Assassins Creed 2

Assassins Creed 2 is a huge improvement from the first instalment. The game is a lot more story driven making it move at a more fluent and better pace with over 16hrs of gameplay. The game features a similar engine to the first instalment although they have made slight adjustments. The game picks up exactly where the first Assassins Creed finishes, however this time you don't play as Altair when entering the mystical machine Animus although there are references to him throughout the game to make you feel like the first instalment plays a part in the overall story. This time you when you enter the Animus you venture to Italy in the 15th Century, taking control of a young Ezio Auditore. You will travel through many cities including Venice, Florence and Tuscany; these cities are your playground while playing as Ezio. You can go just about everywhere and have small limitations except in early stages of the game.

The game does feel similar to the first, but the mission's structure is now more fluent and the chapter doesn't end after just one assassination. This makes the story more driven and acceptable, the team have obviously responded to feedback from the first game, which was a lot more linear.

The game does have a few glitches, but considering the size and speed of the game, these minor glitches are acceptable and hardly noticeable. The major problems are when you tend to be manoeuvring among the buildings for i.e. jumping across buildings in a diagonal direction can sometimes be harder than its sounds making Ezio jump in a complete different direction than desired. Although this doesn't happen often it can be annoying, especially if it leads to your death falling from a high structure. This is a rare glitch however and really isn't worth mentioning when looking at the overall gameplay and control layout. Overall the game runs more smooth, fluent and faster than the first instalment.

The combat however is very similar, although this time you can change your weapons and have a few more abilities to learn such as using longer or heavier weapons, there really isn't much difference in how combat is used. The main problem in combat is the enemy AI, it's almost like they wait in line and take turns to have a swing at you, it simply takes out the fast pace your receive in other areas of the game as fights tend to take longer than they should given Ezios profession. All the previous game's moves are included such as counter; throwing knives with a few additional combat moves include throwing sand, smoke bombs and the use of a hidden pistol in your gauntlet. This takes the game to a new height in combat as in the previous game you felt like you were doing the same thing over and over. This time with more options it makes the game feel fresh and gives you a lot more choices on how you wish to fight your opponents,making you repeat the same move less throughout your play through.

The game clocks in over 16hrs and that's just the storyline. There are many additions to this instalment, with more side quest such as races, beat up events, messenger quests, treasure hunts (tombs that provide a Prince of Persia style gameplay) and even assassination side quests. The game does include other additional features like finding 100 feathers throughout the game. This is similar to the first Assassins Creeds flag structure although this time round there is a less amount and they're easier to track with a brilliant statistic structure in pause menu. There is also the addition of a villa you get to improve, it's a small town that has shops and buildings that you can spend coins to improve, the more money you spend you receive a higher income every 20minutes of in-game play, due to the increase of people that visit your villa. This is an extremely good way to get money throughout the game to buy better weapons, ammo and armour throughout. As you play through the game you unlock more abilities, cities, costumes, weapons and side quests, it's easy to say the game is well thought out and provides a balance unlike the first. Overall you could easily have 40+hrs of gameplay for all those that wish to complete the game fully.

Overall the game is worth its price with hours of gameplay, a great storyline and a lot of improvements made on the first. There are minor glitches, but they are to be expected given the size of the game and the free roam style gameplay. The cities look beautiful and make you feel like you're actually roaming the streets in the 15th Century. Surprisingly the game is a possible contender for 'Game of the Year' - you could miss out on if you don't pick it up. 9/10