It's the first game, done right, with a bunch of additional content. Open Adventure / Platform gaming perfected!
For those of you unfamiliar with the story it takes place in two times. The first is the framing story where you play Desmond. Via the use of a mind reading device called the Animus you are able to relive memories from your past enabling you to take control of one of your ancestors and "live through" events in their lives. The reason for doing this is so that you can locate the source of some old religious artefacts of power. Thankfully the amount of gameplay as Desmond is significantly reduced in the sequel and is just used to progress the story towards Assassin's Creed 3.
The main meat of the game is where you take control as your ancestor, Ezio (ets-e-o) Auditore da Firenze, a young noble of Florence who is learning to become a master assassin in order to extract revenge. You will find yourself traversing key locations such as Florence, Venice and Rome during the Itallian Renasissance,uncovering plots and meeting an assortment of famous historical figures.
Whilst the game as a whole is fantastic my initial view was a little tainted due to the graphical quality and initial "Desmond" level. Whilst the first 20 minutes or so provides a sweet introduction to Desmond's story and a framework for the main game it was frustrating to play through 10 minutes of "clunky" game just to get to a point where I could control Ezio. That said they certainly weren't shy with the achievements and I had 60gs within about 20 minutes of play without having to do anything hard.
Another big disappointment for me was the cut scenes. The mouth sync is way off, looked un-natural and they eyes all carried a glazed / wide open "look" to them. There is some minor screen tearing and the rendering looks very basic. Whilst not a deal breaker this is certainly something that should have been done better, especially considering the way the rest of the game is presented.
Now that all the negatives are out of the way onto the 98% of the game that is so right. As soon as you get into Florence and start playing the game proper you start seeing the things that gain this game it's score. The scenery is beautiful, the rooftop views are fantastic, the characters and dress blend perfectly and…wow. There is a perfect blend of historical, mythical and religious reference to create a world that looks, feels and sounds very complete and thoroughly absorbing. It's also nice not to be sucked back into Desmond's world after every memory block or two as was the case with the preceding game. This allows for uninterrupted play and keeps the player absorbed in Ezio's story.
Musically the game is fantastic. The score is period based and changes seamlessly depending on your situation/notoriety. The story is pretty much along the same vein as the first one, you become an assassin, get more skills, have a list of people to assassinate, back in the real world you have the current Assassin vs. Templar fight going on and both sides want Desmond and the Animus to help them win, blah blah. It's a great story but pales in comparison to the story of Ezio and how well it is told. As mentioned previously though, this is in the game as a buildup for Assassin's Creed 3 and, by the end of the game, you get a feel for where they might take us next. One great part about the story telling is that they have added a little humour to it. For those of you who saw the funny teaser trailers you can expect more of the same. I won't spoil it for you but I laughed out loud when I first met my Uncle Mario; his line after "Don't you recognise me Ezio?" is fantastic
Control wise the game is much more fluid with Desmond/Ezio now able to walk, walk fast, run and sprint plus, when climbing, we now have the option to hold the run button and climb a little faster. When running through crowds you can bump people out of the way, dodge them or run into them knocking them sprawling. There is also the addition of "free run" which is when you basically sprint around the rooftops jumping from building to building. The new weapons and ability to use your hidden knife as a blade make for a much more interesting combat experience. I loved the simplicity of the first game's combat and that is certainly present in this game if you choose to play in that manner, however if you want something with a bit more meat, Ezio has a much larger repertoire of skills now. You can fight with a blade, dodge and hit, parry and counter or just charge in like a madman. Or you might choose fists allowing for a range of attacks, grab/hold options (head but, kick in the junk, punch, or even throw over a balcony) and even special attacks like throwing sand into the enemy's eyes.
Stealth is much improved in this game and, whilst the benches and rooftop gardens are still there, you can blend with any group of people simply by walking with them or standing in a group participating in a conversation. Much better than the groups of scholars strolling around in the predecessor. Also there are many new stealth aspects in this game like pick pocketing, hiding dead bodies, employing whores, thieves or brawlers to distract guards or even throwing money on the ground to start a distracting riot. The multiple ways to achieve tasks is a very nice and refreshing take on the game and makes it feel much more "real". The only slight downside to this is that the crowd interaction still doesn't seem "real". For example nobody seems particularly stressed when there are dead bodies around, you're looting corpses, pick pocketing them, or strolling away from just killing 10 guards. That said I think having them react too strongly would make the game difficult and break it away from its "pick up and play" feel.
Next up; main missions and assassinations! It was a pleasure to see that, at last, research and planning an assassination finally pays off. You can still try and run in to perform an assassination (your only option for the first kill) however a planned assassination (such as taking out guards and replacing them with your own men so as not to raise an alarm) makes for a much more smooth (and "in synch") endeavour. Whilst most of this setup and planning is automated by the storyline it's nice to see the removal of sitting on benches eavesdropping for information that makes no relevance to how you can perform a task. In fact, I was ecstatic to find that I did not have to sit on a bench and eavesdrop on a conversation once in the entire game!
In summary this game is as close to perfect as I would have hoped. The controls, music, scenery, game play are all exceptional with a couple of small control glitches and the aforementioned poor cut scenes. I don't think its GOTY material as it just feels like it's the game that Assassin's Creed 1 should have been and doesn't have a great deal of replay value to any other than hardcore AC fans. That's not to say it's not a good game, far from it, but I think GOTY should be something industry shaking, not perfection of a previously tried and tested formula.