First, a short warning. I have not played the original Assassin's Creed, and don't intend to anytime soon. As such, certain comments may not vibe with those who have played the first game. No big issue there, just laying out in the open. Oh, and also, SPOILER ALERT!!!
As the score testifies, I was very happily surprised by the game. To begin with, the story was quite good, enjoyable (obvious sequel ending aside), and interesting in the mechanics of how it was laid out. The overlapping present-day story of Desmond and the modern Assassin fight against the Templars has the effect of a framing narrative, but one that is both tied to and in most ways dependent upon the body narrative of Ezio and the Renaissance Assassins. The interplay between the two is not in-depth, but the ending turns the entire thing on its head. It's unexpected, but incredibly effective. It's something I haven't seen played with since the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, which, while not dealing with similar technology or ideas, used the video game mechanic in a way that was new and invigorating. With a slightly different slant Ubisoft's done the same there here. As I said, quite nice.
The main story of Ezio is quite engaging on its own, as cliche as it might be. The characters are colourful and the high quality voice acting done with just the right level of bad and good Italian accents. The star of the Italian story though, is the Italian backdrop.
When I say Ubisoft went out of their way to make a fantastic world that was at once believable, playable, and historically accurate, I'm doing them a great disservice. Fantastic doesn't cut it. Scope, detail, and layout are all amazing. The polygon count for a city like Venice, is hard to imagine. Some serious work has gone into creating an engine that can craft the entire city as seamlessly as it does, all the while making it feel natural, while keeping the playability factor that's required for an open-world platformer like this. Even that phrase is somewhat astounding. An open-world platformer. Let's face it, most open world games have been knock-offs of Grand Theft Auto, where killing civilians is a major source of fun. This game moves the entire open-world concept into another realm, where the cliches are removed, and civilians are no longer targets, just objects getting in the way. I know I've missed out on a couple years of gaming lately, but except for Fable, I can't think of an RPG that's tried this approach (MMORPGs aside), even though it seems it would be perfectly suited to it. Whatever, I'm just proselytizing, the game structure works great. The buildings are all scalable, which means they often wind up resembling one another, but by the time Venice comes around you are used to it, and the beauty of the dissimilar buildings makes up for the mind-numbingly similar ones.
The rest of the renaissance setting is great too. Merchants hawk clothes and weapons. Doctors promote fresh cut leeches, and the prostitutes are something right out of a Shakespearean play. The attention to detail in the historically accurate buildings is great too. Infiltrating the Vatican is a great feeling, and speaking with Leonardo da Vinci is just plain awesome. Nothing brings out the inner geek like a little historical fiction. That Ubisoft did it so well is a testament to their homework, and attention to detail.
The other thing they did great was the gameplay. The movement mechanics have about an hour learning curve (if you've never played the first game at least), and then they feel second nature. Fighting, while not incredibly in depth, is good. The lack of depth however means that fights eventually degenerate into the exact same thing every time. The supremely patient AI (and its subsequent inability to stop you in the middle of a killing blow of their allies) makes for unrealistic sequences that belie the overwhelming pseudo-historical approach taken to the whole game. It's a weak point, but given the control scheme available, there might not be much room for improvement. Perhaps a trigger could switch combat modes, or perhaps you should be given a greater incentive to run from large numbers of enemies. Just an idea...
The platforming is super fluid, almost to a fault at times, like when a slight tilt of the left stick sends you running up an adjacent wall instead of jumping up on top of the box you were meaning to. Still, in the end, you feel as though you always have control of Ezio, and any errors your avatar makes, you know are yours.
One other small problem is the quick time action sequences. The first one as a child is cute, but the rest are not necessary, at least not in most cases. At least they're kept to a minimum.
Other than that, I believe the score really speaks for itself. This is a great, great game. And Ubisoft can count on me picking up a copy of the inevitable third title (assuming it doesn't get horrible, horrible reviews upon release). If nothing else, I want to see how Desmond's story winds up, and where the next area will be (French Revolution? Japan, 1930's? England 1700's? Or a jump back to China, say during the Three Kingdoms period?). Until then, I may have to go back and beat this one again.
