Assassin's Creed II

It's further evidence that Ubisoft has been listening carefully to criticism: there seems to be little of the snagging many players experienced on the scenery and masonry of the ancient Middle East. Lambert is also very keen to get across the message that the variety of missions has been increased - there are now 130 missions of 15 different types, hopefully meaning less of the repetition which marred Altair's adventures. Of these 130 missions, Lambert tells us that playtesters spend roughly 27 hours on the main quest, with a further five hours gallivanting around the non-essential objectives.

A pleasing variety of murderous methods are also available to the hooded terror - straightforward melee engagements with the many weapons available being the most obvious, spiced up with countering and combo mechanics. Particularly satisfying are the grab combos - there's something innately liberating about headbutting an authority figure, kneeing him in the specials then chucking him off a roof [it's a good job that you're both weak and uncoordinated in real life -Ed]. I even manage to disarm a couple of opponents, leaving them flailing before kicking them to their watery doom in one of the canals below.

Grabbing enemies whilst dangling from the ledges they stand on and pulling them over to their doom also proves both effective and popular, as do the elegant 'death from above' moves. These swooping kills, furthering the bird-of-prey analogy echoed elsewhere, are a synergy of grace and brutality - particularly when two victims are targeted for execution at once. It feels, as Mr Bleszinski might have it, badass. Dropping 20 feet to plant your wristblades between the upper vertebrae of two presumably godfearing and socially responsible guards is a great deal more enjoyable than it perhaps should be.

The particular mission on show involves clearing some Venetian rooftops of bow-wielding snipers, thus eliminating the threat they pose to a clean take-down of my eventual target. The rooftop setting means there is little room for blending with crowds, although the eaves and gables are surprisingly well-populated by groups of employable thieves. Receiving orders from a shadowy contact in the city, Ezio is dispatched onwards and upwards, murder in mind.

Reaching the rooftops is no real challenge - almost every vertical surface is scalable thanks to the Venetian fondness for elaborate windows, fascias and joists. Once aloft, the actual meat in the murder sandwich is fairly straightforward too, as none of the stationed bowmen offer a great deal of resistance. It all adds to the sensation of being a killer though, and it's only in fights where you're outnumbered or up against someone particularly tough that Ezio's likely to suffer.

The common-or-garden henchmen I'm up against today are a puny lot, though, and it's not long before they're disposed of and I'm dragged away from the Xbox 360 before I wander too far past the mission end and stumble onto something I'm not supposed to see yet (which is itself classic Assassin's Creed). Booted outside into the real world again, and negotiating the foot and vehicular traffic of Piccadilly, I feel the lack of Ezio's skills keenly. Wouldn't a pair of wristblades work wonders on the tube?