Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Amazing"

Pros: Great story and voice acting, fun parkour-esque stealth, satisfying combat, amazing graphics, expansive recreation of Renaissance Italy, loads of side-quests and optional quests that add to the overall narrative, you will feel like an assassin (guaranteed).

Cons: Movement can be a pain in the ass, Desmond's story feels very disconnected from Ezio's, the Desmond sections are in short supply, and are rather lackluster; screen tearing (PS3), can't replay main story memories, no riding horses in the cities, plus horse-riding controls have nothing on Red Dead Redemption; if Ubisoft would have waited a little longer to release the game, I wouldn't have had to pay for Sequences 12 and 13.

I never finished AC1, because it felt kind of boring to me. That's why I felt so reluctant to play AC2 for so long. Did it mend my woes of the series, or just cement how right I was to not play through the series? Let's find out!

I played enough of AC 1 to understand the story, which is WAY to complicated for me to explain here (especially since at the time I'm writing this, I have a headache), but let me just say that you don't have to play AC1 to understand the story, since it's explained at the beginning, but it would help. The characters in this game are pretty great, it's such a shame that the Present characters are so underused. The past story here is about Ezio, a smart-alec, young Italian man; who eventually comes across a conspiracy of sorts, due to a sad event (which I won't spoil), dons his family's ancient Assassin robe, and goes out stomp out the asses of injustice. I love this story, and think that it's probably the best in the series (though I haven't played 3. yet..... Christmas can't come soon enough).

Though there are times where you will play as the main Present character, Desmond, you'll spend most of your time hopping around Renaissance Italy as Ezio. The playstyles between the two are similar (they both can jump, climb, swing, punch, and use their hidden blades), Desmond is far more limited than Ezio, since he only appears after so many sequences are finished, and spends most of it in a warehouse (except for a sorta cool sequence, which I won't spoil). Ezio is able to utilize parkour to his advantage, as he hops from rooftop to rooftop; this is where one of the biggest problems with the game lies; trying to chase down a target gets really hard when the camera and controls cause you to jump to a ledge and miss, costing you precious time, since one button does everyting when the R1 (or RB) button is held down; or climbing up a building and trying to go from ledge to ledge and accidentally jump off to your doom; it doesn't happen very often to be game-breaking, but when it happens, it really sucks. He also needs to use stealth, since he's an assassin, and has a ton of weapons suit for that; such as his hidden blades. He can also engage in some satisfying as all hell combat with enemies, primarily with a sword; and can beat down enemies, or use it wisely and execute enemies (or to show of to friends, even though it's not particularly hard), the best ones with the hidden blades and dagger. You can also ride horses, but the control is ass; you have to hold forward on the left stick to move him foward, which means that if the camera gets screwy, you'll either go the opposite way of where you're trying to go, or come to a dead hault. You can also swim, which is a welcome edition.

You normally go from mission to mission (which works the same as any Open-world game, ever), the story missions are marked with a !, and are usually where most of the fun of the game comes from; the game also has some optional things you can do, and almost everyone adds to the game's overall narrative; you can find feathers for your mother (you get a surprise if you do), travel into catacombs around the world to find seals to unlock Altair's (the assassin from the first game) armor, solve "The Truth" (no, not the hippie from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) puzzles left around the world by Subject 16 (by using Eagle Vision, you can find the glyph's that lead to the puzzles), beat up cheating husbands and such, race thieves, pickpocket people for money, and do assassinations (which are like watered down versions of the spectacular story mode missions, but still pretty fun); you can also find treasure chests around the city, (which you can buy maps for at art merchants) which will give you money to buy stuff at merchants.

Speaking of merchants, this is where the "economy" portion of this game comes i. You can buy weapons and armor at Blacksmiths, have your clothes dyed at tailors, buy health and poison from doctors, and buy art and maps from art merchants; but the fun doesn't stop there. They also added this very simple, and pointless, Sim City-like system where you can renovate buildings and such, at your family's villa. It's very stupid and makes buying things rather easy, since you make loads of money every so often, which you get from your chest at the villa; but the chest eventullay gets full, and can't hold anymore money, which means you'll have to go back all the time and get it (I really didn't give a damn, most of the time). You can use Fast-travel stations to travel back and forth through cities, but they are few and far between.

Assassin's Creed II is a great game, and one that should definitely be pcked up, since it's like $20 bucks now. It sets the series up for many great things to come. Assassin's Creed was agreat game, but AC2 makes it look likea glorified tech demo. Requiescat in Pace, AC1, all hail AC2! I give AC2 a 9 out of 10.

Things I forgot to mention: The best missions in the game are the ones that diverge away from the norm (i.e. Scripted events), In my opinion. You should defititely do the Truth Puzzles before you beat the game, and try not to use a guide, as it feels so much better to do it on your own merits (I did all without a guide, more than what I can say about Brotherhood), and get the Altair armor, because it makes it almost impossible to lose at a fight. There is also DLC for this game, which are sequences 12 and 13, apparently Ubisoft couldn't have them playtested properly, and were thrying to get the game out fast, so they finished them later, and sold them as DLC; they're like $4 dollars now, so I say if you have the money, check 'em out (I haven't yet, but plan on doing so).