When the hit video game Assassin’s Creed was released in late 2007, Ubisoft never expected it to be as big as it was. In less than four weeks, the title sold more than 2.5 million units worldwide, resulting in Ubisoft having a potential major franchise on their hands.

In the action-adventure epic, protagonist Desmond Miles gets kidnapped by a shady research organization that hooks him up the to Animus, a machine that can plug him into a simulation recalling ancestral memories. From then on, the player assumed the role of Desmond’s ancestor Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad, a member of the Assassin Clan during the Third Crusade in the Holy Land.

As engaging and well-crafted as the game was, it was not without some serious drawbacks and criticisms, notably the repetitive nature of the missions in the game play, which were limited to only a few types that were all quickly introduced early on in the story.

Now, two years later, Ubisoft is ready to launch a sequel, Assassin’s Creed II (ACII), which not only aims to eliminate the limitations of the first game, but expand the scope of the franchise in many manners that had only been hinted at in the first installment.

“For Assassin’s Creed II, the idea was to do something really unique and repair what we did wrong the first time around,” Benoit Lambert, the director of the game, explained. “The context of the game will be a lot different from what you are used to seeing.”

In the sequel, players will get to step into the world of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young nobleman-turned-assassin in Renaissance-era Italy. The game will take advantage of this setting by including locations such as Venice, Florence, Rome and the Tuscan countryside; additionally, figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo de’ Medici and Pope Alexander VI play roles in the storyline.

Three hundred Ubisoft employees were involved with the development of the title, which was made not only in Montreal, but also using teams in Singapore and France.

“Why do we have all that?” Lambert addressed. “Because we want to make a good game.”

Ubisoft has a wide range of development offices across the world, but their recent hits, such as this game, as well as the Prince of Persia franchise, were developed at their North American headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, where Lambert supervised the process.

Ubisoft’s Montreal headquarters had an entire floor of their main building dedicated to ACII, where a sizable armada of designers worked on making ACII as engaging as possible.

Some expansions on the previous installment include incorporating elements such as chariot races and water fights; expanded arrays of weapons; tools such as Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine; and more time spent with the narrative character Desmond Miles, who had a significant, albeit brief and relatively non-interactive role in the first game.

As far as the experience of playing this new game goes, an afternoon spent immersed in hands-on time with the title ultimately proved it to be a very engaging and visually stunning experience that should impress seasoned video gamers and the casual folk alike. The accessibility and epic nature of the sequel will undoubtedly propel it to the status of one of the biggest sellers of the holiday season this year.

Assassins’ Creed II will be released for X-Box 360 and Playstation 3 on Nov. 17.

Reach Weekender Editor Ivan Vukovic at weekender@dailyuw.com.