As a massive fan of the original, I’ve been waiting for the next instalment ever since I stepped out of the Animus. Landing on American shores on the 17th November and PAL regions 20th November, thankfully we don’t have long to wait. Assassin’s Creed II is set in 15th century Italy between 1476 and 1503. The story follows the exploits of a new assassin by the name of Ezio which has him running around Venice, Florence and Tuscany in the same ‘open-world’ type game play as the original.

Assassin’s Creed II hopes to build on the original’s success with a more advanced, dynamic and fluid combat system that allows you to do things like strip your enemy of his weapon and use it against him. You’ll also be able to swim this time and even pilot small boats. The game will also feature a young Leonardo da Vinci, who will aid you in your quests with new-fangled weapons and gismos. The number of mission types has also been boosted by about three-fold, which should please critics that thought Assassin’s Creed to be a tad repetitive.

But enough blurb, what’s it actually like?

Well if you’re a fan of the original you’ll instantly be at home with Assassin’s Creed II. The control style is very similar and has been tweaked to make it more responsive and fluid than the original. Weapon select is now done via a quick select in-game action which makes switching between weapons a hell of a lot easier, especially in the heat of battle. The combat system itself is much improved and the ability to kill two people simultaneously is a huge boon for anyone looking for stealthy kills. Speaking of which, stealth kills are a hell of a lot easier now that you’ve got the ability to action kill people once you’re in the right place without having to select a hidden blade. Finding your target is also easier this time round with pretty obvious and helpful nav-points and highlights indicating your target allowing you to run around like a loony but still keep your target in focus. The ’sync bar’ has also been replaced with a more traditional health bar, which can be refilled using health items or even a quick visit to the doctor. The ability to swim in AC2 has made evading enemies a hell of a lot easier, especially in Venice where a quick dive into the canals can help you escape some nasty scrapes.

Graphically, from what we can see there isn’t that much different. Yes the textures are slightly better and the character models are smoother and have a greater range of animation, but if you didn’t know you were looking at the sequel you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the original.

Overall, do I think AC2 is going to be as big a hit as the original, yes more than likely. Is it revolutionary? No. Does it fix some of the flaws of the original, yes, they’ve certainly listened to the feedback from gamers and tweaked the form and function of the game to give it more variety. Watch out for Assassin’s Creed 2 on Xbox 360 & PS3, if you’re a fan of the first instalment, I think this is a definite purchase.

We apologise for not giving you any decent shots of the action but the Ubisoft reps were blocking photos and certainly weren’t happy when we tried to capture a few frames.

[Photo credits to Ben Smith]

Tags: assassin's creed, Assassin's Creed II, Eurogamer Expo, ubisoft