Assassin's Creed II

I'm playing it through right now and I'm still so amazed by how good it is. The storytelling, the plot, the voice acting, intrigue, it's all so good. The different kind of missions tie the story seamlessly together. It's true the gameplay has certainly improved in many ways throughout subsequent games (like fast traveling, hiding in bushes and whistling). But the simplicity is part of the reason why I love this game so much and I absolutely disregard AC Valhalla. The city building in this game is beautiful, filled with people, opportunities and obstacles, so much more than in sequels. Ezio and Desmond are perhaps the first and last characters within the entire the AC universe that I truly effortlessly rooted for.

Honestly no words for this great game! The best game in the AC series.

Assassin's Creed II is a story of a young, charismatic, flamboyant kid without a care in the world...who's family has been framed of treason & sentenced to death. He's forced to grow up overnight, quite literally. He flees the city, hoping to escape the poor hand life has suddenly dealt him. This same kid gets thrown into a never-ending battle between two factions. The Assassins & The Templars.

The Templars fight to control the masses & create a "New World". In order to so, they search every corner of the Earth to find "artifacts" from ancient civilizations, which have capabilities of enlightening those who use them, but can also bend the minds of the people.

The Assassins fight for Free Will, they fight for full freedom. They seek to prevent The Templars from synthesizing the minds of civilization.

That kid finds out his father has been keeping many secrets from him, including his career as an Assassin. The kid still insists on wanting to run away from all of this. He laughs at this crazy talk of "Assassins", "Templars", "mind control" & "new worlds".... Until he avenges his family's honor, killing his first targets.... And get this, they just so happened to be Templars.

He realizes his father's work is deeper than he thought. This was a conspiracy unraveled before his eyes. This kid who had no goals, no passions, has finally found purpose. He sets on a path to finish his father's work, all of it. As the story progresses, this kid grows into a man, a poet of the kill... Traveling through Florence, Tuscany, Romagna, Venice & Rome, to assassinate those who seek to oppress & corrupt the minds of the free... All in the midst of the Italian Renaissance.

His name is Ezio Auditore da Firenze, and he...is an Assassin.

Let me start off by saying that the developers have truly outdone themselves with this one. All the expectations I had for this sequel to a game that was already well-polished; this title completely surpassed them.

The plot is so much more rich and intricately interwoven with brilliant and even hilarious dialogue, and multi-layered conspiracies. Excellent character development lets you emphasize with the main character (this holds true for Ezio as well as Desmond).

The visuals seem to be more detailed than before, and the sounds are as good as ever.

The inclusion of a monetary system was a great idea, adding much more tactics to the game.

The gameplay mechanic has improved vastly with smarter and tougher enemies, more moves and tactics for your character, and so on.

The game was always challenging, but never frustrating, which is very awesome.

If you were even remotely impressed by the preceding title, you should at least check the sequel out.

Fantastic storyline and great gameplay. Impressive graphics from game that developed in 2009.