Let me preface this: I wasn’t a huge fan of Assassin’s Creed. I almost didn’t touch the sequel, but I’m very glad I did. Its tweaks are universally for the better. Ubisoft has managed to turn what was an above average action title into a phenomenal example of what could be an upcoming genre in Action Movie Simulation. It plays like a Bourne film, and I say that with the utmost appreciation of that style.

Usually, when you get sequels, you get more commercial viability. That doesn’t actually translate to better gameplay. This is a huge exception. Assassin’s Creed 2 cleans up most every little issue with the first, while maintaining its level of attention to detail and its thematic appropriateness.

I’ll first address the major improvements over the first title.

1) Assassin’s Creed, at least for me, was repetitive. It involved the same couple of quests with different names tacked on the victims. Yawn-worthy at best. There’s some variety in the sequel. In fact, most of the more straightforward missions are optional.

2) You get quite a bit of choice in mission selection. There are plenty of side quests and the like.

3) It’s not short. I would estimate that if you just do the main stuff, you’re looking at about ten hours. I’d hate to estimate how much time you could dedicate to side work, but it’s not sparse.

4) I hated the main character from Assassin’s Creed. He didn’t come off as a worthwhile, redeemable human being. He was just a vehicle for facilitating the plot. Ezio isn’t a bad guy. I can kind of see it working. I can see his position. While I’m particular about killing in games, this is hardly lackadaisical killing, compared to some of the bulldada out there.