I’ll start by saying Assassin’s Creed 2 is definitely in my top 10 of best video games of all time. I freakin’ loved this game. Sure there were a few small missteps but they didn’t mar my experience at all. The story starts you off as Desmond Miles from the first game breaking out of Abstergo, a Templar run company. Eventually you reach the Assassin’s hideout where you get into the real game. This time you play as Ezio Auditore da Firenze. However unlike Altair for AC1, you don’t start out as a master assassin. In fact Ezio doesn’t even know he belongs to a lineage of assassins. But after a series of unfortunate events, Ezio learns of his heritage and slowly learns the ways of the assassin.

The definite fault of the first one was the very repetitive mission structure. Thankfully they’ve rectified that problem with much more varied mission types and fun little side quests you can do at any time. There are even six obstacle course style missions testing your free running skills which were a blast. Wish there were more of those. Unfortunately though toward the very end the missions do start to feel repetitive.

On the story side of things, I actually found myself pretty engrossed in the game’s tale. Thankfully this time the story isn’t told through a series of emails. The characters this time are fun to listen to and learn about. Some were so interesting I was disappointed when I found out they weren’t integral to the story. Anyway the story slowly ramps itself up to the last assassination which was truly epic. Then it throws you a curveball which almost makes sense but still leaves you disoriented. I think Desmond summed it up nicely when he says, “What the fuck?”

Lastly the gameplay. Let’s just say everything you wish you could do in the first AC you can pretty much do here plus much much more. All the little additions are a blast. From the variety of weaponry to being able to hire certain groups to help you out, it’s all fun. Also I must say that dual hidden blades are freakin’ badass. The only disappointments I had were Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine and the pistol. I was hoping they’d play a bigger role but each were only used once to good effect.

Another thing I’d like to point out is the historical accuracy of the game. They really did their homework cause it never once feels fake. The cities are even laid out fairly accurately. I was trying to find a certain building in Venice, so I google-mapped it and went to approximate spot on my in-game map. Surprisingly the building was right there. That was pretty awesome.

So yeah. I loved this game. If you had any positive feelings for the first one, you should definitely grab this one. You won’t be disappointed. I loved it so much I actually 100%’d it. It joins Fallout 3 and Modern Warfare as the games this generation that I actually did every single side mission, collected every item, and loved to freakin’ death. So yeah it rocked.
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