Assassin's Creed II: Difference between revisions

On the actual non-plot side, the game has been widely praised by reviewers and players alike for [[Even Better Sequel|correcting many of the issues players complained about in the first game]], with a wider variety of missions, smarter (but also easier to escape) guards, a more robust combat system, and a streamlined control system that allows for more free-running options. Two episodes of DLC were released to fill in missing Sequences 12 and 13 (''Battle of Forlì'' and ''Bonfire of the Vanities'') offering a more complete experience to the game. However, unlike the first game there is no ability to replay story memories on the same playthrough. You can redo the "secret messages" (the Glyph puzzles) in "The Truth" Menu by clicking the red puzzles.

 

 

Additionally, Ezio [http://www.fightersgeneration.com/np9/ezio-sc5.jpg will be crossing over] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNMnZyQLOBA to another series,] as a [[Guest Fighter]] in ''[[Soul Series|Soulcalibur]] V''.

** On the Assassin side we've got: [[Divine Comedy|Dante Alighieri]], [[The Prince|Niccolò Machiavelli]], possibly Gandhi and [[Joan of Arc]]. ''Brotherhood'' indicates that Brutus and the forty Senators who killed Caesar were also Assassins, which means that Altair's musings on the possibility of the Assassin Order predating Mu'alim are true: the Assassin Order has evidently been around for at ''least'' two millenia, probably much, much longer. [[Nikola Tesla]] wasn't an Assassin himself, but after the Templars had ruined him the Assassins contacted him to recommend that he assist in [[The Tunguska Event|Tunguska]]. Marco Polo either was an Assassin or was associated with them, and the same holds true for Kublai Khan.

** On the schmucks/Those Who Came Before side, we've got [[Jesus]], [[King Arthur]], Houdini, [[John F Kennedy]], and maybe Gandhi and John the Baptist. Oh and Cleopatra, [[Emperor Caligula|Caligula]], [[Genghis Khan]], [[Alexander the Great]], the First Emperor of China and King Xerxes? All killed by Assassins. However, those are just the ones famous by Ezio's time; Subject 16 mentions additional people. ''Brotherhood'' adds [[Gaius Julius Caesar]] to the list of people killed through influence by the Pieces of Eden.

*** [[The Tunguska Event]], on the other hand, was an attempt to {{spoiler|destroy a Piece of Eden by Nikola Tesla. It failed.}}

* [[And Your Reward Is Clothes]]: Ezio obtains a pair of capes, the Medici and Venetian Capes, that mark him as a friend of them, keeping his notoriety from rising in Florence and Tuscany/San Gimignano (Medici Cape), and Venice. However, the reward for collecting all 100 feathers is the Auditore Cape, which makes you notorious everywhere except Monteriggioni; removing it sends your Notoriety back to whatever that was before you equipped it. Also, the game's ultimate reward is Altaïr's Armour, which is made from uber-metal that was literally only discovered with the help of the Gods. It maxes out your health bar and is completely unbreakable. Along with looking awesome.

* [[Camera Screw]]: Thankfully it's at least possible to set the action camera frequency, but it's still not possible to disable it completely.

* [[Charged Attack]]: When bare-handed, Ezio can pick up a handful on sand and blind enemies with it. He can charge his throwing knives during a fight and toss up to three at once. Heavy Weapons can be charged to guard crush enemies and potentially disarm them. Spears can be charged to sweep enemies off of the ground.

* [[Chick Magnet]]: Ezio.

* [[Chronic Hero Syndrome]]: Seems like Ezio suffers from it as he often agrees straight away to help even before he's properly asked.

** Sometimes it's more of a guilt trip, like when he changed his mind about fleeing with his mother and sister to Spain and instead agreed to stick around to help Mario whack Vieri de' Pazzi.

* [[Cluster F-Bomb]]: Lady Caterina has a ''very'' naughty mouth.

* [[Command and Conquer Economy]]: With enough ''florin''s saved up, you can order your Architect to renovate your village back into the thriving economy it used to be.

* [[Easter Egg]]: There's a {{spoiler|Giant Squid}} in the Assassin tomb under Santa Maria della Visitazione. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLOiBZy1ta0&feature=related Here's] a [[YouTube]] video showing how to see it.

** Wait one minute on the first menu (before pressing enter to start) and a short video will play where you use {{spoiler|a gun for an assassination}}.

* [[Elite Mooks]]: Brutes, Agiles and Seekers.

** The Agiles have a habit of dodging most attacks that you make, but if you can force them to block they'll eventually tire, opening them up for a [[One-Hit Kill]], and as with the beret-wearing regular guards [[One-Hit Kill|all counter attacks are fatal to them]]. There's also several "degrees" of regular sword/bludgeon-wielding guard, proportional to the amount of armor they're wearing and the coverage of their helmets.

* [[Naughty Nuns]]: Sister Teodora and her ''ahem'' congregation.

* [[Nice Hat]]: Lots of Italians wear hats. The lowest-ranking guards have berets.

* [[No Such Thing As Wizard Jesus]]: Averted. It's heavily implied that numerous prophets throughout history, Jesus included, were in fact the survivors of an advanced race similar or [[Precursors]] to humans. Altaïr speculates that such prophets wielded real power, not just illusions from pieces of Eden. It's also explicitly shown that humanity was created as a servant race for these [[Precursors]], forming the basis for most of the world's creation myths, including [[The Bible (Literature)|the Book of Genesis]].

* [[Not Allowed to Grow Up]]: Even though Ezio's sister Claudia should be in her late 30s by the end of the game, she still looks and acts the same as her 15-year-old self from the beginning of the game.

* [[Older Is Better]]: Altaïr's Armor and sword.

* [[Older Than They Look]]: Although Ezio appears to age over the course of the game, mostly due to facial hair, his uncle, mother and sister appear and largely act the same even 23 years later.

* [[One-Woman Wail]]: Present in a lot of the soundtrack, most noticeably the title sequence.

* [[Only Smart People May Pass]]: Subject 16's "The Truth" puzzles, especially the last few.

* [[Red Herring]]: Forlì pre-/without DLC. With feathers and side-missions, it looks to be important, but nothing comes of it.

* [[Regenerating Health]]: Ezio can only regenerate his last health square. Luckily, the player can buy medicine from doctors around Italy.

* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: Take a guess. Though he starts to roar less as time goes on, having spent most of his fury on the guy who directly executed his family. He's actually ''tired'' of revenge by the end of things.

* [[Rule of Cool]]: In addition to stabbing guards in the back of the face ''still'' being fun, Ezio's hidden blades don't seem to have any mechanism to deploy them. They just magically come out when he flicks his wrists (while a Hidden Blade prop was made for the ''Lineage'' short movie, there's no official word as to how the prop blade was actually deployed, and there are varying designs on [[YouTube]]).

* [[Scenery Porn]]: The view of Italian Renaissance cities from viewpoints is to die for.

* [[Science Marches On]]: You can occasionally hear the doctors advocating medicines based on lead.

** Ezio doesn't get some of his best combat moves, like disarming, until training with Mario during Sequence 3.

* [[Second Love]]: Maria for Altaïr.

* [[Sexy Discretion Shot]]: When Desmond experiences one of Altaïr's memories as a result of the "bleeding effect", it shows Altaïr meeting the Templar Maria on a tower. Rather than him trying to kill her like Desmond thought (since Templars and Assassins are enemies), Maria instead makes a "come here, you" motion to Altaïr, who walks right up to her and kisses her straight on the mouth with her embracing it, revealing they had been in a relationship. The scene then fades away and the next one we see, is of Altaïr and Maria cuddling in the hay (clothed), after having "done the deed". Not long after it is revealed that this was actually the conception of one of Altaïr's descendants.

** Near the beginning of the game, Ezio pays a visit to his girlfriend at the time. After some kissing, Ezio begins to slip her dress off (or not, if you miss the quicktime event) and they fall over onto the bed. The last action you perform is blowing out a candle.

** Also, sometimes, a civilian who sees you free-running will remark, "Another [[Batman|capering crusader]]. Che idiota." in a bored tone, apparently referencing the fact that many fans 'felt like Batman' playing the first game. On top of that, Rosa comes up to Ezio in one cinematic and asks him: "[[The Dark Knight Saga|Why so serious?]]"

** On top of that, if you knock an Italian man onto the ground, he may go "Oh no! Dinner is a-ruined-a!", a reference to the "Thumb" series of films by Steve Oedekerk (Otherwise known for ''[[Kung Pow]]'' and, to a lesser extent, ''[[Jimmy Neutron]]''), several of which feature a random Italian man who gets knocked down and laments the loss of dinner.

** After you complete the first catacomb, wherein you are shown a series of [[Platformer|platforms/ledges/jumps]] in a cinematic and then expected to travel the demonstrated pathway, you find the first Assassin tomb. It happens to be Darius, who assassinated the [[Prince of Persia|King of Persia]].

** There's at least one Venetian during Carnevale who's dressed uncannily similar to [[Superman]].

** One of the sequences is called [[Your Princess Is in Another Castle|Principessa in Another Castello.]]

* [[Stealth Mentor]]: See [[You Are Not Alone]] below.

** Giovanni Auditore. Under his secret tutelage, his sons Ezio and Frederico learned fighting skills and [[Le Parkour]] while remaining unaware of the existence of the assassins and that their father was one of them.

** [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: Vieri de' Pazzi has the above in his first two appearances... but when it comes time to assassinate him, he's impossible to sneak up on and [[One-Hit Kill]], even if you're literally right behind him clinging to the topmost ledge of his tower; as soon as you climb up, he and his guards all react and and draw their swords. He also seems to preternaturally sense your location, making it impossible to double back to assassinate him from behind (as long as you can find a high enough spot with a line of sight to him, you can actually kill him with a pair of throwing knives without ever getting close).

* [[Super Drowning Skills]]: Ezio can swim. The guards, even Venetian ones? Not so much.

** Civilian [[NPC|NPCs]] can't swim. When you climb onto a boat and the owner leaps off in fear? He's ''committing suicide''.

** Particularly egregious since Ezio is wearing a small armoury and likely, by Venice at least, the same amount of weight in metal armour. Those civilians, on the other hand, wear simple cloth shirts, or robes/dresses of the same length (And probably composition) as his.

* [[Surprisingly Easy Mini Quest]]: When Desmond relives Altaïr's memories without the Animus he gets into a place crawling with knights and almost nowhere to hide... except that said knights seem completely oblivious to his presence, even when he starts doing High Profile stuff.

* [[Sword Lines]]: With an appropriate digital flavor.

* [[Sword of Plot Advancement]]: The Hidden Blade, and the {{spoiler|dual blade, poison blade and pistol upgrades.}}

** {{spoiler|The hologram knew what your name would be.}}

** A [[Write Back to The Future]] message, wrapped inside a [[Timey-Wimey Ball]] and mailed with a [[Batman Gambit]] postage stamp.

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: You father and two brothers are killed, your mother is raped and now mute and unresponsive, your sister is scared out of her wits, and you've got [[The Knights Templar]] out for your blood? Time to murder half of the Italian nobility.

* [[The Tetris Effect]]: The Animus' effect on Desmond has many similarities with this trope.

* [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?]]: Blacksmiths provide simple equipment. Leonardo provides the advanced stuff.

* [[White Mask of Doom]]: The Doctors.

* [[World of Cardboard Speech]]: Ezio delivers one of these at the end of the Bonfire of the Vanities DLC, stating that he was almost consumed by his hatred and desire for revenge, but that his family and fellow Assassins showed him a better path.

* [[A Worldwide Punomenon]]: Buying both the Swamp Ebony and Swamp Ivory dyes from Forli/Romagna tailors nets you the "Together in Harmony" achievement/trophy.

* [[You Cannot Kill an Idea]]: Altaïr's notes reveal that he mused on this subject more than once, noting that the Templars sought to conquer people not with swords and arrows, but with concepts and ideas. This makes it rather difficult for the Assassins to fight back... But it also makes it rather difficult for the Templars to exterminate them.

{{quote| '''Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad''' ''...how does one wage war against a concept? It is the perfect weapon. It lacks a physical form yet can alter the world around us in numerous, often violent ways. You cannot kill a creed. Even if you kill all of its adherents, destroy all of its writings – these are a reprieve at best. Some one, some day, will rediscover it. Reinvent it. I believe that even we, the Assassins, have simply re-discovered an Order that predates the Old Man himself...''}}

* [[You Have Failed Me]]: {{spoiler|Jacopo de'Pazzi}} gets this.

* [[You Killed My Father]]: Ezio goes on a crusade against his father's (and brothers') killers.