Gaming Glories: Assassin’s Creed ll

Gaming Glories is a special edition gaming feature that allows writers to revisit and explore games that have helped shaped their gaming history. Each volume features a different writer examining different games within each issue. Enjoy!

Countless video-games, a movie in the works, novelizations; Assassin’s Creed has become a behemoth of a franchise ever since we stepped into the shoes of Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad in the series opener Assassin’s Creed, which debuted in 2007. I absolutely loved it. Getting home from school every day, I’d fire up my Xbox 360 and jump into the Holy Land circa 1191 and start assassinating enemies and scaling buildings. It was an awesome combination. Two years later though they managed to capture my attention again and deliver to me my favorite game in the series.

Assassin’s Creed ll was released in 2009 and became the biggest selling game that year. Ubisoft listened to the criticism directed at the predecessor and made sure that the same complaints wouldn’t be heard again. Theyvaried the missions to keep the game moving at a good pace and make it more interesting, the setting chosen-Renaissance Italy- was colorful and vibrant and a step in the right direction compared to the dusty, brown feeling of the Holy Land in AC.

Every time I play an Assassin’s Creed game, at the very start I will always look for the highest building, climb to the very top of it, or perch, and do a wide sweeping shot with the camera. It just gives you an idea how vast some of the locations are and how much effort the developers put in. The new character and assassin, Ezio, was charismatic, charming, and funny rolled into one. He exuded confidence and, in my opinion, is still one of the most well written video game characters.

There is a major corporation run by the Templars called Abstergo. Abstergo is massive and have their hands in every pie. It’s really just a massive front led by the Templar Order. The Templars want to create a perfect world with complete control over the freedom of people while the Assassins want everyone to retain their free will. The two factions have been battling from ancient times right up to the modern day. The Templars have infiltrated many courts and dynasties from King Darius of Persia to Hitler and many more.

In the Assassin’s Creed series, there is no time travel. Abstergo put people intovirtual reality-ish machines called the animus or animi (plural) which allows the person using the machine to relive their ancestor’s memories. Abstergo created these based on ideas they saw on old documents from the First Civilization. The First Civilization were a god-like race that came before the humans and it was they who actually created humans basically to carry out menial jobs. Enough of that though, back to ACll.

Desmond Miles, a descendant of Assassins, is kidnapped in the first AC by Abstergo and forced to live through his ancestor Altaïr’s memories in the animus so the Templars could locate a valuable Piece of Eden. Pieces of Eden are god-like objects created by the First Civilization and have massive abilities which include the ability to control huge amounts of people. In ACll, Lucy Stillman, an Abstergo employee, helps Desmond break out and takes him to an Assassin hideout.
In this hideout are two fellow Assassins, Shaun and Rebecca and there is also a new animus. Desmond is instructed to get back in the animus and relive the memories of another one of his Assassin relatives, Ezio, and find where the Piece of Eden is hidden in Renaissance Italy is and claim it before the Templars do. You control Ezio for about 95% of the game but do play as Desmond some times in the modern age. He is being trained by Lucy when out of the animus and also gets ‘trained’ in another way when in the animus. Using the animus for a long period of time causes this ‘bleeding effect‘ which means the ancestor’s memories start bleeding into the memory of the person in the animus and they gain their ancestor’s abilities.

We witness the birth of Ezio Auditore Da Firenze before time skips to his teenage years where we see him getting in scuffles, race against his older brother, and woo a high-born girl. Things get worse quickly though as his Assassin father is betrayed and Ezio sees him and his two brothers hanged, framed for treason. Ezio manages to escape the captors and remembers the message his father told him shortly before his death. He tells Ezio of a secret room in their house. Ezio enters the secret room and finds the assassin garb and the famous hidden blade-broken at the time- and the rest is history. Ezio vows to avenge his father and brothers and bring death to the ones who betrayed his family.

Ezio meets a host of interesting real life characters who add a bit of flavor to the game. Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli to name two. Leonardo is really handy in the game. If you find codex pages when you are out exploring, you can bring them to Leonardo, he’ll decipher them and give you something cool you can use. Later in the game, he creates the flying machine and lets you test it out- the flying machine is pretty damn cool! Jump off the highest building you can find, swoop down and kick a rooftop guard in the head. You can also ride horses in the countryside and steer gondolas in Venice too if you’re more of the romantic type.

Early in the story, Ezio kills the magistrate who framed his family and escapes the city with his mother and sister to his ancestral home in Monteriggioni. We meet uncle Mario here and he explains how he and Ezio’s father were Assassins and starts teaching Ezio combat and stealth and everything you- the player- need to know. Monteriggioni becomes your homestead and you have your ‘base’ there in the old Auditore mansion. The mansion and town in general are pretty beat down when you first get there but if you invest money you collect into renovating the manor and the town through the architect, you receive good bonuses. You can really see the difference to the town when you start upgrading stores and renovating buildings. It gives you a real sense of progression in the game because it requires a decent bit of money which you will require for missions and travelling from city to city. You can pickpocket people for quick money but it’s usually only a minor addition to your pocket and not worth the time. The more money you invest into Monteriggioni, the more you get into your chest at the mansion every twenty minutes so it really is worth it to help out the locals!

If you upgrade stores, you get discounts from the vendors which is pretty handy when money is tight for Ezio. You can buy swords, daggers, throwing knives, and an assortment of medieval weapons from the blacksmith who can also repair your gear. The doctor can heal you and sell you medicine. The tailor sells you clothes and can add different mixed colors so Ezio can stand out in the flashy times of the Renaissance. You can also buy paintings from art shops in the game which hang in your mansion. Upgrading the thieves’ guild and courtesan buildings also help as you get discounts for their service in helping you distract guards when you need to slip in somewhere unannounced.

As I mentioned earlier, the game is quite beautiful. We get to visit wonderful locations such as Florence, Monteriggioni, San Gimignano, Forli, Venice and just a little bit of Rome for the last mission. We get to visit the special landmarks in these areas like St. Mark’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel among many others. The Assassin’s Creed series has always done a good job of letting you be a little touristy in these great real life locations they painstakingly recreate.

I’ve recently been playing ACll again and it is just so striking how good the game still looks to me. I expected to come back and be unimpressed with the colors and annoyed by controller ‘clunkiness’ but I had none of these issues. The game is now seven years old (time flies!) but don’t let that put you off while playing it. If you still somehow haven’t jumped into the AC universe, let ACll be your baby steps. It’ll be a great introduction and it may spur you on to play the full Ezio trilogy which has a very fitting end to his fascinating story.

I’m done with writing now and I think it’s time I take a little trip back to the Renaissance.

“The Auditore are not dead! I’m still here! Me! Ezio! Ezio Auditore!”

Words by Gerard Thornton