Ever since it was announced, Assassin’s Creed II has been on the radar of gamers everywhere. The first Assassin’s Creed took players on an adventure unlike any other where your character was given almost limitless ability in traversing the game’s environments. Assassin’s Creed II aims to improve the gameplay by allowing for even more freedom. While the DS is getting a different version of ACII, the gameplay still holds up very well in Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery.

Discovery features a different storyline than its console brothers, but the game’s main character, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, remains the same. Set 15 years after the beginning of Assassin’s Creed II, ACII: Discovery follows Ezio as he travels to 15th century Spain to free his assassin brethren from the Spanish Inquisition. As he investigates, he quickly realizes that the Templars are involved who are the sworn enemies of the assassins. Ezio finds out that the Templars are attempting to sail west to discover the New World. The game is fully voice-acted and missions are set up by Ezio and/or his cohorts at the time. The plot is very well done, and the voice acting well written for the most part.

When you begin the game, you’ll walk through some basic controls as well as receive your first mission. If you have a Nintendo DSi system, you’ll even have the option of taking a picture of yourself to put on the ‘Wanted’ posters. Each of the missions are graded based on your time, kills, damage taken, and notoriety. Some missions have specific criteria involved in order to complete the objective, such as Stealth Missions. These missions require that you not be seen by any guards (makes sense). If you draw too much attention to yourself, you will fail the mission and have to restart. Other missions have specific objectives such as: free assassins, help civilians, meet a contact, or assassinate an individual. These missions don’t require stealth, but it definitely doesn’t hurt to stay unnoticed. The more stealth-like you become, the quicker your kills, and the quicker you completion times will be.

As you progress through the game, you’ll be given more and more tutorials on various controls. Ezio can eventually pull off a plethora of different abilities including counter attacks, jump strikes, long jumps, wall climbs, wall jumps, and even rolls. You will need every single one of these abilities as you go throughout the game. Some of the levels are incredibly large and it’s in your best interest to know every move to make your traverse much easier.

The combat in the game is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the stealth kills are very well animated and diverse, but the normal combat can be tedious and boring. Stealth kills are done by sneaking up behind an unsuspecting enemy. By pressing the ‘Y’ button at the right time, Ezio will engage one of a few predefined stealth kills. This could be a knife to the back, knock to the ground then knife, jump and knife, knife twice, or a couple other variations. When executing a stealth kill, the camera will zoom in to give more detail and the animation is very fluid in these cases. In normal combat, Ezio really just has a couple options. He can fight with his sword by pressing ‘Y’ (press repeatedly for a combo) or he can block using ‘R’ (press ‘Y’ while pressing ‘R’ at the right time to do a counter-attack). The counter-attacks are very unique and render much like the stealth attacks (by zooming in the camera), but the standard combat is very boring. You’ll find yourself exchanging blows with guards who block every time you attack and you’ll get into these weird stalemates. You’ll either have to break out and try a jump strike or try a counter-attack. Either way, it slows the gameplay down quite a bit and is overall not a very fun part of the game.

The game features a 2.5D perspective, so imagine 3D rendered buildings and characters but with a 2D perspective. All of Ezio’s moves from the 3D, console versions work very well in 2 dimensions. The gameplay can be as fast or as slow as you want, but keep in mind that completion time is a factor in some missions. When you’re free-running through a level, you’ll feel like you’re flying. Ezio quickly runs from one roof top to another and really all you need to do is jump at the right time. If you come to a wall, he’ll latch on in mid-air and start climbing the wall. Once at the top, the chase is on again. While the game can only show so much on the screen at once, especially in 2D, it still manages to keep you aware of your surroundings and what’s ahead. There were only a few times that I felt I was running aimlessly and ended up falling because I couldn’t tell if I should jump or drop to a lower building. Thankfully, the game runs at a really solid frame rate, and those split-second decisions are made much easier without frame rate problems. All in all, Assassin’s Creed II Discovery makes the 2D transition very seamlessly, and makes the gameplay frantic and fun.

Graphically, Assassin’s Creed II Discovery is one of the prettier DS games. Not just in the textures of the 3D graphics, but also the attention to detail with regards to animations. I mentioned the stealth attacks before which is where you really see the detailed animations up close. Even in normal, free-running gameplay, Ezio’s movements are so fluid as he gallops over rooftops and stealth kills enemies from above. Even the background environments are in 3D and scroll as you move throughout the worlds. Despite being moved to a 2D perspective, Assassin’s Creed II Discovery matches the same great gameplay of its 3D counterparts.

Conclusion

Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery is one of the few, good examples of a 3D game making the 2D transition. The gameplay still features many of the same free-running abilities of the console versions while still maintaining a sense of freedom and speed. Even if you already own Assassin’s Creed II, ACII Discovery is a great companion to the console version and allows you to get your free-running, knife-wielding fix on the go.

Assassin’s Creed II: Discovery gets an 8.3/10