Review News
Related News
Social Gamers Podcast - Episode 1
A new feature to ED, Social Gamers takes a look at the latest gaming news .. read more
Return to the Cafe '80's
A look ahead at the games spewing forth from a 1980's inspiration valve, you lucky kiddies! .. read more
Apollo Creed 2? If Only!
Apollo Creed 2? If Only!
Posted by Dekko on Jun 4th 2009 20:13
So, E3 is upon us again and like the proverbial bad penny we have to expect the odd sequel to turn up.
Yes yes, those dreaded sequels can hang from our neck like a cheap necklace so when there is the promise of a jewel amongst all the fake gold which turns your neck green we have to get it evaluated.
The possible jewel we are concerning ourselves with today is Assassin's Creed 2, follow up to the throat slashing Crusade-a-thon original that saw you stalking the streets of the Holy Land assassinating selected targets for your masters the Hashshashin.
Well we all know the original and its sci-fi DNA ramblings about collective memories, machines called ‘Animus’ and bartenders named Desmond but what of the next instalment?
Ubisoft have been letting a slow leak of hype air out from their PR balloon since the original game shipped and this has culminated in the videos released at this years E3, mainly the five minute demo walkthrough which sees our white hooded buddy Ezio, not Altair this time folks, a nobleman who, for whatever reason, has turned to assassinating for thrills, fun and frolics ambling through the streets of 15th century Venice during a masked ball with fireworks exploding across the night sky.
Graphically it looks cool but there are no great shake-ups going on here, the same deal really just with a Venice face lift over the top.
The game play looks very similar to the first one right down to the buildings outcroppings you climb and mount looking near identical, the main character looks slightly more out of time and place walking through the partying Venetian crowd with his white hooded robes making him stand out more than in the Jerusalem of the Third Crusade.
The crowd don’t seem to pay much, if any, attention to Ezio the Assassin lurking amongst them apart from one dude who manages to shout “It’s you!” before receiving a swift wrist mounted knife to the voice box, this murder doesn’t seem to arouse the pedestrian who was sitting next to him, nor the large crowd just feet away.
Ezio then saunters through the party and starts to climb up the side of a familiar looking building which may as well be in 13th century Acre as it looks pretty similar with the mouldings and beams all looking, well, similar.
The usual taking out of guards then ensues with Ezio climbing up chimneys in plain view of said guards who don’t seem too fussed as he launches himself toward them with knives pointed for the top of their well formed craniums, not one decent scuffle is had as he dispatches the fodder with a yawn inducing ease.
Once the guards are dead Ezio clambers to the top of a high ‘Eagle View’ building only to find a da Vinci looking glider waiting for him which he then proceeds to launch for the best sequence of the demo which shows the glider, you guessed it, gliding amongst the building and bridges of Venice, attracting a whole host of attention but still, when you land on a roof, the guards who have been watching you the whole time as you descend on a flaming glider (on ‘winged demon’) still pay no attention as you ram sticks up their butts and use them as puppets.
One cool touch you see, with the two hundred years of technological evolution from the first game, is an extra wrist mounted knife on the opposite hand now giving you dual silent kill options. Nice.
OK, let’s get to the nitty gritty; from this video alone I think the game looks far too similar to the first one and the crowd A.I. doesn’t seem to have been amped up from the original, in fact the guards look a little dimmer, perhaps it’s a problem which will be fixed before release, however I reckon the look of the game once you’re down on the streets will give players a feeling of ‘been there, done that’ unless the story and ways of assassinating are both taken up a notch or two.
As it stands this looks like an ‘Ubisoft Special’, a.k.a. dressing up the same game with a few tweaks and calling it a sequel.
We’ll have to wait and see after we’ve had some hands on with some finished code.
Digg
Facebook
Delicious
reddit
StumbleUpon
frantic9 said: (Jun 05 2009 at 16:07:29 BST)
i cant wait for the game to come out, i dont care if its just like the 1st one because comon the first one did rule, the game play was imense n the mindless killing of targets never got repetative for me mate i really cant wait, it does sound okay from this review
Xander128 said: (Jun 05 2009 at 17:09:00 BST)
I hope they do change the way the story builds up to the main assassinations, because that got very repetitive. Also the ending which saw an assassin, master of quickly and quietly dispatching people, taking on entire squads of solders all for the king to just ignore that and listen to your plight for piece... Other than those little problems, I thoroughly enjoyed the first game, and am looking forward to this one :)
Dekko said: (Jun 06 2009 at 15:22:20 BST)
Yep, I was a big fan of the first one but for a sequel to have its own identity (considering you are playing a different main character two hundred years later) it needs to vary itself a little more than this video showed.
Playing the same game again is pointless and would make Assassins Creed 2 go from 'possible classic' to 'repetive franchise', a McDonalds game. And I liked the first too much to want that.
If there is more variety in assassinations and a wider means of killing your targets then we'll be OK.
It takes more to make a classic than putting some make up over the first game and releasing it, banking on sales from people who liked the original.
I'm still looking forward to the finished game, I just hope for more. And if you're paying £40 then so should everyone.
Zazzix said: (Jun 06 2009 at 16:15:19 BST)
MEHH! CS:S <3
Page 1 of 1