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Assassin's Creed II - The |OT|

Ranger X said:
AC2 = random ugly pic that is TOTALLY different than the in-game one. The in-game one is also taken at the worse moment possible, in the middle of a facial animation that when you "Pause" it looks wierd. OF COURSE it will look like the worse thing ever.

seriously :lol
This would be true for most games. Her face looks even worse when its animated.
 

Ranger X

Member
Solo said:
Hey man, I didnt make the shots. Im still wondering where the huge nose and bigger tits came from, though.

Don't worry, i'm laughing at the pics and not you directly.
It just reminded me how most comparisons on the internet are made like that, totally biased towards the answer the instigator wants to receive.
There might be something more Bell in the AC1 but I personally prefer the second one on overall. I am not impressed or anything though, I think both models are of that "standard quality" you see in all those average games out there. I sure wish we had models as detailed and well done as Uncharted 2 but I have to face the reality that this game is sadly an exception. :/

.
 

Solo

Member
Im a bit bummed to hear that there is less Desmond/Lucy stuff this time. I liked that stuff in the first game (Desmond's wonky ass controlling aside).
 

duckroll

Member
Solo said:
Im a bit bummed to hear that there is less Desmond/Lucy stuff this time. I liked that stuff in the first game (Desmond's wonky ass controlling aside).

There isn't really less honestly. It's just more concentrated across longer sequences set as major bookmarks during the game. The reason was probably because people got really annoyed with being kicked out of the Animus after every mission and having to walk around aimlessly. It flows much better in AC2.
 

qwerty2k

Member
right, i bought the second having not played the first, played a couple of hours (just got to the part where my uncle? introduces his massive mansion house) bit boring so far, hope it picks up.

anyway, anyone briefly explain the story? ie, its never explained why i was at that place (where was it?) and why the woman saved me and what she was doing before, i also didn't get that if the people who were keeping me there were against me why where they letting me use the anamis knowing that i was killing the templars?

edit: sorry meant to explain more about where i meant, i mean right at the very beginning of the game when you are in the real world.
 

Concept17

Member
Concept17 said:
So...the assassination missions... after doing them, you can still go back and do more from the same coop...are they endless, or are there a certain number of them from each coop?

Can anyone answer this for me? Really want to know if I should keep doing them or not.
 

duckroll

Member
Concept17 said:
Can anyone answer this for me? Really want to know if I should keep doing them or not.

Every single assassination contract is unique. They're not randomly generated, and if you keep playing them you'll see that each has a write up summarizing why you need to kill these people, as well as each mission having slightly different approaches. There are a fixed number for each city, so eventually they will run out, yes.
 

Mana Sin

Member
Concept17 said:
Can anyone answer this for me? Really want to know if I should keep doing them or not.

From what I saw in Florence, there's a set number in each town/city. It doesn't matter which coop you take the mission from (though some put you closer to your destination), all the coops draw missions from the same pool of missions available for the city. I did all the Florence assassination missions by taking the contracts from one coop. Once they were all done, the assassination icon disappeared from the map along with the rest of them. I suspect the same is also true in the rest of the game; There is a set number of missions per town, but it doesn't matter where in the town you take them from.
 

Amir0x

Banned
I didn't really enjoy Assassin's Creed, but Assassin's Creed 2 has me hooked. An improvement in virtually every way. Good job, Ubisoft. :bow:
 

Ranger X

Member
qwerty2k said:
right, i bought the second having not played the first, played a couple of hours (just got to the part where my uncle? introduces his massive mansion house) bit boring so far, hope it picks up.

anyway, anyone briefly explain the story? ie, its never explained why i was at that place (where was it?) and why the woman saved me and what she was doing before, i also didn't get that if the people who were keeping me there were against me why where they letting me use the anamis knowing that i was killing the templars?

edit: sorry meant to explain more about where i meant, i mean right at the very beginning of the game when you are in the real world.

You're one of those that skipped the intro movie hmm? This time you shouldn't have done it. But if you want to read more about the plot of Assassin's Creed, I suggest you wiki it.

.
 

qwerty2k

Member
i didn't skip it (i don't think, cant remember right now), it just didn't explain why i was in that place, where/what that place was nor what i was doing there in the first place?
 

Solo

Member
duckroll said:
There isn't really less honestly. It's just more concentrated across longer sequences set as major bookmarks during the game. The reason was probably because people got really annoyed with being kicked out of the Animus after every mission and having to walk around aimlessly. It flows much better in AC2.

Well then, that sounds pretty damn good then.

Goddamn. Ive got 10 games in my backlog for next month, and it was always going to be Uncharted 2 that I played first. Now Im pretty sure its going to be GTFO UC2, and hello AC2.
 

Merguson

Banned
Traded in Left 4 Dead and Fable 2 for Assassin's Creed 2, two games for one. Pretty good deal, but I want to know two things about the game.

When do I expect the game to "open" up? Like I know most people say the game gets better once you get through the beginning phase but when is that usually? I'm at the part where you
help Mario infiltrate Tuscany

Also, I don't really like the fact that I have to collect feathers, but I'm hearing that you can buy in-game maps to reveal locations of the feathers? I know you can do that for treasure chest, but what about feathers?
 

edgefusion

Member
Merguson said:
Traded in Left 4 Dead and Fable 2 for Assassin's Creed 2, two games for one. Pretty good deal, but I want to know two things about the game.

When do I expect the game to "open" up? Like I know most people say the game gets better once you get through the beginning phase but when is that usually? I'm at the part where you
help Mario infiltrate Tuscany

Also, I don't really like the fact that I have to collect feathers, but I'm hearing that you can buy in-game maps to reveal locations of the feathers? I know you can do that for treasure chest, but what about feathers?

When you get your assassin's outfit is when the game starts to pick up. There are no maps to show where the feathers are unfortunately, you'll have to just use a guide online. :(
 

jett

D-Member
Solo said:
Oh god, no :lol



Can we all agree that Lucy doesnt look very good in either game?

No.

AssassinsCreed_Desmond_and_Lucy.png


THIS is how she looks like in AC1.
 

calder

Member
Really, really love all the side missions so much more. Most everything that annoyed me in AC1 is removed (well, some dialogue still seems unskippable but it hasn't killed me.. yet) and the additional exploration stuff is great. Really loving the game so far.

I'm probably not half way done yet, but baring a catastrophe this should be a contender for GOTY for me. Surprised at how much more fun I've been having with AC2 compared to MW2, which honestly really let me down in the SP.


PS: Lucy is the most hideous character in a game full of jaw-droppingly ugly characters. Just terrible, and I can't remember any other games lately that have had such a huge gap in quality as the faces do in AC2. Some are good, many are ok, many are bad and some are just all-time ugly for the gen. :lol And I don't mean ugly-character-of-ugly-person, I mean random sister who barely looks human.
 
I really don't like the whole Desmond/Animus plot. Unless they have some huge plot twist in mind or plan on having us play as Desmond jumping from NYC skyscrapers into dumpsters (we already have Infamous), I really don't see the point of the jarring breaks from the main game.
 

Minamu

Member
Dark Octave said:
I really don't like the whole Desmond/Animus plot. Unless they have some huge plot twist in mind or plan on having us play as Desmond jumping from NYC skyscrapers into dumpsters (we already have Infamous), I really don't see the point of the jarring breaks from the main game.
I feel the exact opposite. I loved that storyline in AC1 & felt that the past was tedious. I was hoping for a lot more present/future time in this compared to the first game. And beyond the intro, I haven't seen anything of it so far after 11 hours :( Apart from some voices here & there over the comlink or whatever.
 

edgefusion

Member
calder said:
PS: Lucy is the most hideous character in a game full of jaw-droppingly ugly characters. Just terrible, and I can't remember any other games lately that have had such a huge gap in quality as the faces do in AC2. Some are good, many are ok, many are bad and some are just all-time ugly for the gen. :lol And I don't mean ugly-character-of-ugly-person, I mean random sister who barely looks human.

Ezio more than makes up for this by being the most gorgeous male character in any game ever. And he wears leather trousers at the start.
 

Sqorgar

Banned
jett said:
Not to speak of the cities, which are just LOL compared to the likes of Venice and Florence. Truly, AC2 has annihilated AC1 and there's no point in even considering playing that game ever again. Ever.
Actually, I prefer the cities in the first game. If they released a "director's cut" of the first game with just the same cities but added in a few dozen assassination missions and maybe actually direct the cutscenes, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. The first game has many problems, but the cities weren't one of them.

Seriously though. Remake AC1 using the improvements from AC2. No use creating a complex story arc when people purposely avoid the first chapter.
 
Black_Ice said:
But all the codexes are revealed on the map at that point regardless of viewpoints revealing them. They'll just be on your map when you press "back".

And what minigames?

Hmm...may be I wasn't looking closely then. I've bought treasure maps for all areas and it is cluttering the map. I'm gonna disable everything except primary markers on the map and try again.

Regarding your question, the ones you have to play to get
the golden mask to get an entry in the party
.

jett said:
Eh, the puzzles you are referring to aren't necessary to finish the game. So get a grip. And the codex pages are so fucking easy to find. Personally, I collected them all throughout the game. :p It's like a Zelda game with a radar to where the pieces of heart are collected...why wouldn't you go out of your way to get them? :p

Wait, how could you move story forward
without winning competitions in the carnivale
?
 

jett

D-Member
MirageDwarf said:
Hmm...may be I wasn't looking closely then. I've bought treasure maps for all areas and it is cluttering the map. I'm gonna disable everything except primary markers on the map and try again.

Regarding your question, the ones you have to play to get
the golden mask to get an entry in the party
.



Wait, how could you move story forward
without winning competitions in the carnivale
?

Oh, you're talking about that? Really, that? REALLY, THAT? They're just regular side-missions disguised as something special. If you had problems completing them...I don't know what to tell you. I beat them all on the first try with little to no problem.
 

Sean

Banned
I'm doing a feather hunt, have 61/100 so far.

The
hammer weapon
you get for collecting 50/100 feathers was kind of underwhelming. Not only do you have to actually purchase the item yourself, but it's got worse stats than the
Sword of Altair
. Not that huge of a deal but it'd be nice to get a more badass reward for doing this stuff.
 

Ridley327

Member
Sean said:
I'm doing a feather hunt, have 61/100 so far.

The
hammer weapon
you get for collecting 50/100 feathers was kind of underwhelming. Not only do you have to actually purchase the item yourself, but it's got worse stats than the
Sword of Altair
. Not that huge of a deal but it'd be nice to get a more badass reward for doing this stuff.

On the other hand, the animation where you line their heads up and go upside them Mark McGwire-style is one of the most viscerally rewarding animations in the entire game. I could do that for hours.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
I'm surprised the tutorial boxes that pop up never say to return to the trainer in the villa instead of telling me that viewpoints help me see the map after I already have 50+ of them. :lol

I don't know if they actually teach you a move you were unable to do or just lets you know how to do it, but it's pretty helpful. I never realized I could hold X with the throwing knives to throw 3 in different directions, or hold X with the pistol to scare people away.

Also, can you ever buy a spear? I don't have an option yet, but I LOVE the death animations with it. Sweeping a guy then sliding it down behind his neck down his back made me cringe.
 
jett said:
Oh, you're talking about that? Really, that? REALLY, THAT? They're just regular side-missions disguised as something special. If you had problems completing them...I don't know what to tell you. I beat them all on the first try with little to no problem.

That was temporary ranting. I still love the game. I had one of that late early morning-night where I was tired and still playing it because I thought I was almost at end. Shouldn't have done that.
 

jett

D-Member
Papercuts said:
I'm surprised the tutorial boxes that pop up never say to return to the trainer in the villa instead of telling me that viewpoints help me see the map after I already have 50+ of them. :lol

I don't know if they actually teach you a move you were unable to do or just lets you know how to do it, but it's pretty helpful. I never realized I could hold X with the throwing knives to throw 3 in different directions, or hold X with the pistol to scare people away.

Also, can you ever buy a spear? I don't have an option yet, but I LOVE the death animations with it. Sweeping a guy then sliding it down behind his neck down his back made me cringe.

The trainer teaches you moves under the "special moves" category, you have to buy them. And nope, you can't buy spears, axes, or longswords. My guess is it would be relatively impossible to freerun with one of those things. :p
 

wRATH2x

Banned
Solo said:
Well then, that sounds pretty damn good then.

Goddamn. Ive got 10 games in my backlog for next month, and it was always going to be Uncharted 2 that I played first. Now Im pretty sure its going to be GTFO UC2, and hello AC2.
Oh you still haven't played it? Well your in for some good times.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
jett said:
The trainer teaches you moves under the "special moves" category, you have to buy them. And nope, you can't buy spears, axes, or longswords. My guess is it would be relatively impossible to freerun with one of those things. :p

Aw, I love the death animations with all of them too.
 

Ranger X

Member
MirageDwarf said:
That was temporary ranting. I still love the game. I had one of that late early morning-night where I was tired and still playing it because I thought I was almost at end. Shouldn't have done that.

So much for always trying to have different objectives for missions! lol

You should have emailed us wich objectives becomes "mini-games" and wich are considered "true missions". :lol

.
 

Ether_Snake

安安安安安安安安安安安安安安安
Great another stupid bug. I killed the guy in Venice in the palace, and now the whole cinematic is happening while I'm on the roof and I can't move. I can't even see anyone while they talk.
 

eso76

Member
Game is awesome.
I wasn't expecting much and i hadn't really followed its development cycle; i knew i would buy it anyway since it takes place in more or less my home town, for a significant part, but wasn't too thrilled.

I didn't think AC1 was utter crap (it wasn't) but i couldn't put more than 4 or 5 hours in it, and lost interest as soon as i unlocked all towns. I realized its potential, but it was plagued by extremely repetitive missions' and the same problem which affected most Ubisoft sandbox games; they put you in a huge open world filled with absolutely nothing to do, or nothing worth doing at least.
There was no reward to exploring towns and doing side quests.

During my first 8 hours with the game AC2 kept throwing new stuff at me; sub quests, side quests, different mechanics and decent rewards, new items and abilities for Ezio. It almost became overwhelming at some point. My only complaint would be most (all ?) abilities you learn are linked to your progress in the main quest; i would have liked some advanced techniques to be optional and acquireable (?) through sub/side quests, which would have further encouraged going for a 100% completion.

Also liking the story so far. I believe most players are not familiar with historical events depicted in the game, but they're surprisingly faithfully recreated.
What the developers did was creating links between unrelated events in italian history and make them appear like the 'visible' part of the same, larger, invisible (and fictional) conflict between assassins and templars. Very Dan Brown-ish, but also very clever.
 
Just have to chime in again to mention just how much I'm loving this game. I can't put my finger on it but it has that certain something that just draws me in. It's quickly becoming one of my favorite games of this generation.
 

burgerdog

Member
The time tracker in the game has to be broken, I'm sure I've played the game more than what it states. This game is so damn addicting.
 
Finished it. 26 hrs. 30 mins. Most of games are less than 10 hrs long now (except RPG) so this is unexpected. I still have to collect 75 feathers, 2 tomb seals, and unlock The Truth.

WOW!!! One of the best sequel. It is a tie for my GsOTY with Uncharted 2, Dragon Age, and Assassin's Creed 2.

Combat is not hard. I never died in combat. But whatever it is, I think, it's perfect for game like this. If it is hard, it will become frustrating because most of your actions alert guards. Game does offer variety of weapons but I ended up using sword most of the time.

Assassin's Tomb is best new addition.

Ending was big surprise. Ending spoiler: Is it
indicating aliens
? AC3 will be very interesting.


Ranger X said:
So much for always trying to have different objectives for missions! lol

You should have emailed us wich objectives becomes "mini-games" and wich are considered "true missions". :lol

.

As I said, it was near climax (at least I thought it was climax, lol), that's why I was kinda feeling bad temporarily. Story was getting interesting.
 

Aesius

Member
MirageDwarf said:
Combat is not hard. I never died in combat. But whatever it is, I think, it's perfect for game like this. If it is hard, it will become frustrating because most of your actions alert guards. Game does offer variety of weapons but I ended up using sword most of the time.

I'd like to see combat be way harder. Especially in the beginning of the game.

Make fighting guards a big risk/big payoff situation. If you can actually kill one, you should be able to loot them for armor/weapons/money that normally would be much more difficult to obtain.

Speaking of that, I'd like to see a full inventory/stat system/level-ups for the next game. Go all out and make it even more RPG-like. Make money scarce and actually meaningful - same with weapons and armor.

I can't even imagine how addictive the game would be if they did that.
 
The big chance I'd like for combat is more counters and counter-counters. I think the best part of the combat is more about looking for the right opportunity to attack rather than chipping away damage.

jett said:
The trainer teaches you moves under the "special moves" category, you have to buy them. And nope, you can't buy spears, axes, or longswords. My guess is it would be relatively impossible to freerun with one of those things. :p

Thos weapons are also really good compared to your standard set of weapons. Sweep > ground stab with the spear would be too cheap if you could pull it off whenever you want.
 

edgefusion

Member
I only ever used the concealed blades and just countered everyone to death, you can take out a group pretty quickly if you time it right and concealed blades are BADASS.
 

Gigglepoo

Member
I go into every fight unarmed now. Combat is still pretty darn easy, but at least I feel like a bad ass now. Nothing quite impaling a guard on his own sword and then casually tossing it aside as I square up against another guy using just my hands to protect me.
 
so im just about done finally. im not disappointed. i got what i liked about the first game and more.

i really wish it hadn't such a slow start though. given the backlash from the first AC, the slow start was a huge gamble. you'd think they would grab the skeptics' attention immediately, in a big way

the payoff is huge for hanging in there though. this is a fantastic, addictive game.

i hope these guys do a sands of time game
 
Gigglepoo said:
I go into every fight unarmed now. Combat is still pretty darn easy, but at least I feel like a bad ass now. Nothing quite impaling a guard on his own sword and then casually tossing it aside as I square up against another guy using just my hands to protect me.

Around when I finished the game, all I did in most fights was hire some hookers or thugs, send them to distract the enemy, then casually strolled up and stabbed them in the back. I had 300 thousand gold and nothing else to spend it on.
 

Zzoram

Member
comedian said:
Got the platinum trophy a couple of hours ago. Really enjoyed the game, but it only took one weekend to finish. :<

Did you use a walkthrough map? I'd imagine the 100 feathers takes a while. How many hours did you play to get the platinum?
 
Gigglepoo said:
I go into every fight unarmed now. Combat is still pretty darn easy, but at least I feel like a bad ass now. Nothing quite impaling a guard on his own sword and then casually tossing it aside as I square up against another guy using just my hands to protect me.

yea i was doing this for a while too. i love when i get to use that big ass axe.
 
duckroll said:
There isn't really less honestly. It's just more concentrated across longer sequences set as major bookmarks during the game. The reason was probably because people got really annoyed with being kicked out of the Animus after every mission and having to walk around aimlessly. It flows much better in AC2.

thanks for clarifying. This is really good news, as I really enjoyed the lucy/desmond stuff... even the aimless walking.

God, I cannot fucking wait to get this game. Between the developer diary videos on PSN to all the reviews and trailers I've watched/read in front of my wife, I will have a heart attack if she doesn't pick up on the hints and get me this for my birthday (30th)
 

Prine

Banned
eso76 said:
Also liking the story so far. I believe most players are not familiar with historical events depicted in the game, but they're surprisingly faithfully recreated.
What the developers did was creating links between unrelated events in italian history and make them appear like the 'visible' part of the same, larger, invisible (and fictional) conflict between assassins and templars. Very Dan Brown-ish, but also very clever.

They're really taking a swipe at Christianity though. Am i interpreting it wrong? Evil Pope's, Altairs bashing of religion (Codex pages) and so on. Like a Gaf debate!

Templars are getting rinsed pretty bad though, i thought they were looked upon as Hero's in Europe.

Oh two things:

1. Is it possible to up the difficulty? Running into fights, im not worried about defending myself.

2. Who are the guys that randomly start running away from me? What do i do?
 

Zzoram

Member
Prine said:
They're really taking a swipe at Christianity though. Am i interpreting it wrong? Evil Pope's, Altairs bashing of religion (Codex pages) and so on. Like a Gaf debate!

Templars are getting rinsed pretty bad though, i thought they were looked upon as Hero's in Europe.

Oh two things:

1. Is it possible to up the difficulty? Running into fights, im not worried about defending myself.

2. Who are the guys that randomly start running away from me? What do i do? I tried killing them and they leave a lot of moneu when i check the bodies for gold.

1. No

2. Pickpockets. Guards also chase after them. They drop 500f if you kill them. I'm not sure if they steal from you or not but I usually chase them. You could also be referring to Mailmen, which are trying to make a delivery or something and you can also kill them (first one is a trophy).
 
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