Note: This review includes Brotherhood and Revelations
Assassin's Creed 2
After the ending of Assassin's Creed, the first instalment to the series, continues with Assasin's Creed 2 at Abstergo in Desmond's room (if that is what you want to call it). Lucy runs in and demands you to get into the animus before time runs out. The story begins with the birth of the next ancestor, Ezio Auditore. You quickly exit the animus and escape out of Abstergo with Lucy. After the escape you end up in some factory where Lucy basically tells Desmond that he has to become an Assassin and begin his training through Ezio by the bleeding effect. This brings the introduction of two new main characters Shaun Hastings and Rebecca Crane.Then begins your quest through the late 1400's with Ezio as he learns to become an assassin.
In the animus, it begins with Ezio in the room of Cristina (whom you later will find out who she is)and her father catches you and Ezio quickly flees. This portrays Ezio to be a little bit mischievous and a little immature. In Florence, Ezio's father and 2 brothers get convicted of treason after being portrayed and get hanged due to Ezio being unable to save them after getting the clothing and the weapons of the Assassin's. Ultimately, Ezio along with his mother and his Sister are forced to flee to the family's countryside villa where his Uncle, Mario who begins Ezio's training to become an Assassin in Monteriggioni.
In this Trilogy, this game was my favourite by far.I really loved many of the new features in this game. They introduced swimming which was an amazing difference from the first game, where you would touch the water and just die, but in this game you can swim and even escape guards through the water by swimming away from them. I also really enjoyed there being many different cities to travel too because it made it more eventful and didn't make it too boring just browsing around the same city. Ubisoft learned in this one from their mistakes from the previous games and basically fixed all of them up including the map and the amount of collectibles around each city. I also enjoyed the rebuilding of Monteriggioni which allowed you access to new items which made it meaningful to have money. I believe the storyline in this game of the trilogy was great and Ezio was a great character to be the second ancestor in the series. The introduction of the groups such as the Mercenaries was handy to help distract and get away from guards more easily. Finally, the introduction of the Assassin's tombs and Templar tombs were quite good and an easy way to make some quick money. And how can I forget the game-play with Ezio. He climbs quicker, there are so many new ways to assassinate people and countering, the whole experience is changed and it makes the game more enjoyable.
But as always with the goods there are also bads. In this game I didn't have many criticisms of things that were just plain old bad. The first thing is there are some visions of Altair in this game and it doesn't really have much of a connection to the other game. Also, you do get to use Desmond a little bit in this game, but otherwise his presence seems useless until the end of the game. Finally, I didn't like finding Subject 16's glyphs around the city, because you had to find the right building but the end result is interesting even though it doesnt mean much. In this game there weren't many noticeable bugs (I actually didn't encounter any while playing).
At the end of this game, Ezio travels to the Vatican to assassinate the Pope, Rodrigo Borgia and learns the secrets of the Apple of Eden. They also introduce a new piece of Eden, the Staff of Eden in order to open the vault. You head inside and encounter the Pope. You fight him, he takes the Apple from you and stabs you. You later wake up and head to the vault and let the Pope live on. As you go into the vault, you encounter a spirit whose name is Minerva and she uses Ezio to talk to Desmond. She basically explains that the world will come to an end but there is a way to save it by finding the other temples similar to the one Ezio is currently in. You then wake up with Desmond and he starts fighting the Templars from Abstergo. Desmond moves as though he is Ezio himself as he picks up the skills through the bleeding effect. The game ends with you leaving the hideout.
Rating 9.5/10
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
The next instalment of the trilogy begins with Ezio, looking more mature. Ezio is still in the vault and leaves, but finds the Pope to have fled. The staff is basically useless and your Uncle comes to save you. You head back to Monteriggioni where the city gets destroyed and everyone flees the city through the Hideout under the city. Desmond heads to Rome and you wake up having to open the entrance to Monteriggioni villa through the back entrance. They set up and Desmond enters the animus and he turns up in Rome.
There is somethings which I quite liked about this game. Firstly, the introduction of the kill-streak This is one of my favourite things about the game. Basically, being able to continue killing foes makes it a lot more fun! Secondly, being able to ride horses again made it quicker to travel but you also had the fast travel stations which were a lot quicker as well. The new equipment such as the parachute and whistling for a horse was quite useful as well. The thing I loved most about this game was the Templar Guilds, claiming them was just more fun to do. The assassin's guild is quite good as well. I really enjoyed training assassin's and then having assassin's to assist you in missions or when you need help. Finally, the missions of Ezio memories, I really liked those because you find out about his girlfriend which you first meet at the very beginning of the trilogy.
Otherwise, I have many problems with this game. Firstly, destroying the city after all your hard work rebuilding them in the previous game was irritating. Also, putting the rebuilding to a new extreme was overdone by the makers as it was way too much work to do to actually rebuild everything for income. Thirdly, the Pope gets killed early on in the game and you feel what am I still doing then. Also, it got a bit boring playing in the same city for basically the whole game. The subject 16 puzzles were boring and I recommend you all give it a miss because it ends up meaning nothing once again. Once again, there are too many collectables to collect and no one can be bothered collecting them since it basically means nothing. I did not like the idea of there being the individual guild missions where you have to achieve a certain amount of kills or whatever, nope don't enjoy doing them. Finally, the introduction of 50% sync and 100% is the worst thing to join the franchise. No man is going to waste his time doing 100% sync if he doesn't have to, I find it quite useless.
At the end of this game, Ezio just kills Cesare Borgia and leaves the Apple of Eden at the Colosseum. You exit the animus. You leave the villa and go to the Colosseum to retrieve the Apple when you encounter Juno another spirit Minerva mentioned at the end of the last game. The whole gang enters the Church to gain access to the location of the Apple. After a lot of manoeuvring with Desmond, you get access to the Temple of Juno. Once again after a lot of manoeuvring Desmond retrieves the Apple of Eden. As Desmond picks up the Apple and Juno makes you kill Lucy. Desmond falls to the ground and that ends of that massive cliff hanger.
Rating: 8.5/10
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
The story begins with Desmond in the animus going through the end of the last game in his mind. He wakes up in the animus on a beach and meets subject 16 and he tells you that your mind and body aren't working together like before, so Desmond has to separate himself from Ezio and Altiar to allow him back to his body by going through all there memories. You enter back into Ezio's memories where you begin at Masyaf in his quest for Altair's library which is under the city. Ezio has matured even more since the last game and finds the libraries entrance. You are told you have to find the Masyaf keys to gain access to the library.There are some things which I enjoyed about the game. The fast travel is improved in this game which makes it a lot quicker to travel than before. There are a wide variety of missions as well as the introduction of the hook blade and bombs which is quite handy especially when you could slide on the ropes above the city to get to places quickly. I also liked how Altair's memories were also linked into the game. It made it more interesting to see what he did after what happened in the first game as it left many questions unanswered. Otherwise, other than the storyline I didn't really enjoy this game much.
The game first of all seemed to short. I think I finished this game within 24 hours and I had nothing left to do at all which killed the whole year build up to the conclusion of the trilogy. The Templar Guilds were taken too far like they have done with other things in this game. The templars being able to take it back was good but the way you have to defend it was basically impossible and I didn't bother fighting since it was a waste of time. Again, they didn't remove/reduce the rebuilding of the city which I hated by this game because there was even more shops to claim. I didn't want to waste hours on things I didn't need in the game to complete it. Another thing the didn't remove was the optional sync. Once again, if I couldn't finish 100% sync the first time I would just continue through the game. Finally, the most useless of them all was the Desmond sequences. They were utter crap, just why are you playing with building blocks. It was very poor by Ubisoft to think of playing with that. I skipped them after completing the first one because it was unappealing
At the end of the game, you begin on a horse and carriage with Sofia chasing Ahmet. Selim whom kills Ahmet in the end comes. Desmond then exits the safe zone as it disintegrates. You find out that Lucy was working with Abstergo all along. They planned it from the beginning and were communicating all along with each other to help get there hands on the Apple. After that, your back playing with Ezio and he is with Sofia at Masyaf. You come to the enter the library and you find Altair's skeleton and he holding one last key. This ending is quite neat. You flash back to Altair's memory and you find its a vault not actually a library. It shows Altair doing the opposite of what Ezio was doing, defusing all the lights and he hides his Apple at the back of the library. He sits down on the chair and dies, then it flashes back to Ezio. Ezio then talks to Desmond but refuses to take the Apple. Ezio explains about what he has done with his life and knows that he is just a conduit to reveal information to Desmond. Then it flashes out and he's talking to a unnamed male spirit who explains there are many vault which is used to save the world. He then shows how the world ended in there time and they could do anything about it. Then Desmond wakes up and they introduce his father at the very end of the game. This was another cliff hanger, why are there two Apples, How will Desmond save the world, are just some of the questions we were left asking for another year for the next instalment to be released.
Rating: 8/10
By Armaan Nawaz
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