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Name: Assassin's Creed II: Bonfire of the Vanities

Bonfire of the Vanities is the second and final piece of Assassin's Creed II DLC. This takes place in the previously locked DNA Sequence 13, leading up to the events seen at the end of the full game. Does this escapade make a greater impact than the first DLC, or does it remain as simply more of the same?

Ezio appears back in Firenze as the story begins once again, now intent on retrieving the Apple of Eden from the monk who stole it. However, it turns out that this monk is Girolamo Savonarola, who has seized power and has brought about a regime that acts as a counter-culture to the aspirations of the Renaissance period. Works of art and documents are being burned in great bonfires, all in the hope of returning the city to the Dark Ages, where such radical thinking is suppressed beneath the yoke of Christianity. His control over the city is so great however, that Ezio is unable to get close enough to take the Apple from him. He reasons that he must get Savonarola to expose himself, and to do that, he must cause the population of Firenze to rise against him. Ezio thinks, as only an assassin would, that the best way to do this is to kill all nine of Savonarola's lieutenants, decreasing their influence on the populace and allowing Paola and La Volpe to win them to your side.

So, the extent of the DLC is the killing of these nine lieutenants. Each acts much like the assassination contract missions scattered throughout the rest of the game, giving you different challenges and obstacles that you must overcome to reach them. Highlights include sneaking onto a docked ship and assassinating a man without raising an alert, as well as ascending Giotto's Campanile unseen to assassinate a singing monk. Compared to most of the assassination contracts, these are a notch more difficult and some could take you multiple attempts to succeed. They fall in the same hole as the contracts though, with repetition beginning to set in after about six kills. Still, the gameplay on offer is much more wholesome than in the previously released Battle of Forli DLC.

It also gives you a new sector of Firenze to explore, to the south of the city. While shrouded on your map like any area, you also have a host of new Viewpoints to ascend and synchronise. Overall, the area is about as large as any of the other sectors in Florence, and plays host to its own selection of landmarks. This new area also has a number of springboards scattered around the rooftops. By running onto these, Ezio can perform a Sprint Jump manoeuvre that allows him to leap across the street and land on the roof opposite.

Overall, the gameplay is much more engaging in this instalment. With the increased difficulty and a large number of assassinations to deal with, Bonfire of the Vanities can take roughly two hours to complete, almost three times as much as the Battle of Forli. The presentation continues to be of the highest calibre, with the same exquisitely created cut-scenes and excellent acting. Nothing has been compromised, with this segment identically fitting in with the flow of the rest of the game.

This release is recommended to everyone who wants to experience more from Assassin's Creed II. At the same 320 MSP and £3.19/€3.99/$3.99 price point, there's a lot of value in the pack for the cost, especially compared to other DLC offerings. If you missed out on the extra content packed into the Black Edition of the game, you can obtain the three extra areas as well as this DLC for a slightly higher price. These areas are the Palazzo Medici, the Santa Maria dei Frari, and the Arsenal Shipyard. These areas are platform-based areas much like the areas in which you had to pass through to get the six Seals as part of the whole game, and are also challenging to complete. You earn nothing more than florins for completing them however, and are quite over-priced compared to the value you get as part of the Bonfire of the Vanities itself.

After a middling start with the Battle of Forli, this DLC is a much stronger and fulfilling experience for anyone who hasn't had enough journeying with Ezio. With a whole new section of Firenze open to your free-running, and the lengthy assassinations therein, you can't go too wrong spending another two hours in Italy, and all for the price of lunch.