Assassin's Creed II for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

To be honest, I wasn't wholly thrilled with the first Assassin's Creed, which seemed a little simple, fairly redundant and lacking substance. Luckily, the second installment is here to redeem the first in every way imaginable.
The story continues to follow Desmond Miles in his exploration of his assassinating ancestors. Gone are the ancient cities of Crusade-era Holy Land and in comes the sweeping architecture of Renaissance-era Italy. You play Ezio, a playboy turned assassin bent on avenging his family by killing a bunch of Templar conspirators. He even gets some help from Leonardo da Vinci and Macchiavelli as he explores Tuscany, Florence and Venice.
So many things have been expanded in this game from the previous. First, you get your own villa, which can be improved and upgraded to increase your income and give you discounts at your shops. You can purchase new weapons and armor this time around, as well as learn new special moves. You'll also get a bunch of new toys to play with, like smoke bombs, poison darts and a pistol mod for your hidden blade.
The big improvement to your assassination skills comes from dual hidden blades, which make for efficient kills. You can also do special kills from haystacks or ledges.
And then there's Desmond. His sequences are far less frequent this time and he actually gets to do something in them. Ubisoft made the smart move of focusing just on Ezio this time.
I was personally impressed with the length of the game, which is on par with GTA4 and in many ways has more to do. Contracts, assassin's tombs, courier missions, treasure chests, feathers and more await you in each city.
Even if you didn't like AC1, you'll likely be drawn to AC2. Free-running and combat are much improved this time around, although still in need of perfection for the third installment. But, while not a perfect game, it's so good you likely won't care. And the Truth... well, just play it for yourself.

No more of Assassin's Creed 1 story of, man enters city, man kills other man, man runs, man talks to man with beard and repeat.

The story in this game is fantastic, you even pick up a little italian. There are tons of new weapons to purchase or you can get them by disarming an enemy. As you run through Italy you're not on your own, Leonardo DaVinci helps you out and eventually other members of the Creed do too. And you can finally SWIM!

The game has stealth assassintions that are just amazing they never get old nor does hitting a guard with a maul in the stomach then in the back of the head. You have many choices to distract guards, such as courtesans, thieves and mercenaries to lure guards away and sink your hidden blade into your assassination target.

There are puzzles to solve that will eventually allow you to unlock Altairs armor and it only leaves me with one question: when does Assassin's Creed 3 come out!?