Shame, Could have been a masterpiece.
I've had a little more time with it and let it soak in a little more before writing a review. So, here it is.
Assassins Creed 2 is pretty good, but it's flaws cost it a position on my games of the year stack. My main gripe was the lack of variety after the initial couple of hours gameplay. Yeah, you can disarm enemies and use their weapons against them, assassinate two targets at once, poison them and wander off, shoot them or distract them with either hookers, thieves or fighters. But after the initial few memory sequences, I didn't feel the need to do any of the things in the process of reaching my next objective.
The weapon wheel was only a slight help. As to select anything other than the blade, fists, sword or medicine required you to pause from the action and choose whatever. The ability to hotkey your four (or maybe even eight) most useful items to the D pad would have made the action seem more streamlined.
The notoriety bar was a nice touch, but the methods required to lower it were tedious. The wanted posters were positioned in awkward places, usually in the line of sight of archers or foot patrols. Killing officials was the best way to go, but in my experience doing this gave you +10% more as chasing him down alerted guards to your presence and thus made them give chase.
The economy system was well thought out to a certain extent. Who doesn't like buying and upgrading things? As your villa gains income, you rarely feel the need to chase down couriers or robbers. If your mansion didn't generate money for you every twenty minutes, it's possible that you'd be more inclined to chase down pickpockets and couriers. And find the numerous boxes of treasure scattered around the map.
The side missions were fun in the first couple of memory sequences. But they soon became a rinse-repeat affair. The races were my least favourite thing, as the sprint and wall-run buttons were the same. More often than not, I'd find myself jumping off of a roof due to the camera angle suddenly changing. Whereas the assassination missions suffered with the same find target-kill target-flee tedium across all districts.
Assassins tombs were the only break from the usual in the game, although they were linear, often timed platforming affairs. The final two had my patience worn down to a thread with the rapid camera angle changes causing critical mis-steps when you have 30 seconds to pull a lever that's 29 seconds away on a clean run.
I'll leave the story out of it. Your standard X killed Y so now you have to kill R,S,T,U,V,and W. The decision by ubisoft to hold back two chapters of the story until a later date and then release them as DLC was reprehensible. But, I guess in this day and age, thats what it takes for game companies to stay afloat. The endgame relating do Desmond / the Templars and this new and final foe is ridiculous to say the least.
On the whole, Assassins Creed 2 is a good game. But the numerous gripes I've had with it left me glad to see the back of it upon completion. It gave me no joy to finally end the game and I can't say I'm looking forward to the inevitable sequel.
Thanks for reading.