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Exploring Assassin's Creed 2

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
After having finished the whole adventure and emotions of Assassin's Creed, I have spent a rather long time enjoying the special reward that the game gives you... which means having some really crazy fun with Altair, all before starting to play the second game of the series.

I loved the original AC so much that I was sure I was hooked to the series for the rest of my life, but now AC2 has proven to be a severe disappointment to me.

When I played Ezio's adventure for the first time, I expected to find a game similar to AC but more polished.

Instead, I find this Disney-like parody of what the original Assassin's Creed was. I do not feel like an Assassin anymore, Ezio is a jerk, the scenery is beautiful but the game is so story-heavy that it feels like watching a movie more than playing a game and almost the entire AC system has been changed.

The intense, heart-pounding and heavily sadistic battles of AC have been replaced by slow and boring combat, the guards are like sitting ducks, everything is softened...

What the hell happened?

Instead of having real Assassin missions assigned to me, a strategy to research and a mysterious boss to give results to, I get a series of mini tasks to complete and this Flynn Rider-like character so different to the ice-cold and absolutely brutal Altair that I love.

Some people have told me that AC2 is what the rest of the series is modeled after... please tell me that's not true.
 

Philster401

Maester
Assassin's creed 2 is considered the best part of the assassin's creed series by many. I personally loved ac2 trilogy and disliked to the point of not finishing, assassin's creed, because there is no point to Altair. He to me was the jerk he disobeyed the creed and you had to work to get back in favor with the master assassin. The misaions were so hard I finally decided to not finish it and start ac2 and right from the start it had me interested they had characters which you get to know and a heroe which had a motive to get revenge on those who killed his brother and father. While you learn why Desmond is important to the story. My personal favorite game was ac4 it was the first one I played only problem I had with it was how abruptly it ended. Then there's ac 3 which at the very end was a disappointment. Now i'm going to start rogue when I find the time.

I'd suggest at least finishing the Ezio trilogy before making any decisions on whether to quit playing ac.
 
Sorry to hear that Sheila. I played AC and AC2 in order, and personally I loved them both. The subsequent games are heavily story-driven, and some people don't like that. Personally I like it because I love getting involved in stories in games. I do sometimes miss the kinds of missions from the first game and the freedom it gave you, but AC2 really diversifies what you can do and gives more variety, and there are still many places where you really have to be careful and strategic. As for Ezio, yes he has his moments of being a jerk, but then so did Altair, and Ezio goes through quite detailed character development through the stories. Some people say the series is stretching itself too far, but I would say play AC Brotherhood because it develops Ezio's character more, then play AC Revelations because it ties up the stories of Ezio and Altair towards the end of their lives (you also go back to Masyaf). That's just my opinion, personally I think they're all worth playing for the scenery and music :D.
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
The very first impression that I got from Altair is that he was arrogant and full of himself, to the point that he endangered the lives of two fellow Assassins and almost ruined a very important mission.

This soon leads to severe consequences, and then he begins a new adventure to redeem himself and regain the lost honor...

Altair grows into a better man with every mission that you complete, he begins to question the intentions of his own boss and in the end all of this prepared him to become the new and dazzling leader of the Assassin Brotherhood. The arrogant young Altair eventually saved the Holy Land, and he also transformed into a legend to be admired by the future generations of his fellows.

That is some great development for a character, it's not like he is empty...

I think people like AC2 more because almost everybody prefers the warm, handsome hero with a glowing heart, and to them Altair seems like a bag of bricks as some people have described him... but then, Altair is a freaking Assassin! A cold blooded killer, a predator... What were they expecting?

Predator, that's the best way to describe Altair... In the other hand, Ezio is more like a Disney hero and he does not feel like the kind of person that would be a good Assassin at all.

By the way, I don't give a damn for Desmond and the present-time story that is part of the series.

@Philster: AC2 is a good game, I do not deny that. The problem that I have with it is that it's just not an Assassin game, it's more similar to a Legend of Zelda game. It completely lost the true soul and meaning of the original Assassin's Creed and replaced them with a totally different thing.

I'll keep advancing through AC2 as far as I can, but it's unlikely that I'll ever finish it let alone purchasing and playing the rest of Ezio's games. I plan to jump to AC3 within the following days. I also have Rogue, but I want to play some AC3 before I go straight into the sea adventure.

@Aidan: Hey, it's great to see you in Mythic Scribes again!

AC2 indeed offers more variety than the original AC. It would be great if Altair could choose what type of weapon to carry before leaving Masyaf every time a new mission starts, and I wish that he could swim too. However, the Medicine option of AC2 is simply ridiculous, like you were playing Legend of Zelda and unleashed your healing fairy during battle...

It's like the developers took the original stuff and said "Hey everyone, look how much we can expand this concept!" And then they expanded it so much that it became barely recognizable.

They say that Connor is the antithesis of Ezio, so I'll probably enjoy playing AC3... We'll see =)
 
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Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
I played ACII first, so I guess I'm biased. The biggest complaint I have is that I only wanted to play in Venice because the scenery was so beautiful, as I advanced, I didn't want to learn every turn in other places.

Oh, and i sucked at Leonard's flying machine. I barely made it through that part and it took me several tries. Wow that bit sucked. i found II rather challenging, but the next one I played was Black Flag, and that one is no challenge at all. Fun though. I like to blow up ships. I'm a fan of long games and after 25 hours of Black Flag, I've already destroyed two legendary ships and am 83% finished. :( BUt I still like hunting ships.
 

Reaver

Staff
Moderator
I've played all the AC games for PS3 and AC2 is the best in my opinion. I think Ezio is very likable and fun to play.

AC3 is sooooo slow paced but the massive environment is a masterpiece of gaming tech and very immersive.

Black Flag is fun but if you get the timing for countering attacks, you're basically invincible. I enjoy the wreck dives and the ship battles.

Black Flag also has the best DLC in my opinion. Freedom Cry and Aveline are amazing and although Aveline has her own full game for the PS Vita, I'm hopeful that Adéwalé will get his own someday soon.
 
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Mindfire

Istar
The jovial personality that puts your off of Ezio becomes more muted as his saga goes on. He achieves many victories but at great personal cost, making both wiser and more solemn as he gets older. I haven't finished either AC1 or Revelations yet, but from what I can tell Ezio's has a better arc than Altair does- which you would expect since his games are more story-driven. When you compare Ezio at the beginning of AC2, who's a womanizer, cocky, and a bit of a clown, with the older Ezio in ACR, who's more pragmatic, cautious, and, despite still being a bit of a wisecracker, seems to carry this weight of sadness all the time- you get a real sense of this character's journey. The whole point of Ezio's arc is that he's not the stone-cold killer that Altair was. That's why the two are contrasted with each other in ACR. Revelations is Ezio wrestling with the idea of what it means to be an Assassin- asking how they can do terrible things in the name of good while still holding onto their humanity. Ezio is very skilled, but because he has that golden heart- a heart that's been injured by all the tragedy and sacrifices that come with being an assassin- he knows he can't be a truly great Assassin. He can't be what Altair was. He started out with a very romanticized idea of what the Assassins are, and in the first game that's who he is: a swashbuckling hero seeking revenge. But as time goes on, he starts to lose his romantic ideals. He gets revenge, but it doesn't satisfy. He becomes disillusioned of his notions of poetic justice. Even his anger fizzles out. So when he comes to Masayaf in ACR, Ezio is tired. He's looking for meaning and purpose in what the Assassins do. He wants to know that all the pain and sacrifice and violations of conscience are worth it. So he seeks lessons from someone with legendary conviction and resolve: Altair. Ezio and Altair are very different, but their stories are meant to complement each other and I think it works.

I could be overthinking it though.
 
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Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
Hello Mindfire, thank you for your deep insight into Ezio's history and development as a character.

You have made me think again about why Ezio Auditore is like this in AC2, what being an Assassin means to him and what he will become, so I'll probably give him a chance and purchase Brotherhood and Revelations as well.

That AC Revelations video is superb, thanks for sharing that as well!

At the moment, in AC2 I am stuck at the first mission into Florence's Catacombs. I managed to open a locked big door, guards came out, I killed them and now I have to chase after another guard, but I have reached a point where a bridge or something was destroyed and now there is a wide fall that Ezio cannot jump through.

This Catacombs mission feels very much like playing Ocarina of Time or even Alice Madness Returns, so different to the original Assassin's Creed... but yeah, I'll give young Ezio a chance.

@Maiden: You once told me that AC1 felt boring to you, but what aspects of it did you find boring?

I was interested in playing Black Flag, but the Caribbean setting is really not for me. Then I read somewhere that Rogue is sea-inspired too but you are in more Northern waters, and I decided to purchase it =)

@Reaver: It was you who convinced me to buy AC3, and I have not played it yet but I'll let you know my opinion of the game in a few days.
 

Mindfire

Istar
No problem. Glad I could give some context. If young cocky Ezio turns out to be too much for you to stomach though, try Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood or even Revelations. Ezio starts to gain the maturity and perspective I mentioned when you go into AC2's endgame, but he really grows into it during Brotherhood, which is when his romantic ideals start falling away, and it's the core of his character in Revelations as you can tell in the video. So if you don't think playing through AC2 is worth it for the payoff you can skip ahead without any major problems since you don't really care about Desmond's story, although Ezio's development might lose some of its impact if you do that. It's up to you.

I haven't played any of AC3 or AC4: Black Flag yet. But from what I can tell from trailers and hearsay, AC3's protagonist, Connor, is kinda like Native American Batman in terms of personality. Or at least that's what I get from him. Edward from Black Flag seems to be more like Jack Sparrow. Or rather, what Jack Sparrow was probably like before he went totally insane. I don't know much about Rogue, but the fact that it tells the story from the Templar side is interesting.
 

Caged Maiden

Staff
Article Team
I thought the combat was boring (remember, I played AC II first). The only real challenge was in getting every secret, the game certainly didn't present a challenge for me, and I'm not really an avid gamer who masters stuff.

I loved Ezio's journey. It was challenging, beautiful, and as mindfire illustrated, I sort of fell in love with the swashbuckling rogue, because that's what I guess I fancy myself, as a fencer who certainly isn't brawny, but probably would kill from the shadows. I liked his story of revenge, too, because I immediately related to a guy whose innocence was dashed when his father and brother died and all he could do was watch.

Ezio was my favorite and I loved his world and his goal of tracking down all the people who killed his family. That resonated with me more than any assassin ideal. I liked that for him, being an assassin was a means to an end.I guess I could just relate to him, because he was sort of like me in a fair amount of his story lines. I loved the masquerade, the relationship with Leonardo...that made the game so much more interesting because I KNEW those people from history (both the ones he allied with and those he killed). I mean, you've seen my fencing armor, right? i fence in Ezio's doublet, made special so it's armored to SCA specifications. I just HAD to!
 

Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
Hey Maiden.

I am starting to understand why people relate to Ezio Auditore and like him so much, though this subject remains dark and mysterious from my point of view. I'll continue to criticize the game and the character in this thread anyway, so I want to say in advance that I am sorry in case anything I post here feels hurtful to the fans of AC2.

It's curious that you found AC combat boring.

I imagined that an AC2 player would describe AC battles as faster and more vicious than those in the second game, and also more difficult. In my case, I feel bored and uninspired when I fight and kill guards as Ezio, while fighting as Altair is much more engaging, heart-pounding and intense to me.

Ezio's ability to Taunt the guards in battle reveals warm blood and personality, so that's another thing that I dislike about him...

At the moment, I have passed the Catacombs mission and now I am climbing inside of the abandoned Cathedral in search of some type of treasure hidden there. Now I regret having accepted this crazy mission, because it's boring as hell and I cannot go back to the streets until I complete this thing.

So far, the funniest activity that I have found in AC2 is grabbing civilians, toss them to the ground and kick the hell out of them before stealing their money. That's something that you cannot do in AC, and it's mildly effective in making Ezio seem colder and meaner than he is supposed to be.

After thinking a little more about Ezio, I came to the conclusion that he makes no sense as a character.

First, the original Assassin's Creed came and proved to be a great success. Then, it turned out that loads of people disliked the cold-blooded killer that is the main character, despite the fact that the game is called Assassin's Creed and it's about performing Assassiny things.

Then, AC2 comes and we have this gallant sex symbol full of personality as protagonist.

Ezio is warm, charming and has a good heart, which is incompatible with what a true Assassin would be. The players wanted a character that would be all those good things and, at the same time, a freaking serial killer... To me that is a big WTF! moment, and I am having trouble to understand it.

My thought is that a warm-hearted person like Ezio would be destroyed by guilt and remorse soon after starting to kill people, but the game does not seem to care about that. Anyway, other impossible things happen in the Assassin's Creed world, like the Leaps of Faith, so it's necessary to stretch the real world limitations a little.
 

Gryphos

Auror
I love AC2, it's overall my favourite game of the series, mainly because of the story and atmosphere, and of course Ezio.

The thing about Ezio is that he isn't an Assassin in the same way Altair was an Assassin. Ezio never wanted to join any Order and fight the Templars, he just wanted to get revenge for the deaths of his father and brothers. In that sense, he isn't going to be the same emotionless, cold-hearted killer as Altair. He's going to be funny, charming, charismatic, but also filled with rage that drives him onwards on his quest for vengeance. He's a nice guy, unless you wronged him, at which point you're dead. Sure, this emotional nature doesn't make him the ideal Assassin, but he never signed up to be an Assassin, he signed up to dish out some revenge.

As to the rest of the game, the only aspect that sucks to me is the combat. It is just so slow and repetitive. But I'm willing to look past that and still say that AC2 is overall pretty sweet. And combat has never been a strength of AC anyway.
 

Mindfire

Istar
Ezio is warm, charming and has a good heart, which is incompatible with what a true Assassin would be. The players wanted a character that would be all those good things and, at the same time, a freaking serial killer... To me that is a big WTF! moment, and I am having trouble to understand it.

Is it really that hard to understand? Ezio is clearly meant to be a hero in the vein of the Three Musketeers, the Scarlet Pimpernel, Zorro, etc. I don't think there's anything especially unheroic or traumatic about him killing people when you view it through that lens. And I feel like people in that time period weren't as shy about violence as your average modern person. People carried swords in public if they could afford it, and not just for decoration. And when you consider the people Ezio is fighting, the Borgias are some of the most cartoonishly villainous people to ever actually exist. So I'm not exactly shedding any tears for them and their minions. It's just a different perspective, tone, and story from the first AC and you may need to adjust. But like I said, it's all in service of Ezio's arc.

EDIT: Gryphos has it exactly. Ezio isn't looking to get involved in a shadow war. He just wants to take out the people who killed his family. Basically, he is Inigo Montoya.
 
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Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
I understand Ezio better now, as the heroic and charming character that he was designed to be.

What I am having trouble to grasp is what people see in him, why most players of the Assassin's Creed series dislike (and sometimes even hate) Altair while Ezio is showered with love and affection. I think the reality should be the opposite, because the original concept was about being an actual Assassin.

They took all of that and turned it into a heroic tale a la Three Musketeers...

I am not sure how ordinary it would be to just draw a sword and kill people in 15th Century Italy. What I know for sure is that the ability to do such things over and over again and just go on with your life is more a biological than a cultural thing, and certainly a person like Ezio would be incapable of it.

Altair must be a hell of a sociopath which explains his general coldness and Assassin capability, while Ezio clearly is not. Then, we have an Ezio that is a normal, good-hearted person sometimes and a cold murderer some other times... Weird.

I have a feeling that I'll really like the older Ezio in Brotherhood and Revelations, but first I want to see how far I can play into Assassin's Creed 2.
 

Gryphos

Auror
Sheilawisz said:
What I am having trouble to grasp is what people see in him, why most players of the Assassin's Creed series dislike (and sometimes even hate) Altair while Ezio is showered with love and affection. I think the reality should be the opposite, because the original concept was about being an actual Assassin.

Well Altair's stupid out-of-place american accent doesn't exactly help. But otherwise, I suppose it's because Ezio is simply more entertaining a character. The whole stone-cold killer shpeal is aight at first, but in the long run that kind of character doesn't tend to garner affection as much as the charming musketeer. Like, I don't think I could remember a single specific line of dialogue Altair had, but Ezio had loads of cool lines and moments.
 

Mindfire

Istar
What I know for sure is that the ability to do such things over and over again and just go on with your life is more a biological than a cultural thing, and certainly a person like Ezio would be incapable of it.

Altair must be a hell of a sociopath which explains his general coldness and Assassin capability, while Ezio clearly is not. Then, we have an Ezio that is a normal, good-hearted person sometimes and a cold murderer some other times...

Well when you think of your target less as a person and more as an evil monster, it gets a lot easier. And the more you know about the Borgias, the easier it gets to see them as villainous bastards. They make the Lannisters look downright pleasant.
 

Philster401

Maester
" Then, we have an Ezio that is a normal, good-hearted person sometimes and a cold murderer some other times... Weird."

Most games and books are like that if you don't realise that because not many people like 2d characters, and call it what you like, Altair was 2 dimensional he had no feelings at all he might as well have been a faceless character with no name like the dragonborn, unless the story isn't important to game play.

Another thing to think about is that Ezio and Altair are different people and that as a game people create characters people will like not ones that psychologically fit the story. Yet don't forget Ezio never coldheartedly murdered anyone he showed remorse every time he killed one of the main enemies and probably for all of his kills they just didn't put it in final version of the game. He was always warm hearted all he wanted like any characters similar to him is revenge.

Finally ac3 has a character that has a good mid point between. Ezio and Altair (leaning towards Altair but doesn't kill emotionless.)

But I'm not very good at defending things so...I'm going to stop.
 
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Sheilawisz

Queen of Titania
Moderator
Hello Gryphos.

The American accent that they gave to Altair sounds just fine to me, but I am not a native speaker of English so I guess that something like that is much more annoying to other players. They should have given him a decent Arabic accent, that would have been much cooler.

According to Ezio's characteristics, Assassin's Creed 2 should be played like this:

Main Weapons: Ezio would take out most of his enemies by means of tranquilizer darts, sleeping fumes, some chloroform-like liquid to throw to their faces and other non-lethal tricks. Also, he would be presented as a fighter powerful enough to knock out multiple foes by means of punches and kicks, without causing death.

When to Kill: The game would allow Ezio to actually draw out his sword or other lethal weapons only when his life is endangered, I mean when he is desperately losing a fight. The game would not only encourage, but force the player to stay within non-lethal actions almost all of the time.

Kill Limitations: Civilians would be untouchable, like they are in Ocarina of Time.

Consequences of Killing: Even though Ezio would furiously kill the people that murdered his family, he would sometimes express at least some discomfort with the fact that he is a killer.

That's the kind of game that would better suit Ezio, it would make more sense.
 

Philster401

Maester
Ezio didn't kill citizens technically only when you play as him are you able to kill citizens but synchronization is lower and if you continue killing them you are supposed to restart the level, but I never killed citizens so I wouldn't know, only guards.
 
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