This is likely the most beloved entry in the series, at least of the classic, pre-Origins style. For good reason too, it took the already solid foundation of what the first game had laid out before it, and built on it to create what was at the time a truly great experience. The plot, setting, and characters, are all much more interesting this time around. Ezio's quest to avenge his family and take up the mantle of the assassins feels much more personal than Altair's journey, and he is also just a generally more likeable character. Opposed to Altair's more silent video gamey badass nature, Ezio feels younger, livelier, will spout off quips, and just has much more of a personality to work with.

Even the much-maligned modern day story with Desmond is more interesting in this game. No longer confined to a single room, you'll have sections where you'll have to fight and parkour around as Desmond, as he flees from Abstergo and his experiences in the animus begin to blend into his real life. I also enjoyed the optional puzzle conspiracy segments, which added a certain element of creepiness to the game. I can still remember solving the Joan of Arc puzzle and the game flashing "They burned her alive." All of the modern day stuff and the conspiracy stuff culminates in the ending, in which you discover the a precursor race which people in the modern day know as the Roman gods. It is all very video gamey and kind of campy, but it was an enjoyable story when I played it back in 2009. One last bit of indulgence in this game's ending, which is one of the silliest things a game has ever done, but as an ex-Catholic, having a fist fight with The Pope was very cathartic.

While I liked the first game's setting of the third crusade, renaissance Italy is just bustling with life and art. Venice in particular I loved, with its canals and beautiful architecture, which Ubisoft has once again paid meticulous attention to recreating a model of these cities faithful to both the location and time period. I especially enjoyed the Carnevale section of the game, which briefly adds even more color to Venice, as everyone is dressed up for a masquerade around town.

Gameplay-wise, you can just do a lot of things in this one that improve the quality of life so much. No longer do you have to wait for an enemy to single themselves out, so you can perform an assassination from a very specific position behind them. You can now perform ledge assassinations, air assassinations, and double assassinations. Your arsenal of weapons has also increased, as it will continue doing as the series goes on. You've also got the ability to toss around money, so having to flee the beggars of the first game is no longer an issue. Also, as is tradition with video game sequels, you can swim in this one! And you can row a little boat downs the canals of Venice, it's all very nice.

The formula that the first Assassin's Creed game set up, and this one perfected, would later on be done to death with annual releases, as well as other games like Far Cry taking inspiration from the open world design of Assassin's Creed. The fatigue around the Ubisoft Open World Game™ is extremely understandable, but I think it's also important to recognize just how fresh these games were at the time of their release. For reference, games like Skyward Sword and Mass Effect still had hub towns with a couple dozen scattered NPC's maybe. The realistic crowd sizes in these games, and the way they reacted to your behavior, was revolutionary. The ability to free climb on almost anything in the environment was also a staggering achievement when games like Uncharted were still highly contextual. When stealth games as a genre consisted of things like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid basically forcing you to stealth, which many times boiled down to memorizing guard paths; Assassin's Creed gave you the option of action or stealth, and a wider variety of ways to approach your situations. Truly a groundbreaking series, which only makes the way it was treated that much more disappointing.