Look for eagles flying overhead to pinpoint the locations of the many viewpoints in "Assassin's Creed 2.".
"Assassin's Creed 2," the second entry in the Assassin's Creed series, has the player-controlling protagonist Ezio Auditore, who free-runs through the cities of Renaissance-era Italy. The game design leans toward open world exploration, with many missions and side quests to find in the nooks and crannies of the map. The way the player uncovers those missions -- and reveals the details of the map itself -- is by climbing and "synchronizing" with hidden eagle towers, known in-game as viewpoints. Viewpoints are only hidden until the player explores the portion of the game world they occupy, at which point they are permanently marked in the fog of the player's map until they are climbed. Most viewpoints will be climbable immediately, and all viewpoints are capable of being scaled by the game's halfway point.
How Many Towers Are There?
"Assassin's Creed 2" contains 66 viewpoints. If you include the seven additional towers in downloadable content for the game, the total comes to 73. The towers are located across all featured cities in the game, such as Florence, Monteriggioni, San Gimignano/Tuscany, Forli/Romagna and Venice. The Apennine Mountains and Rome do not contain any viewpoints in "Assassin's Creed 2," as the player's missions in those areas are linear and do not allow for free exploration.
Locating Towers on the Map Interface
When the player is close to a viewpoint, it will appear in the map at the bottom right corner of the screen as a diamond square with the image of an eagle inside. As the player moves closer to the tower, the diamond icon will move closer to the center of the map, which represents where the player is located in the game space. As you progress through the game, viewpoint icons will not be visible on the map until you explore the immediate area. The details of the map itself -- including streets, buildings and icon-identified side quests -- will not become visible until a viewpoint is synchronized; instead, the map will appear as a grid of uniform squares with the eagle icon hovering over the general location of its corresponding viewpoint. Once a viewpoint is synchronized, it uncovers a portion of the map within a certain radius. Occasionally, the radius of one viewpoint will overlap with the location of a second viewpoint, allowing the player to pinpoint the second viewpoint's location to a specific building. The icons of any unclimbed viewpoints will remain on the game map screen until they are climbed.
Locating Towers by Sight
Once you are near a viewpoint icon, you can look for it in the game space by sight and sound. Look first for any tall structures in the immediate area. If the structure is a viewpoint, you will likely see an eagle perched or flying overhead; you will also be able to hear its intermittent cry if you're close enough. You can also identify the structure as a viewpoint by two defining features: It will either have a wooden perch jutting from one side of the roof or it will be topped by a crucifix.
Climbing Towers
Once you have located a viewpoint, you will need to climb the tower to the top. Some are easy and some are hard, but the basic idea is that you will be searching for a path of handholds that will allow you to reach the top. If you start a climb and find a dead end on the way up, look for any handholds to your sides that might allow you to continue upward from another side of the tower. If none are available, climb downward until you find sidestepping handholds that allow you to take an alternate path upward. Unique towers are likely to have a unique path up. The eagle tower adjacent to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, for example, requires you to start halfway up by jumping from a balcony of the basilica, then finding an open window and continue your climb from inside. If you can't find your way up a viewpoint early in the game, don't fret: Some will not be climbable until you've learned perform the jump-and-grab maneuver in Venice, following Sequence 7, Memory 7: Monkey See, Monkey Do.
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