The young Ezio surveys the Florentine cityscape
Speaking of the game world, it is beautifully constructed, substantial and believable. I found just running across the open space between a city and an outlying village felt like an adventure in which I was taking part. Sounds and sights change so convincingly throughout the day that there is a tangible sense of the cold air of morning turning into the heat of the afternoon and then the pleasant cool of evening.
Despite all this my most distinct memory is of my own incompetence. Climbing up the inside of Florence's largest church (I can't remember the name) I fell off so many times that I was cursing and gripping the controller as if I wanted to break it, not for the first time. And of course I was blaming the game for making me do the same thing over and over again. On reflection I'm not completely letting the game off. Of course it has to be challenging, but if I fail in the game surely the most appropriate way to punish me is to prevent me from progressing in the way I would have if I had succeeded, not make me start again from the beginning like an incompetent schoolboy. I know this is the usual way of doing things but I can think of one game which has done things differently with great success (and I'll be doing an entry about it at some point in the future).
I do not want to take anything away from this game though. I love so many things about it. I could spend an hour moving about Florence without achieving anything and without getting bored. I love it's blacksmiths and thieves and artists and especially it's prostitutes and most of all I am overjoyed about it's swimming which it such a relief after all the drownings of the first game.
I've got several new games for Christmas and so I've not finished AC II yet and will probably write a second entry about it in the future.
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