Call this a part 2 if you will. The first review I did was written while I was still early in the game’s storyline. I thought about skipping this part of the review entirely, because my thoughts haven’t changed much. I still think that Assassins Creed 2 is one of the best games I’ve played in a long time, I still love it more than I did the first game which is telling by the fact that I actually completed this one, and I’m left in the end wanting more of the story. I was so enamored with the game that I couldn’t play anything but AC2 from the moment I fired it up. I even had a day and a half off of work and while I normally would spend this time playing a couple different games, I could not pull myself away from the virtual Italy.

For most of the game the story of Desmond was touched on very lightly and took a backseat to the adventures of Ezio. Which was fine, but I began to wonder if the Desmond story was really needed. I thought increasingly as the story progressed, that they could have just made this a game about Ezio because the narrative within his world was so strong. Now that it’s over with though the unexpected part is not only do I want more of the Ezio story but the end of the game is such a mind trip that I want to know what happens with Desmond in life outside the Matrix seat. In the final moments of the game the story jumps out of the science fiction kiddy pool and cannonballs into the larger sci-fi pond adjacent. Not in some cheesy low budget film way either. It’s on the verge of being the only game that I’d actually be interested in seeing a film adaptation for, other than Peggle, or maybe Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game.

The only thing about Assassins Creed 2 I could add to the negative column is that the AI could use a kick in the smarty pants. The amount of ways to deal with opposition is great, but sometimes the guards are just plain dumb. Sure, it goes without saying that no one should be able to overlook someone as dressed up for killing as Ezio, but I’m talking about how they fight. Easiest example is when you fight in a group with hired mercenaries. You can easily just walk around the fight and assassinate any guard who has someone else targeted. When you do choose to fight like that though, it becomes more of an exploit and is easily overshadowed by the real fighting which is intuitively controlled and elegant to look at. I’d even go as far to say that I enjoyed the fighting in AC2 more than I did in Batman: Arkham Asylum since there was less of an ability to get through a fight by randomly pressing any of the attacks.

Now that I’m done with the story part of the game, I do still retain the option to go back into the world and collect some items that I missed. I want to get back into that world, but I think I’d dirty the rose colored glasses I now wear for the game if I did. Instead, I may just have to wait for the next Assassins Creed game.