I'm a massive fan of the Assasin's Creed franchise so I am pretty biased. With that being said this is potentially the best game in the franchise, it takes all the best elements of the first game and improves them. The freerunning, combat and social stealth are all improved along with the loadout that your character has access to. On top of that Ezio's story is more personal and much more relatable than that of Altair many people consider Ezio the best protagonist in the series and its easy to see why. He's charming and grows alot through the journey of the game going from angry and brash to wise and determined. The music of this game set the tone for the entirety of the series and Renaissance Italy is a gorgeous area to explore. Additionally despite being historical fiction this game takes some of the greatest steps to ensure the accuracy of the environment of the game out of any in the series. Alongside all this the true story of the game that takes place in the modern day ramps up and reveals more layers of intrigue to build on the mysteries set up in the first game. Assasin's Creed 2 has easily the best combat in the entire series perhaps barring Assasin's Creed Unity, or Origins(which a was a massive departure from the classic combat system). It more polished than the previous games combat and adds new weapons to your arsenal and options on how you use them, the animations are stylish but not over the top and most importantly there is a level of challenge that would not be present in the series for many years to come. It is not too particularly difficult it is easy to grasp but difficult to master, with the result being that once you do master it you feel massive sense of accomplishment and skill as you face crowds of enemies that would have made you flee up the side of a building earlier in your lets play and instead dispatch them one by one with the finesse of a true assassin. Unlike in subsequent games starting in brotherhood and continuing until the release of AC Unity where a simple counter kill lead to an endless button mash where you chained kills together in a stylish but ultimately boring and unrewarding montages that is not much better than a cutscene quick time event.