Assassin's Creed II

I DESPISE the inability to save when I want to and to save in alternating slots. Assassin's Creed II takes this option away from you. There is no "save" option listed in the menu. There is simply a little diamond shape that shows up on your screen to tell you that the game is saving. There is just no reason for that any more. I understand they are trying to make you just play through and not worry about dying or starting over to do something differently, but I would still like to be able to make that decision myself, not have them make it for me. It's the only blemish on this game so far. Other than that it's compelling, intelligent, well executed, and most of all FUN! In fact the save irritation is not enough to even ruin my enjoyment of the game, considering it saves after pretty much any action I make - starting a mission, opening a treasure chest, synching my map.... but still the annoyance lingers.

Of course there is a reason why they did it this way. It's to force you to just play through and not worry about saves and strategic restarts when you have done something 'wrong'. In the framework of the Animus system, you simply de-synch with Ezio and start back at the last save point if this happens.

However, their 'interact' options came too fast to be caught by those of us that are paying attention to the actual cut scene and not staring at the right hand corner for a 'Press B to Interact' prompt that lasts roughly 5 seconds. I move fast and have decent hand Eye Coordination, but even I have only caught about half of these. They don't change anything in the game, they are simple conversations that don't hurt or help anything, but I still wanted to play them MY way and couldn't. Due to the pesky little save diamond that popped up once the cut scene was over, I couldn't even quit and reload to be ready for the Interact prompt and play it again either and I am certainly not going to play the 30+ hours I have already played all over again, just to see a little bro hug between Ezio and Leonardo.

I don't even mind that the Interact option is on the screen for so little time. If they would just give me the option to load MY save I could easily replay these parts and 'get it right'.

Does this mean I am a perfectionist? I don't think so. I just think I like to get all I can from a game and feel satisfied with the experience it has given me, for better or worse. Lord knows with a home to take care of, a husband, a dog, a full time job, good friends, and other hobbies that demand my time, like writing and reading, I don't have hundreds of hours to sink into games - playing and replaying them until I have squeezed every drop of life from them. I have to make my (usual) single play through count.

Don't get me wrong. Assassin's Creed II is an AWESOME game. I am really enjoying playing it. This is a little flaw. Tiny in comparison to some of the other games I have played and their issues; bugs, freezes, missing missions, missing characters, etc. I only bring it up because it turned a 100% score on my card to a 99% and because when the latest incident of me wanted to turn back the clock happened, it actually lead me to feeling frustrated enough to turn the game off.

Of course though, I will be back there tonight. That is one thing I am completely sure of.