Games of the Year: Assassin’s Creed II

By Christos Reid

This week, we’re looking back at our favourite games of the year. Original reviews are now meaningless, and personal preference is key. Fresh off our reviewing pile, Assassin’s Creed II earned a respectable 7/10 score here at Resolution – but for Christos, it’s a game that shines even more brightly than that number suggests…

Let’s get something very important out of the way to start with: I was a massive fan of the first in the series, and in no way found the missions any more repetitive than Rockstar’s stellar attempts at open-world gaming. Yet I still wasn’t prepared for the quality of Assassin’s Creed II.

With any sequel, the hype is hard to live up to. Mass Effect 2, BioShock 2 and God of War III are all games that will likely get trashed by at least a few players who simply put too much faith in the “Christ has risen” furore surrounding the sequels to the favourites of yesteryear. But occasionally, the studio manages to not just update the old vehicle, but retrofit the thing with a jet engine, cup-holders and a built-in DVD/TV combo for the kids in the back.

Ezio is a stronger, more charismatic assassin, and the theme of metamorphosis is emphasised through his fall from grace and expulsion from popular Italian culture. But to then stretch his trials and tribulations over the span of 28 years is nothing short of inspired. He gains scars, grows facial hair, and in the process becomes more of a tried-and-tested character, more connected to the player, than Niko Bellic could have hoped to be.

Italy also sets a far more ambitious scene. Currency in the form of coin over trade was, in the late fifteenth century, an idea that was only just becoming popular with the rise of the Italian banking cartels. To set the game right on the knife-edge between adrenaline-pumping barbarism and suave technological and cultural progress at a speed yet unrivalled allows for more gadgets, an upgrade system, and even player housing. Ubisoft Montreal didn’t just choose Renaissance Italy because of its artistic merits and the name-dropping that comes with Da Vinci’s stellar appearance, but because it was an era able to enhance the player’s experience in a positive way.

But what people I spoke to were most excited about was the exploration outside the world created by the Animus (or rather fetching Animus 2.0, in this case). In Desmond’s prior outing into the world of virtual historic re-enactment, he simply walked to and from his bedroom, nicking things and moaning, more a 15-year-old than a would-be assassin. This time around he not only talks like a real person, reacts like a real person and even jokes like a rather Christmas-drunk person, but most importantly we finally experience the colossal damage the Animus concept does to his subconscious.

Hallucinations, visions of Altair and a loss of sanity causing him to distance himself from his contemporary supporting cast split the sequel into two genres: action and horror. For some, the fleeting glimpses of ghostly horses and members of the 12th Century may seem random, even hilarious. But for others, those for whom Jacob’s Ladder was not a “demon flick” but a journey into the insanity wrought by prolonged exposure to the horrors of warfare against our own kind, Assassin’s Creed II takes a darker turn in order to deal with its own source material.

I sound so deep-maaan, but honestly, it’s because I can’t express enough how the darker side to this science-fiction masterpiece benefits the universe it has created – and, indeed, the overall experience. But at the same time, pulling a Jesus-pose with the big sharp bits coming out of your hands and into the necks of two guards is just juicy.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS

//Halo Wars (Review – 8/10)
Quite simply, it turned the console RTS from a joke into a serious genre. To take a universe so focused on up-close and brutal conflict and convert it into the grand scale it deserves is an achievement to be proud of. It also deserves a mention because of the developer: Ensemble Studios’ unfair and downright suspicious closure moments after the reviews started flooding in shocked the community. Seems that’s always the way with those bold enough to challenge the world’s preconceptions.

//Halo 3: ODST (Review – 9/10)
It took everything I loved about the Halo experience and improved it tenfold. It wasn’t just the re-introduction of the “just a pistol? Hah. Wait and see, foolish enemies” weapon of the much-beloved original, but the new mechanics introduced, such as the VISR and the ever-frustrating-but-so-addictive Firefight. A winner, and more worth the cash for its single-player campaign than Halo 3’s unfinished narrative could ever have hoped to be.

//Dragon Age: Origins (Review – 8/10)
The only fantasy RPG to take up more of my time than Oblivion. The fluff is incredible, the graphics are great on both platforms, and the control system on consoles works extremely well regardless of difficulty. All the DLC has been integrated smoothly and easily, the current quests vary between deep, light, dark and funny, and the item and character evolution is nothing short of flawlessly balanced. I couldn’t recommend this game to RPG fans any more if I tattooed myself with the BioWare logo. To be honest, that’s always on the cards.