Assassin's Creed II is a complete improvement of every facet over its predecessor - the gameplay is more fluid, the level design is more engaging, the story is more interesting. Even bland boy Desmond gets a little character injected into him here and that's a pretty big boost here.

After 2007, Assassin's Creed was the new big hotness in gaming - merchandise, comics, animations. It was the biggest multi-media franchise in gaming, arguably since Halo. It was a new idea that had enough sci-fi and fantasy in it whilst grounding everything in a layer of suspended realism to really appeal to anyone and Ubisoft knew it. There was so much hype after people played the first game - what would the sequel do, what weapons would it introduce, where would the plot go? The question of what time and place the new Assassin's Creed game will take place in is one that still gets asked today, if with a little less enthusiasm now than it was back then.

So, Renaissance Italy? People were maybe hoping for Japan or maybe China, but Italy? This was actually a genius idea, and one that was inkeeping with the first 5-ish years of AC's life - pick a period we know relatively a good chunk about in terms of history and famous people, the cultures at play, etc, and the Renaissance period was enough of a jump from the Crusades to really distance itself in terms of expectations and art direction.

ACII really was the perfect sequel in every way.