Assassin's Creed II

                  Assassin's Creed 2 is a large improvement to its eponymous predecessor in that it removed the need to do a minimum of side quests to continue to the main assassination missions and you can now SWIM!!! The side missions are still there and collection of items has expanded and instead of flags to collect there is feathers that have significance to some characters in game. Other then that the in-game mechanics are basically the same with the addition of more tools and weapons e.g. the double hidden blades. I appreciate the vibrancy of Renaissance Italy of Assassin's Creed 2 more then the Crusades era Western Asian Syria of the previous game.

                The story and fiction of the Assassins vs. Templars world has swelled from Assassin's Creed 1. The story starts off directly where the last one left us with Desmond, a prisoner at Abstergo, an pharmacy conglomerate which is a cover for their Templar roots, who just got done with exploring the genetic memories of his ancestor Altair in the Animus, a machine that allows the user to venture into the mind and memories of their ancestors, and is now breaking out of the Abstergo lab with the former Abstergo employee Lucy who you find out is actually working with the Assassins. The reason for going into the Animus is to find clues and information to the whereabouts of the Pieces of Eden gathered from the memories of Desmond's assassin ancestors. The whole Assassins against Templars dispute revolves around the powerful and mysterious Pieces of Eden introduced at the end of the first game that have the power to manipulate those under its control do whatever the wielder desires. The Templars have been using them to control people and to gain power and the Assassins want to stop them.

                The new avatar for Desmond and the player to run around as is Ezio Auditore di Firenze from the noble Auditore family from Florence. The back drop for the story is during the Pazzi rebellion against the then banker-ruler Lorenzo de Medici from the powerful and influential de Medici banking family of Florence. The game introduces and uses the setting of warring city-states of Renaissance Italy well while also introducing historical bits into their fictitious yarn. In fact there are many in-game opportunities to learn and explore this world so when you run into a historical building e.g. Santa Maria Novella you can cue information on it that gives you more a feel for the state of the time period which is quite fascinating.

                Ezio as a character is a lot better and more filled out then the unemotional cipher that was Altair which is appreciated if you want to get into the story at all. His character arch is a story of revenge and conspiracy. The other characters you meet while in Italy are pretty interesting including Uncle Mario, an Italian mercenary, who says an unexpectedly hilarious line during his introduction and Theodora a nun turned pimp. Also you are introduced to a soon to be friend Leonardo da Vinci who helps you throughout your journey. The only characters I dreaded and luckily did not have to interact with that much is the annoying British character Shaun and the tom boy tech girl who are both on Assassin's side and are both annoying and bland characters. The villains are interesting, mainly circulating around the political leaders at the time, that include the eccentric Pazzi family and the backstabbing Barbarigo family of Venice each with their own bag of crazy. Also the guards of each city that you encounter can be a big o' bag of fun as well. As such with open world games the animations of characters are prone to turn erratic and crazy which was the case with one guard in Venice I encountered. I was trying to get the No-Hitter achievement and so I was fighting this big group of guards and after I killed one he must have bumped into another guard or something because his rag doll physics continued to shoot him up in the air significantly high to land across the town square. The graphics and art style of the characters and cities are the same as the first game with a little fine tuning but the world that is produced is a beautiful one that you will have fun exploring in.

               New weapons are introduced to provide more ways to dole out your assassination prowess to unsuspecting guards. The double hidden blades with poison for instance allow you to do double air assassinations until your heart is content and the poison brings an interesting mechanic in which you can quietly poison a guard and watch him flip out waving his arms and sword erratically through the air and attack his fellow guards and passersby. The only problem is that the mechanics can be rather finicky at times. The camera while running on the roof tops of the cities can be a pain because if you move it in the wrong direction you may end up jumping off the building to your death. Really though this is to be expected from what game has to contend with, a character doing crazy parkore moves, running every which way, across and off roof tops but still it can get frustrating. Also an adjustment is the addition of the notoriety system that shows how much the guards are suspicious of Ezio based on your actions in the game.

               One of the more interesting parts of the game is exploring the background of the Assassin-Templar conflict by finding special glyphs around the cities that has you go through a series of puzzles to unlock cinematics that become cohesive once you found them all which also tells reveals more about the Pieces of Eden how and why the Templars use them and how the Assassins stop them like implying that Nikolai Tesla was an Assassin and Thomas Edison was a Templar which is pretty cool. Also you can collect codex pages in each city that elucidates the goings on of Altair after the first Assassin's Creed. The other collectibles like the paintings from Renaissance Italian artists like Leonardo and Giotto and Petruccio feathers are used as improvements for your family villa in Monteriggioni that Uncle Mario lets you use as home base for your missions.

              The improvement of your villa introduces the economy mechanic of the game which introduces Art Merchants, Blacksmiths, Clothiers and Doctors as shops to get weapons and medicine from. The Art Merchants provide paintings from contemporary Italian artists to deck out your villa and also treasure maps that show where the pointless treasure chests are scattered throughout the cities. The reason they are pointless is that they give you little incentive to look for them besides giving you a little bit of money which if you renovate the villa enough through your personal architect you will get all the money you need so making the player search for the treasure chests pointless. As you improve your villa it will go from a run down mess that you start with to a vibrant and colorful town. The Blacksmiths provide you with new weapons and a place to repair your armor which gets worn out and damaged after prolonged wear. Also Blacksmiths and Doctors provide a repository for medicine, poison and ammunition for your different weapons. Clothiers provide item upgrades for the amount of items you can carry and clothing dye that only has the cosmetic effect of changing the color of your outfit.

             There is also a "faction" system that allows you to enlist the help of thieves, mercenaries, and prostitutes that are in every city who help you blend in with the citizens to avoid the attention of the guards or help to fight and distract them while you run away. I use faction loosely because it is definitely not in the same vain as Mercenaries in which you balance attitudes between them. They also help you with your main assassination missions allowing you to move incognito while you narrow the distance between you and your target.

             The main missions are fun and pretty varied like saving some helpful NPCs or going after targets in different locales holding the same formula as the first game true. The revision of the primary missions of the first game that seemed like side missions are now optional and officially side missions where the reward upon completion is money. The assassination contract side missions seemed to be too many and too much of the same thing with the only difference is if the mission is timed or not. Other then that the races and beat 'em up missions are still available. Also there is a new side mission in which you explore the tombs of Ezio's ancestors which requires you to go through a lot of jumping puzzles to collect their seal for a strong outfit after you collect all six of them.  The only sad part is once you do all the missions and grab the collectibles there is little to no re-playability afterward so once you experience Assassin's Creed 2, you're done.

               All in all Assassin's Creed 2 is an improvement to the previous installment while providing the same parkore, running on roof tops and assassinating targets game play goodness from the first. It improves on the combat by providing different weapons to use, a more dynamic fight and counterattack system and more equipment to deal out stealth kills with. I enjoyed the story more then the last one and the crazy turn the game has towards the end will leave a "what the fuck" feeling. The art style is still easy on the eyes and the cities are still fun to run around in. Also if you like history or Renaissance Italy this game will be of interest with the background information on the world you are exploring included which is cool and interesting to read. Assassin's Creed 2 gives more of what I liked about Assassin's Creed 1 while improving on its faults.