Game Of The Week

'Assassin's Creed II' Like the first game, Assassin's Creed 2 has a two-pronged story. The first part of the story stars Miles Desmond, one of the co-protagonists of the original title.

When the last story ended, Miles found himself trapped by the Knights Templar and forced to use a machine called The Animus to relive the genetic memories of his ancestor, the assassin Altair. This game begins with him being broken free from the Knights Templar and brought to a hidden warehouse under the control of an opposing group. This group has its own Animus, the Animus 2.0, and wish Desmond to use it to train his abilities and become a true assassin. At the same time, they are hoping to use him to relive the memories of one of his ancestors, Ezio Auditore de Firenze, and discover what the Templars are up to. Ezio is an Italian nobleman during the Renaissance and member of an elite noble family. A group of Templar betrayed his family, leading to the execution of his father and brothers. Understandably, Ezio isn't too happy about this. Fortunately for him, he is the heir to the assassin's legacy, and with some help from famous figures like Leonardo da Vinci, he sets out to kill everyone who wronged him..

One of the biggest problems in the first Assassin's Creed title was how boring it was between doing assassinations. You had to do some missions to get "clues" in order to advance the plot and get to the next assassination. Fortunately, that has been fixed in Assassin's Creed 2. The story line is now far more linear so all you have to do is advance from plot point to plot point, which automatically sets up the assassination. There are some very interesting set pieces too, like a sequence where you have to use Leonardo da Vinci's flying machine to zoom across the city to get to a target. Unfortunately, this comes at a bit of a cost to the assassinations, and they feel less involved than they did in the original Assassin's Creed. Most of the time, you find the way in, get to the enemy, and then have to chase him down and stab him or beat him in a straight-up fight. There are not many instances when you feel like you have any freedom beyond what the script demands. However, there are some excellent assassinations amidst the less interesting ones, like a sequence where you have to kill someone with your wrist-pistol while timing the shot for the burst of fireworks. Overall, the game is more well-paced and interesting than its predecessor, but it still is flawed enough that it can become repetitive after a while, and there are a lot of moments when it feels overly scripted.