I had been looking forward to the downloadable content of Assassin’s Creed 2 for a little while now. I absolutely loved every little bit of the game since I’ve bought it and, for me personally, it was the Game of the Year 2009. As soon as I had a little time on my hands, I grabbed the DLC from Live Marketplace.

My first reaction was one of positive surprise. The DLC only costs 320 MS points, which, in my opinion, isn’t a lot! As soon as I got it downloaded, I started the game. I only had to load my savegame and I found Ezio already in Forli, ready to start on his new missions. In total there should be six to play through. I have to admit I didn’t count them, I enjoyed playing through them too much!

I found myself in Forli, helping the lovely Caterina Sforza to regain control of the city and her stronghold. The missions themselves are varied. It begins with meeting Caterina outside of the city where you discover the Orsi brothers have tried to take over the city. Soon I found myself infiltrating the city to open the gates. Once the gates were open I had to make sure Caterina arrived safely in her stronghold.

After securing the fort, the Orsi brothers manage to kidnap two of Caterina’s children and I was sent to rescue them. It was unlike any other mission I had played in AC2! As soon as I accepted the assignment, a timer was counting down in my screen and I had 10 minutes to complete the rescue. With the guards on high alert I had to be extremely careful not to get involved in big street brawls as I simply didn’t have the time. It was a healthy mix of creeping stealthily through the city, avoiding fights as well brutally murdering the guards to free the children. Good stuff!

Of course Assassin’s Creed wouldn’t be Assassin’s Creed if there wasn’t a particular target to eliminate. I won’t reveal the who and why as that’s too close to the plot of the storyline, but it was another good mission. At first when I tried to assassinate my target, the guards spotted me and I ended up chasing my target through the outskirts of Romagna with about 30 guards on my tail. Not good! Needless to say my target escaped and I had to start again. The second time, I decided to go for stealth and eliminated my target before he knew I was there.

In short: I loved every little bit of the Battle of Forli! Except, perhaps, the ending… Which is a major cliffhanger. At first I found myself wondering where my follow-up mission was until I realized that I had finished the content. It didn’t take long to play through, but I loved the missions and I think it was well worth the 320 MS points!

I shall  anxiously await the second DLC…