What is Assassin’s Creed II? Prior to navigating the twisting hallways of the old textile factory that now houses Ubisoft Montreal, and projects ranging from James Cameron’s Avatar down in the Bunker (a facility so secure its electronic doors sealed every panicked worker inside when the fire bell last bleated a false alarm) to the repeatedly delayed Splinter Cell Conviction, the question seemed entirely redundant. A Glitch in Time Kills Nine Part II, surely? Three cities – Venice, Florence and San Gimignano – each split into three districts; the Tuscan countryside; a tale of revenge, stabbing and serial crowd groping. But like the false visions conjured by the first game’s Pieces of Eden, any notion of familiarity is a facade; the shift in character and setting is minor compared to the total reinvention of the game’s structure, a change attributed to some surprising sources. What is Assassin’s Creed II? The answer isn’t immediately clear.

“Assassin’s Creed had its shortcomings,” admits producer Sébastien Puel. “There was a definite issue with repetition but we’re addressing that now. We’ve gotten a lot of inspiration from other games. For structure, Grand Theft Auto is brilliant. We talk often about Mario and Zelda. Even titles such as Guitar Hero in terms of enticing motivation by constantly rewarding the player.” Such name dropping isn’t uncommon among developers yet here the team is willing to show these influences in action, beginning with GTA. The first sights of the Florentine streets are through the eyes of a young Ezio, a handsome, hoodless figure, barely 17, dressed in garb that betrays his family’s wealth. He’s not an assassin, not yet at least, which neatly sidesteps the equipment castration that occurred during the opening of the original. It’s the summer of 1476 and Ezio, out for a stroll, ends up trading insults with fellow teenager Viere de’ Pazzi. The mission title ‘Boys Will be Boys’ appears along with an option to accept or decline. This first mission, along with every other throughout Ezio’s journey, is activated through choice and then later available to replay as a solitary memory through the Animus’s database.



Altaïr’s tale was viewed through a narrow window, Puel tells us. We joined the hunter deep into his lifetime and, as upcoming PSP title Bloodlines suggests, left his story well in advance of its true conclusion. By comparison, the door to Ezio’s life is wide open. It begins even earlier than 1476 and ends when the hero has reached his mid-40s, no doubt a different soul to the wide-eyed youth gunning for an ASBO.

Creative director Patrice Desilets offers an explanation for the game’s 45-year Animus span. “Assassins’ one major flaw was the fact that we revealed the entire game structure early on and never changed it. After one hour you knew there are nine targets, and those nine targets will be divided into nine districts. We never broke that pattern. This time we said no. This is Ezio, and Ezio has a life and needs a link from one mission to the next.”