Assassin’s Creed 2

Remember Desmond Miles & his Ancestor Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad From Assassin’s Creed? Well, the Assassin’s Creed series is back with a brand new sequel named and this time It introduces us to a new assassin “Ezio Auditore da Firenze” from the late 15th century in Italian Renaissance era.
Assassin’s Creed 2 takes place in an open world with nonlinear gameplay, allowing the player to roam freely within several regions throughout the late fifteenth-century Italy such as Venice, Florence, Forli, Monteriggioni, San Gimignano, Rome & Apenine Mountains.

Ezio is a son of a 15th-century Italian banker. The player will find Ezio as a 15th century Italian noble student, where he has not yet donned his assassin’s robe and instead is living a carefree life; challenging his brother to a rooftop race, beating up his sister’s cheating lover, visiting his girlfriend’s house at night, fighting with the local gangs, stealing & pickpocketing money from the citizens of Florence, etc. However, Ezio’s devil-may-care freedom is soon cut short.

There are a lot of key features that has been added in this new sequel of Assassin’s Creed series. As you may have known, money plays a big part in Asassin’s Creed 2 and it can be earned in a various way, by completing missions, doing business in the villa, stealing and pickpocketing from civilians, looting from guards, finding hidden treasures etc.
The player can spend money to buy new weapons, ammunition and upgrade Ezio’s armor from the blacksmith’s store. [You] can visit the doctor to get cured or to buy medicine which will help him in his journey. [There is also the tailor where you can] get a new assassin uniform and upgrade [Ezio's] knife ,poison and medicine pouch.
[There is a] fast traveling station to travel through cities quickly in exchange for money. Gamers can also visit the art merchant to buy the treasure maps of every regions to find hidden treasures and to buy paintings for the villa, which increases the value of Monteriggioni.

By increasing the value of Monteriggioni, Ezio will get a cut of the action for the money he invested. Everytime Ezio expands his business at the workshop in the villa, he will get a 10% bonus of the total value everyday. Ezio can expand his business by re-innovating the city, collecting weapons and armor for the armory in the villa, by upgrading the stores there, collecting paintings, feathers and most importantly the Codex Pages.
In the previous game the character was only able to climb, run, and ride horse. But now the player is given a new freedom to swim and even fly with a flying machine. The tall towers will give the player a Bird’s eye view to synchronize the area like the first game. Climbing is much improved from Assassin’s Creed 1. Indeed, Ezio can now jump when climbing to grab an edge, which makes climbing a lot more easier.
Now talking about the combat system and the new weapons. In the previous game, [Altair] was only able to carry four weapons in his inventory. But now Ezio is able to carry almost eight weapons in his inventory; The Sword, Dagger, Dual Hidden Blades, Smoke Bombs,Poison Vials, The Pistol, Throwing Knives and of course Ezio can use his fists. Combat is almost similar to the first one, except some slight changes. Ezio [can now] perform a double assassination, [killing two enemies at once]. Double assassination is fun to perform and it never gets old.

Combat is [more] fun in Assassin’s Creed 2 since the player can kill an enemy with his own weapons or even using the enemy’s weapons, as you may have watched in a trailer.
This review is based on the console version of the game. There is not much more to talk about the graphics, sound and gameplay. Everything is just great in the console version.
The game is divided into 14 sequences. The two DLCs [Battle for Forli and The Bonfires of the Vanities] are required to play Sequence 12 & 13 on the console version. The PC version will come included with the DLCs.
The PC version will release on March 16, 2010.

That’s it, people. Assassin’s Creed 2 features a lot of things that can’t be said in the review. It will take thousands of words to describe all the features of it. So I just figured out the pros and cons of the game and gave it a 9/10 overall.
Pros:
(+)Huge, beautifully realized world to explore
(+)A great variety of missions, weapons, and stealth techniques than in the original
(+)The main protagonist Ezio is a terrific new character
(+)Great storyline with outstanding visual design,sound effects & gameplay
(+)Combat is fun & the double assassination never gets old
(+)A great sequel that will make players eager for the third installment
Cons:
(-)Console gamers will have to buy the DLCs to play some sequences in the game.
(-)A few gameplay and visual quirks
Overall: 9/10