I finished just now.

[spoilers]





^I agree. Not to mention, they weren't just trying to apprehend Desmond; they were doing directed battle with assassins, people trained to fight and kill. I think I was more disappointed with the fact that there was an invisible wall. I ran through all the goons to get to Vidic, and then I couldn't climb up in the truck and assassinate him.


I loved the game play this time around, but I still felt the last mission sort of anticlimactic. I was really expecting the end of the game when you had the curtain call in Venice, the time where all your allies are revealed to be assassins. Ending a battle with just fists and then leaving a man that has masterminded everything alive just feels week.





[/spoilers]

Has anyone else finished Subject 16's video? I loved finishing each puzzle in order to get another few seconds of video. I want to know who those people are.

12/21/2009 5:09:47 PM

i wanna know why half my weapons are gone after the game ends and it puts you back in the villa. sure you can go pick them back up in the weapons room, but that's a pretty random thing to take away

and i'm debating whether or not i want to spend a lot of time trying to get the feathers and what not. i tend to lose interest once the linear game ends and its just a lot of free roam

12/21/2009 5:17:06 PM

Your main weapons are gone when it puts you back because at the end right before you fight the final dude, Ezio drops his dagger and sword to fight him hand to hand like a man. After you beat him, it saves it so it saves it without any weapons. I didn't even realize it didn't give me the weapons back when I went back to the villa, so I went to finish up my side quests and gto all the way to assassinate some dude then bam, no sword. I had to fight off all his goons with my hidden blade.


SPOILERS TO FOLLOW:

When the Templar guards entered the warehouse, they were unaware that Desmond had been in the Animus and learned to fight through Ezio (How come Desmond didn't learn to fight/climb/etc through Altair?). Also, Lucy, that rude scientist dude, and the girl running the Animus were part of the assassin order but if you talk to the scientist dude outside of the Animus mid way through the game he tells you that although he is part of the order, he isn't trained in all the stealth crap, so maybe only some assassins learn how to be badasses. Or perhaps the Templars just wanted Desmond alive. And if AC3 is set in modern times, Desmond better get ahold of Altair's armor (PS - Did you guys figure out that Altair's armor was crafted from the Golden Fleece... that is why it is indestructible) quick because I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't be using guns against him. Even if he did have it though, his arms/legs/head would still be exposed.

Here is my theory based off of what I read on the codexes and the end of the game: Altair, Ezio, Desmond and their descendants are demigods of sorts. I can't remember what codex it is you decipher, but at one point there was a big deal about the Greek gods mating with humans and producing superhumans like Hercules and whatnot. Given that Altair and his descendants have the special power of Eagle Vision (as far as we know, nobody else has it) and obvious uncanny agility, I think there are few assassins that are skilled like them. Also, at the end, Lucy gives Desmond the hidden blade... the same one that has been around since Altair. If all the assassins are that skilled, you'd think there would be more hidden blades that were updated with modern technology, etc, not just one that was passed down from generation to generation.

I have finished Subject 16's video btw, if you guys want I can give an explanation as well as how it all ties in with the final codexes/pieces of Eden/what happens at the very end of the game.

[Edited on December 21, 2009 at 5:35 PM. Reason : ]

12/21/2009 5:34:37 PM

^I'd be interested to hear an explanation.

12/21/2009 7:46:36 PM

is there a way to recover the sword of altair if i somehow lost it? i wasn't aware you could lose weapons you've purchased, but apparently i did. i went back to the villa and it wasn't available in the weapons room

12/21/2009 8:49:39 PM

That's really odd. How'd you lose it? I've never dropped a weapons that I own, and no one has ever tried to disarm me. If you bought another weapon, the previous one should be in one of the cases in the weapons room.

12/22/2009 1:27:26 AM

^^I know it might be a stupid question, but are you sure you are looking in the right place in the armory of the Villa? There are two sword racks...the Sword of Altair should be on the right rack.

Okay so EPIC spoilers and MANY [words] to follow. My explanation is a combination of what I have read in various AC2 forums and what I have gathered from the codexes, Subject 16's video, and what you are told at the end.

Subject 16's Video: It starts out with two people, a man and a woman, frantically running through a courtyard towards a futuristic building. They are wearing tight skin colored clothing and it almost looks like they are nude, but you can see a light colored patterns on them and their privates are covered up. They run through a door (that opens automatically) and start climbing up a bunch of stuff. They are climbing very quickly, like Altair/Ezio/Desmond do. They jump over to a window, the guy busts it out with his elbow, they jump out and start climbing up the side of the building. They look into a window and you see what appears to be some kind of factory with humans working inside. There is an "overseer" of sorts watching the workers and holding a Piece of Eden. The two continue climbing to the roof when it suddenly zooms out. The woman stops and yells "Adam, I have it", revealing that she is holding the Apple Piece of Eden. Adam yells "Eve!" then she shouts "LOOK OUT!" then it cuts to a bunch of binary. I looked it up and the binary translates to "EDEN"

[words to follow]

So when Ezio enters the chamber at the very end and is greeted by Minerva. For those of you not up to date with Greek/Roman mythology, Minerva AKA Athena is the Olympian God of Wisdom. She reveals herself to be one of "Those who came before" (which is referenced in the codexes). As she explains, what we now know as the Greek/Roman Gods actually existed. They, however, were aliens that came to Earth when Neanderthals were around. Early humans didn't know that they were aliens though, so they believed them to be gods. If you read the final codex, you find out that there was never any link between Neanderthals and human's early ancestors. The Templars planted a fake fossilized link between the two in order to convince modern scientists that we did in fact evolve from Neanderthals. Modern humans were actually created by the Olympians.

One of the other codexes explains that scientists recently found a part of the human brain that is coded to obey the orders of "something" but they believed it to be an evolutionary trait that is obsolete, like the appendix. It seems that actually, that part of the brain is tuned directly to Pieces of Eden. The Olympians created mankind as slaves, and they created the Pieces of Eden to control them. Somehow, Adam and Eve were able to break free from the mind control and steal the Apple Piece of Eden (This is actually what happened in the story that the Bible conveys about Eve taking the apple from the Tree of Knowledge). With the power of the Piece of Eden, they were able to escape from their captors and release other humans from the mind control. Although the Olympians were powerful they were greatly outnumbered by the recently released humans. At some point during the conflict between humans/Olympians there was some kind of solar event (one of the last codexes explain how the Sun was watching the entire thing and it ended life). The Olympians were unable to do anything about it though because they were distracted by the humans. The solar event almost killed all life on Earth (including most of the Olympians), but humans were able to survive through Adam and Eve and pass on the Piece of Eden that they had stolen. It even references Cain and Able, implying that Cain killed Able to get the Piece of Eden that Adam and Eve had passed on.

So fast forward a few thousand years. At some point the Templars discover the truth behind the birth of mankind. They are greedy with power and realize that if they get the Pieces of Eden, they can control mankind. The Assassins have also discovered the power of the Pieces of Eden, and want to stop the Templars from taking control. Various codexes show the Pieces of Eden depicted throughout humanity, showing that historic people like Ghandi, Hitler, Edison, etc. were all pawns to the Templars and that major events like WWII were conducted so the Templars could obtain all the Pieces of Eden. Evidence of the first solar event is also revealed in one codex, stating how various layers of ash were found around the word at the same point in the ground, and that what was believed to be a volcanic eruption thousands of years ago in India was something a lot bigger. It also reveals that the Tunguska even that occured in Russia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event) in 1908 was the result of the Templars trying to create a weapon from a Piece of Eden.

Minerva finally reveals that another solar event is going to happen on December 21, 2012 that will ultimately end all life. She knows that Desmond is watching, so she tells him that it is up to the Assassins to find the Pieces of Eden (The locations of which were revealed at the end of AC1 and the map that Ezio sees when he puts all the codexes together) before the Templars do so that they can use it's power to prevent the solar event. Minerva and the other Olympians are now on the side of the Assassins because they don't want to be killed by the solar event. I'm pretty sure that Ubisoft is gonna plan on releasing AC3 around December 21, 2012 to go with the storyline.

So... questions?

[Edited on December 22, 2009 at 10:08 AM. Reason : it's possible that Subject 16 went far back enough in the Animus to Adam and Eve]

12/22/2009 10:06:49 AM

Neat story.... I just like poisoning people.

12/22/2009 10:23:40 AM

^^I thought that during the final portion she mentions "We are all gone from this world now?" I read that as more of a "save yourselves" rather than "save all of us."

12/22/2009 12:03:24 PM

[AC 1 and AC 2 SPOILERS]

Quote :

"When the Templar guards entered the warehouse, they were unaware that Desmond had been in the Animus and learned to fight through Ezio (How come Desmond didn't learn to fight/climb/etc through Altair?)"

Desmond DID learn Eagle Vision from Altair, and it was usable outside of the Animus at the very end. And he may have been able to fight/climb some after it had ended, but there was really no one to fight and nothing to climb on... he was in a small sterile lab/office. In the beginning of AC2 he does seem to have become pretty good at fist fighting, but that may have already been something he knew how to do.

It's possible that, were they to explain it away, they would simply say that the Animus he used in AC2 is better and somehow makes it easier for the user to learn things from it.

12/22/2009 12:58:32 PM

Cool summary, I basically got the main points from watching the subject 16 video, but I didn't get all the additional info because I didn't read the codex pages.

Quote :

"then leaving a man that has masterminded everything alive just feels week."

Eh, he dies in agony 3 years later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI

12/22/2009 1:18:46 PM

Quote :

"I know it might be a stupid question, but are you sure you are looking in the right place in the armory of the Villa? There are two sword racks...the Sword of Altair should be on the right rack."

lol, i'm retarded. that's exactly where it was. still kinda lame that i have to go back to the villa to pick it up though

12/22/2009 1:31:54 PM

So is there anything that is a really fun thing to do...

I mean like poisoning the big dudes so they knock other people down or throwing bodies off of roofs....

12/22/2009 2:14:17 PM

Got this game for Xmas... so fun to play.

I didn't play the first one but wiki'd the plot and so I'm mostly up do date. I'm getting used to the interface and I'm really liking it. Since I didn't play the first one I'm doing a lot of screwing around, climbing buildings and looting/killing.

Going to get in to the actual storyline when I get back to NC I suppose...

12/26/2009 5:59:09 PM

Just beat assasins creed 1 that I got for 5 dollars. Was good. A little repetitive.

Is this worth 50 bucks?

12/26/2009 8:02:43 PM

^Yes, it is. It's all the fun of the first game with better execution (ahahaha).

The missions are more varied.
There are interesting side missions.
Collecting things brings tangible rewards.
The cities are more detailed and complex.
The story/mystery is more intriguing.

I think it's definitely worth it.

12/27/2009 5:07:12 AM

Yes very worth it! There are so many extra things you can do. Also, if you have any plot questions on the first or second one, let us know, I'm sure one of us can answer them.

12/27/2009 9:44:36 AM

i'll sell you mine for $40. Well, assuming my roommate is finished with it.

12/27/2009 10:40:34 PM

The first game was pretty straight forward. Except it doesn't explain the markings other than someone was there before you.

12/27/2009 11:48:03 PM

oh, and to answer the question: if you liked the first one at all, you'll definitely like the second. The second is a significant improvement over the first in a lot of ways.

12/28/2009 12:08:22 AM

got this new years eve, good game so far, played it about 5 hrs straight this afternoon

1/2/2010 5:06:22 PM

i need to learn the assassination techniques better ... the only one i can do really well is the one where you are on the side of the roof and reach up and stab the guy and flip him back over your head to the ground...and the one when you're in the leaf pile

1/12/2010 7:40:37 PM

Use the poison. It's the best way to assassinate by far.

1/15/2010 12:44:45 AM

i mean the ones where you jump on them from a level up or so

1/15/2010 12:46:52 AM

just highlight/target someone and hit the button

1/15/2010 12:58:08 AM

whats the deal with the southwest part of the Venice map where you can't get to the codex page just yet

guess i have to do some more missions

1/15/2010 3:48:03 PM

ordered this today as one of amazon's gold box deals... i've been playing the first one, and i'm about done with it. excited to start this one. the problem with these games were they both came out along with other ones i wanted to play. i'm glad i made some time to play them.

1/21/2010 3:46:36 PM

I guess I won't be buying this game afterall.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/02/17/you-maniacs/

tl;dr - The DRM in this game is set so that you MUST have a constant internet connection. If your internet craps out in the middle of gameplay, the game will abort and you will lose all progress since the last checkpoint. Fuck. That. Noise.

2/17/2010 6:43:51 PM

Quote :

"It’s also worth noting this is a day on which EA have turned off multiplayer servers for games that are only a year old – so it’s hard to have faith that Ubi’s activation servers will be around for many years hence. Hopefully they wouldn’t turn them off without first releasing an offline mode patch – but, given how unforgiving this system currently is, we’re hardly going to leap to such positive presumptions."

I guess I'll wait for them to issue the patch in a few years then. Probably will never come. It's a shame, I was looking forward to this one but I simply can't support games that try to further this level of DRM infestation.

They've already got people paying for things that used to come included in the original purchase price of the game. I can only assume that the next logical step from the persistent keep alive connection to their server is them charging people for the game and later charging people by the hour to play it.


[Edited on February 17, 2010 at 7:12 PM. Reason : -]

2/17/2010 7:05:16 PM

that's some of the most ridiculous shit i've seen. I really hope that doesn't fly. I don't even play games on pc, but I won't buy the next one if they don't change their policy there.

2/17/2010 7:11:34 PM

*SPOILER ALERT*















I found it absolutely hilarious that you fight the Pope as the final boss. That takes some balls on the developers' part. I think I was more shocked, not by the fact that you kill the Pope, but that I hadn't read about it in the news in the 4 months between the game being release and me beating it.












*END SPOILERS*

[Edited on February 17, 2010 at 9:01 PM. Reason : Oops, forgot the spoiler alert at the bottom too]

2/17/2010 8:59:52 PM

yea, but he was a bad motherfucker

2/17/2010 11:17:39 PM

Am I the only one who wishes this series was just the historic story.... The whole animus thing with the two time story line really just seems to make the whole thing too SCIFI. I would much rather they written an ending (to both) that didn't involve all the stuff in the present, and just talk about the assassin/templar rivalry in the past. I think it'd make the story better.

[spoiler]
The ending to AC1 was mediocre at best and the ending to AC2 with Minerva was CRAP
[/sp]

There's very little present time story development. I understand that the whole story (both games) only takes places over a few weeks or months in the present time.... but still!

2/18/2010 2:13:29 AM

^Well I think the reason they did that was so that it makes things a lot more epic in the third game. From what I've heard, Ezio is back in AC3 but I'd imagine that they have a lot more Desmond action going on than in any of the previous games.

2/18/2010 8:51:47 AM

yea i'd imagine they're setting up present time action -- definitely think it would be cool. though one of the big draws for both games for me was the historical setting.

i bet rome will be featured in the next game though if they're staying with the same character.

2/18/2010 10:14:55 AM

it'd be funny if there was an egypt thing and you do a leap of faith from the top of a pyramid, SOMEHOW jumping outward far enough to land in some hay

2/18/2010 10:22:01 AM

yeah, my understanding is that the story arc was planned as a trilogy from the beginning. It seems pretty obvious that they're setting it up for Desmond to be a bad ass in current time. I mean, the whole purpose of him using Enzio this time was that he was with him from the first day of his training to the point he became an Assassin. And that training transferred to him.

Personally, I like the sci-fi part of it just fine. I guess part of that is I've always expected it to end up with desmond as an assassin in present time and hopefully using him. The only problem I may have with it is the gun aspect. If you do present time, there are going to have to be guns involved. And I think that would really take away a lot of what I like in the series - the combat.

Any idea of how long it will be before AC3?

2/18/2010 10:35:35 AM

Desmond is definitely set to be a badass assassin... throughout the entire series he is wearing a white hoodie. I'm pretty sure that at some point in AC3 he's gonna put the hood up and he'll look very familiar from the third person point of view.

2/18/2010 10:37:51 AM

oh my god you've cracked the code

2/18/2010 10:38:45 AM

^^^ well, the goons who tried to attack him at the end of AC2 were just using billy clubs, so i guess there don't have to be guns (although it would obviously be a weird omission).

i can't see them putting the entire 3rd game in the present though. as someone said, the scenery and architecture of the first two is one of the most appealing parts of the game. there's plenty of games out with modern scenery, so i really hope they don't entirely go that route

[Edited on February 18, 2010 at 10:41 AM. Reason : .]

2/18/2010 10:41:22 AM

Maybe he'll acquire the Armor of Altair? Wasn't it supposed to be impenetrable due to it being made from the Golden Fleece? The guards could always shoot him in the head though, but they never do that when the protagonist is wearing bullet proof clothing.

They could throw in some line about how Desmond is "too valuable" to risk shooting him with a gun. Or they might just have some kind of advanced laser gun or something that only wounds him.

2/18/2010 10:47:50 AM

@Robopimp

Spoiler











Well this is basically the worst pope in history. If you read the wikipedia entry on him you can see why nobody would be upset about fighting him. Also if you remember, you don't kill him you just leave him there, he dies of natural causes like 4 years later.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI







/spoiler

2/18/2010 11:19:57 AM

Quote :

"From what I've heard, Ezio is back in AC3 but I'd imagine that they have a lot more Desmond action going on than in any of the previous games."

While I don't mind Ezio returning, I'd prefer to see a different historical assassin in addition to Badass Future Desmond. Any of the other famous assassins from the tomb would be pretty interesting, but I really just want it for novelty's sake. We've already seen Ezio and for his entire training at that; I want to follow someone new.

2/18/2010 11:39:35 AM

Since I only have a Wii and have a loaded out gaming PC rig, I was thinking about doing ACII on the PC. Until I read this shit from PC Gamer:

Quote :

"We've just received Assassin's Creed 2 and Settlers VII for review, and verified with Ubisoft that the DRM is the same as the boxed product. If you get disconnected while playing, you're booted out of the game. All your progress since the last checkpoint or savegame is lost, and your only options are to quit to Windows or wait until you're reconnected. The game first starts the Ubisoft Game Launcher, which checks for updates. If you try to launch the game when you're not online, you hit an error message right away. So I tried a different test: start the game while online, play a little, then unplug my net cable. This is the same as what happens if your net connection drops momentarily, your router is rebooted, or the game loses its connection to Ubisoft's 'Master servers'. The game stopped, and I was dumped back to a menu screen - all my progress since it last autosaved was lost."

This blows my mind. Ubi is going to require any PC gamer to have an open internet connection at all times to play. If it goes out, you lose your progress. If you use a laptop, no more playing on the go, unless you have a wireless cellular aircard. Even if its single player. That is bullshit.

2/19/2010 6:32:08 PM

^I made a post about that a few posts up. I'm outraged about this, too. I'm not even sure if I want to buy the game now.

The rumor I've heard around the camp fire is that Ubisoft is really doing this to gather up justification to stop doing development for the pc platform. Either sales for the pc version will be abysmal, or piracy will sky-rocket (probably both). Either way, Ubi can turn around to their shareholders and say "See? There's no point in being in the pc gaming market." It's only a rumor, but it's a damn shame if it's true because I really like the pc as a platform for gaming.

2/19/2010 7:30:43 PM

^Yea no shit. I have a bomb ass rig, prefer playing on a PC, and have it tied to my plasma, so that I can play with a wireless mouse and keyboard on my HD-TV, if I want to.

2/19/2010 7:38:52 PM

Wow preorder was announced today on Steam for the low low price of $59.99. They really don't want to sell this on PC.

2/23/2010 10:43:56 AM

what's the price of a typical new PC game? $60 is the going rate on 360.

2/23/2010 10:59:25 AM

$60 is pretty generic. Finally got it for PC. Been fun so far.

^^^same here although i still like using a wireless 360 controller over a keyboard/mouse for 3rd person games like AC2. FPS still mouse/keyboard all the way though.

[Edited on April 29, 2010 at 3:37 PM. Reason : s]

4/29/2010 3:33:59 PM

Did anyone else get the email from Vidic/Abstergo Industries today?

http://assassinscreed.us.ubi.com/abstergoindustries/#/weapons

It links here to a teaser trailer and a countdown with about 16 hours left on it.

5/10/2010 4:43:37 PM