Players will once again find themselves in the role of a well-trained and disciplined assassin stalking through back alleys and across rooftops in Assassin’s Creed II.

While the core experience of navigating environments through parkour or “freerunning” movement and brutal stealth assassinations is unchanged, Assassin’s Creed II has a wealth of new futures that raise it up above its predecessor. As in the first game, players will take on dual roles: in 2012, they play as Desmond Miles, the descendent of an ancient line of Assassins, who explores his forebears’ history through a device called the Animus. This time, instead of focusing on the Assassin Altair in the late 12th century, Desmond relives the memories of Ezio Auditore de Firenze during the renaissance era in Italy.

Assassin's Creed II

Due to a dark conspiracy, Ezio’s father and brothers were killed – and now he seeks vengeance. Taking up the white garments of the assassin, Ezio is trained in the art by his uncle before setting off to unravel the conspiracy.

Just like Altair in the first game, Ezio is a remarkable athlete, who can sprint, jump, hurdle climb, balance, shimmy, swing, and wallrun to get just about anywhere in the game world. He’s also an excellent assassin who can take out an enemy in a single, fatal blow should he get the drop on them. However, Ezio is no slouch in direct combat either, and can disarm his enemies and use any of their weapons against them. Should the fight turn against Ezio, he has some new ways to escape his pursuers. The ability to dive into the water and blend in with any crowd (instead of solely the white-robed monks in the first game) give the player new avenues of escape.

Assassin’s Creed II takes players to a number of notable locations in Italy, including Venice, Florence and Tuscany, all presented in stunning detail. In his journeys, Ezio runs across some notable figures from history – including a young Leonardo Da Vinci who can create new weapons and gadgets to help Ezio succeed at his task. Players even get to use a flying machine based on true-to-life Da Vinci designs.

One of the criticisms of the original game was the lack of variety in missions. Assassin’s Creed II fixes that problem with a much wider variety of objectives and other side-missions to keep the player busy and entertained.

Key Features:

• Open world gameplay across beautifully rendered and faithfully recreated regions of renaissance Italy, including Venice and Rome.

• Improved version of the freerunning system from the first game.

• More complex combat system than the first game, with the ability to disarm. enemies and wield new types of weapons.

• Meet famous historical figures like Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli.

• Simultaneously unravel two separate storylines – bringing down the conspiracy in Ezio’s time, and uncovering the truth about Abstergo in Desmond’s.

• New health and notoriety systems force players to stay on their toes and react.

• Enhance Ezio’s family estate to bring in income that can be invested in new weapons, upgrades and other helpful items.

Related posts:

1. Assassin’s Creed I