Assassin's Creed II: When in Rome, Use Parcours to Avoid Templars

The first Assassin's Creed generated an incredible amount of hype, sporting incredible visuals, groundbreaking free-roaming gameplay, and an interesting take on stealth with the encouragement of using the environment and passerby to garner information and avoid the authorities. Ubisoft Montreal's new action-adventure franchise was hailed more of a tech demo than the open-world assassin free romp it was touted to be, earning good, but not great scores across the board. Complaints about the game included its repetitive mission system, mediocre combat, and a seemingly unrelated parallel story arc that detracted from the immersiveness of the world's mythos.

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Understanding all of the first game's flaws, I was still drawn into the Assassin's Creed world because of its addictive parcours-based gameplay and the incredible detail of its crusade-era cities, Damascus, Acre, and Jerusalem. Who doesn't love climbing around the Dome of the Rock, jumping off into a bale of hay, then speeding on back to Damascus for your next assassination? Anyone? Bueller?

Yet, if the first game in the series had a great world and fun exploration, Assassin's Creed II makes it look like even more of a tech demo.

In every possible way.

Ubisoft Montreal clearly took the criticism and feedback towards the original Assassin's Creed to heart, as the sequel, which takes place in Renaissance Italy with a new Assassin, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, builds upon the concepts of its predecessor while improving and adding numerous aspects that were lacking. Gone are the repetitive gather information missions, replaced with interesting, action-packed sequences that make you feel like you're constantly moving the story forward while still being a badass. The combat system is much improved, with a variety of weapons to unlock and choose from and a new inventory and radial selection screen to easily manage your instruments of assassination. Even the parallel story arc that spans the entire series manages to integrate pretty seamlessly with the main story, which is a great change from the first game. There are tons of other additions, like new ways to be stealthy and blend into crowds, and a huge, upgradable villa to renovate and call home. Rad!

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As mentioned, I loved the immersiveness of the original Assassin's Creed, and if the first one had it in spades, Assassin's Creed II has it in...um, a lot more spades. The setting is very well fleshed out, with 15th Century Florence, San Gimignano, Venice and more to explore, with an outstanding story and excellent cast of characters (including Leonardo da Vinci) that add a sense of authenticity to the world. The game also has an interesting conspiracy theory metanarrative that I found exciting to unravel, and although not everyone (spoilers) liked the ending, I thought that it neatly tied in the parallel plot lines and primed everyone for the third game in the series.

Most importantly, Assassin's Creed II is incredibly fun. Everything that made the first game cool has been improved upon, refined and added to, creating an amazingly open game experience that keeps you playing not only because of the addictive gameplay and exploration, but also because of the beautiful scenery and immersive story. Throw in a handful of Prince-of-Persia-esque tombs to monkey around in and you've got yourself an entertaining game!

Ubisoft hasn't released anything about Assassin's Creed III, but Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the sequel to Assassin's Creed II, comes out on November 16, and will let us explore the city of Rome and build a crew of Assassins to hopefully take over the world (or at least the Coliseum). It'll also be the first entry in the series to include multiplayer, so hopefully that'll tide us over until the next new entry in the series!