Just as it was getting good, the first Assassin's Creed left us all in a major cliff-hanger, practically begging for more...only without the repetitive bits and one-button combat. Fortunately, Ubisoft seems to understand the concept of their customers' demands and did the unthinkable with a hit game's sequel: fix all the broken parts and make the working ones a lot better. And the result of this mad science? An incredible game. Assassin's Creed 2 hits all the high notes and is one of the best games this year, safely securing its right to be a huge franchise in the world of gaming and possibly beyond.

Assassin's Creed 2 does play a lot like its older brother: you play as a test subject, Desmond, who is forced to relive the events of his ancestors and uncover a millenium-long mystery concerning an ancient artifcat and the feud between two seperate factions. This time around, the test subject has to recollect the memories of Ezio, a man living during the Italian Renassaince who is seeking revenge for the murder of his family. To do this, you climb buildings, sneak up on enemies to take them out, and take on search and espionage missions to find clues and helpful items to make your connection with the ancestor better. This time around, there's much more variety thrown in, so taking on multiple missions doesn't feel like a chore but is much more rewarding at the same time, both in combat and exploration.

Combat differs in the sense that there are more tactics and weapons to choose from, and more that can be unlocked through collecting objects called Codexes. In addition to the standard Hidden Blade, Sword, and Throwing Knifes that we got from Altair in the first Assassin's Creed, Ezio can use short swords to provide better protection, poison his Hidden Blade to make killing in public more discreet, use smoke bombs to escape from bad situations, and even a flying machine courtesy of Leonardo da Vinci, among others. Ezio can also sneak and kill multiple enemies with one attack, grab foes from below ledges and throw them down, jump on top of them from above and stab them in the neck, and has a better grasp of sword combat than his predecessor did.

Fighting then becomes really awesome to pull off, because the combat will always keep you on your toes, from going sword-to-sword to fleeing from a small army of knights. But there are other ways to get where you need to go without the need for bloodshed. Ezio can hire Consorts, Thieves, or Mercenaries to distract guards while he goes in to do what he needs to do, or he can blend in with the crowd to sneak right under their noses. But guards can catch on to you if you're notorious, meaning you've either killed a lot of people or you've been seen jumping from building to building too much. To make yourself anonymous again, you'll have to clean up your name, either by paying off street preachers, killing corrupt officials, or destroying Wanted Ads.

Mobility and collecting is the other side of the coin to this game. In the first game, there was a lot to collect, but it was too difficult for the reward (Achievements...) and just not as fun as it used to be. This time, the challenge is still there, but there is a wider variety of items to collect and missions to complete, so now it's more fun to do and it's not as taxing to find every single object you want. These are all now completely optional, you can go from objective to objective without having to complete missions just to synchronize with your ancestor. But they unlock special story events, including the Subject 16 sidequest that takes you through twenty crazy and brain-bursting puzzles that span two millenia worth of art, culture, and science. This is the biggest improvement to the game, hands-down. It just doesn't get boring to climb buildings and find new stuff, or to complete Beat Up missions. Even just walking the streets, pickpocketing everyone in sight and running away when you get caught never gets boring.

The story for me is mostly a mixed bag in terms of changes. Don't get me wrong, there's some excellent storytelling in this game, especially in consideration to its liberties with the historical accuracy involved (the Flying Machine, anyone?), but a lot more of the story is focused on Ezio this time rather than there being more of an inclusion to Desmond this time around. I thought the time-period breaks in the first game were fantastic and shook up the monotony, but we only get this a few times in this version. Regardless, the plot is very engaging and will put you in that "five more minutes" trance that only a solid story-driven game should put you in.

There were a few other annoyances that kept me from giving this game TheGo's first-ever Perfect 10 score. The game doesn't seem to be particularly difficult in some parts of the game, and there's a lot more lenience to getting caught by guards this time around. The addition of Instant Healing Potions takes a lot of risk out of combat. Some of the acrobatic puzzles and the Subject 16 puzzles having extreme-levels of difficulty, ranging from super-easy to throw-the-controller-at-the-TV difficult with a split-second's notice. There are also a few graphical glitches (unintentional, this game doesn't pull the "Press X to See a Different Scene" thing the first one did).

But these shouldn't be taken into high consideration when making a purchase. This game is incredible, compelling, addicting, and entertaining from start to finish. Just when you think you've found the best thing that Assassin's Creed 2 can offer, it wows you with another great plot scene or a new attack, or a new tomb to discover. It's foolish to ignore this game. There's just so much to do and it's all polished to a mirror-shine...before it gets bloodied a quick backstab.