Assassin’s Creed II Retrospective - Part 1

For the majority of my life, I’d have put Assassin’s Creed II as one of, if not my favourite game of all time. It was the first that I’d ever become truly obsessed with, but despite that, I haven’t played through it in years; I’ve found myself pretty distant from the franchise since Assassin's Creed Syndicate, but with the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows on the horizon, I decided it might be time to take a look back at the game which began my decade-long adoration for the series. For clarity, there will be spoilers for the first four sequences within this retrospective, with the future parts spoiling the rest.

Prologue

Assassin’s Creed II is the first in the Ezio trilogy and begins his journey into the conflict between the Assassins and the Templars. Parallel to this, the modern-day storyline following Desmond is playing out. It opens up practically where Assassin’s Creed ends: our protagonist Desmond is awoken by Lucy, a member of Abstergo (a front for the modern-day Templar organisation), who is a double agent working for the Assassins. She rushes him into the Animus, trying to find something before they attempt to escape. Despite trying to slow them down, they get out and find their way into an Assassin stronghold, where we meet Rebecca and Shaun. Lucy pulled the memory core from the Animus at Abstergo, which she gave to Rebecca, the new Animus technician. While that’s being set up, Desmond talks to Shaun, who handles many Assassin-related missions from a distance. Here, we also discover our actual goal: using the Animus to explore the memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze — an Assassin from Renaissance Italy — Desmond will learn skills through him thanks to the Bleeding Effect, a side effect of the Animus where the user can learn the skills of those whose memories they explore, while also trying to beat the Templars to solving a mystery concerning the fate of the world.

I absolutely adore this intro sequence; the modern-day story and characters are fantastic, and it sets up every important detail for upcoming events while still laying some foundations for the rest of Desmond’s journey. During your escape, Desmond fights with a very scrappy style and attitude, setting up for the growth he receives thanks to the Bleeding Effect, refining his skills. Lucy’s character evolves, and both Rebecca and Shaun are incredibly charming. During our quick dive into the Animus before escaping, we witness the birth of our protagonist during the Renaissance sections, which really does a good job of connecting us to him.

Sequence 1

Upon entering the Animus proper, we finally take the reins of Ezio, at the age of 17, rallying his friends for a fight against Vieri de’ Pazzi and his men. It’s a strong intro to the character — he’s shown to be a great leader and is very charismatic, two of his greatest assets. Vieri and his men are beaten and fall back, and before he can give chase, Ezio’s brother Federico comes to drag him away and take him to a doctor for a wound on his lip. After getting some medicine and racing Federico up to the roof of a church, he spends his night with Cristina, a girl he was in a relationship with at the time. Upon returning home, he runs some errands for his family and gets introduced to Leonardo Da Vinci, the greatest side character in the entire series. Later, we find out that his father Giovanni, along with his brothers Federico and Petruccio, have been arrested, and after climbing to the top of the Palazzo della Signoria. Giovanni redirects him to a secret room within his office. There is a chest containing evidence to clear his family's names, some Assassin robes, a sword, and a broken Hidden Blade. Ezio takes this evidence to Uberto Alberti, a friend of the family and the Gonfaloniere of Justice who assures him that things will be ok. The next morning, he goes to his family’s hearing, where Uberto lies about the evidence that was delivered and promptly hangs our protagonist's father and brothers before sending guards to kill the Auditore heir.

Ezio escapes, which marks the end of a practically flawless first sequence. The bridge encounter is a great start to his character and functions as a natural tutorial for combat, while the race up the church and climb up the Palazzo work as basic movement/parkour tutorials. Ezio’s familial relationships add a lot of depth to his character, and they feel very natural. Many of the documents you’ll be delivering for Giovanni have deeper hints towards the Assassin/Templar conflict, but not in any meaningful way to disrupt the pacing of the storytelling. It works well, and the betrayal of Uberto feels genuine; he was shown to be a close friend of the family, and the foreshadowing is notable but not forced. I do have one major gripe, though: Ezio’s mother and sister aren’t arrested with the rest of his family, however, it’s heavily implied that the guards assault his mother, leading her to becoming mute. This alone could work as a story beat, but nobody seems to care or really give this much notice. In a title so heavily driven by the importance of familial relations and revenge, this feels like a majorly missed point, and in the end, it just feels like a cheap shock tactic.

Sequence 2

This sequence is, for the most part, the game's real tutorial and is, therefore, relatively light on story elements, at least until the conclusion. Despite that factor, it works well in its favour, introducing all the new mechanics seamlessly, such as blending and a little more parkour. This is also where we meet many mainstay characters; our vengeful hero visits Paola, the owner of “La Rosa Colta” (The Plucked Rose), a brothel, where she teaches him to blend and utilise the Courtesans as a distraction. Paola is intriguing and hints at a past similar to his, making a fantastic personal connection while introducing someone we’ll see a little more later on. Ezio also makes another visit to Leonardo Da Vinci, where we get our first proper glimpse of his role in the and his personality. He helps translate the Codex page found within Giovanni’s chest, giving him the knowledge to repair the Hidden Blade, which is then tested out on a guard who begins harassing Leonardo. We see a goofy side to Leonardo here, where he jokes about removing Ezio’s ring finger — an old Assassin tradition, to show commitment while also being required to use the Hidden Blade, but Leonardo makes some changes to spare his finger. This is a great scene on multiple levels, both showing the charm of Leonardo, along with their growing friendship, but it also manages to show a deeper look at him. He barely hesitated and was willing to give up his ring finger almost instantly, showing he was fully committed to this path.

Before we get into the Uberto assassination — the finale of this sequence — I want to take a moment to discuss the Glyphs hidden around Italy. During our journey through Italy, you’ll stumble upon important historical buildings with hidden Glyphs that can only be revealed by using Eagle Vision. Upon finding them, you’ll receive a message from Subject 16 — Abstergo’s previous test subject, who died while inside the Animus. He left messages within each Glyph, in which he discusses a deeper secret to humanity. After solving the puzzles within, you’ll receive part of a video giving some insight into the Isu, a race that predated humanity. I loved this system and its subtlety. It’s easy to ignore, beyond the first Glyph, and doesn’t have crucial data to understand the ensuing story, but it gives nice insight into the mystery before it’s really revealed towards the end of Assassin’s Creed II and the future titles. I appreciated its subtlety here, as it never encroached on the primary parts of the story.

Closing out this chapter, we have the assassination of Uberto Alberti. Mechanically, it’s nothing special. After blending in to get to a door and distracting the guards, you have full access to Uberto; with any knowledge, it can take less than a minute, but it works well enough as a culmination of the skills that have been taught. What it lacks in mechanical complexity, it makes up for in the narrative department. Killing Uberto is cathartic for the player but seemingly less so for Ezio. The kill itself is not even close to stealthy, with multiple stabs to the chest whilst yelling his name, announcing to everyone present: “The Auditore are not dead”. Thanks to this, it’s a fantastic showcase of the novice Assassin in both mindset and skill set, and it’s further conveyed with the incredible performances. Upon his death, Ezio obtains the documents regarding the wider conspiracy, including the Pazzi family.

Sequence 2 was much lighter than the first but still thoroughly good. It sets up the deeper conspiracy while giving the young Assassin a reference point for his future growth across the trilogy. The tutorials were pretty heavy here, but it was all integrated seamlessly and didn’t feel like it was forced or unnatural.

Sequence 3

This is another sequence heavy on tutorials, leaning more into direct combat tutorials rather than stealth, which we have seen little of in the main game but will be seeing too much going forward. The sequence starts with Ezio taking his mother Maria and sister Claudia away from Florence and to his Uncle Mario’s villa in Monteriggioni, planning to go further still to Spain. On the way they're ambushed by Vieri, but he and his men are driven off by Mario and his mercenary forces. Mario is wonderfully charming and emotionally grounded, which works well to stabilise our protagonist in his current state.

At this point, we’re shown around Monteriggioni, which is super quaint and has a strong feeling of “home” (this might just be the nostalgia speaking, though). The villa functions well as a base of operations and has some interesting, if simple, secrets hidden around. The first are the statuettes of the Roman gods, which can be found around Monteriggioni and placed in their rightful locations to earn some money. The second and more interesting one is the Sanctuary. While not really a secret, it is a cool little area. We can gather six seals from Assassin Tombs over the course of the game, and these seals unlock the best armour: the Armour of Altaïr. The Sanctuary itself is a treat to return to in retrospect, as many of the figures shown here, such as Amunet, we have far more context on now. Amunet is an alias for Aya from Assassin’s Creed Origins.

Collectibles are abundant but mostly underwhelming. Feathers and Chests are the most common, and neither are particularly interesting nor rewarding overall. Finding all 100 feathers grants you the Auditore Cloak, which makes you constantly notorious in each area of the game, and Chests simply gives you money. Like the collectables, money is also incredibly easy to obtain, which is a bit of a problem. It gets to a point where it feels completely inconsequential as a currency, and with the armour and weapons upgrades being time-gated, you have nothing to spend it on aside from cheaply topping up consumables and upgrading Monteriggioni. The architect within the villa allows Ezio to purchase upgrades for the town, from improving each shop, which reduces prices, and renovating other buildings; both increase the town's value. It’s nice to see these buildings physically change when upgrades are made, but there’s a glaring issue that once again, comes back to the economy. As you increase the town's value, you slowly accumulate money within the chest of the villa, which can get out of hand quickly. It’s a simple problem, but when the combat is already trivial, making any upgrades so easily accessible makes an already weak system even worse. For context, I wasn’t even going out of my way to complete 100% of the races, beat-up mini-games, or find all the chests to min-max my potential money, yet this problem still crept in very early into my playthrough.

After getting to grips with the town, Mario gives us some combat training — more tutorials. These feel much less natural than the rest but work well enough. My biggest gripe here is the progression of time. During the training, which only takes a few minutes, an entire year passes in-game. This isn’t particularly egregious, but it’s the start of a problem that gets a lot worse. After this training, the Auditore family still plans on leaving, and Mario walks away, disappointed that he doesn’t want to help bring down the conspiracy. After hearing that Mario is in Tuscany, assaulting Vieri’s men, joins him, feeling bad about being the reason Vieri is a problem for Mario in the first place, and here we have our next assassination mission. It’s a stretch to call it that, as it’s more of a long-form action set-piece, fighting through Vieri’s men. This works pretty well in context, as their personal conflict has always been pretty violent. The Assassin stumbles upon a meeting between the Pazzi and the mysterious man he saw at his family's execution. It’s a little bizarre to see them all together, and it feels somewhat unrealistic, but it’s nothing that ruins the plot at all. Vieri leaves when he hears of the attack, and finally, we reach the man himself, and he’s defeated with relative ease. The assassination sequence is similar in tone to Uberto’s, Ezio is incredibly aggressive in how he treats Vieri, but this time, we get more from Vieri. We are told how he only wanted approval from his father, Francesco de’ Pazzi, and he does feel mildly sympathetic. Mario defuses the situation and introduces the iconic phrase: “Requiescat in pace” (rest in peace).

Returning to Monteriggioni, Mario introduces us to the wall of Codex pages he’d collected and has a very brief discussion on what they entail regarding a prophecy, which is quickly disregarded by the hot-headed protagonist. Ezio also decides to stay and help dissolve the conspiracy instead of escaping to Spain. I do wish we had more discussion about what the Codex entails. Beyond the prophecy, basically, nothing in the Codex is discussed, which is a shame since a lot of it is incredibly interesting, discussing what the Apple can do, the new/altered creed of the Assassins since Altaïr took over and even some discussion on the Isu. It’s unfortunate that it’s relegated to optional reading that many will miss, but it does play into the more personal story that Assassin’s Creed II is trying to tell rather than the more direct ideological and intellectual conflict that the first title entails.

Sequence 3 is another tutorial-heavy sequence, but the last one we’ll encounter and it’s another solid sequence. While it lays the groundwork for some of the bigger problems, it’s nothing too egregious as of yet. Vieri’s death is a great way to mark the real beginning of Ezio’s growth, as he’s the final link to his adolescence that lingers, and now he can truly grow into the man he’ll become.

Sequence 4

Here is where the training wheels come off, and, in context, it works to show that Ezio is finally beginning his own path as an Assassin proper. Here we return to Florence to deal with Francesco de’ Pazzi, and it’s an interesting homecoming. We meet with Leonardo, who notices a change in the two years since they last spoke: “But you are not the same at all, are you…”. There’s a nice awareness here, which shows the connection between the two naturally. After translating another Codex page and creating the Dual Hidden Blades, Leonardo gives us a hint about finding La Volpe, the head of the thieves in Florence, who can direct Ezio on Francesco’s next moves. After finding him, he gives us directions to a Templar meeting, where we can learn of the Pazzi’s plan of action. The family are all very individual; despite being formed under the same banner, they have their own ideals and still feel like varied characters rather than a group merely following orders.

On our way to said meeting, we’re formally introduced to the Assassin Tombs, beginning with the Santa Maria Novella, which we must complete to progress the story. As the game progresses, we’ll unlock the other five Assassin Tombs, which are all utterly brilliant. For the most part, they serve as parkour puzzles with minor combat sections. They’re one of the strongest side activities, along with the Templar Lairs (which are functionally the same, rewarding money instead of the seals required for the Armour of Altaïr). The challenges present here are some of the most demanding we ever have for parkour in this game, not only being pretty long but requiring creative pathfinding. Within these, there are also chase sections that see us following an escaping guard, who regularly closes gates behind him, meaning it requires quick thinking and pathfinding to discover alternative paths to keep up.

At this meeting, we discover that the Pazzi plan to kill Lorenzo de’ Medici, the ruler of Florence and a friend of Giovanni. Thanks to this knowledge, his plan is foiled and Lorenzo is rescued, despite him being injured. After this event, there’s violence and riots in the streets for the rest of the Sequence, which does well to showcase the potentially fading balance of power in Florence (and, maybe unintentionally, foreshadows parts of Sequence 13). Once Lorenzo is safe, Ezio heads out to finish off Francesco before his plans can go any further. He waits atop the Palazzo della Signoria and sends guards immediately once he spots his hunter. This is where we begin to see Francesco’s facade begin to fade. Once we reach the top of the Palazzo, in a more traditional assassination mission, he instantly calls for his guards once more and jumps into a bale of hay below. After a short chase sequence, he’s caught and killed. This is the first time the protagonist utilises his signature phrase — following in Mario’s footsteps after the death of Vieri.

Assassin’s Creed II has one of the strongest beginnings in the entire series for me, and so far, it stands up to my nostalgia... The next part will discuss Sequences 5 through 8, and sadly, that's where glaring flaws begin to show.