As you will see in the video below, fighting in Assassin’s Creed II won’t be just more brutal than in the first game, but also it will look (or at least wish to look) a bit more natural: when you’ll hit an enemy, they will react accordingly and get pushed back, swing their arms, their bodies and so on. You’ll no longer have the impression that you’re always fighting against a bunch of Terminators and other robots that have no joints in their bodies…
Of course, I doubt that fighting is too natural, though: most likely we won’t see in Assassin’s Creed enemies starting to run away from us when they realize that they’re going to get it and start cursing once they reach a safe distance, yelling and screaming that they’re going to get us. Which is even better, since too much reality would certainly ruin the gaming experience and at least the illusion that there’s still a bit of morality left in this world and a man knows how to hold ground and get hit in the head with a ten ton hammer or multiply stabbed with a sword. (Yes, I’m just joking).
But the Assassin’s Creed II video below is no joke. Just hit “Play in standard definition” and enjoy all the new details about the fighting system: