Just started playing Assassins Creed 2

[Tsakali]

A very well done game! Looks pretty, there is lots to do, even though I don't understand why the gameplay is so easy. The cities are fairly huge and would satisfy any wondering cravings you might need to fulfill, but I have one issue with this game. The on screen small map. It pretty much lays everything out for you, which somewhat takes away from the immersion. Turning off the small map completely changes the gameplay, but it makes navigation and following missions nearly impossible. It's nice that you can choose to hide most markers from the map and only show what you want, so I'm curious as to how most of you fine people here decided to go about it? Did you leave the map and all the marking on/off? if on, what markings do you enable/disable?

I like the potential of going off the grid and just experiencing the game as a tourist would, just wondering through the city waiting to be pleasantly surprised by the things I uncover myself, but the cities are so random and huge that visual navigation is daunting.

I just wish their system was informative enough to give you a sense of direction without completely laying everything out for you.

[MKJ]

make sure you pay extra attention to the glyphs, their puzzles and the puzzles within the puzzles.
best part of the game imo

as for navigation, use landmakrs and belltowers as your beacons. landmarks are the darkgrey buildings on the map

[MKJ]

also, wait till you get to venice; the markers arent much help thanks to all the alleys and canals

[Κracus]

Yeah, AC3 seems to have improved the variety of people that populate the world making it less 2 dimensional. I'm playing it now, not too bad so far. I much prefered AC 2 over AC 1 and AC 3 so far is proving to be interesting.

[Captain]

Brotherhood is not AC3.

[Κracus]

No? care to elaborate?

[Captain]

Brotherhood is an expansion to AC2's storyline. AC3 will be in a different age altogether like the rest of the games in the series.

[Κracus]

Ah I see... and here I was hoping I'd be playing as Desmond for the majority of the game. Makes sense I guess since I've been Ezio for the most part.

[MKJ]

i prefer AC2 over ACB tho. B is awesome but lacks a certain something. prolly because the Ezio storyline feels so useless.

[Eraser]

Just downloaded it and played the very first bits. Seems fun so far, although the 2012 bits at the beginning look really poor.
I'm feeling sort of disconnected from the storyline, but I have never played AC1, so I think that's why. But I'm only about 45 mins in, so I guess I'll get into it more as I get deeper into the game.

[brisk]

AC1 is decent. It's just repetitive.

AC2 fixed almost all the issues and then ACB added a lot of nice touches. Ezio also looks better with a beard.

It's a great series of games. AC3 with Desmond as the main focus should be brilliant.

[Κracus]

Yeah I'm really anxious to see what that's going to be like.

I wouldn't say AC1 is neccessary to really understand AC2.

[tnf]

AC2 > AC Brotherhood

[Eraser]

Emka, are all onscreen texts in your AC2 in Dutch as well? I hate it, really destroys immersion and actually harder to understand because some English terms are commonly used in games. Now that they're Dutch I suddenly have to think about what they mean.

Not sure why Ubisoft does this. They did it with Prince of Persia as well and Beyond Good & Evil even had Dutch voice overs.

As if a game like Assassins Creed is ment for people that are unable to read English. In Holland, that would usually mean you're very young (or very old). I'd rather see Ubisoft not doing this.

[MKJ]

Yes, AC2 is a cunt like that. for that reason I have my xbox' locale set to the UK.

(ACB lets you choose the language of the subs btw).

[Tsakali]

also, wait till you get to venice; the markers arent much help thanks to all the alleys and canals

I'm getting the hang of my surroundings. yeah venice is a little here and there but for the most part the huge gaps of water are a good landmark as well.


On a side note I'm still kinda disappointed on how easy the game is. It could be alot better. It has all the necessary bits to make it a more involved, intence and rewarding. Matter of fact it feels like they were setting it up very intuitively but they decided to dumb it down for the general public. For instance, if you're not careful you can knock down the crates some people are carrying around, but when you do nothing happens. It would be great if such an event would actually raise suspicion of guards and people you are following. Fighting a hoard of guards should be alot more difficult, than it is. FFS I'm surrounded by a bunch of guards and there only about one or two of them attempting to hit me at any point in time. IMO if you were to pick a fight with 4 or more guards you should be slaughtered, or at the very least it should require alot more action from you than just blocking which makes you invisible more or less.. also blocking shouldn't be so absolute, it should take away a minimal amount of health, just to keep you on your toes. I'd like to see a remake of this game with a slight russian touch

[MKJ]

to be fair, the cratedropping thing you propose was in AC1 and it was more than annoying. you couldnt cough without having 3 guards on your tail.

have you encountered Brutes yet? huge bros with hammers or longspears..those will fuck you up if you attempt to block. iirc 3 healthsquares a hit

[Captain]

As awesome as AC2 is, the combat does indeed fall flat in some parts. Nothing worse than being circled by a dozen guards who only stand and stare at you. They should've taken a look at how Arkham Asylum dealt with crowded fights.

[MKJ]

truth.
fixed in ACB btw. theyll attack you while you're busy stabbing some bro in the face.

[Tsakali]

to be fair, the cratedropping thing you propose was in AC1 and it was more than annoying. you couldnt cough without having 3 guards on your tail.

have you encountered Brutes yet? huge bros with hammers or longspears..those will fuck you up if you attempt to block. iirc 3 healthsquares a hit

ah, i skipped AC1, I heard AC2 was leaps better, plus I kind of have an issue with outdated graphics.

yeah the brutes are better rivals but still, there is no sense of urgency.

sounds like I'm going to enjoy ACB. guess I'll wait till it comes out for PC.

[Κracus]

Actualy I think the graphics in AC1 might be better than ACB. The first thing I noticed playing ACB was that the horse didn't seem as realistic and felt less planted on the ground. I assumed they dumbed down the graphics a bit to add more gameplay elements but AC1 still looks great from a graphical standpoint.

[MKJ]

tis all the same engine anyway.
visible spawns of NPCs in ACB is a bit weak. but I just pretend its part of the hacked together Animus

[Eraser]

Um, I've got a codex page but need Leonardo da Vinci to decode it. Where do I find him? He's not marked on the map but I did meet him already (to carry the paintings for our mum)

[MKJ]

the story needs a few twists and turns before da Vinci decides to aid you.

[Eraser]

Yes, I've met him again and he told me to bring him codex pages, yet he still doesn't turn up on the map...