Yo.

More like “first, second, sixth, etc. impressions of AC2.” I’ve been playing this one for a few days.

But I’m not quite done with the game yet, so there it is.

Anyway, I have long harbored a grudge against the Assassin’s Creed series for its purportedly anti-Christian themes and/or plot. I played through the entirety of AC1 without too much trouble, but I was still left with a queasy stomach, and the end of the game threw me a few gut-punches. (Most notably, one revelation at the game’s end strongly implied that Jesus was no more than a carpenter who stumbled upon an alien artifact and used it to deceive the world. This struck me as so ridiculous I actually laughed it down, but I won’t pretend I lost my queasiness.)

Now, I went into AC2 with full knowledge of its ending, which I won’t spoil here, but I know it to be a huge face-slap for Christians. And so far the anti-Christian themes are more prevalent than in the first game.

Yet I’m having a blast anyway.

This is confusing. But I think I can boil down my appreciation for this game into two broad aspects:

Firstly, the gameplay is truly wonderful. Sometimes the checkpoints are overly punishing (and I have no idea why the cutscenes are unskippable), and one or two of the mechanics play like garbage, but for the most part everything’s fun.

Secondly, despite the reported anti-Christian snark, I do like the story. Well, no, the plot is mostly trivial, but I do like the characters. Err . . . in the same way I like the eponymous heroes of Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Just about every main character possesses a critical hole in their morality, but that doesn’t keep them from being likable.

In addition, genuine Christianity still finds its way into the game, even if the developers didn’t intend such a thing, so that’s nice.

With no intention of delving further into my opinion right now, I’ll leave the post here. For one reason or another I’m still struggling to find the inspiration and bravery necessary for writing a big post, so this little thing is the best I can do.

My apologies, and thanks for reading.