I suppose I could go into what makes Assassin’s Creed 2 a great game, but I’d just be parroting many other reviews out there, and in less than stellar copy. It’s not like anyone reads this blog anyway. I’m merely going to pour my thoughts on the game, as unorganized and bland as they are, without calling this a review.

Several times I’ve observed the phrase “proof of concept” passed around to describe Assassin’s Creed in comparison to its sequel. Why? Because Assassin’s Creed 2 has substance and depth compared to the first game. This sequel has taken what Assassin’s Creed promised and actually accomplished, improved it, then took what didn’t work and threw it out, leaving one hell of an amazing experience. All the content available to players, such as collectables and objects to purchase and unlock in Assassin’s Creed 2 makes Assassin’s Creed 1 seem, thusly, like a mere proof of concept.

There’s enough carrots in Assassin’s Creed 2 to keep Patrick Klepek happy all the way through the experience.

In the first game, players took Altair from one assassination to another in a very rigidly structured narrative: complete a set number of side missions, unlock main assassination, complete, repeat about ten times. If you got bored with that, you could cleanse your palette by searching for four-hundred and twenty flags scattered around the beautifully rendered game world. Oh, but collecting these offered no reward aside from an achievement.

In Assassin’s Creed 2, there are all sorts of collectible items and all of them provide a tangible reward – in-game money, Florins, which allow Ezio to unlock new armor, weapons, and skills. These collectibles include treasure chests, some of which are sitting in guarded banks, which put Florins directly into Ezio’s posession; feathers, which are more akin to the flags from the first game, though there aren’t as many of them and they increase the value of the Auditore villa, increasing Ezio’s cash flow (I’ll get into all that in a moment); seals hidden in tombs belonging to some of history’s greatest assassins, and when collected in full unlock a certain item of ultimate bad-assitude. I mentioned weapons and armor, but also purchasable are famous paintings from the renaissance which are put on display in your villa as well as increasing its value.

About that. Early in the game, players unlock a villa (Auditore villa), founded by Ezio’s great-great-great Grandfather, that acts as a sort of home base for Ezio’s operations throughout Italy. With Florins, Ezio can renovate different parts of the villa, such as shops (which offer bonuses in the way of discounts on merchandise) and various other non-interactive buildings (thieves’ guild, courtesan’s “house,” a bank, the church, etc.) and as he does this the villa’s value increases in total, which has an effect on the amount of money it pulls in. That’s right, the villa produces money, but how much it can collect is limited by its value. At the start of the game, the chest which holds the Florins earned by the villa can only hold about fifteen-hundred, so Ezio has to return to the villa periodically to collect. As the game goes on, as weapons and armor gets more expensive and as the villa is improved, the villa chest can hold more Florins. All this equates to being a very effective carrot-on-stick experience, as if the story wasn’t interesting enough.

I mentioned the rigid structure of the narrative and game flow in Assassin’s Creed, and how Assassin’s Creed 2 resolves this, cutting down on repetition. Players can access assassinations of key characters, story missions they can be called, almost right away. It’s organic in flow. The side missions are not required. They are, just as they should be, optional. Rather than being forced upon the player, they can be pursued as a palette cleanser.

Though not side missions per se, there are also procedural encounters with courier or pickpockets than Ezio can chase down and tackle (killing is optional, and not entirely beneficial). This requires no interaction with another character or entering any sort of mission start asset. The courier works for the game’s antagonist, and if tackled nets Ezio a decent amount of Florins. If killed, Ezio’s notoriety is severely increased. If couriers see Ezio, they’ll run away in fear, screaming and yelling. The pickpockets will attempt to pick Ezio’s pocket if facing the away, and will run away if Ezio sees him. If successful in stealing from Ezio, the pickpocket must be chased down and tackled (killing doesn’t make a difference). Ezio gets his money back and then some.

The notoriety system is a new addition. Ezio starts off with neutral notoriety, being anonymous to guards as he moves through Italy. As he completes acts of infamy, such as killing guards or picking pockets, Ezio gains more notoriety until eventually he’s constantly suspicious to guards. Ezio can hide in crowds. This is called blending. To lower notoriety, Ezio can find and destroy posters, bribe heralds, or kill “officials” whom bear “false witness to your crimes.”

This “review” is getting long enough, so I’ll hold off on extra thoughts and opinions for another time. I’m still in my second play through of the game, putting more time into it than I have Left 4 Dead 2 and Modern Warfare 2 combined (I really haven’t played much Left 4 Dead 2, sadly), which I’m confident I’ll finish before the end of the year – it’ll be my first 100% completion of a game, achievements and otherwise. I have no problem declaring Assassin’s Creed my Game of the Year for 2009, and one of the best impulse purchases I’ve made since Batman: Arkham Asylum, which happens to be my runner-up for GOTY.