Assassin's Creed 2: Bonfire of the Vanities review

He can never just walk somewhere, can he?

OK, so when last we parted Assassin’s Creed 2 and I weren’t on the best of terms.  This was mainly due to a rather disappointing little DLC addendum called Battle of Forli, a downloadable expansion that didn’t quite do justice to the game as a whole.  Words were said, feelings were hurt, low scores were awarded.  But even though it was terrible, or come to think of it maybe because it was terrible, I was left wanting more.  So sour-taste set aside, I unquestioningly coughed up the moon money Points to purchase the second DLC installment, Bonfire of the Vanities.

And I’m happy to say I enjoyed it.

To clarify before we begin, I picked up the pack that included the three pre-order Templar Tombs, and I can only suggest to everyone else that they do the same.  Even if you did pre-order you’ll get another two new areas to explore, along with Bonfire.  Added together, these make for a much more satisfying play length than was offered with Battle of Forli.  That is, of course, unless you purchased a Black Edition copy, in which case you can have another couple of hours to pet the Ezio figurine in your lap.

OK, to the plot: Bonfire of the Vanities picks up when Battle of Forli abruptly ended.  Ezio has lost the Apple of Eden to a mysterious, robed monk called Savonarola, who has fled to Florence and used the Apple’s power to take control of the city.  It’s up to Ezio to break Savonarola control and recover the Apple for the Assassins.

So what makes this installment worth the asking price compared to Forli?

Holding a knife up in a bright white robe. Yup, he's a master of stealth.

Well for one, Bonfire of the Vanities does what the Assassin’s Creed series does best, which is to take historical events and wrap them up in their own mythology.  As Wikipedia history records it, the actual Bonfire of the Vanities took place as a show of support to the highly religious Savonarola, but were not sanctioned by the monk himself.  Ubisoft takes the events and puts Savonarola centre stage, full of religious zeal and willing to use the power he’s acquired to bend the people of Florence to his will.  The conclusion is a little cheesy (I couldn’t help but think of Life of Brian at one point), but there is a solid beginning, middle and end.  If it makes you feel any better, it probably helps to think of Battle of Forli as simply a prologue to this story, just a way to get all the pieces in the right place to begin.  Although that said, this still leaves me wondering why they bothered to release the two chapters seperately.

This DLC also provides the player with some actual assassination missions to enjoy, rather than the babysitting brawl-fest of Forli.  To confront Savonarola, Ezio must take out his main followers one by one to cause a civilian uprising.  Not only is there a good number of these missions, but they all have a good level of variety too.  They have some rather unexpected endings too, as you discover to what degree the monk’s followers have fallen under his spell.

I love these historical reinterpretations ...

So we’ve got story, and we’ve got length.  Thankfully we’ve also got some new areas to enjoy.

I’m quite sure I wasn’t the only one who looked at their map of Florence and wondered when the fuck the southern area of the city was going to open up, only to have it dawn on me close to the end that I’d never get to see what was down there.  Well now, finally, the area is uncovered to reveal Savonarola’s palace and a whole host of new viewpoints to scale.  The majority of the Bonfire plot is centred in this area, and although it is completely new, it’s not very different in style from the rest of Florence.  Given that it’s excluded from all the game’s side-plots, for obvious reasons, there isn’t actually much reason to explore it thoroughly either, except out of sheer, bloody-minded completionism.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, Ubisoft have also finally loosened their grasp (albeit for a price) on the complete set of pre-order exclusive Templar Tombs.  I know I should be a little mad that I’m paying for something that’s already in the game and costs absolutely no more to integrate, but then I’d probably have to be mad at the entire DLC model and no-one can hold a grudge that big.  The three tombs, Palazzo Medici, Arsenal Shipyard and Santa Maria dei Frari, are operationally identical to the existing Assassin’s Tombs, just with less interesting loot at the end of them.  They focus a lot more on Ezio’s Prince of Persia style free-running and climbing, which is good clean fun, but you will be forced to endure another one of those “chase” sequences with a Templar.  You remember, the sequences where a Templar scout would sprint effortlessly ahead of you if you held a close pursuit, but would stop to have a chocolate biscuit and yell loudly “I think I have lost him” over and over if you needed to repeat a jump or climb.

Templars just fucking *love* hanging scaffolds

There’s nothing really new, visually.  The new sections of voice-acting are of decent enough quality, just like the rest of the game, even doing well with the rather cheesy situation the end of this plot entails.  You’re not going to have much added to your knowledge database, the fact that these segments were completely dropped prove that they don’t effect the game’s lore very much and even with the price attached you’re still not offered any bonus achievements with Bonfire of the Vanities.

In the end I’m still stuck at one conclusion, and it’s that both Battle of Forli and Bonfire of the Vanities should have been included in one package.  Given how much the two are intertwined (honestly, one is prologue, the other is conclusion), we’re really only inflicted with two DLC releases here because some marketing department thought it would drive more hype.  The two packages shipped complete with Assassin’s Creed 2′s PC version, which means it’s only left to those of us who first supported the game on console to deal with the whole missing chapter debacle.  If you’re hard up for cash, I’d suggest forgetting about Forli completely and just picking up Bonfire.  You can save yourself 300 points by simply saying “Savonarola stole the Apple of Eden from Ezio and then…” aloud before you start.

The Verdict:

Pros: New areas to explore, interesting new sub-plot.  Templar Tombs add to the complete game experience, and help add another few hours of enjoyment to the title.

Cons: Nothing new gameplay-wise, still no ability to replay past memories. The added cost of including the Templar Tombs is a bit of a kick in the teeth.

Overall: Unlike it’s predecessor, this DLC is worth getting your hands on.  It’s not jaw-droppingly brilliant by any means, but it feels a lot more polished than Forli did, and will actually take some effort to complete.  I’m not sure if Ubisoft has anything else planned in the way of DLC for Assassin’s Creed 2, but if they do let’s hope it’s a lot better planned out than these two offering were. 3 out of 5.