Before you've finished reading this sentence, your life will probably already been taken by Ezio's hidden blade....
If you ever wanted to be an assassin, a sneaky murderer who serves the common good, then Assassin's Creed II is probably the right game for you. Assassin's Creed II takes everything that was good about its predecessor, makes it better and expands it with big cities to discover, cool missions and a great story.
Assassin's Creed II start where the first Assassin's Creed game stopped. You are Desmond Miles, a former bartender and a member of the assassins. You were used by Abstergo, who represents the order of the Templars, to find a piece of eden. But you were saved by Lucy Stillman, who now wants you to work for her. You agree and once again you get in the animus to follow the path of one of you ancestors to find the 'apple', a piece of eden. But this time you aren't playing Altaïr, but Ezio Auditore da Firenze.
At the beginning Ezio is very young and doesn't even know yet what the assassins are. Eventually his father and two brothers are hanged and you discover that Ezio's father was an assassin. You will follow him in his path and take revenge for his death. He discovers that the whole thing is a lot bigger than he expected and eventually Ezio too is looking for the 'apple'.
The story starts of quite slowly but is immediately interesting. While the beginning(the revenge part) isn't very original, everything is very well told and it blends perfectly in the overall story. The rest of the story is great, you feel like everything you do really matters and every twist in the story is really well done. Also the characters are very convincing, they act realistic and the voice acting is nearly perfect. The protagonist Ezio is also a great character with its own personality and great charisma. A lot a people say though that the end of the story is rubbish and while I too think the end is quite 'strange', I don't think it's bad either. Of course the doesn't fit in Ezio's story at all, but you have to think about the background story of Desmond and there it fits quite well. Assassin's Creed II's backstory is a sci-fi story, so I don't think that the sci-fi ending the developers have chosen is really bad.
The thing that the series is best known for is of course the gameplay and it's simply superb. This game is all about stealth and you have a lot of ways to achieve that. You can climb on buildings, hide in packs of straw and blend into the crowd to escape you pursuers. All the missions are perfectly implemented into the story and really make sense. Most missions go as they should, you get to find a certain target, and without notice of others, you have to kill your target. Sometimes you have to follow your target a bit before you kill it and sometimes things go wrong and you have to fight your way out of trouble. The sneak kills are always a joy to perform, are simple to execute and work simply really well. You've got a lot of weapons at your disposal, so you never get bored at how you will kill your target next time. Also, the normal fighting with guards work really well and is fun to watch. You can simply attack multiple times the same enemy until he loses his defense and then you can execute the guard. Or you can do things more stylish by doing counterattacks or by stealing the weapon of your opponent. My only real complain is that fighting is extremely simple. The reason why fighting is so simple is that you always get attacked by only one enemy. The other opponents who should attack you, simply stand there until the other one has been defeated. There are also some other special missions in which you, for example, have to drive a carriage while holding of some enemies. These missions are fun and it is great to do something else sometimes.
But, there are times that even the most skilled assassins have to flee from danger. And so comes another great aspect of the series, the free running. By pressing R1 and X you start free running. You can climb on buildings really easily and fun to do, especially when you see the beautiful cities. And what assassins do, is also often known by others. There is some kind of notoriety system and you become more notorious with each action you perform. After some time you notoriety meter is full and then all guards will try to get you on sight. You can lower the meter by bribing heralds or by ripping of wanted posters of your pretty face.
Like most sandbox games, there are also a lot of side missions to do, and most of them are cool to do. There are some types of side missions, like 'assassination' and 'racing'. In an assassination mission, you have to, of course, kill somebody without having anyone noticing you. In de race missions, you race against the clock in order to beat someone's time in free running. These missions are a great addition to the game and are mostly fun to do, although they might get a bit boring near the end because in fact most missions are the same with just another background and environment. Also it would have been fun if these missions would have a greater impact on the overall storyline.
Assassins want to rest sometimes and this is where your headquarters in Monterrigioni comes in. This city has basically his own economic system. With each mission, you get money that you can invest in either new armor and weapons, or even better in restorations in Monterrigioni. That way you get a share of the shop's profits and you can gain money more easily. Because of this there is a great flow in which you can improve your armor and weapons, although in the end you will have way too much money so you can't spend it anymore.
ACII is a great looking game! You'll never get bored of wandering through the streets of Florence and other cities. These cities are extremely well crafted and beautiful and when you see the Duomo for the first time, bet that your mouth will fall open. These cities are also very big, so there is a lot to see in this gorgeous world. But sadly enough, the graphics aren't perfect. These are only minor issues and they almost fall away when you see the beautiful cities. Nevertheless, they need to be addressed. There is sometimes some pop-up and the characters look a bit stiff.
So in the end ACII is a great game. It comes with great gameplay, a world free to explore and a very well told story. With the Assassin's Creed franchise, Ubisoft has gold in their hands and to all who like to kill without anyone ever knowing: "This is the perfect game for you!".