Incredible glow up of a sequel, more confidently and competently put together in every way, a much better experience without really compromising on the core premise of the assassin fantasy. The bones of the modern AAA open world game are here but they're still all working in service to the themes and gameplay of that simulation of the Assassin fantasy, and it still feels ambitious and a bit experimental. The social stealth with crowds and such is really neat. Renaissance Italy is a dope setting and I love climbing around all that beautiful architecture, the layout of the city and variety in buildings and terrain is a huge improvement over AC1. The assassin tomb "dungeons" are really fun callbacks to Prince of Persia's level design, too. Some of the repetitive nature of the first game remains but the variety overall is a million times better. The story in both present day and in the animus with Ezio are both pretty fun, pretty well presented too. The modern day characters are fairly compelling, and the conspiracy stuff rules, and also is like surprisingly correct about the bastards of history, the role of capitalism and empire in reinforcing the rule of the elite, etc. despite also being goofy Da Vinci code type of bullshit. The ending where you fistfight the pope in an alien temple under the Sistine chapel and then a hologram god talks directly to Desmond over Ezio's shoulder and then it cuts to black, is pretty amazing lol