Assassin's Creed II is a bigger and better game than the tech demo that was the original AC. Unfortunately, it is also a sequel and not a reboot of the franchise, which means almost all of the bad design decision that were a staple of the original are back again. Interestingly enough, the further it moves itself from AC and closer it gets to PoP the better it is.
Pros: Optional assassinations and tombs come close to capturing the feeling of the Prince of Persia trilogy, highly detailed and numerous locales, good music, welcome exploration and gameplay diversity, Desmond's storyline and Animus crap are heavily reduced...
Cons: ...but both are still there, free movement is flawed, bad combat and AI, too easy as the game almost plays itself, irritating Animus effects, poor sound design lessens the impact, loads of padding and repetition, writing and voice acting often fall flat, artificially locked out parts of the city, a ton of stuff to collect with little pay off, out of place QTEs