Review by: Jeff McAllister

While the original Assassin’s Creed was arguably more impressive tech demo than an actual game, the developers at UbiSoft Montreal have sharpened the sequel to a razor fine point. You get the feeling that the team learned a lot from the process of making the first game, and took those lessons to heart when developing Assassin’s Creed 2. This is a significantly better game and while it does have its share of frustrations, it’s also firmly cemented the Assassin’s Creed franchise as one to be reckoned with.

The game picks up where the original left off with Desmond Miles synching up with the memories of his assassin ancestors via an Animus machine, only this time you’re entering the memories of Ezio Auditore Da Firezne, the eldest son of Giovanni Auditore Da Firenze, a soon to be assassin who lived during the Renaissance in 15th century Italy.

You witness all of the events that lead Ezio to turn to the blade. In a whirlwind of actions, your family is framed for political crimes, your father and brothers hung, and your mother reduced to a comatose state of shock. You pick up the white hooded mantle that your father wore and become an assassin. Time to get some revenge.

At this point, the story goes off in several directions with you needing to assassinate those who conspired against your family, and to seek out the help of others throughout Italy. Leonardo DaVinci is one of the a reoccurring characters and is one that you will return to over and over as he provides you with upgrades to your hidden dagger as well a DaVinci inspired contraption here and there. If you’re going to have a guy on your side…Leo’s a fine choice.

You also have a small villa that you can upgrade and earn extra money from which also serves as a hub of sorts between missions. Money is used to upgrade armor and weapons, some of which are new to the series such as smoke bombs and poison. Other new tactics Ezio can employ is tossing coins on the ground to distract guards, as well as throwing sand in their eyes—assassins don’t necessarily fight fair.