The past week, I’ve been completely enamored with Assassins Creed 2. It’s one of those games that, unless something really major screws things up before I finish, will live on in my memories as a defining game experience. When I play, it makes me feel giddy and reminds me what is amazing about games. To some degree, I feel bad that it’s taken me this long to have this experience with AC2. But much like Uncharted 2 or Mass Effect, it will be used as a point of comparison when looking at subsequent games like it. The bar has now been set.

One thing that has really grabbed me about the game was something Jason mentioned on episode 31 of the podcast; the progression. Assassins Creed 2 is somewhat of a sandbox game. You can stay off the main path and muck about with thievery, murder, and side missions, but I’ve had no desire to go all Grand Theft Auto on it and do so. The rate at which the story moves and at which you learn new skills is some of the best pacing I’ve ever experienced. It’s not overloading me with details or mechanics that I’ll hardly ever need. What it has shown me are tactics that allow various ways to attack a presented situation. If I need to get past a couple guards I can throw some money on the ground as a distraction, hire some mercenaries or “fine upstanding women” to keep their eyes off of me or, while not the most distinguished way, I can just walk up and kill them.

When you think about it, killing in a game called “Assassins Creed” should be the most exciting part, and it is. Jumping around on buildings and evading the fuzz is great and all, but it’s hardly where the action is. If anything, everything else built into the game is there to act as an intensifier for when you do strike. The first Assassins Creed showed me personally how much fun being a sneaky bastard could be, and how slick you could really make the art of killing in a game. The second game does a great job building on that foundation. By not really changing the way you use the environment or your weapons, but instead tacking on some new variations, I’ve found that I don’t get bored or run out of new approaches to the question, ” How am I going to kill that guy over there?”

The other thing that has me addicted is the side game of refurbishing the villa that your uncle Mario (ugh, really, did he have to say, “it’sa me, Mario!”?) uses as a base of operations. Frank mentioned on episode 29 of the show that it’s reminiscent of the game Suikoden from the PS1 days. He couldn’t be more right. I was really anxious to see if his comment held any weight because, to me, Suikoden is one of the best RPG’s ever made. A primary reason I loved the game was because of the incorporation of a fortress as a home base, and how you could expand your available resources there. Besides the difference of expanding those resources monetarily rather than by finding new members to join your cause, the core idea is pretty much the same in both games. I loved that this was implemented. Just like in Suikoden, it adds a side game that isn’t largely time consuming, but gives you goals beyond the main story emphasis.

There’s not much that I can find to complain about in the game. If I had to pick something, I’d say it’s how janky some of the characters look when the camera is up close for a cut scene. It makes me wish the graphics department from Naughty Dog was helping them. But really, other than that, I got nothing. This is an amazing game, and considering I got it for half the original price, it feels like I robbed someone. But I do plan on alleviating that when the third installment arrives. Which, I’m hoping they set in England around 1880. Maybe even have a run in with Jack the Ripper.