In terms of completeness, Assassin's Creed was simply a spine with no meat or skin on the bones. Its basic structure was fun enough to engage completely for about six hours, but after that, not even the intriguing story was enough to force many players to slog their way through the rest of the game.

Assassin's Creed 2 is a fully formed body.

The move to Italy from the Middle East and the character switch from Altair to Ezio prove to be the games defining aspects on the surface, but underneath the surface lay a million tiny changes to things like pacing and depth that serve to make Assassin's Creed 2 my game of the year, and a game that I would hold up as one of the most improved sequels in the history of games.

The main tale moves so swiftly and is so jam packed with twists and variety, that the games beefy length ( 20+ hours) seems as brief as watching an episode of Friends.

Ezio not only has more deadly tools to use like poison blades and a rudimentary pistol, he also has a much more refined move-set that allows for stunning assassinations from much greater distances than Altair could have even dreamed of in the first game. Scaling buildings is also a much more rapid process, so much so that it becomes second nature when compared to the methodical approach used in the first game.

A few control issues do remain, like Ezio's penchant for jumping wildly in the wrong direction during some backwards jumps and strange moments where Ezio gets stuck right near a ledge or beam he should be able to move onto. These become less pronounced as you learn to work around them, but should be buffed out before the next game launches.

I came into Assassin's Creed 2 more than a bit pessimistic, but also hopeful that it would elevate the experience to heights only hinted in the first game. This game not only met my expectations for the first game, it blew them out of the water.