It took a long time to become a proper assassin - even though I had killed many people, most of the time deliberately, it wasn't until the end of Sequence 11 that I was admitted into the group, at the top of a Venetian tower.  We all jumped off afterwards.


Venice is a pretty spectacular setting and has been used for a large portion of the game.  I don't think it's entirely geographically accurate - the bridge next to which I proposed to Justine wasn't there, for a start - but you get the same sense of getting lost with canals and paths intersecting constantly.  In real life, it's generally frowned on to jump into the canal and swim across, or climb buildings to jump across the rooftops.





Everything seemed to be building to a climax at the end of Sequence 11.  I found out where to go to meet the Spaniard, and what he was going to be collecting.  I infiltrated the guard house and carried the big important box to meet him.  My compatriots met me and there was a big fight, as you'd expect at the end of the game.

Then the Spaniard ran off.  I'd rescued the Apple of Eden, but hadn't killed the man who provided my motive in the first place.

The game didn't end there.  According to the achievements list and various reviews, there were then two "missing memories" (downloadable content) - Sequences 12 and 13 - which I'd skip over and then I'd finish the game with Sequence 14.  Not so; the game continued with me in Forli trying to infiltrate and defend the town.  I seem to have the DLC already.  I'm sure that I don't have a game of the year edition of the game, but it's possible I suppose that wherever I bought it from gave me the wrong disc ...

Anyway, Forli is defended, and I'm off to start Sequence 13 in Florence.

Ubisoft release an Assassin's Creed game each year now that they've seen it's a popular series.  It seems as if I'll play through one a year as well, just a few years behind.

Assassin's Creed II continues the story from the first, which meant that the first half hour or so was confusing and empty, given that I couldn't remember the story and didn't pay too much attention to it in the first place.  I could remember that Desmond lies down on a bed and has memories of the past in his DNA, and explores these.  In the first game he was a professional assassin, who had no real motive for killing other than for money.  Travelling through the story of the second game, it's been revealed that the next assassin does have a rather strong motive; after an hour or so of playing, I saw all the male members of my family executed in the town square.  I've already killed the man who let it happen, and am now running around trying to trace who ordered it in the first place.

The controls are better than the first game - the camera's not so wild, though it does still get lost occasionally - and so far missions seem to be more varied.  It's not as comfortable, in that there's no strict rule about which order things should be done in to get the game as complete as possible, but it's therefore less likely to get boring before I get to the end.




I've now completed the first two sequences and have run out of Florence.  My family owns a big house, woo.  I was met by my uncle (who made me laugh with his greeting: "It's-a me, Mario"), who seems to have left things to ruin.  Now to become a proper assassin.