The story continues that from part 1. Desmond Miles escapes from the Templars with the help of Lucy and joins her group of resistance fighters. Desmonds delves back into the assassin past of his ancestars and this time he takes on the shoes of Ezio in 15th century Firenze. There are regular links to the previous game so having played Assassin's Creed 1 comes in handy to understand the details, not that it's absolutely necessary. The storyline is immersive enough and together with the gameplay you get an addictive effect that keeps you thinking "just one minute and then I'll really stop".

Assassin's Creed was criticized for being too repetitive but that's not the case not. At least, not the storyline missions. One time you're sneaking around and killing people, the next moment you're taking part in a large-scale fight. The side missions can become a bit tedious but their only goal is to gain some additional cash and you're not obliged to do them. Examples of such tasks are taking care of adultering men, racing, and doing courier of murder assignments. Ezio is a good freerunner and very skilled when it comes to all kinds of stab weapons. This means that acrobatics and different creative and gruesome murder techniques are possible. None other than Leonardo Da Vinci himself helps Ezio with his adventures.

Also a lot of background info on the places you visit and the people you meet is available. Another extra are the "glyps" wich are strange markings left by Subject 16, Desmond's predecessor. Connected with these glyps are a number of simple riddles that uncover a large-scale conspiracy. At least, according to Subject 16 and as not all questions are answered in AC2, Assassin's Creed 3 is already sure to be made.

The many activities of Ezio bring in money which can be spent in buying weapons, gear and ammo but you can also use it to pimp his home base Monteriggioni. In return a more beautiful city is received as well as part of the profit. There's also plenty of collection to complete for the avid collectors and these include weapons, paintings, feathers, armor, and so on.

This all takes place in beautifully created cities which all are open worlds by themselves. There's also a lot of freedom for the player as just about everything can be climbed. Running over rooftops as fast as possible and pushing down some nasty archers or quietly walking around town... it's all possible. The music nicely adds atmosphere which isn't unimportant (try watching a movie without music). There's also commentary from people passing by if you're going crazy on the acrobatics and you can regularly listen in on conversations or heraut messages. This part could have used some more variation, but it does make everything a bit more "real".

The game does suffer from some typical PC port issues. In the first place you'll need some time to get used to the controls and each time special icons appear to explain what to do as the controls are contextual. Also the camera can be difficult with unlogical angles and an image that runs crazy. Especially in combat and during races this is an issue as you need to be as fast as possible and that's quite hard if you first have to make sure that camera is set correctly. When having to give directions during complex climbing situations, the camera usually does do its job well though.

Last but not least there's the DRM. I myself encountered once that I couldn't play due to non-working servers but also an internet connection isn't 100% reliable. It's frustrating to not be able to play when you want and when your connection drops while playing the game stops, making you have to go back to your last checkpoint once your connection returns. The future will show whether Ubisoft will find a decent solution for this but we're already hoping for some more consideration of what paying customers have to go through with this.