Ubisoft is one fine maker of video games, what they do they do very very well and Assassin’s Creed 2 only enhances their reputation has one of the world’s premier developers and publishers of video games.

If you played the original Assassin’s Creed, and let’s be honest why wouldn’t you if you could have, then you will know that it’s a gorgeous spectacle and a real triumph in, at the very least, graphical quality and artwork.

It is a beautifully rendered game, but for all that the original had its faults and I’ll address these shortly because Assassin’s Creed 2 has pretty much fixed all the issues the first game had whilst also improving the game play experience.

Firstly though…

Assassin’s Creed 2 is set in the 15^th century, the Renaissance period in Italy, and you play a young nobleman, the son of a banker-turned-assassin named Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Like the original it is a 3^rd person action adventure game and it allows the player to freely roam the Italian setting whilst in the pursuit of revenge and the answer to several mysteries both relevant in 15^th century Italy and the present day…and 12^th century Palestine (3^rd Crusade in the Holy Lands)

By now most will know that the game has a sci fi bent to it, which is still a bit awkward to be totally convincing but nevertheless the game is based around a young man named Desmond Miles who is living in today’s world (which is 2012) and his connection to the past through a machine called the Animus which although difficult to take seriously is a machine that can access the genetic memories of your ancestors in your DNA and place you back in time into their lives and you play as them (awkward pause).

Putting that aside, the game, despite the difficult plausibility of the Animus, plays very well as a historical adventure and the whole sci fi bent does actually factor strongly and integrate into the game very well.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is a mission based game that has a non linear progression to the plotting and at least half of the 200 missions available are directly related to the core of the story.

It’s a story that is part hack’n slash, part RPG, part platform, part stealth, part puzzle/strategy and dollops of intrigue and mystery and indeed all rolled into a great adventure.

The game will take you on a gorgeous tour of the countryside and visiting wonderfully detailed cities of Florence and Venice to name a couple. Venice is exceptional but as good as the architecturally accurate cityscapes are the graphical beauty of the game is best shown in the countryside I felt. The rich Tuscan scenery is artfully done and the depth of field view is fantastic. That’s not taking away from the cities they look and feel very real, raw and with the same slightly washed out appearance of the original. Graphically the game has not taken that next step but it didn’t really need to either.

But Assassin’s Creed 2 has fixed some of the frustrations of the original namely:

The loading screen that you seemed to be in every five minutes in the original is very minimal now you can actually spend a lot of time searching, playing etc without the need to go into the that white, deserted loading screen.

The missions are much more varied, in other words you don’t only seek out targets, assassinate them and run and hide from the authorities until everything is calm. There are racing, spying and courier missions essential to the story and similarly side missions not connected to the core of the story. There are puzzles to find, artifacts to collect, errands to run, tombs to raid, a city to manage, renovate and improve upon, people to bribe, people to protect, people to escort, people to save, oh and people to kill for sure…

The monotony of the same assassination mission but just different targets is gone and the game is instantly better off for it.

Along the way you build up relationships with people close to you like your spoilt sister, a young Leonardo Da Vinci, lot’s of young nubile ladies (discreet sex scene in the first few minutes it’s an R rated game people) and your uncle Mario (check the Nintendo in joke when you first meet him)

You also make some nasty villainous enemies along the way which you usually kill eventually…possibly. Assassin’s Creed 2 is a game about relationships though and the ties that bind us and make us who we are. Or it’s just one big adventurous, mysterious kill fest…

Moving on, the way you assassinate has been improved and you have bigger range of weaponry and can set up some gloriously spectacular kills now. The basic old method of run in stab and disappear is a thing of the past…pun intended. You can also now disarm and steal an opponent’s weapon and kill him with it which is a bit mean spirited… Mention weapons and Leonardo Da Vinci designs some pretty good ones for young Ezio and the game makes you return often to Leonardo’s workshop as a critical part of the story. He is indeed a type of James Bond’s Q and supplies you with some interesting gadgets apart from weapons.

Blending into the crowd has improved, no longer do you have to wait for a gaggle of monks to do so, you can now blend in with any group and move unnoticed through the city. This is important because the new notoriety function means that if you become “known to the authorities” they’re going to pick a fight with you.

Blending in allows you to stealthily move around the city. Or you can let a bunch of hookers escort you around by paying them and they’ll distract all the unwanted attention and when I say hookers I mean courtesans. Money does play a bigger part in the game as it can now be used to not only buy new weapons but bribe people hire a mob or a group of the “lovely ladies”…or even toss on the ground to divert attention away from you.

There are a number of ways to go around unnoticed but what you really want is to get less notoriety and you can do that by bribing the heralds, killing the appropriate government official or tearing down the wanted posters of yourself that become scattered all over the city, That’s the easiest way I found.

Combat has pretty much stayed as it was with slight tweaks to allow for different weapons but the more compelling change with combat is the different strengths of combatants. The big ugly heavily armed “Brutes” class take a lot more killing that the run of the mill guys. Combos are still important and rely on good timing more so than getting the button pressing correct. There are also “Seekers” who will stick there sword into the hay carts you can frequently hide in.

The health or injury component of the game is also better. As stated different opponents have different strengths and can hurt you in varying degrees, synchronizing with the Animus will help minor wounds and a visit to the market doctor for medicine will sort out more serious health issues…

Lastly in the more easily identified improvements over the first game is the fleshing out of the complex story line itself. Most people I know who finished the first game was left wondering what the heck is going on and what are all the blood stained markings or cuneiform on the wall in Desmond’s living quarters. Well that is explained really early on and the story while still retaining its intrigue is more organic and understandable this time around…but expect another twist at the end it’s a biggie…well I thought so!

Overall Assassin’s Creed 2 is a wonderfully immersive game because of its setting, the art that is the game is just a highlight and the incredibly detailed environs you find yourself in give a real sense of authenticity which is only aided by the educational pop ups that give a historical account for some of the buildings you see or the people you meet.

On a number of occasions where the platforming part of the game comes to the fore, that is jumping from platform to platform to negotiate a way up or down or around obstacles there is a real visceral sense of risk especially when you are high up and in one instance going up the inside of a Florence cathedral I actually felt an uncomfortable sense of vertigo so high up was Ezio and in the end I climbed up on top of very highest point, a cross, and did the whole Titanic ”I’m the king of the world” thing!

As good as the design is I’m still nonplussed as to why the hands and some of the up close character features look a tad blocky, that’s a minor criticism I know but coupled with that are the two other issues I have with the game and that is the free running element which at times has a mind of its own where you can blindly jump the complete opposite way you intended and off a building to your death.

There are also the persistent annoying troubadours or city square singers who pester you in groups to sing a song about you. It’s not in keeping with the style of the game I think and they can impede your progress and give you unneeded notoriety at the most inconvenient times. They are almost used as comic relief but they just don’t fit.

Looking at the controls, the default button map is pretty good, combat is tidy except the ability to counter has to be a quick tap of the square button usually or you will fail with the counter move. Accessing you weapons menu through the R2 button can feel awkward if you are fighting and want to quickly change your weapon. The eagle vision is in the 3^rd

Person is easily accessed and enables you to target the specific person you are looking for.

Sound from the voice acting to the musical score is top notch and I love the authentic Italian spoken, I’m assuming it’s authentic as its portrayed as such, intermingled with the accented English dialogue. The acting is appropriate and never over the top except in some of the more pleading moments that some have when trying to bargain for their life.

In essence the whole game is a triumph like I said; it is the exact direction the game needed to go from the original and to be honest I enjoyed it better than Uncharted 2 mainly because of the whole cinematic experience.