legitimately cried during that title sequence. Assassin's Creed 2, I've missed you.
After replaying the first game after not having touched this franchise for well over half a decade, and not really liking it, I was scared that I wasn't gonna like this one as much as I remembered.
Two years. How were there two years between these games?! One hour into this, and it's already a masterpiece.
Instantly. Even the main menu is eras better than the first game.
This game probably has the greatest basics tutorial of any game. You're a literal toddler.
Ezio. This fucking Italian.
"A minute is all I need."
Ezio's voice lines, even just while in-game, are fucking magnificent. Fuck Altaïr.
"I'm mostly innocent!"
Look at these streets! The freedom!!
Look at that climbing! LOOK at that climbing! Teenager Ezio climbs this motherfucker twice as fast as Altaïr in his prime! In the first game, I would legitimately run around buildings rather than climb them because of how slow Altaïr was, but here... I still have that in my head, and almost run around, and then I remember which game I'm playing, and I look up the building, and I start climbing... Bliss.
And it never really hit me in the first game, but my acrophobia legitimately settles in when I'm up high enough in this game.
And when you first see those wires between the buildings? Bliss.
This game is like when you go from Devil May Cry 2 to Devil May Cry 3, and you're like "How was this made by the same people?!"
They introduce a system where you invest and renovate a town, which—on paper—sounds like it'd be the most boring shit, but it's one of the things I'm most invested in in this game.
The game's tone is less dull, yes. But that doesn't mean it can't get legitimately creepy and mysterious at times.
It's like a "dark" renaissance.
That's not to say this game hasn't aged a day in 13 years. It has. It definitely has.
Fuck Venice. FUCK! VENICE! I love the aesthetic and look of it, but fuck Venice's canals!
The story has a problem with time. It doesn't feel like any time passes by. Up until the last sequence, the story takes place over the course of 12 years, but it honestly could have been a couple of months and I wouldn't have noticed a difference. And I honestly don't know how they could have improved it.
But the story itself is magnifico. Pure brilliance.
I always feel so bad for Ezio at the end. "Who is Desmond?" But that's sort of what really makes this game, and Ezio as a character. Really the cherry on top.
Finishing this game is like finishing that TV show you've been binging all 6 seasons of. But it's not like that. You could just go right into Brotherhood, but it still feels like, "Well... What do I do now?"
At the end of the day, I enjoyed this game more than the first one, by a longshot. In the first one, I didn't even do the viewpoints. I did one for each city, and that was it. No more. I could walk right past a flag, and would not deviate a single foot to go grab it.
Here, I've done every single viewpoint, every Assassin Tomb, every glyph, grabbed all 100 feathers, every codex, done every beat up mission, every courier mission, every race, every assassination, and renovated a whole-ass city. Because I legitimately want to. And not because I think I'm gonna get a reward or anything, but Maria is grieving for fuck's sake, she needs these feathers!
THE MUSIC!!
FEDERICO!!!
I legitimately cried during that title sequence. Assassin's Creed 2, I've missed you.
After replaying the first game after not having touched this franchise for well over half a decade, and not really liking it, I was scared that I wasn't gonna like this one as much as I remembered.
Two years. How were there two years between these games?! One hour into this, and it's already a masterpiece.
Instantly. Even the main menu is eras better than the first game.
This game probably has the greatest basics tutorial of any game. You're a literal toddler.
Ezio. This fucking Italian.
"A minute is all I need."
Ezio's voice lines, even just while in-game, are fucking magnificent. Fuck Altaïr.
"I'm mostly innocent!"
Look at these streets! The freedom!!
Look at that climbing! LOOK at that climbing! Teenager Ezio climbs this motherfucker twice as fast as Altaïr in his prime! In the first game, I would legitimately run around buildings rather than climb them because of how slow Altaïr was, but here... I still have that in my head, and almost run around, and then I remember which game I'm playing, and I look up the building, and I start climbing... Bliss.
And it never really hit me in the first game, but my acrophobia legitimately settles in when I'm up high enough in this game.
And when you first see those wires between the buildings? Bliss.
This game is like when you go from Devil May Cry 2 to Devil May Cry 3, and you're like "How was this made by the same people?!"
They introduce a system where you invest and renovate a town, which—on paper—sounds like it'd be the most boring shit, but it's one of the things I'm most invested in in this game.
The game's tone is less dull, yes. But that doesn't mean it can't get legitimately creepy and mysterious at times.
It's like a "dark" renaissance.
That's not to say this game hasn't aged a day in 13 years. It has. It definitely has.
Fuck Venice. FUCK! VENICE! I love the aesthetic and look of it, but fuck Venice's canals!
The story has a problem with time. It doesn't feel like any time passes by. Up until the last sequence, the story takes place over the course of 12 years, but it honestly could have been a couple of months and I wouldn't have noticed a difference. And I honestly don't know how they could have improved it.
But the story itself is magnifico. Pure brilliance.
I always feel so bad for Ezio at the end. "Who is Desmond?" But that's sort of what really makes this game, and Ezio as a character. Really the cherry on top.
Finishing this game is like finishing that TV show you've been binging all 6 seasons of. But it's not like that. You could just go right into Brotherhood, but it still feels like, "Well... What do I do now?"
At the end of the day, I enjoyed this game more than the first one, by a longshot. In the first one, I didn't even do the viewpoints. I did one for each city, and that was it. No more. I could walk right past a flag, and would not deviate a single foot to go grab it.
Here, I've done every single viewpoint, every Assassin Tomb, every glyph, grabbed all 100 feathers, every codex, done every beat up mission, every courier mission, every race, every assassination, and renovated a whole-ass city. Because I legitimately want to. And not because I think I'm gonna get a reward or anything, but Maria is grieving for fuck's sake, she needs these feathers!