I have to say that I preferred the overall city design more in AC1.  Acre, Damascus and Jerusalem felt far more distinct to me than the Italian cities did.  ACII also felt oddly flat, wheras the first had different levels, ramps and steps on the ground as well as on the roofs. 
 
Beyond those two points ACII (haven't played Brotherhood yet) was far superior, especially in justifying the sci-fi elements, which felt shoehorned in and superfluous in the original.  ACII's Subject 16 puzzles did a great job of keeping a steady flow of the conspiracy theory and sci-fi elements within the Animus plot as well as the Desmond sequences, bringing the two settings together far better.

hell no

" No, not at all, though I'm not sure how it passed for a great game back in 2007, either. The enemy guard AI is so cheap and irritating that if you so much as bump into a civilian you'll be subjected to a mind-numbingly boring, overdrawn, shitty fighting sequence with the fuckers. The repetition would be tolerable if the controls weren't so clunky and Altair didn't consistently lock onto the wrong guy every fucking time you try to trigger a mission. There are also sections you might encounter while trying to scale viewpoints where Altair will straight up stop moving forward, even though there's clearly a usable ledge directly in front of him. I threw my controller over ten times during my first playthrough. It's fucking maddening, and if this shit doesn't get better in II, I'm going to be furious. "

For me AC1 is much like Mass Effect 1 - A great, unique experience with loads of style... and by the time the second games came out for each I was left a little disappointed with the result. Not because the squeals were bad games, but because they made minor changes to the style and mechanics to appeal to a wider audience. I would highly recommend playing the first Assassin's Creed, but only because I have the bias of playing it at launch.

I picked up AC a few weeks ago to get caught up with the series because I've heard great things about AC:B. I just finished it today. 
 
I remember at the time it came out, it had good reviews, and after my experience with it, I'm a little shocked that it did. I think the actual gameplay mechanics were pretty solid, and it was definitely a unique game at the time, but the repetition really kills it. The game has about an hour of good gameplay. Unfortunately that same hour is repeated at least nine times, to the point that it's a chore. 
 
However, after I beat the first game today, I started playing AC2 right away, and I can already tell it's a vastly improved game. Seems like they took all the great parts of AC and got rid of all the bad stuff. And on top of that they threw in a slew of new things to do. I'm already having a blast with AC2, and with people saying that AC:B is even better... I can't wait!

It was a cool game that could use some polishing. Then Assassin's Creed II heard my wishes and granted them upon its own birth.

I recently bought this game again. It was my first PS3 game but traded it in due to money issues. I'm really enjoying it, it still graphically looks amazing, I'm surprised it came out 5 years ago.

I just played thru it again as a warm up for AC3 (im replaying as many of the AC games i can before it releases). I gotta say i really enjoy the story of the game a whole lot. But i remember loving it when it first came out as well. The gameplay has a bit to be desired though, by the end i moaned every time i had to fight. It just got so repetitive and bland. The parkour controls didnt feel particularly good either. But i had a good time and went straight on to AC2.

Didnt hold it up for me the first time.

My downstairs neigbor actually gave me a copy of AC for PC the other day, and I didn't want to be rude, so I accepted it even though I had played it on PS3 several years ago. It has since been relegated to permanent bottom of my desk drawer status. It wasn't a bad game in its time, but the more recent AC games are so much better and don't suffer from as much repetition of menial tasks. It's not a game that I would revisit.

No.

So, uh, any reason we're all responding to a thread over a year old where the guy has already got the game again?

Go play it soon yes?