Will Assassin's Creed II Renew my Love of the Series?

With the end of the year approaching, I find myself in something of a retro mood. With that in mind, I decided to play a game from a series that I used to love, but have drifted away from: Assassin’s Creed II. I want to know if the game will bring me back to the Creed, or prove nothing more than a pleasant diversion. 

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when I lost interest in the series, but I think it had to do with how RPG-like the games became. I remember trying Assassin's Creed Origins and finding the experience dull. Eventually, I tried Assassin's Creed Valhalla, but again got annoyed long before I finished. On the other hand, the first Assassin's Creed was so by the numbers that replaying it is nothing but a challenge. 

However, I doubt that I am the only one who thinks that Assassin’s Creed II was the peak of the story. The issue, of course, is that my view could have been coloured simply by nostalgia alone. So, let’s jump into what the game does well and where it stumbles.

Considering the age of the game, I won’t go into the graphics, which were impressive for the time. Yes, the characters' faces outside of Ezio all look very wooden, and even our Italian hero can look a bit odd. I will say, the Italian cities you visit all still look great, plus the movement of both Ezio and the people in the world feels natural. It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s good enough even now. 

The strength of Assassin’s Creed II lies in the plot and the characters: the journey of Ezio from a young vagabond to a deadly Assassin. The story is pretty breakneck, and you end up really caring about the fates of these characters (while also hating the Templar enemies you face). The only issue I really have with it is that the timeline is really hard to follow at times. For instance, when you get to Venice, it turns out that 10 years have passed since the start of the game! However, even after all this time, I still find myself invested in the experience.

The gameplay, meanwhile, is a different kettle of fish. One thing to note if you never played the older games: the fights really devolve into just killing everyone with counters. It’s not bad, by any means, but it’s also not exactly complex, so long fights can really drag. There is, at least, a large amount of weapon variety that each has its own kill animations, and you can steal weapons from your enemies for a cinematic fight. 

Meanwhile, the freerunning can be okay, but the inputs are often slow and clunky. Later Assassin’s Creed games made the climbing much faster, or introduced ways to speed up the process with stuff like grappling hooks. You don’t have that in Assassin’s Creed II, so it can take some time to get where you need to go. It’s also not that easy to move across the rooftops, mainly because the jumping can have you going in some weird directions. As such, it’s often easier to just walk at street level rather than running around the buildings. However, it still functions well enough that it’s not the biggest problem.

So, has my experience reinvigorated my love for Assassin’s Creed? Well, it has when it comes to Assassin’s Creed II, but not when it comes to the other games. The problem is that the things I didn’t like aren’t apparent in the second game. There are no RPG-based mechanics here; you can go where you want without issue. The side quests are easily ignorable, while the collectables all have a purpose.

It’s not perfect, of course, as the management mechanic for your uncle’s villa is still bare bones as hell. However, I’m going to finish the game as well as the add-on content (remember when DLC was released as full games? Good times), which is rare enough these days.