Assassin's Creed II

If you played the original, then these are the better bits (so far after 8 hours of play)

It's an excellent absorbing game and is a league above the original Assassin's Creed. It takes a few hours before some of the developments in the game unfold and to be honest they are still unfolding so by this time next week there may be a whole heap more. To give some examples:
- Blending into crowds is much better implemented, you actually have to position yourself in the middle of moving groups to blend, not just press one button. Trying to make your way without being seen requires more stealth and it's very easy to become exposed at a critical moment.
- Introduction of armour, greater variety of weapons through merchants
- More combat moves. Combat is still a bit easy, but there is more that you can do with it.
- More sub-plots to break up the main plot (well to be accurate there weren't any in the original game, since I don't count picking up flags as fun, but now there are quite a number). Overall this looks like it should take quite a lot longer to complete and sub-plots are more reminisent of something like Oblivion.
- You need to seek out doctors for medical potions instead of just sitting still to heal
- Different groups you can hire to help e.g, thiefs, soldiers, prostitutes
- Missions vary and do not follow as predictable formats as the original and have proper plot development
Basically, if you liked the original, you should really like this. If you weren't particularly keen on the original but like games like Oblivion, this should have more to entertain you than the original.

With a lot of love for the first game most reviews were mixed saying that the missions were to repetitive but I liked the missions and Parkour of the game so for me this was an ideal game for me. After the confusion of the end of the first game this one sets off directly afterwards throwing you straight into battles and getting used to the controls. For the first 30 minutes of the game you will have to follow the story instead of having the will to free roam.

The story revolves around the "Animus", a machine which makes it possible for the player to view the genetic memories of protagonist Desmond Miles' ancestors, a long line of assassins. This time you are based in late 15 century Italy during the Renaissance and take control of a young nobleman-turned-assassin named Ezio Auditore da Firenze who after witnessing his family killed goes on a journey to uncover a hidden conspiracy after the murder of his family.

The graphics are pretty much the same as the first game with a few jitters in frame rate from time to time.
Not much has changed in the way of controls, a few more moves have been added and the free running works well it seems until you are in a rush and little things like jumping away from a wall you are climbing or diving off buildings when you didn't want to can be frustration and time consuming especially when you are against the clock. This however is a small problem and once I learnt to let go of "X" at places I deemed dodgy areas then I found this problem happening less and less.

The battle system is mostly the same, you now can take weapons from your enemies and vice versa but for me this makes the combat even easier than before. When I play assassin's creed I like to be unnoticed and do everything by stealth but I found with this game it did not matter if I was spotted because I could take all the guards out without any problem and get away with ease. The problem that they need to sort is the A.I. of the enemies, they will just hang back and let you pick them off one by one and you even have time to taunt and change weapons while they attack you one at a time. What should happen is all the guards attack you at once forcing you to make a getaway.

Also added is a meter that will tell you how much guards take notice of you, you can clear this by ripping down wanted posters or bribing a public speaker but they might as well not have this meter as I found I could easily walk around the town with a full meter and no one stop me, the only time I ever had problems was the guards on the roofs.

Assassination jobs are easier to pull off then the first game, you also have more of them which is a good thing but I would have liked them to be more of a challenge. What makes it easier is that you can pay prostitutes and thieves to distract guards or pay a group to attack them, giving you all the time in the world to hit your target.

Like the first game things to collect are back but instead of flags you have feathers to collect also statues and codex's. There are also Glyphs which will unlock puzzles to complete which extend on the main game. Delivering letters against the clock, beating up cheating husbands and races are also small sub quests but again too easy. You also have stores to fix any broken armor or upgrade, a healer you can buy medicine from but I found this useless to have so much I never even used more than 2 bottles and I had 15. You can buy treasure maps and paintings and also change the color of your clothes.
Also swimming has been added which also adds another way of evading the guards as you can duck under the water and somehow they seem to forget you were ever there. Once out of the water your clothes will look wet and you will be dripping for a while which was a nice small touch to the game.

In short this is an amazing game improving on the first with more missions and a stronger story but it also has some of the flaws from the first game such as poor A.I. and issues when it comes to precise jumping. I dropped it a star for this but if we could give half stars it would get 4.5

Assassin's Creed 2 is the second game in the Assassin's Creed series. The player follows the character Demond Miles in the year 2012 as you become Ezio Auditore da Firenze around the 15th century, using the 'Animus'. Both fictional and non-fictional characters mix into the plot, creating a rather believable atmosphere. I won't reveal much of the story, since the story is very well written and you have to experience the delivery of it in game to enjoy it to the full.

Most will agree that Assassin's Creed 2 underwent several large changes that make the game a lot better than it's predecessor. For one, The player can dive into the water without wondering if the water is acid. Ezio can swim! However, they also changed the eagle vision (the ability that gives the player the ability to identify certain people and landmarks) in that it can now be done in third-person while moving around. The largest change is the variety in the quests. Assassin's Creed was very monotone, where the quests were about the same. The variety of the quests not only gives the storyline more depth but it keeps the player engaged for longer.

While playing the game on the Playsation 3, I've been disappointed with the camera controls. Specifically, it was very irritating when the camera occasionally changed to awkward positions. It was very irritating. Additionally there were too many side quests, meaning that every time I opened my map, I felt bombarded with locations to visit.

This is entirely subjective, but I enjoyed the graphics from Assassin's Creed more than in this game. For me, certain parts of the world were far too engulfed in bloom, which caught me off guard.

Overall the the game has great gameplay with an exciting storyline which continues in the Assassin's Creed series. Even though there are certain aspects that upset me, I loved playing it. I would recommend this game to all my friends, since it's very addicting.