Don't forget: Assassins Creed 2 will be free next month

by JDQuackers , McMurray, PA, Thursday, June 27, 2013, 19:18 (4178 days ago) @ Kermit

does playing it make AC2 better in any way?

Nah. The story of AC1 was not worth the repetitive gameplay. The story of Ezio (the assassin for AC2, Brotherhood and Revelations) is leaps and bounds better. You might understand a little bit more about the universe by playing AC1, but you'll probably understand enough of it just from the intro to AC2 to get by.

I definitely wouldn't discourage you from trying AC1; however it gets boring very fast and the combat in AC2 was vastly improved. You could always just pop the first game in and get the gist of the story and gameplay by the first two or three major assassinations before switching over to 2.