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November was full new titles that kept me busy playing games and writing reviews but now we find ourselves in a small lull. There is about a week before the sequel to the critically acclaimed BioShock is released and I have found myself renting games to fill the void. Rogue Warrior is one such game. The main character is Dick Marcinko, the rogue warrior. The premise of the game is based upon the life of Dick Marcinko who was the founder of SEAL Team Six and Red Cell. This was one bad ass man, read up kids. Rogue Warrior is in theory a good idea for a game, unfortunately the execution is quite weak.
As the game begins Dick is asked to assemble a small team for a simple operation in Korea. When the first mission starts your team is killed leaving you alone behind enemy lines with a mission that still needs to be completed. As soon as Dick started talking his "rough" nature came through right away. This game is quite vulgar in its language, which I understand is probably how Dick Marcinko actually talks, but I found myself playing with the volume nearly off because I could not stand to hear him speak. Rogue Warrior would be called a tactical First Person Shooter (FPS) but hardly stands up with other titles in the same genre. Gears of War and Rainbow Six 3 are two games who lead the way in the tactical FPS genre. Rogue Warrior does not bring anything new to the genre. Also, It is painfully easy. I walked through the game in about 5 hours barely having any troubles. The enemy A.I. is simple and easy to handle. There is a pitifully small arsenal to choose from and ammo is bountiful. The story is weak and lacks any depth. Rogue Warrior is predictable and uninventive.
Rebellion is a fairly amateur game developing company so I need to be somewhat understanding, but Bethesda Softworks was the publishing company and they have earned their reputation by creating games which earn awards such as "Game of the Year", such as Oblivion or Fallout 3. Rogue Warrior was dry and boring, it needed something to drive its concept further than one mans life. It was a decent effort from a smaller company but Rogue Warrior falls short of expectation.
Thank you for your time my friends.
I loved the first Assassin's Creed. There I said it. Now it would be ignorant of me to say that it did not have its inadequacies but as a whole I still loved that game. Assassin's Creed was criticized for its repetitive missions, easy combat, and short gameplay. I have to agree with all those points but there were also reasons it deserved praise. Assassin's Creed was creative in its story telling, had beautifully rendered environments, was immersive, and had some great cutscenes. My biggest gripe was the ending, which came too abruptly. When I learned that Assassin's Creed 2 (AC2) was due to be released in November I could not contain my excitement.
Any game that can make someone anticipate its arrival has done well.
I have decided to leave out any explanation of the story because I would love for anyone to play the games to find out or just wikipedia it. Instead I want to focus on the improvements. The repetitiveness of the first game was eliminated by creating a story that drives AC2's main character, Ezio Auditore, on a quest for revenge that takes him all over Italy. This change of scenery and ever-evolving story made for many different missions and side quests, I never grew bored. Another addition to the series are written profiles on characters, places, paintings, and buildings. AC2 uses real historic people as characters and has Ezio crawling over many of Italy's most famous landmark buildings as part of the deep story. All of this created a great sense of immersion. While I was playing my wife looked up from her knitting and said "Hey I've been there, I bought a scarf from a vendor just outside the front door." That is rad.
Combat has improved greatly from the first one. There are new enemies other than the standard "guard" from the first Assassin's Creed. Brutes are large, strong guards who move a bit slower and cannot climb after Ezio but pack a serious punch. Agile guards are very quick, faster than Ezio, which means no more ditching on a fight. The Parano or Seeker carries a pole arm for their weapon and add another dimension to combat. Their long reach means the shorter weapons are useless, and these guards cannot be counter-attacked. They can also check hiding places by stabbing them in an effort to look for hidden assailants. Ezio can counter the poking by pulling the seeker into his hiding spot and assassinating him, which is hilarious. The killing animations of Assassin's Creed have always been well rendered and AC2 has added more to the already large number of finishing moves, check them out. Despite the new bad guys and added kill animations the combat is still relatively easy. It does not take long to adapt to the new strategies of enemies and to master the disarm/counter moves that make Ezio nearly invincible.
It took me about two weeks to complete AC2 and find most of the bonus material. I am not sure exactly how much longer it was than the first one but I got at least 30 hours of gameplay out of AC2. The re-playability of AC2 is fairly low in the sense that it will not be different each time you play it. However, it is like a great book, you could read it many times over and love it every time.
I am not going to say that Assassin's Creed 2 is the game of the year, but it is certainly one of my top three. With a new story, more complex combat, historical references, a bad ass main character, and knowing that the next one will bring closure to this trilogy all make AC2 a great game. If you find yourself bored of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 go out and spend your money on a new adventure which transforms you into an assassin taking revenge on the conspirators of renaissance Italy.
Thank you for your time my friends.
As a side note, AC2 is made by Ubisoft which happens to also make a phenomenal series of games know as the Prince of Persia series. This franchise has been a benchmark in adventure gaming. Ubisoft leads the way in great story telling coupled with great gameplay.
