Assassin's Creed II: Discovery

Assassin's Creed II: Discovery is a video game that is part of the Assassin's Creed series. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc. Apple Inc.] CEO Steve Jobs revealed the development of the game in his keynote speech on September 9th. The game was released for Nintendo DS and iPhone OS version. Similar to Altaïr's Chronicles, the previous title in the Assassin's Creed series to be on these devices, Discovery is also a 2.5D side-scroller. Both iPhone and DSi users are able to use their devices' camera function to display portraits as wanted posters in-game.

Plot
The game takes place in 1491, in between the events of Battle of Forlì and Bonfire of the Vanities in Assassin's Creed II. Ezio Auditore da Firenze was told to come meet his fellow assassin Antonio, leader of the Thieves guild of Venice. He made his way to Antonio, to find both him and Luis Santangel, a Spaniard who needed the help of Ezio. Christoffa Corombo, Luis' accomplice, had a meeting with Rodrigo Borgia, who was interested in Christoffa's plans to sail west. Luis suspected it was a trap and needed Ezio to rescue Christoffa. Ezio rushed to the meeting and found out it was indeed a trap. However, Christoffa was successfully rescued by Ezio.

Ezio then travelled to Spain to rescue fellow assassins who were being held under the guise of the Inquisition, only to uncover a plot by The Templars to discover the New World.

Gameplay
The game features many moves such as Counter, Ledge Pull, and Knifes Throwing from the original ACII, albeit largely simplified. Icons on the screen will change when these special moves are usable. The Social Awareness System is also featured in this game, allowing players to notice guards before being spotted.

Guards also have distinctive rank differences, with the higher the rank, the tougher they are. Archers, Brutes and Seekers are found in the game. The player, however, cannot disarm guards and must fight them directly or assassinate them from behind.

The game also has multiple mission types, namely: Chase, Stealth and Normal missions. When in a stealth mission, the player must stay hidden by hanging over ledges, hiding in barrels or haysack, assassinate enemies from behind to avoid being seen; while for Chase missions, free-run skill will be tested, which often have a time limit or a target to be chased down.

In addition, wanted posters and maps are scattered across the levels. When players tear down a set amount of posters, they gain more sync (health bar). For maps, each collected unlocks a challenge mission, of which requires skills and patience in order to complete.

There are also many Hidden Treasures hidden throughout the game. When the screen starts to glitch, shake your device (iPhone OS) to reveal the path to a hidden treasure, which are artworks of the original console game. On the iPhone version there are animus hacks which allow you to unlock cheats for the game with the help of synch points.

Trivia

 * Despite the storyline being between the two DLCs, Ezio did not sport the dual hidden blades. The hidden blade used in this game is the basic hidden blade with no poison blade or hidden gun upgrade. This is probably done deliberately to scale down game size and to achieve balance.
 * Guards in Italy and Spain seem to be clearly informed of the presence of Assassins, as they will fight once they see Ezio.