The first Assassin’s Creed was a phenomenal hit on the Xbox 360 when it was released a few years ago now. Whilst praised by many for its technical excellence, with outstanding graphics and innovative game play that focused on free running along the roofs of buildings and performing incredible feats as you jumped and cart wheeled across the landscape, a few people criticised it for being a bit of a one-trick pony. In a nut shell, there wasn’t much variety in game play, so once you’d played it for about half an hour, you’d pretty much seen it all.

Learning from this, the developers of Assassin’s Creed II have come back with a more polished effort, and one that includes much more variation of game play than before. This time around, the action is set in renaissance Italy, and you are pitted into a war against the Templers. On your side are a number of key resistance men, and a certain Leonardo Di Vinci. Yes, THAT Leonardo Di Vinci. Living up to his reputation, he has plenty of inventions to keep you busy, with all manner of gadgets and gizmos to help your cause, including at once point a flying machine that you can pilot!

The cityscape this time around are more impressive than before, and you can really tell a lot of work has gone into making them as visually appealing as possible. Bizarrely enough, for a more powerful console, the Playstation 3 version suffers from a worse frame rate than its Xbox 360 counterpart. However, whichever version you play you are sure to be satisfied with what you have here.

Sound wise, things are just as good, with the locals chattering away as you move through the city streets, as they are in mid-conversation or admiring your acrobatics as you leap from roof to roof. Being based in Italy, everyone sounds the part and the accents are up to par. The voice-acting is excellent throughout. The music too adds to the atmosphere, and this is a game that really draws you in. You feel part of the action, rather than just someone who is playing this from the third-person perspective.

As mentioned, the developers have pushed the boat out to make this as varied as possible, and the missions you can undertake mean you never get tired of doing the same thing again and again. Along with assassinations, you can also get included with beating up individuals for revenge, piloting boats, the Leonardo Di Vinci flying machine, horse chases, tomb raiding (which is very reminiscent of the type of level you would find in Prince of Persia), looting treasure chests, rooftop chases, pick pocketing strangers and even getting involved in managing your own town, selecting which buildings to develop and subsequently make money from.

All in all this is a polished effort, and one which you will be coming back to time and again until you finish it. Packed full of new features and, yep, ways to assassinate your opponents, this is a true gem of a game. Roll in Assassin’s Creed II…