In a Nutshell
Desmond is once again thrust into the life of an ancestor through genetic memory and the mysterious Animus device. As Ezio Auditore da Firenze, he must unlock the secrets of Renaissance Italy, assassinate Templars and learn more about the true history of the world.
Story
The story mostly follows Desmond's ancestor Ezio this time around, with only a very limited number of sequences set in the present day. Ezio's tale is all about untangling a labyrinthine web of Templar deceit and conspiracy, ultimately ending with a plot by one to obtain more power. The characters are rather interesting, Ezio goes through a few character arcs, the supporting cast is a bit more uneven, with some being well developed and interesting while others kind of melting in the background. The villains aren't as developed as they were in the original Assassin's Creed due to the post-assassination limbo sequences being shortened significantly.There are a lot more characters, though, but it's still disappointing that only few have any sort of motivation beyond "He's a Templar" or "He's a friend of Ezio". To supplement the story, you have access to a database describing characters you meet and their place in history. It's an interesting feature and it helps you remember who a character is, and learn more about their life, but it's a poor substitute to proper character development.
The plot itself makes sense, starting with a conspiracy that affects Ezio building up to a bigger conspiracy by Templars to achieve their nefarious goals. Intermingled with the main plot is a series of optional vignettes and scattered data that can be accessed by finding glowing glyphs hidden on certain buildings. This allows you to piece more and more of the Templar's plans throughout history and are actually quite interesting. it's a shame that they're optional, though, because they're a quite novel, puzzle-based form of plot development. In the end, it can hold up, but the story suffered a bit compared to the first game in the series.
Gameplay
The gameplay has improved immensely since the original Assassin's Creed, while keeping the basics. It's still all about moving fast from point A to point B, either in the streets or on the rooftops, avoiding guards, blending in with the populace, assassinating people and participating in sword fights. The mission structure is also much improved. Unlike the original Assassin's Creed, you no longer gather intel on a target by doing 3 out of 5 missions in any order and then getting on with the main assassination. Instead, you follow a mostly linear line of missions while free to partake in the many optional side missions. A new feature is money, which allows you to purchase weapons, armor, ammunition and medicine as well as hire groups to help you distract or fight your enemies or merely help you blend in and hide. The climbing and free-running feel amazing, giving you a real sense of speed as you run, leap and climb your way. The effect is especially fun when chased by guards who witnessed an assassination. Sadly, it is not perfect, with a few moments where you might climb or jump in the wrong direction because you're, say, too close to a wall or near a gap. It's especially annoying when you die because of it, which will happen a few times during hectic chases.
A great feature is the freedom you're given to complete most missions. Barring a few specific objectives, you're usually given a vague objective and several ways to achieve it. Thanks to a robust system with high profile and low profile action and a number of new assassination moves such as air assassination or assassination from hiding spots, you have a large number of tools at your disposal for every situation. The main problem is the game usually falls a bit flat whenever it restricts your options. It's interesting to be forced to assassinate a target without being detected, but a mission in particular sticks in my mind as being particularly hard even though there is no real reason why you can't be seen, and to not be seen, you need to go through the mission in basically only one way. Still in general, you're given a lot of freedom to complete your objectives. The game ultimately lacks a bit of the structure the first one had due to its more linear mission progression, but by giving you so much more freedom, it balances out very nicely.
Presentation
The presentation is a bit uneven in this game. On one hand, you have rather gorgeous cities that seem alive, plenty of nice character designs and very good animations. On the other hand, clothes very often have clipping errors and the models look odd, if sometimes ugly up close. The lip synching looks really odd at times, which is a shame since the game looks pretty damn good. I also noticed a lot of weird graphical glitches on the PC version, grass seemingly growing as you approach it, low-res foliage shrinking and high res foliage growing as you approach trees, it was certainly pretty jarring at times. Then again, the animations are really, really great, while free-running or sword fighting, it really looks great and alive. It's just a shame that it's marred by glitches and models that don't always hold up when seen up close.
The music is very effective at driving up the tension while racing through Florence or while fighting a group of enemies, otherwise being mostly atmospheric noises you expect to hear in a city. The audio design is very good, really making the cities seem alive and bustling. The voice acting is also very good, though one may wonder why the characters still have accents when their words are supposedly translated. The audio is, indeed, very good in this game.
Verdict
On the whole, a Very entertaining game that feels alive and manages to improve greatly on the gameplay of it's predecessor, though it sacrificed some of the narrative elements in the process. Though marred by some visual glitches, it is very much a pretty game and one that should not be missed!
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