Assassin's Creed ll
Assassin’s Creed ll is Ubisoft’s follow up to the fastest selling new IP in video game history, Assassin’s Creed, and is available to buy at prices from £39.99.
The game uses the same gameplay style as its predecessor but now there are added features with a stronger emphasis on open-world exploration, greater interaction, nonlinear gameplay and more variety in missions. There’s also a new improved in-game economy. The protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young Italian noble come assassin, is also more clearly delineated as a character. In fact he’s a bit of a lady’s man who possesses a certain panache and some endearingly human traits.
The location is new too, set against the beautiful backdrop of Renaissance Italy in the 15th century, the action follows an epic story of corruption, conspiracy and brutal murder as Ezio strives to exact revenge for the deaths of his family members.
As in Assassin’s Creed, the story revolves around the Animus, the machine that views the memories of the ancestors of Desmond Miles in 2012, who comes from a long line of assassins. The action features some challenging experiences as through Ezio, the player becomes a master assassin and learns how to brandish weapons, disarm enemies and use their weapons against them, helped or hindered on the way by real-life historic characters. These include Machiavelli, Pope Alexander Vl and Leonardo da Vinci, who acts as a kind of Q figure from James Bond, providing miraculous inventions such as flying machines to assist Ezio to use on his mission.
There’s a welcome return to free running with added swimming and flying. With a more deeply and finely tuned combat system players roam through Venice, Tuscany and Florence using a host of new weapons created by Leonardo including swords, poison blades, miniature firearms, cutlasses, maces, spears and daggers. There’s even a database that gives information on historical figures and landmarks. It’s a game that combines an absorbing storyline with superb graphics and thrilling action and it’s waiting to be played by you.