Great open world adventure game with unique setting but no story
User Rating: 9 | Assassin's Creed II X360
The cities in this game are beautiful and the graphics are stunning. This even though I did not play the game in high definition. The game play in Assassins Creed II is excellent. It is a combination of running around cities, steal, and combat. Much of the latter is largely sword fights including, of course, assassinations. This single player game is very nicely designed, such that the combat progresses at a pace matching that of the story and the player's continued skill development. I particularly enjoyed several levels towards the latter portion of Assassins Creed II where the game really forces you to learn the details of combat techniques, up until which point I was able to achieve victory over most of my opponents without using any sort of defensive capability. There is a size able amount of platforming in this game which, while reasonably challenging, sometimes push both the game's map mechanic as well as the precision of the hardware controls, beyond what maybe ought to be their limitations. The other weakness of this game is its story. Although the cut scenes are impressive from a graphics standpoint unfortunately neither the characters nor their interactions form any meaningful plot that probably the average player of this game would be interested in following. Assassin's Creed II has a fairly detailed codex and low-medium level economy and items system, and creatively couches the larger narrative in science fiction, yet these various plot elements are not integrated anywhere near as well as they would have to be in order to draw the gamer into the story. As a result this game did not stick with me after completing it the way other games (i.e Mass Effect 2, Alan Wake). But Assassin's Creed II was fun enough that I anticipate playing the series' upcoming multiplayer release. 
