Assassin's Creed 2

worth to buy it again. wonderful story, and good journey, but. bad stealth

“My story is one of many thousands, and the world will not suffer if it ends too soon.”
― Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Great game. Great story, fun combat with good balance between stealth and full encounter combat.
Better controller support would be nice, but got used to the keyboard controls.
Performance-wise, WAY less buggy than the first game on PC. Pretty much no bugs outside of a small audio skip or the occasional parkour f-up that makes me want to punch several holes into my monitor.

Played it when it first came out. Got it on special. Forgotten so much of the game and the story. Was basically playing like new. Was amazing and still holds up. Probably even better than most games today.
Was super fun and great nostalgia.
++

My first ever experience with AC and so far my favourite game in the series and a contender on being one of my favourite games of all time. From the setting, the story, to the combat/gameplay, the exploration, Ezio being such a memorable and charismatic protagonist etc it's no wonder this is considered a cult classic among the fanbase. The title is more than earned. If you going to play any AC or Ubisoft game definitely start with AC2 first as it's one of the greats for a reason.

Amazing story, the game has aged well. OST is out of this world. miss the days when Ubisot made games like this and Farcry 2 and 3. I would still recommend this game. The launcher is meh though

Glitches visually in all gameplay except for cutscenes. RIDICULOUS NOT WORTH A PENNY. If i can't install and play it without a novel of text and hours of homework to go through files just to get the stupid game from years ago to work. Buy it on console NEVER STEAM

AC 2 is a really fun game. It has an interesting story, great characters and missions(especially Altair`s amour is good). 08/10 game!!! But Ubisoft Connect I must admit is awful.

One of the favorites this series notably has, aged very well in my honest option.
Parkour isn't a buggy mess anymore (for the most part), the story is great, the gameplay has improved, less tedium in the collectibles.
Barely any tailing missions either, Ubi really did do good back then.

Only real issue is having to enable some bonus DLC in the files yourself, but it's mostly just a few templar lairs and a few weapons, nothing too serious.

10/10.

Assassin’s Creed II continues to tell the story of assassins versus templars established in the original game. On top, it also manages to introduce a new narration; this one follows the life of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, the son of a banker turned assassin after tragic circumstances. Set in Italy between 1476 and 1499, Assassin’s Creed II is a beautiful game to explore or just simply look at, especially because of the amazing recreation in videogame form of the Italian architecture of the early renaissance. The setting is ideal for the story of Ezio, who explores the political intrigues in cities like Florence, Venice, Forlì and San Gimignano. Mixed into this is the fictive struggle between templars and assassins Ezio starts to have more and more interest in. The story is catchy, well-paced and ends on a narrative high point. Well staged set-pieces highlight dramatic moments or changes in location. The gameplay supports the tight plot with improved parkour mechanics, mostly tight controls, an abundance of mission types and vastly improved combat (that can still be very button-mashy, though). The cast of characters is great, supported by good voice acting (in sometimes wonky Italian) and complimented by an amazing soundtrack. Navigating the cities can be difficult at times for a lack of orientation, and the game spends very little time outside of cities. Other than that, Assassin’s Creed II is a great sequel to Altaïr’s adventures that just promises more great storytelling in the future. A must play!

I can't play the game because Ubisoft launcher doesn't work. The game tries to run Uplay, but it no longers exists, so I spent the whole day searching for a fix (tried nearly everything) to no avail. I wasted too much time now...

When I pay for a game, the least thing i wanna do is searching for, and installing additional pacthes to make it run.
It's a shame, i really wanted to play AC2.

Due to issues with Ubisoft connect I'm unable to play the game after my fist session.
This is a clear software issue on Ubisoft behalf and I have spent equal time playing and troubleshooting. Avoid!

should not be steam deck playable. deck controller doesn't show up as an input option

AC2 is what a sequel SHOULD be. It builds upon the foundation of the formula laid by the original. The story is much better and Ezio is a more layered protagonist than Altair. This game is also rich with content so there is plenty to keep you busy. 9/10

This game is awesome. Ubisoft really needs to remove their horrid launcher from it though because without workarounds the game does not work

Ubisoft just have no care for their games, the game is packaged with Uplay which is outdated, the current Ubisoft launcher is Ubisoft Connect and even after getting that launcher installed I still couldn't play the game, the launcher fails to check for updates, fails to download game files, so I'm completely unable to play the game I've bought, I've even tried turning off windows defenders firewalls and nothing works, this should be buy and launch and instead I've just been banging my head against a wall for 3 hours, I'm going to find other ways of playing the game that don't force me to be connected to Ubisoft's servers that dont work. Won't be buying a Ubisoft game again.

YOU NEED A UBI CONNECT ACOUNT to play and they don't mention that anywhere!!!!! I bought the game and I cannot make an account on their crappy website too. Also they WILL sell your data. DO NOT TRUST UBI CRAP

I would've loved to have replayed this game, but I don't feel like installing Ubisoft's garbage. Why do good games have to be spoiled by terrible publishers?

Warning

Technical issues:
- In order to play with controller (PS5's Dual Sense) I had to run Ds4Windows. It worked wirelessly.
- This game also requires Ubisoft launcher (Ubisoft connect), since the future of Ubisoft is questionable - who the f knows if this game will still work. Also Ubisoft has a history of shutting down games for no good reason without ability for you to run them ever again. Please keep that in mind before buying any Ubisoft game, especially older ones.
- The game will sometimes not start or pretend to start. In my case the solution was to turn off Ubisoft connect, then relaunch the game. This will relaunch the Ubisoft app and show a screen with failure to link the game - this is fine. Click cancel on that screen.
- In my case I also got presented with 2 different versions of Assassin's Creed 2 on a list in Ubisoft connect after launching it through Steam and I had to select which one to run. The first one would break the game and make it not run. The game only ran if I chose the SECOND game. I believe the first one is trying to launch the game from Ubisoft itself, the second one will launch from Steam.
- The game will crash if you alt-tab. It also prevents you from using multimedia keys.

Disclaimer

I finished the story and a bunch of side activities, but not all of them. I'm replaying AC games to see where this series has gone wrong.

TL;DR

Overstays its welcome and the ending rushes forward way too fast and writing takes a huge nosedive. But over most of the game I had fun, at least with the main story. But if you are a full completionist, this game may break you. There's a lot to do and most of it is tedious.

I don't think it's worth playing, although it's not a bad game. But if you are starving for a good game in this style, try Ghost of Tsushima or Shadow of Mordor/War. They have similar feel, but offer a lot more.

Description

In AC2 you play Desmond again. After running from the Templars, he and his new Assassin friends set up another Animus and make Desmond explore historical Italy in search for an ancient artifact. Ezio, the main character of the game and the one Desmond takes control of using the Animus - is roped into a conspiracy that results in the death of his family members. He goes on to take revenge.

Mechanics are very similar to 1st game, although there's more stuff to use, like multiple weapon types and even a pistol (although not very useful IMO). It will take you 20+ hours to finish it.

Pros:

+ Refined combat
You can fight enemies in a rhythm, which allows you to execute them after performing a combo. You can also dodge and backstab them or riposte. Some enemies are resistant to some techniques, like pikemen that cannot be riposted.

+ Story (until the endgame)
Following Ezio's journey was fun. Both in terms of storytelling and missions themselves.

Cons:

- Overstays its welcome
Near the end the game drags on. You need to complete one of the side activities in order to unlock last set of missions and then its a lot of tedious assassinations, some of which are designed in a very mean way that's easy to screw up, but take a long time to restart.

- Story (near the end)
Quality of writing really drops off the cliff. Awful ending with horrible idiocies, like modern Templars using melee instead of showing up with guns and tasers, like what? Also the hero doesn't kill the main villain despite him being the most powerful man on the continent and probably will keep being a danger? What?

- Side activities
Most side assassinations are boring and very restrictive waste of time. Collectibles? Use a map - finding them alone is insane. Since you cannot use alt-tab I decided I don't care about collectibles early on with the exception of codex pages and vaults which are revealed with towers. Towers are also tedious, ffs, so many and so slow to climb...

Lowdown

AC1 was more like a tech demo for the parkour system, AC2 is a proper game. It's still overfilled with a ton of bad side activities and the story near the end becomes complete nonsense.

I'd give Assassin's Creed 2 a

6/10

It's ok in general, but I don't really recommend playing it, which is a surprise even to me because I expected a lot more fun. At release I probably would give it a 7 or 8, but now we had a bunch of games that took similar formula and fleshed it out. My recommendation is watching a playthrough on youtube, or just watch the cutscenes if you want to see the story, gameplay itself is not really worth checking it out for.

I will say though that this is a pretty decent start to the series, sequel is superior in every aspect, so my journey to rediscover the series is off to a decent start. I don't know when I will play the next game though.

It's been a long time, but from what I recall, this one is a major step up from the first game. Dual hidden blades, better combat, a bigger map, continuing the story from the first game, and an improvement on the graphics, it's all good.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Assassin's Creed II

💀 Difficulty – 🎯🎯🎯▢▢
➤ Moderate – Combat is more engaging thanks to new abilities and weapons, but it remains fairly simple. The real challenge lies in parkour puzzles, stealth, side activities.

📚 Story – ★★★★☆
➤ Ezio Auditore's story is one of the best in the series. His personal quest for revenge blends perfectly with the larger conflict between Assassins and Templars.
🎨 Graphics – ★★★☆☆
🕹️ Gameplay – ★★★★☆
🎭 Atmosphere – ★★★★★
➤ Complete immersion in the Renaissance era: stunning architecture, period costumes, lively cities create a unique atmosphere.
🎧 Sound Design – ★★★★★
➤ The soundtrack by Jesper Kyd is a masterpiece. The music, street sounds, and battle effects bring historical Italy to life.

🟢 Pros: Captivating story, charismatic protagonist, diverse activities, incredible soundtrack, an authentic Italian atmosphere.
🔴 Cons: Outdated graphics, weak enemy AI, repetitive side quests.

Assassin's Creed II is an absolute classic. Graphics and mechanics might feel old since it's a 16 year old game however the game is still beautiful. It has one of the best written characters and plot. Some missions where you had to be anonymous can be a little annoying but other than that game missions are really fun to play. It captures the renaissance Italy very well. Roaming around in these meticulously designed cities with gorgeous soundtrack is one of the best game experiences you can have.

21.01.2025: Unplayable with the Uplay game launcher, you can't get around the login screen, which displays the message that the network cannot be established every time. Offline mode is also not possible, as you have to log in for the first time, which again leads to the network problem.

rest in piss Ubisoft. games good, pc port is anal. spent an hour trying to get it to work only for it to instantly crash when i got in the actual game. would cost them barely any time and money to fix this stuff

Since this game is quite old before installing this game suggest you install Ubisoft Connect first because the first time I tried to play this game I had some problem trying to login with UPlay. Second this game have some annoying bugs which I don't know if they're quite frequent to happen or not but the last bug I encountered is the objective not showing on the map.

Assassin's Creed II is still an incredible game that holds up even now. It’s the start of one of gaming's best trilogies in a time when Assassin's Creed games were at their best. Great gameplay, characters and story all in a nice 20-25 hour long game. The only downside is that getting a controller to work with the game is a bit of a hassle, but once it's working you can sit back and relive the nostalgic good old days or even better experience it for the first time. Assassin's Creed II is definitely still worth a playthrough.

Monumental game, an icon for stealth.

Its got great parkour even for the time, a good story, cool game mechanics, and a generally immersive game.

Honestly my favorite mission was the final one, being chased throughout rome to finally get to the spaniard was thrilling in a good way. Kept getting stoned though which was funny, WHY ARE THEY SO ACCURATE?!

Worst mission was port authority, no questions. Zero opportunities, you basically have to cheese it to clear it. I legit pulled out a pistol and made the AI jump into the water because what else was I supposed to do.

It still has its flaws, afterall its from what. Like 2010? But it's phenomenal nonetheless.

Also FUCK the ubisoft launcher

9/10 game.

Cant even polay the game bcause I can't run Ubisoft CONNECT for the SINGLE-PLAYER game.

Fantastic improvement in all aspects from the first game. Considered (one of) the best Assassin's Creed game made. Amazing setting, compelling story (both through Ezio and Desmond), improvements to parkour and assassination methods. It's such a shame the original idea of the AC trilogy will never come into fruition, as this game really set it up well.

One of the best story of all the AC creed games

Desmond is literally dull and ugly, charisma black hole. They could have done this brilliant game even without him, I really don't care about him. The game is awesome by the way, I just wish there was less desmond, in less I mean none. I would love to meet the writers and teach them sarcasm. They've used sarcasm so often and so badly, I fell into despair and almost electrocuted my humour in a toilet. Twice.

Had fun and enjoyed the game. There were a few things were a minor annoyance which are:
- If I Alt-Tab out of the game too much it will freeze the game or/and lose game audio
- You have to manually your edit your game files for the game to see that you actually have the deluxe version of the game.
Given even these minor annoyance I'd for sure play it again.

finally got to play it again after so many years, brings back a lot of great memories and nostalgia. Still a great game

My opinion after revisiting this game in 2025:

- Works pretty well, no crashes, and just a few bugs. It doesn't have controller support so I had to download a community made input. I find the one made by XBONE the most intuitive, although a bit weird at times, especially having to run pressing RT and A and then tackling someone. I just got used to it.

- Do you want to kill someone in a battle real quick? Throw a smoke bomb or just go barehanded and disarm.

- If you have a full time job and got little time to play, so you go skipping content on purpose only to focus on the plot, I recommend you to complete the Assassin's Tombs. There are 6 and they add up to the fun, plus every tomb takes about 10~30 minutes to complete.

- This game helped me find out I have some anger issues. Bard that blocks my way, bard that I shove to the river, gets poisoned or gets punched in the face. I highly encourage you to treat them the same way. They deserve it

Playing through all the Assassin's Creeds mostly in order and this is definitely my favourite so far. Really fun story and an improvement to the controls from the first game.

Best Assassins Creed in the franchise. Story, missions, characters all of it was just perfect for it's time. LOVE IT

what the hell?? I cant even play it because uplay for some reason keep saying LOST CONNECTION!?!!? absolute garbage from Ubisoft!

A great sequel to the original Assassin's creed and a perfect start to one of the most popular game trilogies of all time, the Ezio saga. much has improved compared to the first installment of the series; the parkour has been refined and made much more fluid, the combat and abilities are now much more varied and fun, the side activities are a little bit more enjoyable however still repetitive especially the assassination contracts and the characters are far more interesting, the thing that bothered me the most while playing it was that the fact that the game felt too much dragged and the ending sequences especially sequence 13 were not as fun as the earlier ones but AC 2 despite not being perfect is still one of my favorite installments of the series and I'd recommend it to everyone interested in the AC series.

Still one of the best Ac's out there.

9.5 / 10 - Amazing game! Released back in 2009 and this game is still definitely worth playing in 2025. Would most likely still enjoy playing a few years later. It could be 10 / 10, but typical Ubisoft...

Played this gem again after six years. Too bad they don't make games like this anymore. Even though I already know the story, I never felt bored.

compare to AC with Altair... this game is much better.. from parkour to an unexpected continuation of the story of previous game
AC 2 is a wonderful begin of a story Ezio Auditore
game is 10/10

one of the best games ive ever played. though, its shitty on steam. bad controller support too

AC2 added so much more gameplay variety than its predecessor. The story is well written and really keeps you playing. Can't wait to continue my AC journey.

Started playing this for the first time in 2025 and its still a fantastic game. Absolutely fantastic story.

t's a very good game.
A game that awakened many beautiful memories.
If there was something I don't like, it would be the lack of content because ubisoft has disabled multiplayer and online features.
And some problems related to Bugs like:
-You have to set your game to a maximum of 60 fps otherwise in some missions your controls may not work or crash.
-And special missions (Templars missions) I don't know if it's a communication error between steam and ubisoft or something else.
PS: If anyone knows a solution to the missions to the Templars, why doesn't it appear? It would be helpful.

IF YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR XBOX CONTROLLER WORK in AC2 THEN READ THIS

*This will add support of all XInput controllers.
*Added ini setting for enabling PS3-like controls.
*Added ini setting to skip intro videos.
*Enables UPlay bonuses - Auditore Crypt, Altair robes, extra knifes, bonus dye.

Here's the download link: https://github.com/Sergeanur/EaglePatch/releases/download/v1.0/EaglePatchAC2.rar

How to install it:

1.https://github.com/ThirteenAG/Ultimate-ASI-Loader/releases/download/v4.68/Ultimate-ASI-Loader.zip
2.Put dinput8.dll from Ultimate ASI Loader into your Assassin's Creed II directory.
3.In your Assassin's Creed II directory create a folder named "scripts".
Put EaglePatchAC2.asi and EaglePatchAC2.ini into a newly created scripts folder.
4.Check EaglePatchAC2.ini for any settings you want to enable or disable.
5.Now you can finally enjoy the game with your desired controller.


***All the credits goes to the owner and the creator of this amazing patch***

Although the end loses some of that momentum the beginning carried, making some sections feel more dragged out than needed, it still holds up years later as the peak of the Assasins Creed saga.

It lacks the stylish animations of Unity, or the Naval combat of Black Flag, but it has the most tightly-woven gameplay of the franchise. Eveything you do in this game pushes Ezio forward and forward towards a divine ending that still hast been beat by any other game.

Simple, Stylish, Beautiful.

they retroactively updated it to require a uplay account

Uplay makes this game literally unplayable. Cannot sign in or create an account so just a straight waste of money. Ubisoft needs to go bankrupt

Unplayable. I've tried playing it vanilla/official, didn't work, uninstalling/reinstalling and verifying files, nothing... I've tried an ubisoft server emulator, no dice. It's all because of Ubisofts incompetence...

Ubisoft needs to just straight up delete their uPlay/Ubisoft connect garbage and forget about ever trying to make anything like that again, they're just not good enough to do it. I've been at it for about 3 hours now trying to sort out how to get this game to run and nothing works. Will update with a solution if I find one, if not I'll just refund.

After 3 and a half hours, 4 reinstalls, 3 file verifications, and attempting just about every step possible multiple times, it just started working. I don't know what is different, becuase nothing is different.

I give up on Ubisoft. Absolute disaster of a company.

EDIT: Managed to be able to play for ~3.5 hours after all the setup nonsense, then it crashed, and then every time I tried loading my save file, it immediately crashed. Great job Ubisoft.

EDIT2: Save file seems to be corrupt, immediately crashes every time I try and load, but I can start a new game perfectly fine.

EDIT3: Finally, after uninstalling with RevoUninstaller and removing everything related to the game and reinstalling, then installing the Eagle Patch and disabling the draw distance improvement, the game works.