Yeah I'm leaning towards goty with this too to be honest. Infamous, Shadow Complex and Forza 3 nibble at the position aswell for me, but I really love spending time with Assassin's Creed 2. It's really difficult to stop playing, and with the amount of content in there, it's not like you need to stop and save some for later. :)

Noooo! I love them! I actually really like that they are hard! Most of the time when they put puzzles in games they're mind numbingly easy, like those sets with shapes and holes in a plastic thing for toddlers. Here the satisfaction of solving them is actually real, and beyond that the synthetic reward through the game is really intriguing.

I'm just swinging by to reiterate: this game is totally fucking great. I feel like anything I say about it is a spoiler, so I won't mention specifics but.. it's so good! So damn good! Just the basic character movement made me like what was BARELY A GAME in Assassin's Creed 1, and it keeps shining through even the layers upon layers of extra greatness this has.

There's an uncanny tendency to fix things that are much more subtle than the blatant bonk-you-on-the-head flaws of AC1 too, things that I thought for sure I was alone in noticing. (Because if you haven't figured this out; I'm kinda anal about my games, and I have a tendency to over-analyze everything)

A simple thing like the way buildings now don't always have just the straight vertical path to the top. Depending on what building you're scaling, there is often actually a thought process to how to even get to the top of it, let alone the fastest way. With Glyphs hidden in secret places, and prone to be located in hard to reach spots, the climbing mechanic is not only awesome, it almost becomes a game in and of itself!

And I'll fully agree with you, Sath, that the glyph riddles/codes/puzzles ARE hard - but they are also AWESOME. They're turning me into a paranoid conspiracy theorist, and my paranoia (of the awesomest kind) is amped up by each puzzle. Just a tiny tiny tiny thing I'll mention is that the last one I did presented me with a map over europe, the fire of rome represented by an icon in italy, and then a picture of Jean D'Arc. There was more to it than this, but I needed to move the fire (Nero, etc) over to Jean (who was burnt alive), and when I realised the connection and it worked, it sent a shiver down my spine.

But yeah, it's becoming increasingly clear to me that this will end up sitting very, very close to my heart. I don't wanna get too carried away and gush too many X of X ever!! statements over it just yet... but.. schedule some in. :O

Yeah, god, they distract me so easily from what it is I'm supposed to be doing. It's like I'm a cat and they're balls of yarn. :D

Wow this game is great... I've just Assassinated Francesco di' Pazzi. And I've also done my first two Assassins tombs. The one in the Cathedral was just epic and really reminded me of those climbing area's in Prince of Persia Sands of Time (which is a good thing in my opinion) It's amazing how this game just reeks of quality and atmosphere compared to the first one... Loving every minute of it

Ohh yeah and ps. That first time when you meet your uncle (It's a me'a Mario!) that's one hell of a wink towards nintendo

I bit. Got it off Amazon for $30 so I said why not.

Of course it's the "same game", it's a sequel. "Slightly" better is the understatement of the year though, this game, unlike the first, has actual structure and pacing. It actually introduces new elements as you go along and weaves gameplay that was already great into a working ecosystem and narrative.

The "issues" you describe of not getting the blade and getting into stabbing people immediately is because the game works its way up from its very strong base movement mechanics that you get to explore as plain Ezio. It successively introduces more "freedoms" to you as you go, but not without establishing a respect for those freedoms. Killing dudes in this game is, as a result, not something you do to left and right. They've already shown you how to deal with situations fine without them.

This is a little bit awkward considering that we've had the insanely one-note predecessor already where all we ever did was stab dudes from the word go, but that's what makes AC2 feel like the game AC1 should always have been. It has the proper setup, the proper establishing of the world, its rules and its characters that a game like this should have.

If you never fancied the core mechanics of Assassin's Creed there's nothing here for you. This game finds uses for all of its gameplay's subtle nuances, uses that were missing in the first game. So, subsequently, if simply playing the game isn't enough to entertain you after 7 hours then no, nothing about it "gets better". It goes places, of course, it introduces new elements. But it's like... if you don't like the feeling of jumping in Mario Galaxy, you prolly won't like the game more just because you're eventually running upside down. (Of course, if you don't like Mario Galaxy you're not actually human, so it's a moot point in that case)

Just got done nailing down the categories for me and Dommie's GOTY list.. which will include a lot of unconventional but still hopefully somewhat relevant categories. After careful consideration and fierce opposition (mainly in Shadow Complex and Infamous) I've nailed down Assassin's Creed 2 for my vanilla "game of the year" category. It's been a long wait since Sands of Time for Ubi to show me they have another Sands of Time in them, and this, I reckon, is it.

More motivation stuff in the final list of course, and the actual list is ways off (although this year I have Dommie to whip me into.. er.. completion) but yeah.

I agree, like I said in my last post, It just makes you feel like you're playing a Sands of Time sequel, a very fun story based game but with some "puzzle-climbing" challenges in between... Loving it so far..

That sentiment is so extremely alien to me, but to each his own of course.

This is the opposite of a game. I mean I think Assassin's Creed 2 has a very strong narrative and is very earnest about its characters and how it plays out, but it never gets intrusive to the point I'm guessing you want from it. You think of the first part as drawn out because you view it as "story" but it is really about the gameplay - and throughout the game of Assassin's Creed 2 it never stops being about the gameplay.

Personally I'm really liking the story. Ezio is one of my favourite protagonists of a videogame at this point. He has just the right amount of charm, conviction and badassery going for him, and he feels endearing in the way the Prince did in Prince of Persia.

Now that Nathan Drake alienated me in Uncharted 2, I've an easier time really liking Desmond too. I don't get my Nolan North wires crossed. :D

But yeah, abandon ship, this really doesn't seem like the game for you.