Assassin's Creed 2
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Game Reviewed: Assassin’s Creed 2
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Reviewer: Matthew
Scott
Platform: Xbox 360 (also on PS3 & PC)
Category: Action
ERSB Rating: M
Game Summary (Warning: Review
contains story spoilers.)
Trying to explain the story in Assassin’s Creed 2 is a
little like trying to explain the movie The Matrix to someone who has never
seen it. It might sound a bit confusing, but once you are able to wrap your
head around it you actually have a very interesting story. To give a full
understanding of the story I will need to give you a little background
information from the first game.
In the first Assassin’s Creed, a man by the name of Desmond
Miles is being held against his will by Abstergo Industries. Abstergo
Industries is an organization actually run by the Knights Templar who are
looking for an ancient artifact called the “Piece of Eden.” Supposedly this
artifact is what has caused many great historical feats to take place including
giving a simple carpenter the ability to turn water into wine. Now it turns out
that Desmond actually comes from a long line of assassins and by hooking
Desmond up to a machine called the Animus, Desmond can re-live the memories of
his ancestors (The Animus reads a person’s DNA which contains a person’s
ancestor’s memories.) Thus the first Assassin’s Creed game consists of the
majority of the game playing as Desmond’s ancestor, Altair, in the year 1191 in
the Holy Land during the Third Crusade.
Moving forward to Assassin’s Creed 2, the game opens with
Desmond escaping Abstergo Industries with the help of another modern day
assassin named Lucy who was working undercover at Abstergo. She takes Desmond
back to an assassin hideout where Desmond once again plugs into an Animus this
time to re-live the memories of his ancestor Ezio Auditore da Firenze who lived
in Italy during the Renaissance Age. The purpose of this is to do two things
for Desmond. First is to train him to be an Assassin himself and second is to
find more information on the artifact known as the Apple of Eden.
What Parents Need to
Know
Violence
- As an assassin, the player will be required to assassinate
many targets to progress through the game. All of these targets, however,
are corrupt or evil in some way. If the player tries to assassinate an innocent
person, a warning comes up saying that Ezio did not kill innocents and the
memory will be disrupted if this behavior continues.
- There is a medium amount of blood that occurs when someone
is killed, but there is also the option to turn the blood off.
- There is one scene where Ezio witnesses his father and two
brothers hung at the gallows. One of his brothers is a small boy.
Language
There is a good amount of bad language used in the game. The
F-word is used a handful of times as well as words like s**t, bas***d, hell and
damn.
Sexual Content
- Some of the puzzles involve actual historical artwork.
Some of this artwork is paintings of naked women.
- One of the characters in the game is a nun who is also a
prostitute. She claims that she has become disillusioned with church people and
so she uses her form of work to teach men how to love in order to lead them to
salvation.
- Ezio can hire prostitutes to distract guards. Their
blouses are low cut showing off their cleavage. All they do is flirt with the
guards.
- A couple of times it is insinuated that Ezio had sex, but
nothing is ever shown.
Spiritual Content
- Some missions require assassinating some corrupted
priests, including the last mission which involves assassinating a corrupted
pope.
- One puzzle involves a quote of Satan talking to Cain.
- There are codex pages that can be collected. One codex
page suggests that Jesus and many other religious figures were the same person
who just learned the secret of immortality through the Eden artifact.
- One of the main villains in the story becomes pope and
tells Ezio that the Bible is full of lies and superstition.
- Ezio encounters a holographic image towards the end of the
game who claims that she is part of a more advanced society that created man in
their image. Her species eventually became known by the names that the Roman gods are
referred to as.
Reviewer’s Thoughts
In terms of fun, I would probably rate Assassin’s Creed 2 in
my top 3 fun games of 2009. The game played well and the story of Ezio and the
war between the Assassins and the Templar Knights is very interesting and
entertaining. Even though this story is fictional, however, I am not a big fan
of the subtle inclusions denying the deity of Jesus. In conclusion, although it
is very evident in the story that the assassins are the good guys, because of
the nature of an assassin, and because of the confusion that some parts of the story might
cause, I would not recommend Assassin’s Creed 2 for young children.
