DS Review: Assassins Creed II: Discovery

Sonic meets Prince of Persia.



As popular as Assassin’s Creed was on the home consoles, I had much more fun playing the DS version of it. The reason why I liked AC more on the DS was because the experience as a whole was much more streamlined and easier to understand. The fast paced action, combined with the fluent fighting and platforming controls, not to mention the great story, was a refreshing thing to see on the DS. After playing the second game in the series, I have to say that this was just as, if not more fun than the first game.

Developer: Griptonite Games
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Action
# of players: 1
Price: $29.99


Here is the deal, Ezio, an Italian Assassin, is traveling to Spain in order to rescue a group of assassins that have been put into prison as a part of the Spanish Inquisition. What he ends up finding out is that the Templars are planning to set sail over the New Horizon in an attempt to try and find the New World. The story is told through brief cutscenes that can take place either before, during, or after every mission that you play. The sense of emotion, care, and religious struggle that is put into the story really makes you care about what is going to happen next. The voice acting is also excellent, every character brings their own sense of personality to their specific role.

I enjoyed AC II Discovery’s music and sound effects for the most part. Everything about the orchestral score made you feel like you were in Spain. I was getting this whole arabian nights/egyptian type of vibe from the game as far as the music goes, I really don’t know how else to explain it. The sound effects were very realistic, everything from the weapon sounds, to the noises that the guards make when you sneak up on them for a silent kill all packed a punch to them. The only sound that ever got annoying was the sound that Ezio makes when he falls from a high jump and dies. It wasn’t the sound itself that was annoying, but the fact that I had to hear it over and over again every time I failed to land correctly really started getting to me.

For a platforming game on the DS, the graphics were pretty good. All of the environments were beautifully constructed, and were very urban in their design. What I mean by this is that most of the places in which you visit all have this cultural feel to them, from the plants hanging off walls, to the stone you see on the castle grounds, all gave off this idea that centuries ago, this is what the world looks like. Each of the characters looked great, and were wonderfully animated, especially when it came to the stealth kills that Ezio would perform. Nothing is as satisfying and cool to watch as when you sneak behind somebody, and perform a stealth kill, you have to see it for yourself, that’s all I can say.



The controls were not too complicated to understand, but they do take some time to get used to. You move left and right with the d-pad, press up on the d-pad to climb walls, hold down either direction to run, attack/stealth kill with the y button, jump by pressing the b button, press down and b to roll, press down to hang from a ledge, block attacks with the right trigger, hold down the left trigger to crouch and use the x button to hide behind, or inside other objects. There will be times where you may climb something you don’t want to, or run too fast before you realize that you are completely surrounded by enemies, but for the most part, the controls work out just fine. I also had some trouble with counter attacking sometimes, but that is not caused by a poor control scheme, it was just a matter of bad timing on my part.

Despite being a short lived experience (around 4 hours or so), there was enough variety in the types of missions that you played in to make the game interesting, challenging, and a whole lot of fun. Basically, there are three types of missions to play, Normal, Stealth, and Chase, all of which are self-explanatory. The Normal missions usually just require you to get to the end of the level, and that’s it, but sometimes you would have to rescue a set amount of people before you could do so. In order to complete the chase missions, you have to get to the end of the level as fast as possible without dying. And finally the stealth missions, my personal favorite, basically you have to get to the end of the level without being seen, which means you can hide out in certain areas to say away from oncoming enemies, then pop out behind them and perform a stealth kill.

All of the missions on their own play out just fine, but I did experience a couple of problems with the running, and with the stealth mode. Sometimes when you are running, you will have to attain a certain amount of speed before hitting a jump, which is fine, but after you jump, you are not always sure where your character will land, basically making the chase missions more or less a game of chance than anything else. Also, in the stealth mode, the indicators for the enemies onscreen are pretty much useless and inconsistent. If an enemy sees you, all you have to do is walk away until you do not see his indicator anymore, and it’s likes he never saw you in the first place. There are also times where you seem to have a clear advantage by sneaking up to an enemy, only to find out at last moment that he has spotted you, it was irritating.

Once you are done with AC II Discovery, there are a couple of reasons to play it again. First of all, you can earn a set amount of points in each level by completing it in a certain amount of time, taking a certain amount of damage, killing a certain amount of enemies, etc. The more points you earn, the more cheats you will unlock. There is also the option to play some challenge levels, which can also you earn you some extra points. Finally, there are wanted pictures that can be collected in each level that will increase your health regeneration, which may not seem like much, but trust me, it’s worth it.



AC II Discovery is fun while it lasts, but is over rather quickly. If you can get over some minor control issues and glitches, then there should be no reason to give this one a try.

(B)

- Matthew H