<<Has known about it for a long time.
We pre-ordered it.
We played it from 8PM to 1AM yesterday.
It's frigging AWESOME. Better than the first one. The quality of the graphics is improved and totally gorgeous (of course, we have a PS3 and a 52" LCD flatscreen). Ezio starts out with the basics learned in the first game (scaling buildings, leaping, etc). The story is a little more comprehensive this time.
There's 14 segments and we got through the first 2 last night. The third one is the more intense assassin training.
I'm greatly looking forward to this. So far, it's been well beyond the expectations.
I hope they worked on the swordfighting; that was my favorite part of the first game -- pissing off hundreds of guards and then using blocks, dodges, and counters to kill 'em all one at a time. Of course, chucking them off rooftops to scare the crowds below was also fun.
They did. You get all of Altair's moves plus more.
And, even better, each of your foes has an individual hit-point marker floating over their head, so you can tell just how close they are to falling over for the last time.
And, even better, the less hit points they have, the worse they fight.
Can I turn that off if I find that it breaks immersion?
Do wounded enemies actually slow down, limp, and/or favor wounded limbs? That would be awesome.
Oh, and they have guards who can scale buildings and chase you over rooftops too. It's more challenging to get away now, which is exciting.
I thought they had that in the first game.
Only now it's not just goofy guards climbing up ladders to chase you - it's specialized guards that know how to free-run like Ezio.
Cool. I'm still going to throw 'em off the rooftops and scare the living hee-ho out of the civilians below.
It's great fun, yes--but do be warned that it alerts guards below, who are just as likely to come up after you.