The main thing I've heard about Assassin's Creed 2 is that it's everything the first one should have been, and after just an hour or two, that does seem to be accurate. I really haven't unlocked anything but the most basic features yet, but you can see the empty spots where the rest will fill in - tailors, smiths, money, equipment, different types of missions. I've heard that you get a keep to upgrade, too, which is pretty awesome. You can swim, you can tackle women in the street, and you can search bodies. They throw you into the game pretty quickly, too, which I actually rather like. The tutorial in the first was certainly thorough, but it took it to the point of being boring. Not so here.

AC2 may also be the world's first direct and indirect sequel? Certainly the only one that I can think of. The "real world" portion of the narrative is a direct sequel, but the bulk of the game, which takes place inside The Animus, is new. I guess this is a bullet point they could have put on the back of the box? I don't know.

Regardless, so far, so good. My only real complaint is one that has been mentioned elsewhere: a perplexing amount of the game's spoken dialog is in Italian. Mixed with English. I guess it's for atmosphere, but still, it's odd.

Also, never expected to hear the word "vaginas" in a video game.