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Boring, repetitive, soul-less and a tech demo. Much of the criticism placed upon Assassin's Creed back in 2007 was based on these three points. Personally I disagreed with many of those criticisms, but I could see through my love of the game to admit it had its problems. Well with confidence I can say that Assassins Creed II is a much better game than the first and contains much more to do, oh so much more to do.

This is the sort of game that when you are playing it you don’t get the “OMG, that was so cool!” moments that a game like Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2 will give you.

In fact those moments are too few and far between that you will constantly think of two or three examples from the game. What this game will give you is a lack of sleep; don’t start playing this game thinking that you will play twenty minuets and put it down again.

The game begins with you playing as Desmond, the partial star of the first game, right where the first left off. Immediately the game has you escaping from Abstergo Industries with the help of Lucy from the first game, who seemed to undergo a lot of plastic surgery since. Before they escape he experiences the birth of his ancestor - Ezio, during a quick stint in the Animus. The role that Desmond actually plays in this game is about the same as the first, minimal. Sure there are key story points involving him but most of the game the character you actually care about and play as is Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Which is annoying since this game brings up more questions and holes in the story surrounding Desmond than answers. Assassin's Creed III has its work cut out for itself trying to piece this story together whilst still making sense.

Ezio as a character is great though, he is a likable Assassin, unlike Altair from the first game. He is forced into being an Assassin and in the beginning of the game you can tell that he actually cares about his family, who end up being your motivation towards the story. Oh yeah, and unlike Altair, Ezio learned how to swim!

Yes, this game is set in Italy, with Ezio’s story starting in Florence during the 15^th century. This provides enough of the gameplay that we became accustom to from the first game while adding a few key mechanics. The free running mechanics are largely unchanged, with most of the modification revolving around how quickly Ezio climbs compared to Altair. Unfortunately the free running, while OK in the open world it is still too inaccurate for some of the missions that the developers want you to complete. Such as the bloody races... Who thought with the control scheme Assassin's Creed implements that racing around the world would be a good idea? Oh, and the tombs! But I will get to that later.

The best change this game has would have to be the currency system, it changes the games upgrade system. Instead of you getting a new weapon at pivotal plot points, which does still happen, mind you, now you can buy new weapons, armour, throwing knives/smokebombs, healing items and even new combat abilities. It feels like the game is constantly rewarding you the more time you spend in the world. The most significant thing Florins (the game's currency) will buy you is villa upgrades. Yes, you get your own villa in the game, as you spend more money on the villa you can see the improvements making a change. It also earns you more taxes as the villa grows and the stores you have upgraded will give you a discount on purchases.

This is as good a time as any to say that the game looks beautiful, for an open world game the graphics are amazing. Only two games really hold up to the game graphically, Grand Theft Auto IV and inFamous. It’s disappointing then that the faces look really creepy in the cut scenes, the drawing in of shadows is fairly noticeable and that people pop-in randomly. Other than that the detail is amazing, the viewpoints in this game are some of the best looking views you can get in a game.

The cities are by no means lack substance; in all honesty they are a vibrant world that seemed to have a lot of care taken in crafting the world. Thieves are on the roofs, mercenaries are standing in groups and courtesans are trying to seduce you. This is another place where the currency comes into it. You can pay these groups to distract, beat up or seduce guards to allow you access to specific places, hid your from the guards or just provide some backup in those hairy situations. You can also use the citizens of each city to distract guards buy throwing money on the ground, everyone dives on it and sometimes even the guards will get in on the action. But don’t worry you can always get your money back by pick pocketing it back.

Tying into the cities and the world is your notoriety, as you perform silly actions such as randomly stabbing people you will be become more notorious within that city. The people and guards will start to remember your face and you must be more careful with your actions. But if you choose too, you can reduce your notoriety by ripping wanted posters down, bribing heralds to stop talking about your actions and killing government officials that have been bought out. While slightly cliché it’s a really nice addition to what otherwise would have been the same black and white system from the first game.

Ah. Who doesn’t remember the flags from the first game, how fantastic that was, collecting all those flags? Well this game doesn’t give you the pain of collection that faced you in the first, 100 feathers is as bad as the collecting is going to get. Sure - there are plenty of treasure chests with florins hidden in them ready for you to find, but they are by no means necessary since Trophies/Achievements aren’t tied to them and give you no other rewards. The best thing to search out for in the world is the Tomb Seals, collecting all six will unlock you Altair’s armour. The strongest armour available in the game, to collect these you must go through six Tombs.

The Tombs are Prince of Persia-esque levels combined with some stealth segments. I must say I'm a massive fan of Prince of Persia and was excited that they were delivering this sort of experience in Assassins Creed II. That excitement turned into frustration once I figured that the levels sucked. Ok the levels themselves don’t suck but since the game’s controls are a bit iffy in an open world imagine them in a tight space asking for accuracy. I would have much preferred them implement a different control scheme for only these levels. They could have been the part that made the game but instead became the greatest disappointment. Seriously you’re going to punish me because of your control system Ubisoft? Shame on you!

While keeping on the negatives what is with the character progression of the game? Ezio’s story exists over a ten year period, but he as a character barely changes after the first few hours. Ok fine he grows a beard but nothing else is explored, with all the love interests that are thrown at you none of them are ever fleshed out besides a kiss on the cheek.

There are more side missions available in this game over the first, such as the assassination contracts, races, messenger and beat up quests are available in every city. More variety would be nice still, but the single player overall does give you a lot more variety than the first game and its more than enough to keep you playing for 20+ hours if you want to spend the time on the game.

Assassins Creed II turned out to be one of the best games this year with a few problems, mainly graphical glitches and control issues. If you can get over that you will find a game with a lot of content existing in a vibrant world whose character almost outshines the main protagonist himself. You will spend a lot of time in this game, the story itself will last around 10 hours if you are rushing and in my opinion there aren’t many more addicting single player games on the store shelves at the moment to spend those hours despite its problems.

One last quick note to the Trophy collectors and Achievement Hunters, be sure to kick a guard off the roof when you get to fly, otherwise it means a replay in a game that has relatively easy Trophies.

* I ummed and arred about the score on this game for a long time. IF i could give 4 1/2 stars I would have. It is too good for just 4 stars though.