Assassin's Creed 2 is a much better game than its predecessor. For one
thing, it's actually a complete game, possessing a beginning, a middle, and an
end, where the original Creed had a very interesting beginning and a satisfying
end connected by 20 hours of interminable grey tedium. And while this sequel
may not feel quite as fresh as the first game's handful of exceptional moments
did, it serves up a more consistently enjoyable experience from start to
finish.
AC2 isn't without its flaws, but it benefits from a completely reworked
structure that keeps the pace snappy and makes those minor issues fairly
painless. Without a doubt, the most important improvement here is the way
Ubisoft Montreal revamped the core mission design. The first Creed offered a
sharply limited palette of objectives: Scout the area, undertake a set of
investigative assignments, kill a guy, repeat. ACII offers more varied primary
tasks, largely relegating the previous game's toilsome errands to the
sidelines. You may have a friendly chat with Leonardo da Vinci one minute and
kill a politician at a gala event the next, while events like races and
extracurricular assassinations are almost entirely left to the
player's discretion. One could conceivably play the game strictly for the
story missions, which would result in a lean, cinematic, eight-hour
adventure.
Click the image above to check out all Assassin's Creed 2 screens.
The great thing about AC2 is that you don't have to play it that way. You
don't have to play it any particular way, in fact. At any moment, the game is
bursting with available objectives, both mandatory and optional, spread across
half a dozen beautifully rendered city-states of Renaissance Italy. These range
from the obvious (advancing the story) to the obligatory (hunting for cash and
collectibles) to the exceptional (exploring a number of self-contained tombs
crammed with Prince of Persia-style platforming challenges). Completing any of
these tasks results in a real sense of accomplishment with tangible rewards,
giving AC2 an addicting, just-one-more-mission appeal. ac2 is truly a
fantastic game.