Though we now have the skills to perform our first assassination, we do not yet have the weapon. Fortunately, we know the perfect man to help us.

It’s impossible to replay Assassin’s Creed 2 without putting it into the context of the games that would follow it. While it might be strange to think about now, this game came from an era before the phrase “standard Ubisoft open world” became something that frequently said. In combination with its predecessor, it created the structure that we now know, of climbable towers and maps full of side objectives and collectibles. The formula had yet to grow stale because it did not have the time to grow stale.

And while it’s easy to fault it for heralding in that era, where nearly every game Ubisoft published began to adapt the open world blueprint, even racing games, it feels unfair to lay the sins of Ubisoft’s management on the feet of a dev team who were working hard to address the critiques of their previous project.

Approaching it again with an open mind, I’m still having a good time with these games. They hold up well despite their age, and I can’t deny that some nostalgic joy is creeping in alongside that.

It appears that the Auditore family has fallen victim to a terrible conspiracy, but fortunately we have a plan in motion to put a stop to it by presenting evidence.

And once we do, we can go back to the life of a happy 15th century Italian nobleman.

Many, including myself, have made jokes about Ezio’s ostentatious Assassin’s Robes and how they do the exact opposite of blending into the crowd. Especially since it comes into stark contrast with Altair’s robes from the first game, that are designed specifically to closely resemble the garbs of the various scholars seen throughout the Holy Land in which we conducts his business in the Third Crusade, allowing him to pass himself off as one of them. Ezio’s outfit lacks that same practicality from a world-building standpoint.

However, in my mind, I think of that in much the same way I think of Agent 47’s barcode on the back on his head. While it does stand out, and it is strange to think a detail that significant would go unnoticed and unmarked on, for the player looking to pick their avatar out in a crowd of NPCs, a distinct visual design goes a long way towards making that a simple task. And because Ezio’s outfit fits that criteria, players don’t have a problem identifying him.

More than that though, Ezio’s outfit cemented the “look” of an Assassin’s Creed lead. When Assassin’s Creed 2 established that the franchise could go to any era in all of human history, they needed to establish a visual identity that transcends time and place. When looking at the key art for the original game, both for Desmond and Altair, it makes perfect sense to make the combination of white hood and robes a visual signature for the Assassin Order. That way, no matter where they decide to take the series after Ezio, they can merge that core idea into whatever style is popular for the time period, and create the new look for our next protagonist.

In other words, the outfit is silly. But that is offset by the many practical considerations from a development standpoint that are answered by it.

Our happy 15th century Italian nobleman life continues, as we get acquainted with Ezio’s family life through a series of fairly simple missions. And by the end, I’m sure Ezio and his folks will remain quiet and happy.

So, as a correction, I was so wrong about where Patsy came from that I feel the need to point it out here, and will likely do so at the start of the next recording. As for what the Pazzis are actually historically known for… we’ll get to that later.

I understand that the purpose of this early section is to establish our family before they’re killed off, so that we as players feel the sense of loss that Ezio does when it happens. However, I find that this rarely ever works, and this is no real exception, mostly because we don’t have enough time with the family even if the Lineage movie is factored in.

Still, I like that they do the job at seeding that our father, Giovanni, is more than who he says he is by having us deliver messages from him to people who would be typically described as “unsavory” types in most major populations. It’s enough to get the player to ask questions before committing to the big reveal later on, even if said reveal is fairly obvious given other context clues.

I often wish games took more time to set themselves up, but I also understand that most players just want to “get to the good part”, so I don’t fault any development team for choosing to divert their playtime and resources elsewhere. This does the job, and now the big conspiracy can truly commence.

What a sweet young man we find here in late 15th century Florence. It would be a shame if something were to happen to him and his whole family.

It’s hard to remember now, but the idea of a franchise where exploring underutilized periods of world history was a novel concept. Though the Third Crusade was a unique setting, the Italian Renaissance was fresh, new, and exciting more many people, including myself, in ways that are difficult to replicate. The trailer alone was more than enough to draw the eyes, in the days where E3 was still a spectacle.

Then to combine that setting with a character who, even in his brash younger years, is swimming in a natural charm and charisma, and you have a winning recipe to bring in an audience who, like me, had otherwise passed on Assassin’s Creed. I had played this game before going back to play the original, and I suspect my story is not unique in that regard.

This was also a time before we started using the phrase “standard Ubisoft open world” to describe maps full of climbable towers and other miscellaneous objectives. Believe it or not, this was novel once upon a time. And though it’s rightfully fallen out of favor in recent years, I’m willing to bet that these older games won’t be so tiresome compared to their modern counterparts.

Let’s see if I’m right.

Our time with Altair might be at an end, but Desmond’s story continues. And through his DNA, the Animus will take us to a new stage of history.

Welcome to the Italian Renaissance with Assassin’s Creed 2.

As I said, I am reluctant to watch the prequel movie, Assassin’s Creed: Lineage, on stream for fear of copyright reprisal. However, it is freely available on most official Assassin’s Creed YouTube Channels, so feel free to give it a watch if you’re curious.

But now, we’re here. We’ve broken out of Abstergo and met with the Scooby Gang. While heavy criticism of the “modern day” elements of Assassin’s Creed have convinced Ubisoft to de-emphasize them, I still think that was a mistake and I’ll enjoy the part of it that we still have. There’s still value in having a framework and premise established that allows us to connect characters together from various settings in world history and tie them into an overarching narrative.

I think even Ubisoft realizes this, because although I don’t follow it anymore, they do still attempt to have a narrative through-line that connects their history-spanning global conspiracy plot. I just wish they built up the courage to lean into it sooner.

Robert de Sable is going to unite the warring factions of the Third Crusade against us, since we’ve killed so many major power players in this conflict.

We can’t let that happen. So we need to confront the Templar Grand Master.

I find this conversation with Al Mualim marginally more interesting than the discussion about “Is book burning good, actually?”, but it’s still fundamentally an amateur philosophy lecture at the end of the day. There’s far less substance there than most people would suspect. Like much of the other dying words, it coasts significantly on the charisma of the voice acting.

I do like that they give us a good reason to use Eagle Vision and Throwing Knives in combat, to identify the true target and then attack when we’d be otherwise vulnerable. Considering there’s not much else to use Eagle Vision for in the rest of the game, it’s good that it can comes into play for the finale.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I chose to play this game again, but I’m pleasantly surprised how much fun it was. Sure, it’s extremely rough, but the core is strong enough that it created one of Ubisoft’s most profitable franchise, one that continues to this day, including the game we’re about to play.

You don’t see the kind of experimentation now that lead to games like this back then, and it’s a real shame.

Our final target is vulnerable at last, after defeating all others. And ironically, he’ll be attending a funeral.
Little does he realize it will be his own.

Or not… Of course it wouldn’t be that simple. Robert de Sable is no fool, and he had a plan.

I just wish stopping that plan didn’t involve throwing away the social stealth, cat-and-mouse game that I liked in favor of mass slaughter dozens of soldiers for daring to get in my way. It’s a bizarre lead up to an otherwise strong finale. It’s almost antithetical to everything that’s good about the game.

Fortunately, we’re nearly there. Robert de Sable is right in front of us, and we’re going to end him and his order.

Our eight target dispatched. Our mission nearly done.
And then there was one.

Though I wish we had more than a handful of interactions with each of the Bureau heads, the fact that Malik welcomes Altair sincerely, and offers to listen to his woes speaks volumes for how much his opinion has changed over the course of our adventures. Given the constraints and formula they were working with, the development team does a good job at selling the character arc with their limited resources.

Next week, we should be able to wrap up the game.

Seven targets defeated. Our blade strikes true.
And then there were two.

I’m surprised at how quickly we’ve racked up assassinations in this batch of episodes. There’s not enough time for game’s finale right now, but once we wrap up tomorrow’s post we’ll be in a very good position to reach the end.

Get ready for that.

Six targets down, killed by a man they couldn’t see.
And then there were three.

I’ve pointed a few time now how different all of the targets’ final words hit now compared to back when I originally played the game, but another thing that stands out about these conversations now is how much they demonstrate Altair’s growth over the course of the game.

In the early sections, he spends much of these dialects confused and unmoored, ill-equipped to properly dispute the Templars’ logic. However, as he learned and grows, and his beliefs start to crystalize, he does genuinely begin to provide meaningful, tangible objections to their motives and goals. It’s subtle, but that subtly only makes his character growth that much stronger.

That said, it’s easy to raise objections since the Templars’ are so laughably wrong that the game presenting them as reasonable in any way makes me question the writers.