I unfortunately never did get the chance to play the first iteration of Assassin’s Creed when it released at the end of 2007, so I don’t really have a point of reference from which to draw worthy comparisons to the latest entry into the open-world action adventure series, Assassin’s Creed II, but from the tone of message board denizens and internet commentators the world over, the original is one of the most divisive games of the last few years.

Some loved its original setting and range of actions, setting you loose in an historical setting and given you free reign to navigate your way through the environments by climbing up any building, running over rooftops and leaping from perch to perch, all in one string of fluid motions using a new context-based control system that could, if you allowed it, become an extension of yourself.

Other players of the original Assassin’s Creed hated it for its repetitive mission progress and non-standard control system that bucked conformity, introducing an entirely new and initially confusing method of navigating your in-game avatar through city streets and over building tops with, from what I can gather, catastrophic, rage-quitting consequences.

After playing Assassin’s Creed II for any length of time, it appears as though the reported repetitiveness of the original is gone, replaced with hundreds of different side-quests and distractions, but the (initially confusing and frustrating) control scheme is still present, while an incredibly ‘slow burn’ start to the adventure may just put enough people off to disregard this sequel as no better than the original. If you get past this admittedly poor graining period, however, you’ll be rewarded with a rich experience that grabs you without noticing, ensuring you remain fully invested for the duration of the game.

Assassin’s Creed II, from the very first second of the game, is set in the modern-day, albeit with futuristic and ‘day after tomorrow’ accruements, as players are cast as protagonist Desmond, who is being exploited by a scientific research company called Abstergo Industries as it searches for vital, mysterious information in the past, using Desmond’s heritage and genetic makeup to do so.

By employing the powers of a machine called the Animus (a mechanical dentists’ chair in appearance), Abstergo is able to make any given subject re-live memories supposedly passed down from generation to generation, with especially intriguing memories now lying dormant in Desmond’s DNA, but able to be reactivated and recorded with the Animus in order to provide answers to the past that are important for the future.

The beginning of Assassin’s Creed II sees Desmond being broken out of the research facility by an underground group who also wish to use Desmond’s latent, historical memories to unlock mysteries that they believe are vital to the continued existence of the very world itself, as they hook you up to their own Animus machine and ‘send you back’ to a lovingly recreated and detailed 15th century Renaissance Italy, allowing you to relive the memories of one Ezio Auditore da Firenze (Ezio to friends) as he roams around huge, sprawling cities such as Venice and Florence, while visiting a handful of smaller, supporting towns along the way.

Over 95 percent of the game takes place here, during which time you’ll be introduced to a large cast of colourful characters (including the inimitable Leonardo da Vinci) who are all very well voice acted and realised and add a great amount of depth to your involvement in the story. Assassin’s Creed II also deals a little bit with the side-effects of overusing the Animus machine that tie into both the first Assassin’s Creed and the story of Ezio, but these plot points are unfortunately not fully explored. Maybe next time.

The first few hours of Assassin’s Creed II are slow, frustrating and confusing, leading to an extremely weak and poor first impression of what this game is all about - I imagine that this would be doubly so for players who had never played Assassin’s Creed before. During this period you’ll be introduced to a contentious control scheme with each of the face buttons representing a different action performed by a different part of your body (such as swinging a sword, interacting with the world, talking or running) and using multiple button presses to climb your way around the environment.

Eventually, you get the hang of it, but there will definitely be times when the constantly changing contextual commands will lead you to perform an action you didn’t quite intend to (such as jumping off of a building and falling to your demise or slashing an innocent citizen in the face), which in turn leads to frustration-induced rage as you contemplate turning the game off by throwing your controller through the TV… but maybe that’s just me.

Despite the reappearance of the franchise’s signature free-running abilities, enabling you to climb up any building and navigate your way over rooftops with minimal fuss, Assassin’s Creed II is still subject to the same problems most (if not all) open-world games face, which is usually a result of over-ambition on the part of developers.

Instead of your activities fitting the scale and scope of the world and its inhabitants (seen in dedicated third-person adventure games such as Uncharted or Gears of War), you and your actions always feel ‘too big’ for the city with very little finesse in movement, while the collective conscious of the hundreds of citizens and dozens of enemies in a given city is either very dim, or has a very short memory (or both), leading to some peculiar circumstances where reactions to your actions are applauded one moment, and then forgotten the next, making for a schizophrenic audience that simultaneously loves you, hates you and doesn’t even know you exist.

The core missions in Assassin’s Creed II boil down to singleplayer-based tasks that progress the story, a few dozen minor side-quests provided by the citizens of Italy, and dozens of missions that tie directly to the main storyline that aren’t necessarily vital to the progression of the narrative, but will unlock more aspects of the story to further enrich your experience. There are also literally hundreds of little distractions along the way, as you’re tasked with finding little caches of treasure (money), as well as collectible feathers which, once all are collected and accounted for, will also produce a little extra bit of narrative for you to enjoy.

All of these things (including the upkeep of your very own town, character customisation and upgrades, and the collection of art, armour and weapons) will keep you extraordinarily busy for the duration of the experience, effectively erasing the ‘repetition’ complaint levelled at the first Assassin’s Creed, providing an addictive, engaging world in which to immerse yourself.

Missions can usually be completed in any way you can think of, either using stealth and nimbly climbing your way around danger to complete objectives, getting right into the thick of things and pulling out all manner of melee weapons (including your signature wrist-blades for up close and personal assassinations) to take on half a dozen guards at one time, or using the newly implemented factions to your advantage, with the ability to hire courtesans to distract guards, thieves to clear the way or mercenaries to start fights with your enemies for you, so you can slip by unnoticed.

Circumventing the need to manually fight is the recommended way to go about your business, as the fighting system in Assassin’s Creed II generally ranges from exceedingly poor to (in some cases) exceedingly good, with no pattern to predict where on the scale your experience will lie. Sometimes weapons simply don’t collide with targets, while actions following button inputs are always delayed, which means even though you may see an opening to strike, any attempt to do so will be held up by a second, by which time the opportunity to land a killing blow closes.

Fighting in Assassin’s Creed II can feel a lot like some kind of predetermined pantomime, as the guards hang back to allow you to fight an individual, or you ‘let’ a guard get up after being thrown to the ground to continue clashing swords together, while fights flow back and forth between receiving and conceding the upper hand, which can make it look a bit silly.

Additionally, the contextual nature of the button presses will often get in the way, meaning that one split-second, and depending on your position, a button press will attempt to assassinate an enemy, while the next instant you’ll simply swing your sword. Putting away and pulling out different weapons is also heavily lagged… it’s best just to avoid the whole business of fighting and try to be clever about how to progress, rather than resort to fisticuffs and blades.

Other aspects of Assassin’s Creed II that delay the experience are menu navigation and load times; while the menu screens are excellently designed and detailed, they’re a bit of a chore to move through and strike me as a little self-indulgent, and the load screens are numerous and lengthy, popping up after failing a mission, and even after declining a mission, which seems a little unnecessary especially when you end up in the same area (and with the same in-game assets) you were before. I realise the game is probably loading up another instance of the same area which requires some extra time, but maybe that method could be avoided in the future.

It may all seem like doom and gloom for Assassin’s Creed II, but most of my complaints are off-set by the enormity of the game and the freedom with which you’re allowed to explore the world, combined with a truly intriguing story that, after the ponderous and clumsy beginning, slowly captivates you until you find yourself fully immersed in the mysteries that unveil themselves.

Assassin’s Creed II isn’t an absolute must-buy in the midst of so many excellent end-of-year videogame offerings, but if you’re a fan of the first game, or you’re hankering for an open-world game that manages to keep you fully involved and invested for over 15 hours (and many, many more if you go after every collectible and side-quest), Assassin’s Creed II comes highly recommended, provided you can look past a few foibles and are willing to wade through the first few hours with the promise of a rich, rewarding story to come.

Pros: Engaging, interesting story; tons of things to do; great voice acting and cutscenes; graphically impressive; new ally factions add a new twist; contains a great ‘Mario’ joke

Cons: Poor beginning; subject to old open-world game problems; fighting mechanic is unpredictable; difficult to pick up control scheme; freedom of movement and mission approach; numerous and lengthy load times

Purchase: