AC II will have a drowning grip on your heart and before you know it you'll be immersed in its exquisite world !!~!!
Cons: Some minor glitches, game is relatively easy, PC version suffers from DRM issues.
When Assassin's Creed came out in 2007, it was universally praised for the visuals, parkour stunts its protagonist could do and the masterful art of storytelling. However it had a few shortcomings in the form of repetitive missions, lack of weapon choices and being almost too easy to play. With Assassin's Creed 2 however the developers decided to remove these shortcomings and incorporate all those qualities which made the original an excellent adventure. The result, Assassins Creed 2 improves upon the original in almost every way imaginable and adds a myriad of other game play features which make it a treat for the gamers.
We join Desmond Miles once again who was able to escape from the Abstergo Industries with the help of his "friends". Using Animus 2.0 we quickly step into the shoes of another one of his ancestors, Ezio Audituerre, a ladies' man, who enjoys a carefree life in Rome until a conspiracy against his father results in his family hanged to death, leaving him and his sister under the care of their uncle. After training under his uncle, Ezio sets out to seek revenge on the conspirators. The story is engrossing, background score is awesome, dialogues are really good and the voice acting is superbly done. You'll meet (and love) a lot of superb characters from the European Renaissance period. The plot missions are excellently crafted so it never feels like you are doing the same thing again. The ending will leave you jaw-dropping and provides enough material for fan speculation later on.
The world of Assassins Creed 2 is huge and a fantastic re-creation of Renaissance period European cities. Even if there weren't many missions (and believe me there are) which have you explore different areas of each city, you'd still want to visit each nook and cranny of every street, it's simply that gorgeous. The fact that you can do some excellent free running moves while exploring adds to the excitement. The game features many towers for you to climb on which provide a fantastic view of the cityscape, making a "leap of faith" from these towers remains as enjoyable as ever. On top of these the game features some excellent side missions which will have you exploring catacombs, chasing a thief, rooftop races, teaching a lesson to an unfaithful husband and so on, adding to the main story. It also helps that the four different factions found in the game have their own challenges to complete. So there's tons of variety here which was not present in the earlier Assassins Creed game. Some minor technical glitches are acceptable (in such a large world) as they are pretty rare and never mar the experience.
The controls system is excellent if you are playing with a controller, for the PC however using keyboard and mouse can be a little tricky at times as the only controller supported is Xbox 360 controller for windows. The battle system is improved and the game features a large number of weapons you can use to decimate your foes. Most notable amongst them are the dual hidden blades and pistol. There is a monetary system in place now that allows you to invest in your villa so as to gain income which you can use to purchase new weapons, armors etc. The enemy AI is smart enough to follow you around rooftops and this time certain enemies can run even faster than you, making escape a little more challenging. Things like notoriety meter and enemy awareness indicator keeps things interesting outside of battle however the combat still remains easy as foes only attack you one at a time and as you level up and gain more abilities you can make a quick work of them most of the times. Visually it's superb though and Ezio displays some truly amazing swordsman skills each time you make a counter kill. Sidestep maneuvers, grapples and taunts do keep the combat interesting enough.
PC version of the game suffers from some DRM related issues such as requiring you to remain online constantly even though the game is single player only. The fact that servers had connection issues at launch didn't help either. But the PC version does include two of the DLCs which console users had to purchase separately. Also on PC the game can be played at much higher resolutions elevating the already high visual appeal of the game.
Assassins Creed 2 raises the bar for sequels to a whole new level. It's truly a great game and fans of the original will appreciate that their feedback didn't go unheard. It's a beautiful and enjoyable experience which will compel you to return to it long after you've completed the main story.