Assassin's Creed 2 is an epic story of family, vengeance and conspiracy set in the pristine, yet brutal, backdrop of a Renaissance Italy. Ezio befriends Leonardo da Vinci, takes on Florence's most powerful families and ventures throughout the canals of Venice where he learns to become a master assassin.

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.

Assassin's Creed 2 retains the core gameplay experience that made the first opus a resounding success and features new experiences that will surprise and challenge players.

The music of Assassin's Creed II composed by Jesper Kyd will debut during the Video Games Live concert at Palais des Congrès in Paris, France on Saturday, November 21st, 2009. Tickets for Video Games Live in Paris are available right now.

Video Games Live is an immersive concert event featuring music from the most popular video games of all time.  Top orchestras and choirs perform along with exclusive video footage and music arrangements, synchronized lighting, solo performers, electronic percussionists, live action and unique interactive segments to create an explosive entertainment experience.

For Assassin's Creed II, Jesper Kyd has taken the music in an adventurous new direction and crafted an immensely diverse, melodic and progressive musical palette featuring acoustic and symphonic orchestrations with emotional depth and diversity. The Assassin's Creed II Original Soundtrack is available from digital music stores including Amazon and iTunes.

Didier Lord, Head of Music, Ubisoft: "The music sounds amazing and serves the game perfectly. Jesper Kyd brought to Assassin's Creed II his magic touch, as always."

Key Features

• Ezio Auditore da Firenze is a young Italian noble who will learn the ways of the assassins after his family was betrayed and he looks to seek vengeance. He is a lady's man, a free soul with panache yet has a very human side to his personality. Through him, you become a master assassin.
• Italy in the 15th century was less a country and more a collection of city-states where families with political and economic strength began to take leadership roles in cities like Florence and Venice. This journey through some of the most beautiful cities in the world takes place in a time in history where culture and art were born alongside some of the most auspicious stories of corruption, greed and murder.
• You will be able to perform missions when you want and how you want in this open-ended world that brings back free-running and adds elements such as swimming and even flying to the adventure. The variety in gameplay adds another layer for you to truly play through the game any way you choose.
• Discover a living, breathing world where every character is an opportunity for the player. Blending in with the crowd is easier, working with in-game characters provide ample rewards but can also lead to surprising consequences.
• Perfect your skills to become a master assassin where you brandish new weapons, learn to disarm enemies then use their weapons against them and assassinate enemies using both hidden blades.