So you've just started playing Assassin's Creed II and you can't figure out why Ezio is leaping off the wall instead of up the wall. Or maybe you're trying to stroll through the streets of Florence, casually picking pockets for extra loot, when you instead grapple some poor unsuspecting noblewoman and wrestle her to the ground without so much as a "pardon me, ma'am". Maybe you just wanted to smack that annoying troubadour in the mouth, and you instead shoved an eight inch steel blade through his neck. Oops! Oh, for fun! The unexpected joys of being an Assassin's Creed n00b!

After the jump, I'll offer a few pointers for clutzes and n00bs of the Italian Renaissance.

6) Keep your big fat thumb off the A button!

In 90% of the instances when you're scaling some height and you meant to delicately propel yourself upwards a few feet to grab the next ledge, but you instead kicked out into the open air and plummeted to your death, the culprit is your own big fat thumb pressing the A button. Here's an important tip: keep your big fat thumb off the A button! It will only get you in trouble unless you use it at very specific times. From other games, you're accustomed to the A button meaning you want to go up. But in the language of Assassin's Creed's puppeteering concept, the A button means to use your legs for something dramatic. And when you're climbing, telling your legs to do something dramatic usually means springing with full force off whatever surface you're clinging to. Later in the game, that can change. But until then, it bears repeating: keep your big fat thumb off the A button.

5) Look before you leap

Assassin's Creed knows you don't usually want to run off the edge of a five-story roof. It also knows you're going to be climbing around on its lovely Renaissance architecture looking for glyphs. So two important tools to keep in mind are the full first-person perspective and the leaning view. The full first-person perspective is a simple matter of pressing in the left stick. For the leaning view, just walk Ezio up to a ledge and keep pressing the stick. He will not stroll off the ledge (you did remember to keep your big fat thumb off the A button, didn't you?). Instead, he will assume a "peering down" stance, which lets you move the viewpoint freely to examine what's underneath you. This is important not only when it comes to looking for glyphs, Roman god statues, and treasure chests, but also for getting the drop on guards.

4) Drive carefully through crowds

Keep in mind the difference between holding a button and pressing a button. For instance, when sprinting through crowds, holding the B button will make you lower your head and muscle your way through people. But pressing the B button will make you tackle some poor fool you didn't mean to tackle.

3) Watch the clock

I get spooked by timed puzzles, partly because I'm never sure how much time is left. However, when you get to the timed puzzles later in the game, notice there are basically clocks on the wall for how long you have to get to your objective. These are disguised as counterweight mechanisms, but they cleverly double as a sort of thermometer display for how much time you have left before the door closes, the platform retracts, or whatever happens that means you'll have to go back and pull the lever again. So take a deep breath and take a moment to line up that jump. As you can see, you have plenty of time left.

2) This is an easy game

Again, take your time. Test things. Try out stuff. Don't worry about buying the wrong thing. Money will come easily. Feel free to quit out of a frustrating mission or challenge (it's called "abort memory" in the pause menu). Assassin's Creed II, unlike the first game, has no interest in confounding you.

1) Mind the codex

You're going to thank me for this one! Fairly late in the game, it will be sprung on you that some collectibles are more equal than others. So in the event that you think they're all optional, let me give you a bit of advice in advance: make sure to look for and collect codex pages as you go.