Speaking of repetitiveness, many would consider it to be the definition of the first game. With so few mission types, the second half of the game became a grind, where, to finish the game fully, you had to struggle through the same types of pickpocketing and eavesdrop events ad nauseum. The first thing Ubisoft Montreal did was attempt to remove the dull rethreading aspect of the first, by adding a much greater variety of side-missions to do. In fact, they completely changed the layout of the main game as well. Instead of completing missions to allow you to assassinate a Templar, there are many story sequences throughout different DNA sequences where you do highly varied and interesting things, from simple battles to jailbreaks and escorting damsels in distress. The sub-missions can be done at any time, in any DNA sequence by returning to the cities they remain uncompleted in. They include new races, beat-up events and many, many Assassination Contracts. Rather than leaving the thrill of the chase and the stealthy kill to the game's villains, you can now vie to complete thirty assassinations throughout the game's many cities. This is where our old nemesis "repetition" comes to play, as they become tedious after the first ten or so. While they factor in most of the things that make the important assassinations so memorable, they lack the high-quality presentation and context to keep them interesting.
In another move to make the game more interesting, Ubisoft has included an in-game economy. There are shops at almost every corner, ready to sell you weapons, armour, clothes and medicine. While you make florins by completing side-missions, these amount only to pocket money. The great mass of your wealth is made at your own personal villa, where you invest your cash in improving the town underneath and taxing it accordingly. A treasure chest in your villa is stocked every twenty real minutes for about an hour and forty minutes, until the chest is filled. You can earn no more money until you travel back from your deadly business to your home and obtain what you earned. The capacity is increased with every investment you make to the town, ensuring that despite the extra taxes you're earning/robbing from your loyal citizens, you generally stay away for the same amount of time, each time.
Collectibles are also a big part of the experience. Climbing high towers and synchronising to update your area map makes a return, and there are also many of Altair's Codex Pages to steal from the Templars. Instead of different flags, you now have to find one hundred feathers across five Italian cities, and yes, it's as hard work as it sounds. The game doesn't display where they are on the map, but they make a tinkling sound effect when you're close and you can see how many you've found in the individual cities and in each district in the larger areas. There are also glowing Glyphs left behind by the late Subject Sixteen, the Animus test subject before Desmond. By looking at them in Eagle Vision, a system where you see allies, enemies and targets differentiated by a coloured aura, you unlock very difficult puzzles that, after locating and solving all twenty, reveals a video that gives the cliffhanger ending more context, as well as dropping intriguing concepts about the future of the franchise.
There are also six panels found in tombs of dead assassin's throughout Italy. By finding each panel, you unlock a grate beneath your villa that gives you the best armour in the game. To receive them, you have to navigate through platforming sections that are reminiscent to the old Prince of Persia titles and contain absolutely no combat. These are complex challenges that test your speed and accurate jumping skills, and definitely open up a completely different playstyle. In fact, the only complaint I have is that there's not enough of them, as they add a highly enjoyable part of the game. I still wonder why the bodies of Egyptian, Greek and other far off assassins were laid to rest in the various cities of north Italy, however...
Overall, the game has taken the parts of the first game that worked, and abandoned or reworked the rest. This makes the game much more accomplished than its predecessor, ensuring your interest throughout the main quest will never falter. The sub-missions show the old fangs of repetition at times, but they only give the lightest of blemishes to an astounding development achievement. Assassin's Creed II is one of the best games of 2009, and while a switch-up in gameplay systems is necessary for the franchise going forward, the game is a wonderful, lengthy romp that will last in your memory for some time.
