Assassin's Creed II Xbox 360
Assassin's Creed II Image
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Metascore
90 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 82 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.8 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 726 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
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  • Summary: Assassin's Creed II is the product of over two years of intensive development by the original creative team behind the Assassin's Creed brand. In a vast open world environment, the game invites players to incarnate Ezio, a privileged young noble in Renaissance Italy who's been betrayed by the rival ruling families of Italy. Ezio's subsequent quest for vengeance plunges players into an epic story that offers more variety in missions, surprising and engaging new gameplay elements, diverse weapons and a profound character progression that appeal to fans of the original Assassin's Creed as well as entice players new to the brand. [Ubisoft]… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 79 out of 82
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 82
  3. Negative: 1 out of 82
  1. GamesRadar
    100
    A huge improvement over the first game, Assassin’s Creed II offers up an enormous, beautiful open world that’s easy to get lost in, an epic storyline and all the fun that comes from creatively killing villains and tearing across 15th-century rooftops at ridiculous speeds.
  2. Absolute Games
    86
    Ubisoft has finally realized its darling dream by creating a world where substance and style go together. Virtual tours of Florence, Venice and Tuscany are as captivating as the main story. For once in a way, “open-ended” doesn’t translate to “boring”, “lifeless” or “empty”. The height takes your breath away every time Ezio scales a tall building; the excellent animation makes up for annoying bugs and quirky gameplay conventions. Yes, the final boss fight is borderline silly, but it’s just a smudged line on a last page of a thrilling novel.
  3. DarkZero
    60
    To say the least, Assassin’s Creed II is a disappointment – not because it’s bad, but because we were promised so much more. Everything Ubisoft claimed they were changing has stayed the same, and what little new touches they’ve included fail to impact in the long run.
  4. Destructoid
    45
    The game's variety and length come across as nothing more than smoke and mirrors, the endless, grinding busywork that contributes nothing to the overall gameplay is inexcusably plentiful and mind-numbingly repetitive, and to top it all off, the game can't even compete in the visuals department and somehow looks worse than the original.

See all 82 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 126 out of 143
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 143
  3. Negative: 10 out of 143
  1. thunderCAT
    10
    I love this game. It improves in every aspect over the first game with much better character development and storyline. AC2 offers a variety of new tools, weapons and techniques to dispatch targets in a variety of ways. The development team really hit the nail on the head this time around.… Expand
  2. fitscotgaymer
    8
    I scored this game an 8.

    I did so because like AC1 this game has an excellent storyline, and thoroughly interesting universe to play in and     learn about. Ezio is also a much more fleshed out and interesting character than Altair in AC1. Another thing the writers did fantastically in this game is humour which is exceedingly hard to write you know and it made me laugh out loud many times while playing.
    This earns it the extra point I gave it over AC1.

    Unfortunately while the game play is improved in places as fighting is no longer as difficult or annoying to engage in it still remains exceedingly frustrating and is literally something you suffer through for the dialogue, universe, and storyline. I know again it makes sense given who Ezio is (he is more the warrior archetype compared with Altair's rogue and being that he mows through enemies because of that makes sense) but it is still a pain.

    Again like AC1, if you haven't bought it. Do so. You won't regret it.    … Expand
  3. houyi111
    7
    For me, the game improved in every possible way from AC1 (of course ,the first game only includes climbing up and jumping down). what good about this game is the city design, it is a true masterpiece, yeah, i like climbing up and jumping down in Venice, Florzi....… Expand
  4. drlowdon
    4
    Despite eventually completing the original Assassins Creed game I did find it a difficult game to enjoy. Having heard that this sequel was an improvement however I decided to pick it up having spotted it in the bargain bin of my local video game store. The ability to fast travel and more variety in the missions are certainly welcome additions but many of the same issues, such as boring sidequests and the overall slow pace, meant that yet again I just couldn’t find any real enjoyment in the game.… Expand

See all 143 User Reviews

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