Assassin's Creed 2

Nothing is true; everything is permitted.

These words are the creed of assassins and the basis of the new game from Ubisoft, Assassin's Creed 2. It is the much anticipated sequel to 2007's Assassin's Creed. The beautiful eye catching cities and bloody yet stealthy ways of killing returned for a second run, but; did it live up to the former glory of its predecessor? In many gamers' opinions, absolutely but others... The game was lacking some major points.

The first Assassin's Creed is the platform for everything that takes place in the second game. With a slightly clouded story and an ending leaving the player with nothing but a wall covered in bizarre writing, it leaves one begging for more. With that thought in mind, the second game starts exactly where the first left off. You begin playing as Desmond Miles, who was previously kidnapped by a company called Abstergo. Abstergo has an idea that the memories of one's ancestors are genetically inherited and can be viewed using a machine called the Animus. This machine allows Desmond to go back and relive the life of his assassin ancestor, Altiar in the hopes of recovering the location of lost artifacts known as the Pieces of Eden.

Of course, Abstergo isn't all it's cracked up to be and Desmond realizes he's working for the bad guys. With the help of Lucy, a modern day assassin posing as a doctor for Abstergo, he escapes and begins working with her to help the assassins find the Pieces of Eden instead.

Now in the second installment of the Assassin's Creed story, we live through a different character, Ezio Auditore di Firenz. Ezio, unlike our previous protagonist Altiar, is more of the seducing and charming type versus a serious and more cynical assassin. The beginning of the game starts off rather slow while we follow Ezio through 15-Century Italy running small errands for his banker father and mother.

After a short series of beating up boyfriends and delivering letters that lead you to befriend a young Leonardo Di Vinci, we finally get to the juicy parts. Apparently, there's some conspiracy going on and to cover up the knowledge that Ezio's father holds. He is betrayed, arrested along with his other two sons, and hung for his crimes of treason. Ezio, of course angered and scared, flees his home along with younger sister and mother to find his uncle humorously named Uncle “It's a-me Mario”. Ezio now finds that his supposed banker father was actually an assassin and he must now take up his father's work and get revenge for what these “bastardi” have done.

The game now consist of freely running and climbing through renaissance Italy, killing those involved in this huge conspiracy, and collecting codex pages. These pages, written by our old friend Altiar, contain numerous secrets and also awesome weapon upgrades for Leonardo to decipher and build for us. Unlike Altiar's limited arsenal of a sword, a hidden blade, and throwing knives, Ezio also has an additional hidden blade, poison daggers, smoke bombs, and above all, a hidden gun. He also comes with a few new moves such as killing while in hiding, showering the ground in money as a distraction, disarming his enemies, and thank god he can swim now. As a perk of being betrayed, you also gain the trust of the courtisanes, thieves and mercenaries to help you on your travels and missions.

As a side quest, in the game you come across the strange symbols from the first game's ending called glyphs. You scan these strange symbols that then open up a screen of random puzzles left behind by someone we only know as Subject 16. He was a former animus user who experienced something called the Bleeding Effect where all his previous worlds merged together, and one assumes he went crazy and he killed himself. He is responsible for the strange symbols you came across at the end of the first game. There are all actually pieces of a puzzle that unlock "The Truth". These glyphs, after being deciphered, give you short clips of some movie of a man and woman coincidentally called The Truth. The rest of the game you can choose to collect these twenty clips and watch the movie that has been hunting your mind the entire game. I would recommend it just to stop teasing your mind but, it only complicates life that much more.

In most gamers' eyes the game has made some huge improvements but they did have some set backs. Although this game did have a more fulfilling ending, it indeed left you with another "WTF" moment. The game also has removed one of its amazing features from the first. The player can no longer go back and relive old memory segments, which cheat some players out of the simply shooting all those past target opposed to sneaking around and waiting for your perfect opportunity. As another set back, the game sometimes contradicts itself in conversations. When you collect codex pages, you are to bring them to Leonardo to be deciphered where the same contradicting scene is played almost every visit; it gives a new meaning to being pointless and tedious, like many things in the game.

In all, Assassin's Creed 2 has some great things to bring to the table and it hardly disappoints. After all, gamers can walk away proudly saying that they know some fancy Italian. The game offers a bigger and better world than the first and, thankfully, one that you are free to explore when you wish. Yes, at times it may be frustrating, the ending will leave you lost and slightly unfulfilled but, that's why good things come in threes. Assassin's Creed 2 is indeed a game well worth the money despite its set backs because; honestly, who doesn't get a sick kick out of poisoning unsuspecting guards and watching them go crazy in their spare time?