Short answer: yes.

To start, the game places you back in the frame story, having Lucy escort you to a new location: a contemporary assassin's hideout, complete with its own Animus for you to delve back into the historical fiction of this game series.

This time, Desmond takes on the memories of Ezio Auditore da Firenze. From start to finish, Ezio is a much better developed character than Altaïr, who was in permanent 'bad-ass' mode. While this certainly made for an empowering game, it aided the feeling of repetition in not only the tasks the game asked, but of the plot itself. This time around, Ezio has minor physical changes as the game progresses, as the game takes place over many years, but also has character growth and development.

Starting as a spoiled noble youth, he loses everything, and slowly has to regain it all. While the beginning of the game takes very slow steps, right away one can see that there are many more mechanics which are waiting in the wings. The Templars once more return to offer a vast conspiracy not only against Ezio's family, but against the world itself. Instead of making this completely abstract, however, the personal vendetta Ezio has takes center focus and humanizes the game more.

Unfortunately, the focus on Ezio cuts away from really developing any of its other characters, who all have promise in the beginning and then are slowly forgotten until relevant. This includes Da Vinci, his uncle Mario, sister Claudia, and particularly his mother.

Fortunately, the game introduces many new toys and a better execution of what it is the first game wished to accomplish. Running through the cities and taking in the views from the top of the buildings is as breath-taking as ever. Yes, visually the game is stunning when it comes to environments, though the character animations are often odd and jarring. The exception is the redesign of the assassin's garb and ability to dye it different colors, which is also gorgeous.

Repetition and ad nauseam quests that were bland are now aided by performing generally the same tasks with different wording, but allowing for more methods in which to accomplish them. Add some general RPG tasks, like money, inventory, and such offerings, and you have the beginnings of concessions that the game needed something more to support itself and sustain interest through stretches where the player may not be advancing the plot at a steady pace. Add the better open world feel to the game and it can be easy to forget the plot is so linear until you return to it.

However, it is worth noting that the game is not so grand in scope as say an Oblivion or Grand Theft Auto IV, where the world can distract from the plot indefinitely. There is just enough room to play, but not enough to forgo advancement.

Content is bolstered through the information provided through codices (where many will have varying opinions--I found the commentary on historical persons and buildings by the modern assassin team humorous and will gladly sit and read, others want to play the game), side quests, and the RPG and collection elements that the game's linear plot does not feel short or rushed. If you want to learn some small bits of Renaissance Italy, this will be a treat, and useful starting point to do your own research. This is, after all, where I found reason to laud Ubisoft Montreal for including in Da Vinci's biography that he was quite possibly homosexual.

This is a game that could easily take you over thirty hours, and you can subtract a substantial portion if absolute completion is not your goal. Some of that time is again toward collection, this time allowing for actual beneficial use of Eagle Vision to help decode and find glyphs that reveal a meta-narrative of the previous Animus user, and having more help through the use of maps and general hints. The exception to this is collecting the feathers, which I will freely admit I went online and used maps to find and gain my reward for finding all 100.

As for the plot, some of it made me raise my eyebrow in its theoretical sci-fi nature, but it also built upon the first one. The conspiracy theory takes on a further twist, and the conflict expands beyond free will versus doing what is in humankind's best interest. The picture is zooming out and what once seemed a rather large, centuries old feud is seen as only the tip of the iceberg.

The weakest part of the game is probably its combat, though it has improved over the last game. With a larger variety of weapons at your behest, dispatching foes is much easier and can lead to some rather "Yes, I just did that!" moments. Unfortunately, after initially introducing enemies with new weapons, there is never really anything that further challenges Ezio and his repertoire of not only his weapons, but the ability to disarm and use the enemies'.

Another element that was pleasant at first but became pointless later was the acquisition of money. Eventually I could not buy anything that held any interest, or at least at a rate that made a dent in my purse, even so far as halfway through the game. This is likely an issue to be fixed with expansions, but through this game it is something that could see a bit more work.

There is a chase sequence which had me roll my eyes (but you are taking that from a person who finds most chase sequences in games unnecessary, droll, and jarring to the controls I've already learned), but the flight sequence was both breathtaking and managed to combine my love of looking over the city with the knowledge that it was fairly short. I was perhaps a bit disappointed that it could not be revisited for joy rides, but performing parkour through Venice, Florence, or Forli was compensation enough.

The controls for the parkour are essentially the same as the first, which makes it relatively easy for those returning to the game. At times the camera angle would shift on me out of the blue and cause me to miss a jump, but the game was generally forgiving in its difficulty curve for platforming, with some spikes in dungeons and crypts.

Notable improvements? Fast travel stations. A place for collections to gather and be admired. More options to blend and hide, but not being allowed to just disappear in plain sight. This is aided with the hiring of three types of followers who have separate methods of aiding you, and having to monitor notoriety levels. The latter part can become a chore, and was not as well implemented as was perhaps intended.

The soundtrack, once again composed by Jesper Kyd, is appropriate to the game, and it never detracted, and there were moments when I perked up and was particularly intrigued by what was occurring. This is partly owing to my own music collection and voice training, where I could tell historical influences were seeping through and being modernized.

The strongest elements are movement and the landscapes (as was true of the first game) and Ezio. As I stated at the beginning, there is actual growth here. While Altaïr certainly served as iconic, he was primarily a one-note killing machine who was constantly self-assured and brash. Ezio has moments of doubt, weakness, and immaturity balanced with moments of humor, camaraderie, and the process of maturing. His story is grand in scope, where even as an acting agent he is but the pawn of other parties in both his and modern times, which serves not only as instruction for the meta-narrative with Desmond, but of our own control in a game.

If you were at all a fan of the potential of the first game (or a fan of the game without such qualifiers), this is certainly a nod to your patience and willingness to give the series a second try.