"It doesn't really feel like a sequel," Ubisoft's Charles Randall told me as I sat down to play Assassin's Creed 2 for the first time at a recent press event in Toronto. "It feels like a whole new game."

And that should be welcome news. Because while it wasn't a terrible game by any stretch of the imagination, the first Assassin's Creed certainly had its problems. At times it felt like the game's ambitions were far greater than what the developers were actually able to create, leaving gamers with an ambitious but somewhat disappointing experience. And that's something Ubisoft has worked very hard to fix in the sequel.

During the half-hour or so I spent with the game, the major difference I saw was that of polish. The action flowed smoothly and organically, and bugs—which often seemed abundant in the first game—were almost nowhere to be seen. The large, open world you're given to explore also felt much more real thanks to small details, like the ability to throw money to beggars, causing a crowd to form, with greedy hands clamoring for cash.

You'll also see nonplayable characters interacting with one another for the first time. When a thief attempted to steal my money and failed, I naturally set off after him in order to exact some revenge. But I wasn't the only one, as a guard was also chasing the thief. It seems that the AI is smarter this time around. No longer can you simply dive into a bale of hay to hide from pursuing guards. They will now search areas more thoroughly, and might even give those hay bales a poke to get you out of your hiding place.

It's details like this that makes the 15th century Italy depicted in the game feel truly alive.

The reason for this, Randall explained, has to do with the amount of time the team actually had to make the game. On the first Assassin's Creed, the developers at Ubisoft Montreal spent a year creating the new engine, leaving them with just one year to develop the entire game. And for an experience as massive as AC, that's not a lot of time. This time around, the team had a full two years of development time, allowing them to add a number of new features while polishing other aspects of the game.

And it certainly shows.

Though I wasn't able to play the more guided experience that most players will enjoy—instead I was simply thrust into the game's world, able to mess around as I pleased—there was plenty to experience. The mini-map in the lower right corner of the screen was littered with things to do: from optional assassinations to actual story missions to simply running around the city finding hidden loot or interacting with the crowd.

The side missions I played were of the usual "go here, kill him" variety. For example, one mission involved climbing up to a fairly tall tower—in an area where the rooftops are plentiful with guards with bows—and taking out a madman who had taken up residence there, spouting religious nonsense.

There are also new, hidden areas called "Assassin's Tombs," which feel as if they were ripped straight out of the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy. When you enter into one of these segments, the camera pans around, giving you the lay of the land and allowing you to devise a strategy from getting from where you are to where you're supposed to be. Though optional, these areas can be quite challenging; Randall explained they can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour to complete.

The entire game, I was told, can take anywhere from 13-40 hours to complete, indicating that there will be a wealth of optional content for those who choose to explore it.

As for the gameplay itself, that too feels like a refinement on the original. The combat is more nuanced, with a heavy emphasis on timing and one-shot kills, while the free-running and climbing feels slightly less automatic, requiring a little more skill and determination to reach out-of-the-way areas.

Of course, I was only able to experience a very small slice of AC2, so it's hard to judge, given the sheer size of the game. Randall told me early on in the demo that it would be impossible to show even a fraction of what the game had to offer in such a short time.

"So what's new?" I asked him.

"Everything," he answered, with a smile.

We'll be able to see just how new Assassin's Creed 2 feels very soon, as the game will be coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 17. The PC version, meanwhile, will be available in early 2010.