Assassin's Creed II - Hands-On Preview

UPDATE: Ubisoft has got in contact with us about some of the statements in this preview. Firstly, there are 15 different mission types in the game (not 50), and the 27 hour game length quoted by Ubisoft is for the main campaign and does not include additional side missions (as suggested below). We've also been assured that, in the assassination mission we played, it is possible to kill the target using a stealth kill without having to kill the guards first.

Ubisoft promised us big things for Assassin's Creed II at a showing of the game's latest build earlier this week. Prior to our hands on, we were briefed on how Ubisoft Montreal has been approaching the challenge of developing a sequel for its 8 million selling, 2007 original. Apparently, the developer has been listening to the feedback of fans and journalists, as well as focus testing both the original game and its incoming sequel to find out where the gameplay can be improved. We can at least report that Ubi has managed to put its finger on the first game's main deficiency: a lack of variation in the missions.

To prove that Ubisoft Montreal has been doing its homework, we were treated to a rundown of the new approach for ACII. There are now a total of 130 missions in the sequel and a variety of 50 different mission types to keep players interested. This averages out at roughly two-and-a-half missions per mission type, which seems a little low, but who are we to argue with variety. According to Ubi's focus testing, it takes players an average of 27 hours to get through the whole of ACII, although we suspect that this figure is arrived at after completing far more than the game's main campaign.

It's all news to our ears though, as were details of some of ACII's secondary features, such as a 'Villa' safehouse that can be upgraded alongside the game's economy and adorned with portraits of the people you took most pride in assassinating. The original game's hidden 'Flags' feature has also been replaced with 'Feathers', of which there will be 101 hidden around the game world (as opposed to 300+ for the 'Flags') and come with rewards once you've uncovered certain percentages of them. The thing is, with all of this innovation allegedly going on, we're a little confused that the mission we played in our hands on was eerily like playing the 2007 original with a Tuscan backdrop and a new protagonist called Ezio (which basically means the same thing as Altair, only from Latin rather than Arabic descent).

After meeting up with a chap called Antonio (who appears to be the opposite number of Al Mualim from the first game), we were sent off on a mission to assassinate a guy called Emilio Barbarigo. We ascended to a highpoint on a bell tower where Ezio could sync with the game world and expand the map, before getting down to the nitty gritty business of killing people. This comprised of assassinating targets placed on rooftops across a certain Venetian district of the map, before meeting up with Antonio again for further intel. He pushed us on to a castle in the middle of the city, which was surrounded by guards and proved particularly difficult to enter.

Once inside, a cut-scene unfolded where Emilio could be seen conspiring with another Venetian nobleman. Following the cut-scene, we took on the job at hand and proceeded towards Emilio, only for him to run away (no matter how stealthy we were) and be defended by a small squad of goons. As was the case with its predecessor, ACII wouldn't let us kill the target until the goons had been dispensed with. Emilio merely ran in circles around the castle's staircase in the meantime, as we chased him and the armed guards chased us (it was worryingly like a Benny Hill skit). Eventually, if you don't manage to kill the guards, then Emilio stops running around in circles and you're told that he's escaped on a boat - you've failed the mission.

Now, there could be a lot more to Assassin's Creed II than this. As we said at the top of this article, Ubisoft has promised us that there is. But this does lead us to the obvious question: if there is such a wide range of innovations in this sequel, then why has Ubisoft chosen to show us an ACII mission that exemplifies so perfectly the same shortcomings that its predecessor suffered from? We're being a little unfair here, because we did notice occasional touches that marked an improvement over the first game, although these were far from significant improvements and more like slight tweaks to the gameplay and environment.

Examples include the use of the B button (on the Xbox 360 build) for free running, which adds a touch of technical depth to the otherwise incredibly user-friendly system from 2007. While jumping to higher ledges in ACII, players can use the A and B buttons together rhythmically in order to jump and then grab hard-to-reach ledges. Likewise, when falling from a great height, holding the B button will make Ezio reach out for anything that might break his fall in the environment. It may only be a slight change but it does extend the free running gameplay beyond simply holding down the right trigger and A button continuously, which is something at least.

Combat is more or less the same experience as it was in the last instalment. The rhythmic system of blocking on the trigger button and then launching sword attacks when the opponent's guard is down remains largely intact, while Stealth kills using Ezio's up-the-sleeve spike can then be inflicted on weaker enemies or those that are caught unawares. Additions have been made in hand-to-hand combat, allowing players to strafe when avoiding attacks as well as dodge, while it's now possible to steal an enemy's weapon with a well timed move and then turn that blade back on the bad guy. There's also a new ability to perform one-hit stealth kills by jumping on adversaries from a radius of up to 20 metres. The critical factor here is having the high ground on a target so that you can jump down onto them, although it'll only work on weaker guards. Finally on the combat front, a radial interface now groups together your inventory and weapons for easy access via the shoulder buttons and analogue stick.

Ubisoft told us that the crowds in ACII have seen a significant improvement too. While the crowds in the first game were more irritating than anything else and acted as little more than obstacles as you attempted to escape pursuing guards, Ubisoft Montreal does appear to have put some thought into the different factions inhabiting the game world this time around. We spotted groups of thieves congregating on rooftops at one point, and we were assured that everything from courtesans to mercenaries will feature in ACII's Venetian society. What's more is that we were informed that Ezio will be able to hire out groups of these factions to aid him on missions, which certainly sounds like quite a dynamic prospect.

An expanded economy now makes ACII more of a standardised sandbox experience as well, allowing Ezio to earn money for his work and then spend it at merchants' stalls across Venice, buying useful items such as health packs and armour (we're sure there will be quite a few more items in the full game as well).

We can only comment on what we've played of Assassin's Creed II, and what we've played is worryingly similar to the first game. Having said that, there are clear indications that improvements have been made all-round, albeit slight ones that may add some colour to the experience but don't, by themselves, solve the fundamental flaws of the 2007 original. With any luck, there's far more to ACII that we simply haven't seen yet and if that's the case, then this sequel might have a chance to realise the series' huge potential.