Assassin’s Creed 2 Announced

 

Earlier today, Ubisoft unveiled the next iteration in the Assassin’s Creed series, Assassin’s Creed 2. After over two years of speculated development, the original team have added new ‘gameplay elements’ and a more diverse set of weapons for players as well as a more robust character progression mechanic.

 

Assassin’s Creed 2 is set to take place during the Italian Renaissance and will be strung across various Italian city-states such as Florence and Venice. The change from Middle Ages to Renaissance will be a big leap in time and is said to be “basically the switch between the Middle Ages and modern times,” by producer Sebastian Puel.

 

It’s a place that was talking about banking , and art, and a new way of thinking, with man at the center of his own universe, changing the way we saw religion. Lots of things happened in these very small cities in a very short period of time.

 

The screenshots in the latest issue of GameInformer look amazing. The development team actually took a multi-week research trip to Italy to get a better grasp of the environments they would be recreating. They took about 10,000 pictures. Hoping to create the most realistic representation of Renaissance Italy ever created, the team is already well on their way there. The full press release is below.

 

UBISOFT® UNVEILS ASSASSIN'S CREED® II

SAN FRANCISCO – April 16, 2009 – Today Ubisoft announced that Ubisoft Montreal is developing Assassin's Creed II on all current-generation platforms for a scheduled Holiday 2009 release.  The initial installment of Assassin's Creed® was released in November 2007 to popular and critical success, selling 8 million copies worldwide and garnering awards such as Best Action Game 2007 from 1UP and Outstanding Achievement in Animation from the AIAS.

Assassin's Creed II is the product of over two years of intensive development by the original creative team behind the Assassin's Creed brand. In a vast open world environment, the game invites players to incarnate Ezio, a privileged young noble in Renaissance Italy who's been betrayed by the rival ruling families of Italy. Ezio's subsequent quest for vengeance plunges players into a captivating and epic story that offers more variety in missions, surprising and engaging new gameplay elements, diverse weapons and a profound character progression that will appeal to fans of the original Assassin's Creed as well as entice players new to the brand.

"Our creative team is working hard to top the experience of Assassin's Creed,” said Patrice Desilets, creative director at Ubisoft. "We've made improvements to every aspect of the game. We've plunged ourselves into the stunning history of the Italian Renaissance so that we can offer fans a unique, varied and innovative Assassin's Creed experience.”

Additional details on Assassin's Creed II are revealed in the May issue of Game Informer.