Betol-betol Hangat! Game Review: Assassin Creed II

Date of release: 18th March, 2011
Developed and Published by: Ubisoft
Platform: PC/Windows
Genre: Third-person action-adventure / sandbox
Official site: http://assassinscreed.uk.ubi.com/brotherhood/

System Requirements:
Windows XP (32-64 bit) / Windows Vista (32-64 bit) / Windows 7
Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHZ or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4GHZ
1.5 GB RAM (or 2 GB RAM in Windows Vista/7)
8 GB Hard Disk space
256 MB DirectX 9.0c–compliant videocard with Shader Model 3.0 or higher Video
DirectX compatible Sound Card
DirectX 9.0c 

Even after weeks of indulgence and much pressure from my editor, I still find myself horse riding through the streets of Rome picking fights, doing side-missions, liberating Rome, doing jobs for the courtesans, thieves, mercenaries, delaying my submission date for this review and the list goes on. You will be glad to know that AC:Brotherhood is rich-filled with (actual) history of the renaissance era, gaming entertainment and not forgetting big cosmetic improvements in the game. Even if you're not an AC fan, but into anything like Grand Theft Auto like games, you're in for a treat!

Assassin's Creed tells the story of Desmond, a man reliving the lives of his assassin ancestors as they secretly wage war against the Illuminati-type bad guys, the Templars, throughout history. Now in the late 15th Century (the Renaissance era), you replay the role of master assassin Ezio Auditore picking up where you left off from the previous AC2 game. If you have not been following the series, no worries! The game feels like it starts of anew and you'll get the hang of it in no time. (*please read our previous post on AC:Brotherhood preview write up for additional information)

 

Controls/Battle system:

 

The controls remains patented to its predecessor to the exception of new concealed/unconcealed weapons and transport systems to aid you in your battle for freedom. The actions and controls are a lot smoother and more stylish. You can also chain your attacks now allowing you to take out a group of soldiers with unstoppable lethal strikes. If you've ever played Batman's Arkham Asylum, you would know what i'm talking about. This does make battles a joy as compared to its predecessors where you either directly attack your target and dodge or wait for your enemy to strike you so you may perform a counterattack. To add more variations to your attack, you can swap weapons in between and lash out some combos. For example, you first strike a target with your sword and then turns around and shoots (with your hidden gun) another target or perhaps a throwing knife. Now that's pretty kick-@ss! 

Oh, did I mentioned you also carry a crossbow around now? An invaluable weapon all AC fans have been waiting for, especially when handling stealthy assassinations from a distance.You have four shortcut keys (1 to 4) where you can assign your preferred weapon(s) of choice or you may easily access other weapons by holding down the 'Q' key. A pretty good improvement to the controls I must say.

 

Missions

 

You will have a range of different missions with different situations and pre-requisites in order to have a 100% memory sync. For example, you can only assassinate a target by using a hidden blade. Or in another mission, assassinate/tail a target without being detected. And in another, to kill only your target and no one else without being detected and within a time limit. If you fail to achieve a 100% memory sync, you can always just replay the mission later on.

 

Transportation(s)

 

It's true, you can now ride horses in AC: Brotherhood. It would only make sense to have it because the map is enormous! And I mean really huge! You will find yourself calling for your horse most of the time instead of jumping from roof to roof. So make sure you invest in stables when you have the chance to ease your travels. You can also attack enemies while horse riding, inflicting major damage on an enemy – unless they manage to bring you down from off your high horse. 

If horseback riding isn't fast enough for you, you may opt to travel via tunnels. Although, they may not be strategicaly placed, but it does help to take you from one end of the map to the other in a snap. Like the stables, investing your money in this will be worth your while, really.

 

Borgia Towers & the economy of Rome

 

Taking down Borgia Towers will remove any Borgia influences within the area and thus allowing you to take over banks, stables, tunnels, blacksmiths, doctors, tailors/paintings, faction buildings, historical buildings/structures, hideouts, recruit more apprentices and additional plot missions. Here, you will be managing the economy of Rome's income.

So, to ensure you have a healthy cash flow, you must invest in banks and all of the others mentioned above to increase the amount of revenue that you will earn. Apart from investing in banks and transportation, frequent the blacksmith (especially after every sequence) for more durable armours and improved weapons to aid you in your game. 

This time around, the tailor will allow you to customize the colour of your outfit to suit your taste if you're not too fond of the standard white and red scheme of Ezio's clothing. You will also be able to purchase treasure maps, flag locations, upgrade pouches, etc here. 

Doctors, well... they heal. You'll be able to purchase medicinal aids and poisons too. Faction Building(s) allows you to make base for any one of the three factions – Merceneries, Thieves and Courtesans.Stables allow you to call on horses within the area. You'll understand the rest of them once you start getting the feel of the game. No sweat.

 

Apprentices, Mercenaries, Thieves and Courtesans

 

In AC: Brotherhood, you can now take in apprentices and train them into full fledge assassins once you have managed to lower the Borgia influences on the map. You recruit them by saving them from bullying Borgia soldiers. In return, you have their loyalty and commitment towards the creed. When you have enough apprentices, you may call on them for additional backup if you want to make a real mess out of things (I prefer to go solo). Once you're able to recruit apprentices, you can send them out on assassination missions via pigeon coops or the assassin's tower where they will gain skill points allowing them to upgrade their armour and weapons and finally leveling them up to full-on assassins. Eventually, a ceremony will be held (with your presence) to commemorate his/her success and officiate them into the creed. 

Besides your apprentices you may hire Merceneries to aid you in your battles or hire Thieves to create a ruckus and aid in some fights or hiring Courtesans as a means of distraction. Use them the way you see fit as they can be very handy in situations. All of this comes at a very minimal fee – you won't even feel it, so don't worry.

Leornado Da Vinci and his crazy inventions: (WARNING: some spoilers ahead)

You'll be able to have a first-hand experience to use cannons, cannons mounted on a mini-boat, cannons mounted on a flying machine (awww yea, watch out below!) and tanks! Unfortunately, you won't be able to purchase or use any of these whacky inventions again after the missions because you're out to destroy them for good –BOOOOO!! 

But you'll be compensated with other neat inventions like the dual hidden blades, gloves that improves your agility and my personal favorite, the parachute. Dropping off from tall buildings and towers are no longer a worry. It's just like base jumping. Jump and pop out the chute!

 

The Verdict: 10/10

The game provides a whole-lotta gaming fun with its thick storyline of revenge, deceit, love and lust for power. The world the developers created in the game is impressively huge and accurate to the renaissance era. If you have a thing for the era, you can just read up on the description of the historical building/historical figure. Hey, it's a free history lesson! 

The visuals are stunning and the actions are brilliantly executed. Rest assured you will have endless hours of gaming fun with Ezio as there are so many missions and tasks that you may undertake. Looks like the developers really did take the time to understand that gamers also enjoy to explore and do everything apart from following the main plot for kicks. 

Although the Borgia Tower missions can be a little repetitive at times but you still have to go through them to decrease their area of influence and gain more missions anyhow.The multiplayer works as how it says. In a nutshell, you hunt down one another and see who is the better killer, really. I say the single player itself is much more fun to play and that alone is enough to entertain you for hours on end.

I would be spoiling the game for you if I continue to ramble on. So is this game worthy of your time and money you ask? Awwww yea. 

References/Links:

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood official site: http://assassinscreed.uk.ubi.com/brotherhood/

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Betol-betol Hangat! Game Review: Crysis 2

The story begins with you as Alcatraz, a United States Marine Corps Force Recon on a mission to New York when suddenly the sub you are on is hit by the Ceph. Prophet, from the first Crysis, save your sorry behind and bestows upon you the power of the Nanosuit version 2.0. As Prophet severs the connection the Nanosuit has to him, he leaves you with a mission to find and protect Doctor Gould.

The game then proceeds into a series of ‘catch me if you can’ missions for the first few hours as you try to meet up with Gould. The story is weak and thin throughout and the missions ‘redonkulously’ (as Husky Starcraft likes to say) simple.

Now I am not a big fan of Crysis. At the time, I considered it a game with lazy graphic coding done for the sake of taxing PC hardware. But I have come to realise that developers wanted to make a game that will kill most PCs trying to play it on max details. For two years Crysis ran supreme, no PC could really tame it. 

Its legacy cannot be said to have carried on in Crysis 2. While Crysis was made to show off extreme hardware, Crysis 2 seems to have been made to capitalise on the casual gamer market. No longer are there critical decisions to be made on a snap of the mouse that separates you from certain failure but rather to choose which of the available winning tactics displayed on the screen fits your mood for clearing the zone.

I actually have a lot more complaints for Crysis 2 so sit back and grab some popcorn. Let’s start with the story. If you are waiting there for a moment or two that was it. It practically had no story for the calibre of franchise it came from. It felt like playing F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin but at least for F.E.A.R. 2 the gameplay experience was enjoyable. 

Speaking of gameplay, most of the elements stem from the Nanosuit 2.0. This little marvel of technology is too much of a marvel of technology. Allowing you to activate two abilities at once to deal with whatever so called challenge the level designers had in mind.

Let’s say we are dealing with the Ceph troopers, they go stealth and are jumping all over the place. You hit Nano Vision and Armour to spot them and stand there and pound the Ceph’s headgear till it flies off. Easy.

Now dealing with Cell soldiers does not even require you to use dual abilities. One only needs to use stealth and thanks to the Nanosuit’s super fast recharge of 2-3 seconds you only need to duck out of sight for a few moments before sneaking off again. And if they do spot you can safely duck behind any cover as bullets seem to have no penetration power. Should they do get you before you find cover behind that office desk just power up your Armour mode and you are good to go.

Another thing tooted is how wonderful the A.I., wonderfully stupid. One first thing you notice is the lack of alertness the Cell soldiers have. I mean virus outbreak, rioting civilians, alien attack and psycho in an advance Nanosuit would have you keeping not one eye peeled for danger but two. The Ceph have their own problems. Their energy blasts have such a large mass that it cannot pass through chain fences or small spaces. And since the environment is 95% non-destructible you are pretty safe under tight cover. But that really is a non-issue as the Ceph just simply charges you if they are not invisibly bouncing around.

Unfortunately, Cell soldiers are not as well trained as they seem to be. If you stealth kill one of them his partner will go on alert but will not notify any of the other soldiers nearby about an invisible killer about. And should they spot they will make a bee-line straight for you. They will only take cover if you hit them, so hold back a bit, find a little cover, Armour up and let loose when they all line up like ducks in a barrel. Another interesting thing is that no more than three to four enemies will fire at you at the same time. No matter if there is ten of them with clear line of sight, the rest will just take cover and wait. Allowing you to manage large groups with else.

And do not get me started about the explosive barrels, Cell soldiers are attracted to those barrels like bees to honey grouping together around several when there is better and safer cover to shoot at you. 

Multiplayer may be some small measure of a saving grace for Crysis 2, allowing the player to escape the mediocre story and exact some fantasy vengeance after a day of trolls and other annoying net denizens. But for players that are starting multiplayer matches there is a huge balance issue in terms of Levels. Players of higher levels unlock incredibly powerful Nanosuit abilities like auto targeting (think wallhack), slap on a fully tricked out sniper and you will find yourself cursing like a real marine. 

Other players will utilise the lag from the ping difference to engage in stealth ninja-ing with either a silenced shotgun or knife. This makes it impossible for you to deal with them when they use speed to round the corners. Then you have level designers making maps which have so many obstacles that there is no other play style but to go old school Unreal while cloaked.

Overall, Crysis 2 is not a remarkable game, some may call it more of an evolution than a revolution but that’s even more of a stretch. For me it lost its identity and has digressed into what is the standard fare of console First Person Shooters out there. And if you think the multiplayer mode can save it think again, almost from the beginning most rounds end up like a flashback to Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament 2004 matches.

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