[1]
Although some of our dear friends [2] were not as high on Ubisoft’s second outing into the Animus, it’s obvious that the developers at Ubisoft listened to the complaints about Assassin’s Creed. Nearly every criticism was addressed – most of which were improved tremendously. Sadly, Jesper Kyd’s score for Assassin’s Creed II does not fall under the “improved” column.
The soundtrack to the first Assassin’s Creed was actually quite good. It managed to blend Middle Eastern sensibilities while maintaining a futuristic, sinister window through which we could experience Altair’s journey. This score tries to do the same thing musically, but somehow does not succeed in the same. Click for more….
Despite the game’s setting in the birthplace of the Renaissance and during the near-peak of its existence, Kyd’s score seems to ignore all of this (even though Renaissance music is still performed regularly today). Instead of fusing the futuristic, Animus paradigm with the traditional sounds of the region and time period (like he did so well in the first Assassin’s Creed), we are now subjected to an electric guitar bonanza with some voices and out-of-region percussion. For example, the opening theme of “Earth” starts out beautifully with a single angelic voice and acoustic guitar. It is then promptly destroyed by a rock bass guitar and distortion. The soundtrack for Assassin’s Creed II often sounds more like a piece from a rock concept album than it does a game soundtrack scoring either the Renaissance or the dark future through which the Animus presents history.
I am a big fan of Jesper Kyd. His work on Assassin’s Creed, Hitman, and Freedom Fighters (an underrated and brilliant score/game) are top notch. This score, however, is not. The plethora of motets, songs, and sacred music from the Renaissance is so overwhelming that to brush it aside as the Assassin’s Creed II soundtrack has is simply mind-boggling.
Scoring an Assassin’s Creed game is tricky in that one is not scoring for a specific era or situation, but a view of that era from the future. It is absolutely correct of Jesper Kyd and the development team to want a score that reflects both. This was achieved quite well in the original mostly by representing the Animus through modern percussion and ambient effects on the “traditional” sounds used to represent the historic period. In Assassin’s Creed II, the Renaissance is mostly represented through acoustic guitar and voices while the modern era/Animus is represented by electric guitar, electric bass, some percussion, and ambient effects. The problem with both of these is that neither goes far enough in its respective direction to accurately represent its era effectively. The electric guitar and bass often come across like an early-nineties metal band and the classical guitar and voice – though beautiful in their own right – seem oddly generic. It doesn’t feel Italian, it doesn’t feel Renaissance, and it doesn’t feel modern and ass-kicking like the Desmond sequences in the game strive to be.
[3]
The iTunes release of the soundtrack clocks in at just under two hours and is selling for $11.99 US. Fans of Jesper Kyd may enjoy this as a piece of music. Kyd is always sound harmonically and a few of his thematic ideas are interesting – in particular, his ascending minoric scale which has several pleasant variations. But, as a soundtrack – something which adds to the ambience and propels me forward through a gaming narrative/experience – Assassin’s Creed II’s score feels as though it is stuck in the Animus unsure over which memory to wrap itself.
Comments Disabled To "Assassin’s Creed II: Stuck in the Animus (Review)"
#1 Comment By Pierre-Olivier On December 18, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
I simply feel that you were expecting something but that it was not delivered. The soundtrack isn’t as good as the first one, but the tracks do deliver. I feel it’s just a style you did not like. Usually, distortioned bass isn’t known to commonly “destroy” music or mood. You also mention that the first game had middle-eastern elements and that this one does not have renaissance music. I don’t see your point. It surely has hollywoodian middle-eastern music but this is still set during King Richard’s crusades, even if the 9th century Hassan ibn-Sabbah(Al Mualim)’s Hashashins are present.
However, the soundtrack of the first game in no way has elements of ” middle-eastern Third Crusade music “.
Another point would be that in this game you are much more aware of the situation and there is wall-breaking from outside the renaissance all the time. The Glyphs, the comments on the areas, the databases, the truth and so on. There are much more reasons for a different musical choice and the sci-fi setting is much more imprinted in the player after the first game’s ending.
When you say ” Scoring an Assassin’s Creed game is tricky in that one is not scoring for a specific era or situation, but a view of that era from the future. ” It feels as though you know what is in the mind of the creators of this game and of Jesper Kyd. It feels very weird to read.
I don’t think the soundtrack was perfect, it didn’t have very memorable tracks like the first game. Reading this review, I felt that it was pretty much biased and didn’t represent the soundtrack at all.
~Pierre-Olivier
#2 Comment By Jayson Napolitano On December 18, 2009 @ 12:20 pm
I haven’t played either game, so I have no idea about context. I thought the first game’s score was great, and I haven’t listened to the Assassin’s Creed II soundtrack yet.
Anyway, a review is just an opinion, and I wouldn’t necessarily say his opinion is biased if he felt the soundtrack was disruptive to the in-game experiece. It would be one thing if he just listened to the soundtrack and didn’t play the game.
Jesper writes some great music, so I may just go and enjoy it out of context if that’s the case. ;D
#3 Comment By DuncanR2N On December 18, 2009 @ 12:42 pm
I actually felt much the same way when I first heard this soundtrack, but after replaying the game (Assassin’s Creed II is my personal GOTY), and pulling the full soundtrack down from Amazon, I’ve had some time to really get into it and get a good feel for the soundtrack. In my opinion, Jesper Kyd delivered.
The first game, contrary to what the review says, had plenty of, non-period instruments strewn in with the period ones. Go give a listen to Access the Animus and you’ll know what I mean.
When comparing the soundtrack for ACI & II there’s more to be considered than just the setting. While that is of course a huge part of it, there’s a couple of other things that must be taken into account. First, as Pierre-Olivier stated, this is the second trip into the Animus and the Animus 2.0 functions differently than the first one, with the techs able to talk to Desmond and Desmond himself being able to ‘pause’ and bring up the Animus menus. There’s also the tone of the game. Altair’s character is a much different person and I think the music in the first game reflects this. Altair is on a mission for the Assassin’s, he takes his job very seriously, with a religious fervor whereas Ezio is a brash young aristocrast who is thrust into the world of Assassin’s and Templar, against his will. He starts only with the thought of revenge only to learn later what is really going on.
There are some fantastic tracks in the AC II soundtracks, Earth, Ezio’s Family, Leonardo’s Inventions Pt 1, Venice Escape and Flight Over Venice 1 & 2 are a few of my personal favorites.
#4 Comment By ReVoLight On December 18, 2009 @ 6:01 pm
“Return to Castle Wolfenstein”?
“Big fan of Jesper Kyd” is incompetent.
#5 Comment By Gideon Dabi On December 18, 2009 @ 6:47 pm
@ReVoLight: My mistake. Credit has been removed. Hardly makes for incompetence. Thanks for reading! 🙂
#6 Comment By Gideon On December 18, 2009 @ 7:10 pm
@pierre-olivier: Thanks, as always, for your insightful comments! My beef with the lack of Renaissance music or Renaissance influence in the score is that I felt it was incongruous to what I was experiencing. Here we have a game the encapsulates the Renaissance unlike anything we’ve seen with rapid-fire Italian being spoken on the streets, pastel outfits, and minstrels in the street, but the music experienced did not reflect that sensibility, nor did it reflect the futuristic sci-fi aspect of the game, either. The result was something that felt nebulous – though pretty in its own right.
Though the music in the original was not music from that period – as most “Western” music at that time was chant and there is little notated Middle Eastern music – it still touched on Middle Eastern sensibilities through the use of its modes. At the same time, it had a very new age feeling to it as well with ambient strings and percussion giving the futuristic side. The two merged quite well. This one was not as successful here nor did it seem to satisfy my personal expectations for a score in either the sci-fi paradigm or Renaissance.
But, like I said, some of the themes were quite nice. I simply wish they were expanded upon with the same bravura and sensitivity to setting that the original did (or any great score would do).
Thanks for reading! 🙂
G
#7 Pingback By Original Sound Version » Blog Archive » Borderlands Soundtrack: As Dark As They Come (Review) On February 3, 2010 @ 11:01 am
[…] both acoustic and electronic elements to create a style all of its own. With contributions from Jesper Kyd, Cris Velasco, Sascha Dikiciyan, Tim Larkin, and audio lead Raison Varner, the Borderlands audio […]