Assassin’s Creed 2 is the sequel to Assassin’s Creed, a hit game released in 2007. Many fans have anticipated this games release since finishing the first game, and now it is here. Assassin’s Creed 2 was released by Ubisoft on November 17th, 2009, but is it worth buying? Many skeptics, including me, were very suspicious about getting the game because the last game had potential, but needed many improvements. However, after buying Assassin’s Creed 2 and listening to others rave about the game, I conclude this game addresses all the problems in the last game, while maintaining the core game play which made it fun.

The game starts off in 2012, where Desmond Miles breaks out of the Templar’s prison and travels to the Assassins hideout, where they have an Animus as well. Instead of traveling back to the memories of his ancestor Altair in 12th century Jerusalem, he travels back to the memories of his ancestor, Ezio Auditore, in 15th century renaissance Italy. The story follows Ezio’s quest for revenge after his brothers and father were murdered by the Templars. Ezio becomes an Assassin like his father and is interwoven in a great story of mystery and action. The first Assassin’s Creed had a good story but this one blows it out of the water and keeps you interested from start to finish. Also, there are much more interesting characters in this game, such as Leonardo Di Vinci , who have much more dialogue and personality compared to the prequel.

The improvements in the game is what makes the game great. The first and most obvious improvement I saw was enhanced mission structures. The missions in this game aren’t as repetitive as in the prequel. You won’t ever have to sit on a bench ever again, or pickpocket someone every single time you do a mission. All the missions are very unique in what you do and different in structure. There are also many different side missions you can participate in other than the main story, such as assassination contracts, races, or finding ancient Assassin’s tombs.

Another upgrade from the first game is the way you travel. In the first Assassin’s Creed you had to ride your horse from city to city. Often times this was very frustrating because sometimes you would get lost trying to get somewhere, it took a long time, and was rather boring. In Assassin’s Creed 2 you no long have to do this because they created “fast travel stations”, where you pay a small fee and then are teleported to your destination of choice. Also the free running system when traveling in the city has enhanced making it much easier to climb and runaway from hostiles.

The last improvement in the game was the way in which you fight and all the different weapons, armor, and items you get to use. In the first Assassin’s Creed fighting was fun but could be better. The only options when fighting were attack, counter attack, and block. You didn’t really have many options in your inventory either. This was an area that needed attention and now it is tremendous. When you are fighting you have a whole array of different moves. You can take your opponents weapons, throw sand in the face, head butt and much more. Ezio can also have different levels of armor which adds a whole new dimension of defense in the game. There are many different types of cool weapons such as the double hidden blades, a gun, or a mace. Appealing items such as smoke bombs and poison are also at your command.

Assassin’s Creed was a good game; Assassin’s Creed 2 is a great game. The first one needed improvements, developers addressed those needs, and this is the product of that. Even if you didn’t enjoy the first one I would still buy it because of all the improvements the game has. Assassin’s Creed 2 is an awesome game combined with breathing taking game play and an intelligent story. I would highly recommend buying this game.