Almost a month has passed since Ubisoft ushered us back into the world of Assassin’s Creed with their disappointing first of two DLCs: ‘The Battle for Forli.’ Set half way through the main narrative of ACII, this game saw Ezio fight for Forli as well as to protect the precious piece of Eden he had recently acquired. Not that he did a good job, however, as the DLC closed with it being stolen by the sinister monk, Savonarola. And so this set the scene for the next helping of ACII DLC.

Today, when browsing the LIVE Marketplace, I noticed that the DLC had been released slightly earlier then I had anticipated. Like ‘The Battle for Forli,’ it was also priced modestly at 320 MS points, so hoping that this wouldn’t mean another second-rate experience, I downloaded it and was pleasantly surprised.

While this is not by any means amongst the best DLCs we’ve seen, this is still a decent entry on Ubisoft’s part, and I did rather enjoy spending some time back on the sunny surface of Florence after spending a large amount of time in the dark deep beneath Acre on ‘Dante’s Inferno.’ (Also released today has been a new suit for Dante to wear which resembles the attire the original ‘Divine Comedy’ poet, Dante Alighieri. Dante looks cool in it but 160 MS points seems a little steep for just a costume. Also, keep an eye open for the ‘Dark Forest’ prequel level DLC next month and ‘The Trials of St Lucia’ DLC the month after.) Anyway, back to the ‘Assassin’s Creed II’ DLC...

The plot, as just mentioned, takes place in Florence, where Savonarola is tyrant leader over the citizens, who are now sourly missing the old Medici rule as he commands them to burn all books and paintings, desiring regression and opposing the Renaissance. Using the piece of Eden, Savonarola has manipulated people to his cause and so it becomes your job to sort these nine lieutenants out and finally confront the tyrant monk. This basically means travelling through all corners of Florence assassinating these men, each of whom is serving Savonarola in their own way.

With the locations and circumstances of these nine assassinations varying, there are going to be some you enjoy and some you don’t. I had particular fun assassinating a monk at the peak of Florence’s massive monastery, for example, but far less enjoyed attempting to assassinate a well guarded seaman, who was frustratingly hard to access. But it’s not the nine assassinations that make up the main bulk of the game which make it memorable, it’s actually the finale. Obviously not spoiling the awesome conclusion for you, suffice to say that it makes the decent two hours you spent on the game worthwhile, and includes an almost inspiring closing speech from Ezio. The real shame is the lack of new acheivements, which could potentially have added an extra half hour onto the gameplay and made it even more worth while.

So, while some of the assassinations will leave you grinding your teeth and having a less than enjoyable time, others will leave you perfectly entertained and the ending makes up for all the flaws this DLC has. While still not the DLC perfection we had hoped for from Ubisoft, this is a far better time than their first offering and is well worth the fair price of 320 MS points. If you have extra time (and money) to burn, you can also pay 520 MS points and get the game with the three additional Templar locations that were originally exclusive to the ‘Black Edition’ of ACII. Either way, you’ll be satisfied with the value for money in this fun return to Italy.

7.5/10

(Might have been 8 with new achievments)