Is Assassin's Creed 2 worth playing in 2025?

The Assassin's Creed series has been at the forefront of Ubisoft's best-selling IPs. The franchise, originally visioned as a spin-off of the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was host to universal acclaim for its innovative parkour. While the franchise is trying to blend both the fanbases with its upcoming venture, Shadows, can its mechanics match up to one of the best installments in the series? Well, the best way to know is to revisit it in 2025.

The sequel to Assassin's Creed holds up incredibly well and is still worth playing in 2025.

Note: This article is subjective and reflects the writer's opinions.

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Why Assassin's Creed 2 is still worth playing in 2025

A beautiful story

The arc of Ezio is truly a sight to witness (Image via Ubisoft)

Assassin's Creed 2 introduced one of the best protagonists in the video game, Cyberspace. The game immediately imprints Ezio Auditore La Firenze in our brains with his wise-cracking, obnoxious, yet charming introduction, but also provides him a layer of compassion with the amazing initial sequence with his brother.

The game then picks up pace with its inciting incident, as Ezio is pushed into the realm of revenge. It follows the naive teenager's character arc, who slowly learns to be trusting, responsible, and compassionate.

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Satisfying parkour

It feels incredible to traverse in the game (Image via Ubisoft)

The game builds upon the parkour that was pioneered in its prequel. 2's parkour mechanics provide an extrinsic depth, as it is often the best way to traverse the world of the game. But it also offers intrinsic depth, as you get familiar with the traversal, you try to find ways to reach your destination more quickly and efficiently through hidden mechanics like side and back ejects.

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Diverse locales

The regions of Italy are truly impeccable (Image via Ubisoft)

The parkour system is useless if the game doesn't have a world that encourages players to utilize it to its full potential. Assassin's Creed 2 has it covered both in terms of depth and breadth. The game features five different regions: Florence, Monteriggioni, Tuscany, Forli, and Venice. Each is filled with its unique caveats and brimming with traversal potential.

Whether it be navigating the water bodies of Venice or the forts of Forli, each region has its vibe and architecture, providing a varied experience to the players.

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Numerous side activities

There is a lot to discover in the map of the game (Image via Ubisoft)

There is a lot to do aside from following Ezio's quest in Assassin's Creed 2. Players can collect the various feathers scattered across the maps, or scan all the glyphs to uncover the truth of the previous test subject. However, some of the best activities in the game are Assassin Tombs, secret challenge lairs that are filled with combat, parkour challenges, and puzzles.

The best reward for completing these tombs is experiencing the care and thought put into the level design itself.

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Soulful music

The soundtrack heightens the impact of the game (Image via Ubisoft)

Assassin's Creed 2 also introduced the world to a soulful album composed by the legendary Jesper Kyd. Whether it be the vivid atmospheric tunes of the various regions of the game or the tense tracks of the various encounters, the album is filled with incredible music. But the composer was etched in history with this game's main track, the soulful track of Ezio's Family.

Ezio's Family has become somewhat of a mainstay for the franchise, as it has seen various iterations throughout the franchise's history.

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Summing up the article, Assassin's Creed 2 is worth playing as it offers some of the best gameplay and narrative experiences in Ubisoft's catalog.