Assassin's Creed 2 IMO

I loved the first Assassin's Creed. There I said it. Now it would be ignorant of me to say that it did not have its inadequacies but as a whole I still loved that game. Assassin's Creed was criticized for its repetitive missions, easy combat, and short gameplay. I have to agree with all those points but there were also reasons it deserved praise. Assassin's Creed was creative in its story telling, had beautifully rendered environments, was immersive, and had some great cutscenes. My biggest gripe was the ending, which came too abruptly. When I learned that Assassin's Creed 2 (AC2) was due to be released in November I could not contain my excitement.  

Any game that can make someone anticipate its arrival has done well.  

I have decided to leave out any explanation of the story because I would love for anyone to play the games to find out or just wikipedia it. Instead I want to focus on the improvements. The repetitiveness of the first game was eliminated by creating a story that drives AC2's main character, Ezio Auditore, on a quest for revenge that takes him all over Italy. This change of scenery and ever-evolving story made for many different missions and side quests, I never grew bored. Another addition to the series are written profiles on characters, places, paintings, and buildings. AC2 uses real historic people as characters and has Ezio crawling over many of Italy's most famous landmark buildings as part of the deep story. All of this created a great sense of immersion. While I was playing my wife looked up from her knitting and said "Hey I've been there, I bought a scarf from a vendor just outside the front door." That is rad.  

Combat has improved greatly from the first one. There are new enemies other than the standard "guard" from the first Assassin's Creed. Brutes are large, strong guards who move a bit slower and cannot climb after Ezio but pack a serious punch. Agile guards are very quick, faster than Ezio, which means no more ditching on a fight. The Parano or Seeker carries a pole arm for their weapon and add another dimension to combat. Their long reach means the shorter weapons are useless, and these guards cannot be counter-attacked. They can also check hiding places by stabbing them in an effort to look for hidden assailants. Ezio can counter the poking by pulling the seeker into his hiding spot and assassinating him, which is hilarious. The killing animations of Assassin's Creed have always been well rendered and AC2 has added more to the already large number of finishing moves, check them out. Despite the new bad guys and added kill animations the combat is still relatively easy. It does not take long to adapt to the new strategies of enemies and to master the disarm/counter moves that make Ezio nearly invincible.  

It took me about two weeks to complete AC2 and find most of the bonus material. I am not sure exactly how much longer it was than the first one but I got at least 30 hours of gameplay out of AC2. The re-playability of AC2 is fairly low in the sense that it will not be different each time you play it. However, it is like a great book, you could read it many times over and love it every time.  

I am not going to say that Assassin's Creed 2 is the game of the year, but it is certainly one of my top three. With a new story, more complex combat, historical references, a bad ass main character, and knowing that the next one will bring closure to this trilogy all make AC2 a great game. If you find yourself bored of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 go out and spend your money on a new adventure which transforms you into an assassin taking revenge on the conspirators of renaissance Italy.  

Thank you for your time my friends. 

As a side note, AC2 is made by Ubisoft which happens to also make a phenomenal series of games know as the Prince of Persia series. This franchise has been a benchmark in adventure gaming. Ubisoft leads the way in great story telling coupled with great gameplay.