Anyone got the game? How are you liking it so far compared to the first?

I want it, but I'm poor for now. To me the gameplay looks the same, but I enjoyed the story so much I still plan to buy it.

It looks incredible. Miles and miles ahead of AC1. Has everything good about the first, removes all the bad (repetitive missions), and adds a buttload of customization for Ezio. Oh, and Venice!

I hear worlds better than the first, which I enjoyed immensely. I'll be picking it up on Thursday because I have exams all week that I need to do well in.

I've played a few hours of it so far. At this point in AC1, I was already getting bored to tears with the reptitiveness. So far, with AC2, they're still keeping it fresh and interesting, so that's good.

That said, I do still completely hate the whole "let's go unlock your genetic memories!" plot, and would much prefer if it were just a game about assassins set directly in the target time-period.

They are setting it up to where the main guy in the present becomes an assassin in NYC. Which is going to be awesome.

What? I loved that subplot, I thought it was a really clever framing device of the conspiracy-within-a-conspiracy. And it also justifies some of the game mechanics, like the invisible walls, within that subplot.

They need to do an Assassin's Creed based around the time of the 'Gangs of New York' movie. That would be awesome.

holy s*** holy s*** holy s***

I've heard it's much better than the first which is great because I loved the first despite its repetitiveness.

A modern day setting in NYC could be unbelievable also. Wow.

I'll be getting it soon-ish, I got a bit tired of the first game and stopped about 85% through I think. I'll finish it up first before I get the next.

From what I've seen and read ACII should be a very marked improvement, not that the first was bad, but just that they ran out of ideas and wanted the game out early on in the 360's life I think.

The idea that the game series will continue on to the present I'd guess is true, seems logical knowing what is going in the "present" in the game that at some point our friend will take on the role again that his ancestors have been doing.

Does it still use the "hold a and magically traverse in a straight line no matter where you are" mechanic?

Yeah, pretty much. But it's loads more fun then "Stop, turn the direction you want to go, line up the jump, hope you land it perfectly" mechanic of other action platformers.

Played a little bit of it. The gameplay isn't worlds better than the previous. There are more mission types, which are fun, but it's very similar to AC1 in terms of gameplay (Which I consider a good thing, I loved AC1)

The real jump forward is in the voice acting, atmosphere, historical perspective and "realism" (And I use that term loosely). It's a whole lot more engrossing than AC1 in all those fields.

It's really not that magical... the parkour movements are very believable and not over-the-top at all. The cities of the time were definitely built close enough together with enough stuff in between buildings (beams, etc) to make parkour a very possible thing to do.

I say magical in the sense that I never really felt like I was in control of the character while he was scurrying about like a squirrel.

I'm not certain how you'd want developpers to have you control parkour / climbing? Old school press up or down for climbing, press the jump button each time you want to jump, etc?

I for one was very thankful for this step away from the Prince of Persia series, and very much missed it when I tried my hand at the most recent (and not so good) Prince of Persia on the Xbox 360.

Yes.

It would slow the pace down terribly, imo, just like it did in PoP

What more do you want? You could tell him when to jump, when to drop down, when to climb up/down/left/right... You were in complete control and the whole system worked very well. Imagine having to time pressing 'a' each and every time Altair/Ezio tried to leap from small beam to small beam or up a knee-high wall. You'd fall all the time and be incredibly frustrated. This system works perfectly well.

Your opinion, sir, is WRONG.

In the first one, I was most frustrated with the combat, I never could do any of the fancy moves, it seemed like once I attacked anyone, I was instantly surrounded by 10 guys. Also, I would sneak up to one of the people I was supposed to assassinate, and the 1-hit assassination thing would always fail so I was left to sword fight him. Blargh.

I fail to see how you'd fall all the time, and working well =/= interesting.

I loved the combat system in the first game. It was all about timing. In fact I really like the first one but got incredible bored with it real quick

The templar-targets have very small 'surprise' windows, and they are very good at recognizing assassins (Who wouldn't be? If Altiar just changed his clothes once in a while...). They can be assassinated cleanly, but it's very hard. Simpler to engage them, wait for them to flourish or taunt, and then stick the hidden blade in them.

In AC2, though, the ordinary guards have such a long surprise window that you can walk into a group of them and assassinate three or four before any fight back.

Its the same here. Each time I picked up AC1 I was bewildered by how beautiful and fun it plays. But the repetition constantly killed it for me. Took about a year and a half for me to beat, because I could only play in short spurs.

AC2 looks grandiose. I played for a bit last night. Starts off much more interestingly.

Yeah, you could easily fight 20 guys if you just got the timing of the reversals down. When I was horseriding between cities, I did love just getting into a huge fight with those large patrols of guards. It was too easy to be especially satisfying, it just sort of took a while.

Actually after the 6th or 7th assassination, reversals were no longer successful one-hit-kills. You'd end up just smashing your fist in their guts a few times. You had to start using flourishes, harder hits and all your tricks of the trade really.

As I told my dad last night (he also played and beat and loved AC1), if AC1 had been as intense as the last 2 assassinations (Robert De Sable et Al Mualim) it would have been trully a glorious title.

AC2 seems to be doing just that so far. Ezio is not an assassin yet in my game and its still fun.

they should make a sequel with charles bronson as the main character assassin

You know, Ubisoft would really have the tools to make one intense open-world RPG akin to Elder Scrolls. Why not break the conventions and have an RPG where your class and playstyle truly affect the gameplay. Somewhat like they did with Dark Messiah of Might and Magic but with a deeper RPG system and an open world. An RPG system that would enable rogue characters to play more akin to Assassin's Creed with parkour and rooftop hopping. Then you have the warrior who's more brutal and intimidating, able to break down doors, etc. Mages who could also have their own twist. And then you have various class-specific ways to beat quests.

Right now, most if not all RPGs out there end up playing the same regardless of class. Your abilities change and you might get stealth or armor or powerful magic, but thats where the differences end.

Dark Messiah had a good idea, but found itself limited. Hopefully someday someone in a position to make it a reality, will have such an idea. Such a game could easily steal Bethesda's thunder and force them to add a better level of polish to their games.

Yeah, I loved the counter-kills. I also liked standing in the middle of a group of guards with the hidden blade selected and seeing how good I was at timing the counter, since you were guaranteed a lot of pain without being able to block. The animations for that were worth it, though.

My favourite assassination was definitely the de Sable trap. I made a quite dramatic fighting escape before I realised I still had to go back and kill the target >.>

I do want to play the sequel, but I don't know when I'll be able to tear myself away from DA:O.

Livid, I feel the same way. I just purchased AC2 because I was at the store (which is also a video store). I still need to finish DA:O... only 28% completed after 40 hours of gameplay. O_o

I have 46 hours logged and...46% finished. Huh. At this rate I will be totally done in 54 hours! I only got the "Easily Sidetracked" achievement (complete 75% of side quests) yesterday.

I've been playing the last two days and the game is much better than the first in that it's not nearly as repetitive. The missions play out more naturally and there is more story that develops at a more natural pace. More back ground on the main character, more weapons to use, tweaks to the combat system to make it better, like learning how to disarm enemies, double hidden blades, the ability to kill more guys with the hidden blades before they realize what's going on, etc.

They've thrown in some platform puzzling to break up the running around the city aspects of the game as well. Not a lot, but it's a nice little break.

Do heavily armored crusaders or their contemporary equivalents still leap rooftops as well as an unarmored trained assassin?



How about an RPG without mages?

Yeah, I'd like an RPG without magic for once. An actual RPG based on weapons and armor and brutality would be awesome.

Nope. Only the lightly armed guards and archers can chase you up along the roofs.

And they don't chase for long. It's much easier to get away from guards now, and new guards that see you run past don't join the chase until the guards already chasing you show up.

There are some characters that have taken to the rooftops as well as Ezzio, but so far they have all turned out to also be assassins.

Aww dammit! I heard they got rid of that. I hated that too, completely immersion breaking.
You start getting really involved in the game and bam! suddenly you're in this futuristic world where you were basically just playing a VR machine, lame.

It's much less intrusive. I've about eight hours in and except for the initial bit, I haven't been back to the 'real world' once. In the first game is felt like a stupid attempt to explain a video game hud and game dynamics in a supposably realistic history setting. This time it manages to serve a purpose by staying out of the way. Your 'handlers' in the future setting can talk to you while you're in the animus, giving you valuable information and advice, and there's also subject 16. (15?) People who have played the game know what I'm talking about.

I mean, come one, look at that post! "Rogues can go all parkour! warriors can break down doors! and mages can...do their own thing?"

Ultimately, I don't think you can really do an interesting and worth playing magic class without it being totally overpowered. You usually just end up hacking things down with a sword while wearing heavy plate armor half the time anyway so it's mostly just a lame gimmick.

I just discovered that there are hidden messages in all the glyph puzzles. This one had a cryptoquip hidden in it.