Do you remember Assassin's Creed? If you do, you are likely to remember the god-awful lack of variety that game had. Still, a few of us also remember a bit more than that. The sun-drenched cities of Jerusalem, Acre and Damaskus, the feeling when you leaped of a building the first time, the sensational thrill the first time you stabbed a guy in the throat with your hidden blade...The list goes on, but you get the picture. It was fun the first time you did it, but after a while it just got tedious and boring.
It's a relief, then, that the second game does not follow the same path as the first. This time around you play as Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young Italian nobleman that after a tragic incident with his family is forced to become an assassin. The fact that you're not an assassin from the beginning is so much more logical than the first game's "I'm a super-assassin but I got degraded so now I can't do shit"-situation. It also enables the player to get more attached to Ezio than you ever could with Altair, as you follow his struggle for personal revenge over the first 40 years of his life as opposed to
watching Altair kill some dudes every now and again. Also, since the story this time around is much crazier than the first game's story, you are more compelled to finish the game now than you ever were before.
The story isn't the only thing that's changed in Assassin's Creed 2. In fact, almost everything has changed. The mission types, the weapons, the combat system, even some aspects of the climbing system, have all changed. Even though the combat system is mostly the same, the introduction of counter kills with your fists and hidden blades as well as the ability to disarm your opponent makes all the difference in the world. It all feels smoother now, and as you no longer have to rely only on your sword when fighting guards the combat's actually fun this time around.
The biggest change in Assassin's Creed 2, however, is the missions. In the first game, you knew already after 10 minutes of playing what that game was about. Nothing changed over the course of the game, you did the same things over and over again and you knew what was going to happen. In the second installment, you never know what's going to happen. And I mean never. Ever. One minute you're climbing a tower to stab a guy in the throat, the next you're kicking a guy in the chest while flying Leonardo Da Vinci's flying machine. Although assassinating targets may become a bit tedious over time, the incorporation of non-assassinating elements in the game creates a feeling that the game always has something new to offer and that feeling helps keeping your interest in the game alive.
Not everything is great about the game, though. In some cases, I found the facial animations of some characters to be disturbingly bad. We're talking pre-Xbox 360 bad here, people. It really is a shame, as the cities and environments in the game are so beautifully done. It's almost so bad that you tend to wanna skip the film sequences, which of course is far from a good thing. And, also, there are some minor controlling issues. Sometimes when you're climbing a building, the camera angles tend to fuck up in weird ways and make Ezio jump totally in the wrong direction. This is extremely annoying when you've spent a few minutes scailing a tower and almost reached the top, only to find Ezio sky diving into a body of hay. But really, that's just making mountains of mole hills.
So please, by all means, buy this game as it is not something you want to miss out on. It's lenghty and jam-packed with
stealth murdering, free-roaming and steering caravans, all in a beautifully made Reneissance Italy presented in HD-graphics. Really, you can't go wrong with that.