I honestly disliked Assassins Creed 1 for a lot of reasons: 1) I never felt like an assassin -- I could never properly sneak in, for whatever reason, and assassinate the bad guys; I'd end up in a sword fight time and time again and wonder why the fuck I couldn't just "do it right", 2) There was nothing *but* assassinations and boring, formulaic quests, and 3) There was no story. I mean, there
was a story, but it was presented so terribly I could never push myself through the rest of the game.
So why I took a chance on AC2 I know not, but the game, as far as my above concerns go, is great. They've given me many more tools and gameplay mechanics to help me assassinate better, there's no "structure" to the quests; I can do things how I want, when I want, and there's a ton of different types this go-around, and 3) there's a story with legitimite cutscenes and good characters, and it's told in a way that is fairly well-done.
I can see people who didn't like the core idea or gameplay mechanic (ie: assassination) in AC1 not liking this game, but I feel like AC2 is a much friendlier, much more accessible experience, that isn't just better in every way; it's a significant evolution to the original game which seems more a tech demo to me now that I've delved into AC2. Glad I decided to get it