After reading pretty positive reviews about the game and seeing the high scores it was getting I thought now would be a good time to grab this game for it's $30 pricetag.
 
I just picked this game up on Friday for 360 and have been playing it over the weekend. Now, I just finished playing inFamous for the PS3 so my expectations may have been skewed going into this but, I want to ask:
 
Is it just me, or are the controls in this game clunky and awkward as hell? 
 
I know I'm playing an Assassin, and am supposed to be slow and stealthy but damn. I'm finding his movements painfully slow, it takes forever to climb up a building, to pull myself up onto roof tops and just generally clunky and unresponsive. Compared to infamous when I was scaling builidngs and running around using the analog sticks and a simple button press to rapidly ascend up buildings, I'm finding AC2 painfully slow to play. 
 
I'm hoping that I will just get used to these controls and slow game play, and will be able to look past it, because other than the controls, I've been enjoying the game so far, and have only just made it to my Uncle Mario's house.  Is there a big payoff for perseverance, does this game get better and better the further I get?

See, for me when I tried some inFamous after playing through ACII I found those controls to be really awkward. I think it's all what you are used to.
 
But yes, if you are used to really fast paced super hero games, an assassin game is gonna feel slower.

I found the controls to be great, the movement didn't feel sluggish at all. Quite the opposite, I felt like I was zooming all over the place.  
 
The game gets better as you go along as well. I don't even thing it "starts" for real till like an hour past where you are, so there's that.

I'm also in the "opposite" camp.  I really enjoyed both Infamous and ACII but I thought ACII's controls were smoother and more enjoyable.
 
I have almost nothing bad to say about either game but too much auto-snapping to every ledge really bogged down Infamous' gameplay in my opinion.

ACII has those "moments" where you want him to do something and he'll do the exact opposite. Like wanting to jump onto a platform but instead he leaps right over it, these moments don't happen very often but you notice it because your target will have gotten away. Having said that Infamous had the same kind of thing, say you want to jump off a pipe and instead he magnetically latches back onto it. It's just the game trying to guess what you want to do, rather than knowing.
 
ACII is definitly slower paced, it's trying to be kind of parkour, where as Cole can just jump up the sides of buildings and doesn't ever need to find foot holds.

This game had fantastic controls, fantastic storyline and gameplay, and was well worth the time for the S Rank. One of my favourite games of the year. No idea what you played though!

Yeah I think it's mainly because I came straight off  the breakneck speed of inFamous to AC2. I did have a few control quirks with inFamous too, but guess they didn't bother me as much because of the faster pace. I'll keep at it, enjoying all of it's other aspects. I'm sure the controls will just fall into place as I get more experienced playing it.  Thanks for the replies everyone!

I would almost certainly attribute your reaction to having just finished inFamous. Let Assassin's Creed sink in for a bit.

I think the game is perfect, and I couldn't ask for better controls.

AC 2 was such a step above AC 1. Maybe not so much in controls, but story and diversity wise it was great.

I found AC 2 to have very slightly awkward controls like he would sometimes jump off a building in the wrong direction and such but that was the height of it. I dont see how its any worse than inFamous I mean there all you did was tap X and press forward to climb a building in AC you just hold X and press forward. And inFamous had that sort of snap to jumping stuff which got annoying sometimes. 
 
Oh and the game is great and packed with stuff and keeps getting better and better as you go on.

Still playing through it, I've completed the first Assassin's Tomb and am on the second.  In these tombs, and during the races is when I really notice the off controls.  Because of free run and sprint being on the same button, Ezio leaps off any ledge and grabs anything that's remotely close to him, I'm almost having to avoid coming near anything scalable to stop him from grabbing it, or attempting a climb when I just want to run in a straight line and leap off a ledge to another one. Find it difficult to judge what is climbable and what isn't also, some places of the wall he just grabs and starts climbing up, other areas and ledges nothing happens, and I have to shimmy or reposition him to a completely different place. Having some areas I can climb and not others is incredibly frustrating.
 
 It is definitely slower paced than inFamous, but I find it doesn't control nearly as well. I ran Cole all over that city, leaping from ledge to ledge, rail sliding across power lines, shooting enemies in the air and clinging to ledges while falling. inFamous plays like a more polished game.
 
Even though I detest the controls, there are tons of other stuff about this game I think is awesome.  The cities look fantastic, the weapon and attack variety is great and the characters and story seems to be quite entertaining so far. Just disappointed with how it handles, and I hope this is fixed in Brotherhood.
 
Assassin's Creed 2 is a good game so far, but I find the controls are holding it back from being a great game.

Nah its just about the best sequel ever made, along with mass effect 2

Wait until you get to Vulpa then the game gets alot better and the controls feel less awkward too.

Neither, AC1 was both but AC2 is a great game.

I played a few hours of Infamous before i got bored. I've been playing AC2 the last few days and I can't stop playing. I just really like the story and the way Ezio controls. I love it so far, I just hope the same thing doesn't happen in the first game (for me anyways), where the assassinations just got too hard for me to get by and I stopped playing. 
 
As for Ezio moving slow, have you been using RT to climb faster?

I thought AC2 was the best game of last year. It gets really, really good. Wait on it.

I wasn't very good at chasing down those Templars in the tombs. Other than that I didn't have much trouble with the controls. 
I'm still upset with the ending though.

" I'm finding his movements painfully slow, it takes forever to climb up a building, to pull myself up onto roof tops and just generally clunky and unresponsive.  "