TheStartScreen goes back to history with the Animus and studies the Renaissance in Assassins Creed 2!

Assassin’s Creed 2 starts up with a quick recap of the first game and soon enough, Desmond finds himself plucked from Abstergo and placed in the possession of a few assassins. When he takes a seat in the Animus 2.0, he views the memories of another ancestor, Ezio De’ Auditore. Ezio starts off as a boy who gets into fights and fools around with the ladies all the while running a few errands for his family here and there. Alas, once Ezio witnesses the public execution of his father and brothers, he takes his fathers place as an Assassin and sets out on a path of vengeance. As players unleash their wrath upon those who wrong Ezio’s family they’ll unravel a large conspiracy and meet a cast of some of the most influential characters of the Renaissance like Leonardo DiVinci and Lorenzo De’ Medici. Out of the entire cast though, Ezio is the most interesting. You’ll witness him transform over the course of the game unlike Altair. The story may be somewhat of a cliché but it’s still got plenty of mystery and will keep players hooked until the very end.

Abandoning it’s previous mission setup of eavesdropping, pick pocketing and killing corrupt guards harassing the innocent, Assassin’s Creed 2 tries a new approach. Each sequence has one primary goal and to reach that goal, players will have to do a set of missions to locate, weaken and eventually eliminate their targets. One mission may require you to follow a group of men and listen in on their conversation. Another will make players take out a certain number of guards for a later mission or free his allies. Then, there are a few unique missions such as a carriage chase and flying mission to break up the monotony. There are also side missions like assassination contracts and city races. These are however optional and doing one mission will unlock the achievement for them so players won’t have to slave away for achievements and trophies. Committing illegal acts will gain Ezio notoriety. Once he maxes it out in a city, guards will be more alert to his presence and notice him when he‘s close. There are also restricted areas in the game where Ezio instantly becomes notorious only while he remains in that area. To lower Ezio’s notoriety you can tear down wanted posters, bribe people and kill corrupt officials, each one lowering it more than the last.

There are plenty of different ways to approach a mission. You can take things to the skies and move along the rooftops or you can hide in plain site and wait for your objective to open up. You can hire consorts and thieves to lure guards away from their posts and mercenaries to attack them. Eventually you’ll have access to poison and throwing knives. Poison will cause enemies to go berserk. The throwing knives are well, self explanatory. When the stuff hit’s the fan and Ezio needs to make a quick exit, he can do more than just hide in bales of hay and outrun the guards. When he manages to break their line of sight(indicated by an orange arrow), Ezio can dive into wells, water, or blend into a crowd of people. The guards will search bales of hay, climb up to roofs and scatter crowds of civilians to find Ezio. If you can make it outside of the circle and break their line of sight, guards will gather and quickly comb the area for before going back to their duties. Ezio can also fight his way out if you so choose.

Ezio can do everything Altair can but, when it comes to combat Ezio brings a little more to the table than his predecessor. Ezio knows how to wield a variety of different weapons and can now disarm enemies and follow up by instantly killing his enemy. He can deliver brutal counter attacks and use smoke bombs to flee from battle if things get too crazy. Another item can intimidate guards and scare them away. If you have hired a faction, they will aid you in battle but only mercenaries can really hold their own in battle. There are different types of guards that players will have to watch out for this time around. Most carry swords and hammers and they’re easy to kill or fool. Then there are Brutes who carry large two handed weapons and can dish out a lot of damage. Brutes can also disarm Ezio when he tries to counter their attacks. Seekers will roam the streets carrying spears and searching through hay stacks for miscreants. They can sweep Ezio off his feet and attack rather quickly. Finally, there are agile guards. They’re not hard to kill but nearly impossible to outrun on foot. These new enemies offer more intense battles than the first title ever could even if you just use the disarm and counter feature to lay your enemies to waste.

Health no longer regenerates completely when you take damage. Instead, your health will increase depending on the kind of armor you’re wearing. You’ll also gain a permanent bar of health when you get 4 deciphered codex pages. When you lose a bar of health, you’ll need to visit a doctor or use medicine to restore your health. You can carry up to five health medicines and more later on. Armor is purchased and repaired at blacksmiths located all around Italy like the doctors. Broken pieces of armor are shown as red bars of health and those bars of health cannot be replenished until your armor is fixed. Tailors can dye your clothes and sell you pouches so you can carry more medicine and throwing knives. Artists can sell you paintings for pimping out your stronghold and treasure maps in case you need some quick cash and can hunt down a chest or two.

When you’re not doing missions or side quests, you can always explore the sites of Italy and hunt down feathers and chests of money or search for ancient assassin tombs. Locating glyphs will open up more of the story behind the mysterious Subject 16. You can use the money you earn throughout the game to buy paintings, weapons, armor and renovations for your stronghold. You’re stronghold is where Ezio will go to kick back and make some money. The more renovations made and items stored in the stronghold, the more money Ezio will make every twenty minutes. He can turn in all the feathers he found as well as a place to examine all his translated codex pages. There’s also an area dedicated to training and teaching Ezio special attacks with other weapons like throwing sand to stun enemies and using spears to sweep groups of enemies off their feet. The stronghold gives a little more for the players to look forward too and doesn’t force you to waste time hunting down chests and stealing money from people which builds up notoriety.

There are a few hitches here and there. For instance, characters will slowly fall to the ground in an awkward pose if they happen to jump down onto someone whose climbing up a wall. Guards may also randomly identify Ezio and chase him through the streets even if he’s incognito and isn’t doing anything illegal. It’s a rare occurrence but annoying none the less. Also, while there are a ton of assassination contracts to do, they don’t really vary from “kill him without being detected” or “kill these guys within the time limit”. These are minor issues though and don’t exactly detract much from the game.

You’ll spend a lot of time touring the beautiful cities of Italy. Each area is very detailed and look very pretty. Players will visit the crowded yet beautiful streets of Venice and Florence. A city in the middle of a fantastic looking countryside and another located in a swamp. Your stronghold will also change over time as you renovate it and collect items. It transforms from a rundown town with a crappy villa to a bustling city. However, even though the environments and animations in Assassins Creed 2 look great, the character models are rather weak in comparison. There have been some improvements to Desmond and Lucy but for some odd reason, Lucy has a mouth like the Joker. Ezio and DaVinci are easily the best looking characters of the bunch. The voice acting is top notch and the audio is great. The crowded streets actually sound and feel like a crowded street. Merchants trying to sell things to potential customers. Heralds shout out all the latest news and warn people of your wrong doings when you have notoriety. People chatting calmly with one another or commenting on your climbing skills. It all adds more life to the world in which Assassins Creed 2 takes place.

Assassins Creed had a lot of problems. It was repetitive and lacked variety in all kinds of ways. It’s sequel fixes a lot of those issues. Assassin’s Creed 2 has a problem in a few places but it’s a great game with a stronger narrative and a lot more to do this time. If the holiday season hasn’t burned a hole in your wallet yet, then you need to get out there and pick up a copy of Assassins Creed 2.

Assassins Creed 2 gets 4 hidden blades out of 5.