Impressions: Assassin's Creed 2
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While the Splinter Cell Conviction demo at PAX was (mostly) free of anything new, Ubisoft decided to show off a completely new live demo of Assassin's Creed II. The demo was guided by creative director Patrice Désilets, who was a mite nervous giving a demo in front of a frothing throng of rabid fans. After the demo, we can safely say his fears were unfounded.
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The demo was set in Florence, and Désilets showed off many new abilities for the game's lead character, Ezio. First, picking pockets is as simple as bumping into pedestrians. We saw Ezio saunter through a crowd, brushing his hands against random citizens and swiping a few Florens from each of them.
Money can be used to purchase various items, like poison, which Désilets bought from a doctor. You can also use money to hire mercenaries to help do your dirty work. Side missions return again, only this time around many of them set restrictions for players. The mission in the demo, for example, required that Ezio assassinate a target without raising an alarm -- sounds like a good use for poison, but not in the way you'd think.
Désilets explained that the development team wanted to make exploration less restrictive than the first game. To facilitate this, Ezio will sometimes encounter hanging baskets on the corners of buildings. Players can use these to swing around the corner, effecting an instant 90 degree turn without losing any momentum. It's very reminiscent of Prince of Persia. Eagle Vision has also been streamlined. Players can now walk while Eagle Vision is enabled, which makes tailing targets much simpler.
Speaking of targets, Désilets eventually caught up with his, except there was one problem: The target had a bodyguard. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where the poison comes in. Désilets slyly trotted over to the bodyguard and dosed him with poison. Rather than simply keeling over and dying, Gertrude-style, the poor soul quickly went mad. He quickly began to slash everything in sight with his halberd, including Ezio's target. Mission accomplished. Désilets, however, wasn't finished.
Ezio has another new ability: He can throw money from his purse onto the ground. It just so happens that Désilets did this within range of the enraged bodyguard, causing many of the innocents to be slaughtered before he finally succumbed to the poison. At this point, all Hell broke loose, and Ezio soon became embroiled in a battle with half a dozen guards. While Désilets had to struggle a bit to show us a new feature -- the AI did a good job surrounding and cornering him -- he did eventually succeed in using an enemy soldier as a human shield, another new feature.
And, as if all that wasn't enough, Désilets revealed that Assassin's Creed II also plays host to a new style of gameplay. There are several catacombs located throughout the game, offering players a more linear, puzzle-oriented section. He noted that they were inspired by Prince of Persia. Players enter a dungeon-like catacomb and must reach the exit -- in this particular mission, Ezio was tasked with listening in on a secret Templar meeting. The Prince of Persia influence is evident immediately, as once Ezio enters the catacomb, the camera pans through the chamber, revealing the path he must take. Désilets noted that there are three to five hours of catacombs in Assassin's Creed II, further explaining that they can be used to teach the player different ways of playing the game -- something he earlier admitted wasn't done very well in the original.
All in all, it's clear that Ubisoft is aiming to offer as much variety as possible to players in Assassin's Creed II. Given that repetition was the main complaint leveled at the first game, that's a very good thing. Assuming the new features, abilities and missions we saw in the demo can manage to keep the game fresh, fans are in for a real treat.
