I've just finished the game and even though I loved the first one, this one is head and toes above the first. The entire mission structure has been overhauled to take care of the biggest complaint about the first game, the repetitiveness. Missions flow organically from the story and have a fair amount of variation. There are also quite a few sidequests to keep you distracted. It would be nice if the the rewards were more than just money though. By the end of the game, after I'd bought all of the armor and weapon upgrades and completely renovated my villa, I had no use for the money, but it kept piling up.
The introduction of dungeons is a nice feature. They are mostly a set of platforming challenges with a few kills along the way. They are basically puzzles, in that you have to figure out a path through them. My only complaint is that at times you get locked into a fixed camera position that I'm sure was designed to show you where you need to go, but it really just makes things much harder since you loose a bit of control. It's minor thing, but annoying.
They've also redone combat a bit to make it somewhat more complex, though I think that hidden blade kills can be too easy. The new weapons are nice, but they really are just the same thing with different animations. Story wise, there is a fair bit more depth, and it really becomes clear, especially at the end, that this series is Desmond's story.
Overall, on a scale of one to ten I'd give the first game a solid seven and this one a nine and a half. It's just too bad that it's probably going to be another four years to get the next one.
One thing I'll mention, pay close attention when you first meet Ezio's uncle. There is a line there that you just don't want to miss, it's hilarious.
Edited, Nov 24th 2009 11:36am by Turin