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Because seriously, Leonardo and Ezio are so gay for each other.
And yet, this is a meticulously-researched piece of fiction inspired by historical events - the in-game database will tell you the known historical facts about people who appear in the game. Database profiles of characters will tell you things about people's lives that differ wildly from what happens in the game itself, because the database is telling you about the Real World. It's brilliant.
There's some background story happening which involves a seriously hardcore conspiracy taking place across centuries of history - which is also meticulously researched. Thomas Edison is a vindictive asshole. Henry Ford is a vicious anti-Semite. There is betrayal and murder lurking throughout the last millennium.
And meanwhile, Renaissance Italy is beautiful. And the game is rich with detail and options, and with tenets of a philosophy that is almost a marvel in itself.
It is a video game that contains prostitutes, but it's the anti-Grand Theft Auto; the courtesans are your allies, your character addresses them with courtesy and respect. A man murders a prostitute in Venice. Your character hunts him down and kills him in return.
Ezio is a nicer person than Altair. Altair was an arrogant bastard. Ezio is not. Altair did nothing out of altruism; as Ezio you can, if you wish, steal money from the wealthy and throw it to the poor. (But as Ezio, you don't have to steal money at all; you can earn some, and invest your earnings in renovating the Villa Auditore and the town of Monteriggioni, and become wealthy from the visitors this draws, and the return on your investment in local businesses. Early investment in the villa's income is actually incredibly lucrative.)
Like the first Assassin's Creed, AC2 is partly a collecting game. But it's not arbitrary, not even slightly - Ezio has reasons for picking up everything he collects. And he doesn't get by by grudgingly tolerating people with good reason to hate him, Ezio makes friends and helps people.
You can avoid killing a lot of guards you might otherwise have to slaughter with creative distractions. (Up to and including my having bypassed one group of guards by throwing coin on the ground, getting the guards distracted and obstructed by the crowd of people delightedly scrabbling for the money.) Instead of having desperately poor beggars getting in your way and frustrating you, you can get rid of the minstrels who do something similar by throwing them money - where the poor slump against a wall in miserable states, you can throw them money that visibly cheers up their lives - they exclaim happily that it's their lucky day, gather the money, and walk off with heads held high.
I choose to believe they're off to invest in some better clothes and find a job and build themselves better lives.
In Monteriggioni, your investment in the town and the renovation of all its institutions and facilities results in a visible improvement in the cheer and quality of dress of the town's populace, as well.
AC2 just lets you feel like you're making the game world a better place.
And it's just more fun. The side-quests are less repetitive, and they're more optional - the gameplay incentive for doing them is to make money, and you can make money through investing in Monteriggioni and then just collecting your income. The areas you can explore are much bigger, sooner - it comes as a shock every time you come up against a section of the game world that's locked off.
You can have your clothes re-dyed in local colours, just for the hell of it, too.
And the characters, Ezio and the NPCs alike, are all more real, more interesting. Even the character who, at introduction, I felt I was going to hate thoroughly, I started to like almost immediately.
The most challenging sections of the game, so far at least, are the puzzles. Some of them are genuinely challenging to think about and solve. A lot of games that include "puzzle" elements tend to have solutions that are blindingly obvious. At least one of the puzzles in Assassin's Creed II gave me a genuine warm, glowing feeling of achievement for having worked it out.
This is awesome.
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