Assassin's Creed 2

People will say it's not dated, they're lying. People will say it's a masterpiece, they're lying. People will say Ubisoft makes launching the game and configuring your controls a nightmare, they're absolutely not lying.

The game is obviously really good especially for the price, the story is insanely cool and the gameplay is fine, but it's really not this be-all-to-end-all it's heralded to be. I'm excited to play the other games in the Ezio trilogy for the first time at some point.

Fantastic story, loved the characters and plot but the game is definitely a little outdated as the graphics and mechanics are a bit old (as expected) but I would 100% recommend playing this game if you're looking for a great story.

Decent and fun gameplay mechanics , decent parkour. BEAUTIFUL music. Ezio is also the best character in the series hands down. We see him as a young and inexperienced 17 year old learning the harsh realities of being related to an Assassin.

The only issue is the fact that stealth just sucks and also some missions are just terrible, specifically the courier missions are horrible and should be avoided since they are optional. Other than that the other missions are fine but the characters involved usually carry those missions. Finding hidden tombs for the Altair armor was very fun though.

Although you really feel that Assassin's Creed 2 is an old game, as a fan you should try it out.
The gameplay definetily supports the feeling of being an actual assassin unlike the newer ones.
A slightly more realistic parkour system where you don't feel like a super-human and also more freedom to perform some tricks. Also it's harder to reach the target, so you approach in a more slower and "hiding in a crowd" way.
But if I am honest, I wouldn't say that the second entry has an awesome story. It is still an okay one but it's plot and characters doesn't outperform the more modern AC games.

A huge upgrade from the AC1 in everything from gameplay, parkour, fights to size and story!

It still shows it's age sometimes, but if you keep in mind that it's an older game, it's a pretty great experience with a very good story and, especially, ending.

The game has a few drawbacks that can affect the overall experience. Movement isn't always accurate, and you're required to use Ubisoft Connect just to launch the game, which is inconvenient. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t offer proper controller support. Additionally, the in-game instructions for interactions can be confusing—for example, when opening a chest, the game might show a fist icon but doesn't tell you which key to press, so you need to dig through the settings to find out.However, after some time playing, most of the controls become second nature.
Despite the issues, the story is mostly very engaging, and exploring cities like Florence and Venice is especially immersive and enjoyable.The music is also very well done and adds a lot to the atmosphere of the game.

I got scammed for 19.99 just for the game to close whenever I open it, give me my 20 dollas back vro

Game is solid, a bit buggier than I remember.
But Ubisoft launcher is a c*nt to deal with, and the game won´t run without an internet connection.

If you get it on sale, it´s worth it. But thumbs down for me because Ubisoft is Ubisoft.
WHY DO I NEED AN INTERNET CONNECTION TO PLAY THIS?

Upon booting the game for the first time you'll be immediately greeted with ubisoft garbage installing itself onto your PC and demanding that you have an account and that you link your game to it. In my case it demanded an activation key which I obviously do not have since I bought the game via Steam, closing and re-opening the game/ubisoft launcher seems to bypass this issue for now.
Controller button icons of any kind do not exist for some bizarre reason, and the triggers are mapped as camera controls by default, furthermore the game will not recognize the triggers when you try to manually remap them to anything else.
The default control scheme itself is also wrong and you need to manually adjust everything yourself by looking up a correct control scheme online. You most likely also need to look for a mod to get the triggers to work properly.

Trivial stuff like this should work out of the box and it is absolutely ridiculous that it doesn't.

Arguably the best entry to the Assassin's Creed franchise, the gameplay was years ahead of its time and is still massively enjoyable even by today's standards. Graphically speaking, outside of cutscenes the game still looks fantastic, and runs well on my computer.

The downsides are that it has to run through the Ubisoft launcher, which is festering garbage, and the PC port suffers from stability issues. I had no issues getting it to run my controller, but I can see and understand why other players had problems with device recognition.

If you've never played an Assassin's Creed game, or have only played the newer ones, you owe it to yourself to play this one and experience some of the best gameplay and storytelling the series have ever offered.

Damn ubisoft dont allow family sharing...Had to buy a copy even when my brothers have it. Childhood classic tho, just mad at ubisoft

brilliant game etc, everyone knows that

but this pc port is infuriating. as if all the ubisoft account bullshit wasn't enough, controllers are mapped awfully and half the time they just won't work or show up in the options for no particular reason

buy it on console, second hand so ubisoft gets no money

I hate leaving this game a negative review. It's possibly one of my favorite story's in gaming. It feels very good to play in general. Combat is serviceable, and a treat for the eyes, parkour can be a little clunky sometimes, but feels very good when it works, and the mission design is leagues above the first game. Good honest fun.

So why the negative review? Same reason I had to give AC1 a negative review unfortunately. Modern controller support is completely busted. This can be fixed pretty easily with community support though. The bigger issue is Ubisoft's incompetence. They have disconnected their servers, and AC2's DLC is unfortunately verified through said servers. This means that without community patches or save files, you can no longer access some of the content of the game.

Thankfully the community assures the game can still be played the way it was intended, and it's well worth the effort. But this much effort to play the game you paid for because Ubisoft couldn't be bothered to update the game to account for the disconnection of the servers demands a negative review. I hope one day I can come back and change it to a positive.

this is one of the best games i played in my life but it has quite alot of problems due to being an old. i have problem which i can't play with controller in pc due to it automatically exits the game. sorry for bad english

Ezio's debut is a masterpiece. The Renaissance setting is vibrant, and the improvements over the first game are substantial. However, some missions feel dated, and the controls can be unresponsive at times. Despite these issues, it's a classic that stands the test of time.

If you have that itch to do stealth, whether if you're sneaking or out to kill a target, this is the game for you. Honestly, this is such an amazing game especially for how old it is and it makes sense why Assassin's Creed is an iconic video game franchise.

Simply one of the best pieces of media ever created, It's not simply a video game, it's art.

Going through Ezio's entire life; from the literal moment he is born, you’re not just playing a character, you’re growing with him, You witness his youthful recklessness that we all shared when we were younger, his grief, his thirst for justice, and his transformation into something greater. It’s rare for a game to let you walk through an entire life like this, and rarer still for that life to feel so real, so personal, and so human.

As a kid, the game’s ending absolutely shook me to my core, that massive plot twist was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. And now, revisiting it as an adult, it still gave me chills. The sense of awe, of mystery, of something bigger, it’s all still there. It probably hits even harder now.

10/10

"It is a good life we lead Brother." "The best. May it never change." "And may it never change us."

The amount of pain and suffering I had to go through to make this controller compatible was ridiculous. If it wasn't for a single comment I found on the steam community page I would have given up completely. Epic game though

Even if the game is 15 years old, it was made in those times. when game devs we're putting a bit of they're soul in the game.
This game is an example for comparison, how it was and how it became, what a swamp the series and the Studio that made these games have turned into. Perhaps a sense of nostalgia is at play here, nevertheless, this game has a soul, it leaves a small... or rather, a big thrill in the soul after the finale. I'm very sad to see the series of games from my childhood now in decline, but I can't do anything about it, but i still strongly reccomend you to play this game, if u enjoy old-school games

Assassin’s Creed II is a game that leaves a lasting impression. The story grabs you from the very beginning, following the life of Ezio Auditore – from a spoiled young nobleman to a skilled assassin seeking revenge and justice.

Renaissance Italy is beautifully recreated – cities like Florence, Venice, and Forlí come alive with their architecture, music, and atmosphere. Climbing cathedrals, leaping from rooftops, and disappearing into crowds feels incredibly satisfying.

The gameplay combines stealth, parkour, and combat in a way that significantly improves upon the first game. There’s more freedom, a richer world, and a more engaging story.

Assassin’s Creed II is not only a classic in its genre but also the beginning of one of the most iconic sagas in gaming. A game worth playing even today.

I'll start this off by saying this SHOULD be a recommendation.

For context, my rig is running a Ryzen 5 7600X / RTX 4070-Super and 32gb of DDR5 @ 6000MHz

It is let down in the current day by several incompatibilities with modern PC hardware. I spent hours trying to get this game to work initially - starting with the basics, and then eventually moving on to editing the .ini files and changing certain windows compatibility settings to Win98 until I could get it barely running. To top it off, there is no controller support built in so you will have to further modify your game files for this to work. When I got the game running at a semi-stable rate, I had to limit the FPS to 50 to avoid stuttering after a while and upon every launch I had to edit the CPU core affinity in task manager.

TL/DR for this first section: THIS GAME DOES NOT RUN WELL ON MODERN MACHINES

Now that that is out of the way...

This game, when running correctly, is an amazing improvement on the original instalment. I've never played the Ezio trilogy and I picked up the first few games in the franchise up for very cheap during a sale. I can see what the hype surrounding the trilogy is about now.

The parkour does not feel as smooth as AC III and onwards, but I feel like it never was supposed to be smooth. Every movement you make scaling a wall or otherwise is a result of a direct button press. It can sometimes be frustrating to accidentally wall eject or for your input to be slightly off when trying to traverse the maps and be sent jumping to your death, but once you get used to how this game controls it makes a lot of sense.

The combat is quite meh bare-bones in my opinion. I don't care for it much personally. It feels clunky and hard to master. I found myself resorting to button mashing taunt and counter and when it wouldn't work on heavier enemies I just button mashed square. This is likely a skill issue on my part or missing an easy tutorial near the start of the game, but I digress. The combat does not feel great.

The story is an objective improvement over AC (1) in every way. I found the pacing strange but it was likely because I had to take long breaks to stop myself going mad over the constant performance issues I was battling. It delves into the artefacts a lot more and it feels a lot more organic in comparison to AC1. Rather than being told to "go here, speak to this man and then kill someone - then return to me to continue to the next mission" over and over again. You explore parts of Italy in the 1400s with purpose. I enjoyed that side of things a lot more and it made the story feel like a lot less of a chore.

Mission variety is also great. There are lots interesting gimmicks used throughout the course of the main story. Of course, you have the repetitive missions such as "tailing" that we all know and hate love, as well as the repetitive side content, but overall I found the main missions to be varied enough and new enough to be very much enjoyable.

The game itself, I would score around a 7/10 overall. When factoring in the major performance issues and trouble I had getting this game to run I cannot recommend that you purchase this game. If you're willing to trial and error your way into getting this game to run semi-decently then go for it - it is fun.

Maria: Self-expression is vital to understanding and enjoying life. You should find an outlet.
Ezio: I have plenty of outlets.
Maria: I meant besides vaginas.
Ezio: Mother!







10/10 game

Love it so much.

- GET GOO GOO ALU -

Of course it's a classic, but I was worried that being 15+ years old would make it feel very dated. That's REALLY not the case.
The story and character development is very strong. The settings are gorgeous, they've captured the feel of the real Venice, Florence and Tuscan countryside superbly. The gameplay is great fun, and the controls are adequate, if not quite up to 2020s standards.
The challenge provided by the tombs is real but achievable. The combat is good, but would probably reward skills I don't have even more, I'm a button-masher.
It's even very well priced now, and in a sale it becomes laughably cheap. There's really no good reason not to play it.

This game was for many, the first introduction to AC franchise, myself included. For those who played first Assassin’s Creed, this game is a big step forward in right direction and it fixes some issues people had with first game. Now, lets dive deep and see what makes this game is, by many, a fan favorite in the series.

This time, game takes you to renaissance Italy, where you take the role of assassin Ezio Auditore. I handsome and womanizing adolescent and his journey to become an assassin. Of course, as previous game you also take in the role of Desmond Miles, a present-day assassin that can access Ezio’s memories.

Core gameplay is pretty much the same as the first game, but with quite a few new additions and improvements. First thing to notice is the world, its bigger than the first game, but as a first game its divided into several maps. Travelling to a different city or place will trigger loading screen. Even though there were completely open worlds at that time, its understandable. As you play, you will travel to different cities in renaissance Italy. You have Florence, Tuscan, Venice, and other smaller places. Unlike the first game, cities are a bit more diverse and have their own unique styles and architecture. Its still crowded and streets kinda look the same so its easy to get lost if you don’t follow the minimap, but that’s just my observation and something I notice when playing open world games. Each city is filled with famous historical landmarks and buildings on which you can learn more about using game's database system. This system brings world of assassin’s creed more to life. There you can find details about characters you encountered, your targets, landmarks, and secrets about templars and assassins. This is something that the first game lacked. A bigger focus on the story. Side characters are given life and personality. As you journey through the story, you will meet interesting new characters. Some of them are important historical figures like Leonardo Da Vinci who helps you create new weapons and gadgets. Your targets also have more background stories. You learn about their motives, personality and how each target is connected to each other.

Now lets talk about gameplay in more detail. As I’ve said, core gameplay is the same as in the first game with bunch of new additions. In the first game you had 4 weapons. Sequel includes new additions: hidden guns, smoke bombs, poison and more. This gives you, ofc, more ways to approach the enemy. You can get closer to your target because of guards? No problem, use a gun or a throwing knife. Have a problem with enemies using spears? Not anymore, you can take the spear from their hands and kill them with it. Simple and sometimes unchallenging combat from the first game has poured into second game with few additions . Counters aren’t always insta kills, depending on the enemy, so you have use them wisely when surrounded by bigger chunk of enemies. Spearmen are, for me, the trickiest ones. Yes, I know that armored enemies do a lot more damage, but spearmen can be quite tricky. They parry every attack so its quite difficult to land a combo on them. You have to counter their attacks to position yourself inside their space and start a combo from there. There are also enemies that are faster and agile as you. They are quick, use daggers and can be a annoyance. If you try to escape without using a distractions, they will catch up to you pretty quickly and land a hit. There is also a notoriety system that can make you a wanted man if you break the law enough times. You lower your notoriety by bribing public speakers and removing wanted posters which most of them are in hard to reach places. There are also different factions. You have thieves, mercenaries and courtesans. You can hire them and they will follow you around and you can use them to distract guards. And since we mentioned crowd blending, this is an improved mechanic. You can blend in into any crowd of three or more people. You no longer need to wait for a special group of people to go into secure areas. Crowds will sometimes stay still or not move where you want, so sometimes they cant be used effectively. Luckly, there are courtesans I mentioned before. They are a faction you can hire. 4 women will surround you and conceal you from enemies. And, they will follow you. Also, you can use them to distract guards.

Way you do missions has also changed. There is no more doing repetitive individual side missions that gives you information about every target. Now each mission has a story and background with cutscene at the beginning of every mission., which, frankly, gives more life to the game overall. Following Ezio’s path of revenge from being hotheaded young man to trained and skilled assassin is the very thing that gives this game meaning and advantage to its predecessor.

Other thing that is worth mentioning is side content. It got a huge update compared to the first game. There are still collectibles. Instead of flags, you collect feathers now. You have side missions that are more like jumping puzzles where if you complete all of them you get a cool armor. If you want to earn more cash, you can do contracts (brawls, assassination and deliveries). There is also a town management system, after several hours, you will gain access to managing your own town which grants you passive income. At first, income will be low. To increase it, you have to invest in building shops, businesses, brothels and so on.

We also need to mention weapons and gear. I mentioned that you can pick weapons from fallen enemies, but you can also buy better weapons and gear from merchants. Its not anything flashy. Its very simplistic, which is not bad of course. You don’t have to worry about what weapon to use against which enemy. I mean, you can if you want. Game offers maces and axes besides regular swords, but I find swords being overall better weapon. Same is for armor, nothing too complicated. You get access to better armor as you progress through the story.

Parkour stayed almost the same, but here it feels much smoother and faster. There are few additions with swinging across corners using a hanging lamp or lantern. Also, later in the game, you gain skill that lets you grab to the higher places you cant reach by normal jumping. Unfortunately, same problems persist in AC2. Sometimes, Ezio will not jump to place or ledge you are aiming for and instead he will jump to different ledge, not jump at all, or in the worst scenario, Ezio catapults himself off the wall you are climbing which can result in a bad day.

Missons itself can get repetitive after some time. Some missions can be really frustrating and copy-pasted. I’m talking about parts where you have to follow the target and not be seen. Targets move slowly, they can also stop for a moment and turn back to check if someone is following them. This mission can last longer than needed. Venice part for me felt the shortest, even though it’s a big city as Florence, you don’t spend much time there.

Even if repetition bothers you, which sadly persists in all AC games, Assassins Creed 2 is not too long. Its longer than its predecessor, even if you just follow the main story. If you focus on the story with a little side content, you can squeeze around 20 hours of gametime. Which is fine for an Ubisoft game.

AC2 nicely shows why its one of the fan favorites. Introduction to what will came to be "Ezio trilogy". Great character and story progression. Improvement to every way from its predecessor. This is a amazing example of how sequels should be done. Fixing the bad things and adding new features that don’t diverge from the core gameplay. And this is just beginning.

8/10

A bit outdated but the Parkour was way ahead of its time. Requires patience and critical thinking. This game is not for dumb people.

I replayed this game after a decade, and this is the best game out of the Ezio Trilogy to this day, hands down. I literally had 0 problems replaying it in 2025. The setting, gameplay, graphics, soundtrack, and plot – everything is worth it!

11/10 - A Must buy!!

Ezio yes me like, 10/10 game even after all the years would still recommend

A very good classic. A Masterpiece even.
I love almost everything about this game.
It has great story, good art style and great music.
Great Characters that we all know and love.

Massive improvement over the first game and one of the best installments in the entire series. Ezio is the goat

its the beginning of the Ezio collection its basically the face of the franchise the three games with Ezio have always been the best and haven't been topped yet

Assassins creed is just one of those gems i would only play on console for the big screen cinematic experience,its been 4 years since i left the console and i doubt i will return any time soon,major reason for it being was just so i could play assassin creed all over again,i couldn't wait much longer so had to pick it up on pc and i gotta say its just as good as i remember.

Despite the lack of the whole Ezio Collection, this was still completely worth it to buy, as now I'm playing 3 and 4 after completing it.

can only recommend the game itself, but its ubisoft + had major problems getting the game to start because of your ubisoft account bullshittery

Just started playing after finishing AC1 and it's awesome! Definitely an improvement from the 1st! You will enjoy it right from the start! I recommend this game, even though it's old.

Really great game, there are some things that are a bit dated but still an enjoyable game to play even today

one of the best assassins creed games of all time. great map and atmosphere & awesome story

This is still the best game in the series for me as of 2025. Played through it 3 times on the console, now I'm playing through it on the pc. If you're part of the small minority of gamers that haven't played this game, I gotta ask you this one question: "why are you reading this?" Check out this game!

I loved it

I'm a little sad it's so controler focus, but the game is old and I can forgive it

My father bought this game ten or so years ago and I wanted to give it a try. I can't even play the game because it won't give me an activation code for the Ubisoft launcher. I'm sure it's a great game, but I guess I'll never fucking know. There's a special little spot in the deepest, darkest layers of hell, and it has Ubisoft's name on it.

Why is this rated so well? I don’t get it. It’s an awful port.
-All the controls are literally controller icons. For the punching control it will just show a blue circle with a fist on it, wtf?! On Xbox controllers you can look at the color and figure it out, but I have no clue what to press on keyboard, I’m just supposed to infer?
-And the game is so obviously made for controller and yet they don’t even have controller support?
-Additionally I had to manually install Ubisofts old and terrible launcher, steam didn’t do it automatically.
-And lastly, I’m sure it’s a good game, but I didn’t like it enough. It’s hard enough to push through a boring intro, when I was puzzled as to which button to push on top of that I just Alt+F4.
-So no, don’t play this on pc unless it’s the only way to play…and you’re desperate.

Game wasnt running on my pc, but the fix to my issue was the NVIDIA overlay, so OFF the overlay and OFF the game filters in and also cap it to 60 fps and lowering the screen resolution to 60Hz helps. Hopefully it works for you. Beautiful game

after playing the rpg trilogy, my only fav game was ac origins, but now that I am experiencing the Ezio trilogy for the first time, the first entry alone changed my mind. really loved all aspects of the game. A lot of improvements compared the first ac game. Although, final boss battle could have been more fun. but the overall ride was amazing.

Playing this again remind me of my i3 gen 2 laptop when i had playing it under 30fps and pirate this game but, at that time i still enjoy playing this.

Is a fun game to return to, have done most everything in game over a period of 35ish hours. Bought on sale for around 5 bucks. Worth it for sure.

Ac 2 was one of my childhood games that i grew up with i recently bought it again bc i wanted to experience the game that i loved when i was kid. But theres an issue when i started the game it didn't allow me to move my mouse or use any keybinds which its odd bc i didn't saw anyone havin the same issue as me

great game but no controller support

🗡️ Ezio Auditore da Firenze:
If you’ve ever wanted to jump off a cathedral, land in a haystack like it’s no big deal, and then casually eliminate a corrupt nobleman with Renaissance flair—Assassin’s Creed II is your game.

✅ Climbing buildings? Yes.
✅ Stylish outfits? Always.
✅ Leonardo da Vinci building you murder gadgets? You bet.
✅ Slapping guards with hidden blades and then vanishing into a crowd like a magician? Chef’s kiss.

Ezio goes from spoiled rich kid to full-blown rooftop ninja with family trauma, and somehow makes it look cool the entire time. Florence and Venice have never looked so good—especially when you're sprinting across rooftops or throwing enemies into canals.

This is peak Ubisoft—when storytelling, gameplay, and vibes aligned like the stars over Firenze. You get secret societies, tragic betrayals, rooftop parkour, and one very punchable Pope. The drama is high, the outfits are immaculate, and the immersion? Still elite.

Also, shoutout to the soundtrack for making me feel like I'm doing something historically important even when I'm just chasing a feather.
Aged like a fine Italian wine. 🍷 Still one of the best AC games ever made.

10/10 Would say "Requiescat in pace" again.
Buy it. Play it. Very well worth your time.

crap game always lagging, game crashes or randomly closes itself, all problems are linked to ubisoft connect

best game of all time (all of the games)

expec i cant use my fricking controller

Great game , the only thing i dont like so far is the parkour but maybe its just a skill issue. the controls are a bit weird in my opinion but once you understand it its not that bad.