Assassin’s Creed goes from the Crusades to the Renaissance in the sequel 

The first installment became the fastest selling video game in video-game history, as a result of its anticipation. The second game in the series then, is perhaps even more eagerly awaited. Assassins Creed II follows on from the first game in that you start out as Desmond Miles on the run from Abstergo Industries, but sees you return to the Animus to go back in time, not to the Crusades, but the Renaissance.  

Although still wrapped in the lore of the Knight’s Templar, the story takes place in Italy and sees you scrambling the red slated roofs of Florence to assassinate your prey as a young Italian noble – Ezio Auditoire da Firenze. After befriending Leonardo Da Vinci, Ezio takes on Florence’s powerful families venturing as far as the canals of Venice.  

The second game, autonomous in it’s own right, sees many much-needed improvements on the first. The smoother fighting mechanic, new weapons and a currency system for auxiliary treasure hunting missions are a great refinement.  

The mission system or tasks laid before you, has also been revised from the predictable “find and kill” linear tasks to numerous challenges that make use of the environments and cities. In Assassin’s Creed I gamers would travel to numerous locations to perform the same perfunctory task of killing some mid-to-high level oppressive lord, whereas the second game changes the missions.