After many weeks playing this, I can conclude this is one of the best games i have ever played but there are flaws
User Rating: 9.5 | Assassin's Creed II X360
Assassin's Creed 2 is work of art, a game that really stands out. The graphics may not be the best I have ever seen (its a bit old, not too much though) but they are good (not as good as Brotherhood which I have just started and will review on a later date).The most amazing aspect of the environment is the accuracy of it and how much work must have been put in to make it actually look like Florence or actually look like Venice (2 biggest of the 6 cities/areas). The characters aren't too deep but they do carry on the story as they should, and there really would be no point in developing them more as the main character Ezio Auditore/Desmond Miles have many mysteries of their own. The story is best played all the way through with also finding all of the glyphs and secret locations. The story takes many turns and is probably one of the best I have ever sat through. The combat system can be confusing at first but if you take the time to learn the combos and such you will easily kill enemies (well they aren't too deadly in the first place, sorta wish they were stronger but some of the achievements would be extremely difficult to get if they were stronger). The climbing is extremely fun (and according to my mother, extremely good at reducing stress) but there can be some glitches in this as you may want to go one direction but it will send you another but if you die (or get desychonized) you are never very far from where you were last. The saving system in this game is great in that you don't really have to worry about saving before exiting the game because it so frequently saves for you. One complaint with desychonizing or loading in general is that sometimes it seem like it takes forever to load. Now the next aspect that I like about the game is problem solving. Say you have to tail a guard into a heavily guarded area and can't be detected, you can do various things to draw attention to any one area and draw the guards way. Another flaw in this game is the fact that you cannot go back and replay memories or sequences. The biggest flaw is that once the story is over, there is little to do (well i finished up all of the achievements) that feels important and starting the game over seems like a bad idea because you already know the story so this game in fact has little replay value. I had like 24 or so hours on this game but if you stick just to the main plot, it could be done in 12 probably (which is much longer than most games besides RPGs).
The 2 DLC are not worth the money, as for a total of $11, you get 2 sequences and a few secret locations, adding up to about 2-3 hours of gameplay so if you are really interested in the story, watch the playthroughs on youtube.
Graphics: 8/10
Environment 10/10
Plot: 10/10
Gameplay: 9/10
Mechanics: 7/10
