Assassin's Creed II

Assassin's Creed II

Developers
	Ubisoft Montreal
macOS (OS X)	Ubisoft Ukraine
Publishers
	Ubisoft
	Akella
Engines
	Anvil
Release dates
Windows	March 9, 2010
macOS (OS X)	October 1, 2010
Reception
Metacritic	86
IGDB	90
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Action, Stealth
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Europe, Historical, Renaissance
Series	Assassin's Creed

Assassin's Creed II is a singleplayer third-person action and stealth game in the Assassin's Creed series.

Key points

Very poor mouse input due to aggressive acceleration. A controller is highly recommended, though Xbox controllers may require a fix. See Controller support.

Online services scheduled to shut down on September 1, 2022 DLC is removed due to this.

General information

Official manual

Official forums

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Amazon.com
Epic Games Store
GamersGate
Humble Store
Origin
Steam
Ubisoft Store		Included with Ubisoft+.
Amazon.co.uk (unavailable)
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)
Mac App Store (unavailable)

All Windows versions require Ubisoft Connect DRM.

A constant internet connection is no longer required. The game is playable offline.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Battle of Forlì	Included in the Deluxe Edition. No longer available. Sequence patched into the game. See Force unlock Ubisoft Connect Rewards & Deluxe Edition Bonus Content to unlock the Bonus Content.
Bonfire of the Vanities	Included in the Deluxe Edition. No longer available. Sequence patched into the game. See Force unlock Ubisoft Connect Rewards & Deluxe Edition Bonus Content to unlock the Bonus Content.

Essential improvements

Force unlock Ubisoft Connect Rewards & Deluxe Edition Bonus Content

Download modified save file
Download and install a program like WinRAR or 7-Zip, if you do not have it already installed. Download the AC2 Unlocked.rar file. Extract the 1.save file from AC2 Unlocked.rar into the save game folder. Let windows overwrite the file if prompted. See Save game data location. Notes In-game progress should not be affected.

Patches

Version 1.01 patch can be downloaded here.

Among other fixes, it adds ATI Eyefinity support and provides some performance enhancements for multi-core processors.

Graphical improvements

Assassin's Creed 2 Visual Fixup Mod

Improved draw distance/LODs & Increased shadow resolution.

Hide spots on roofs wont load in with the fabric unless you are very close to them (actually further draw distance on them without this mod) also flags will show without the flag pole at far distance but when closer to them it swaps and you only see the pole but no flag till you are up very close to them and any ai wearing capes will bug out (capes fall off and float in the air)

Assassin's Creed 2 MixSets Mod

Improved draw distance/LODs & Increased shadow resolution. Similar to Visual Fixup Mod, but it's an ASI plugin that auto injects (no need to minimize and run a .exe) and configurable by .ini file.

Since this is the same as the Visual Fixup Mod but in a dll form, it contains the same bugs with the hide spots, flags lod and ai capes falling off.

• 

  Shadows Default (1024)

• 

  Shadows Mod (4096)

• 

  Draw Distance/LODs Default

• 

  Draw Distance/LODs Mod

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename video files
Go to <path-to-game>\Videos\ Delete or rename UBI_LOGO.bik. Further delete or rename any folder present here (e.g. en, it or whatever else installed languages might be).

Game data

In-game general settings.

In-game HUD settings.

Configuration file location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\Ubisoft\Assassin's Creed 2\Assassin2.ini
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/33230/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<Ubisoft-Connect-folder>\savegames\<user-id>\4\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/33230/pfx/

Save games before the new patch are in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Ubisoft Game Launcher\savegame_storage

The save folder was relocated in a November 23, 2012 patch.

If you change the XML config file to allow offline play, or if you select the Uplay launcher to stay offline in the options, then your progress and games will NOT be saved!

You CAN turn cloud-sync OFF in the options, but you must allow Uplay to go online to allow Assassin's Creed II to save games to this location on your local hard drive.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
Origin
Steam Cloud
Ubisoft Connect

Video

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Higher vertical aspect ratios (e.g. 16:10, 4:3, 5:4) are letterboxed.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			Cutscenes and some menus are pillarboxed. Use this fix for 21:9 / 16:10.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 8x MSAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS		The game has a poorly implemented 59 FPS cap which can jump between 57 to 63 FPS; however, it allows a high refresh rate.
120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Anisotropic filtering (AF)

Anisotropic filtering can be forced in the Control Panel (Nvidia) or Control Center (AMD) of the graphics card.

• 

  AF OFF

• 

  AF x4

• 

  AF x8

• 

  AF x16

Input

In-game control settings.

In-game key map settings.

In-game button map settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Aggressive mouse acceleration. Can't be disabled.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		X and Y inversion can be set independently for first-person, third-person, or both.
Controller
Controller support		A fix is needed for wireless Xbox 360 Controllers and Xbox One Controllers; see Controller support.
Full controller support		Controller support must be enabled in the options menu on first launch, which requires mouse.
Controller remapping		For non-XInput devices only.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		X and Y inversion can be set independently for first-person, third-person, or both.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Controller support

Wireless Xbox 360 Controllers and Xbox One Controllers are not detected correctly resulting in incorrect button mappings due to a driver bug. Windows 10 users can find a fix at the bottom of this section.

Controller support doesn't work correctly

Use x360ce (Current)

A pre-made fix is available for Xbox 360 & Xbox One controllers, includes support for vibration. A pre-made fix is available for Dualsense controllers, but does not support vibration. If a DualShock 4 is being used with a program like DS4Windows in exclusive mode, this fix is not necessary and will be mapped properly. Below there's the "manual" installation instructions for this fix in case users would like to setup their controllers themselves. Download the 32-bit (x86) version of x360ce and extract it to <path-to-game>. Run x360ce.exe and either configure your controller manually or allow the program to select a configuration. Select Save to save your changes. Close x360ce.exe and open the newly generated x360ce.ini file in <path-to-game>. Between [Options] and [Mappings] add, or replace, the following: [InputHook] HookCOM=1 HOOKDI=1 HOOKPIDVID=1 HookName=1 Save and close the file. The controller should now function correctly, but additional steps are required to enable vibration. Open x360ce.exe and select the active controller (Controller 1 by default) if necessary. Select the Advanced tab and enable Force Feedback Pass Through. Select the Force Feedback tab and enable Enable Force Feedback. Click Save and close the application. Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed II have problems with button mapping and recognition. The following fixes are not compatible with steam input as it will override the fix. If steam input is on, go into steam properties for this game and use the override to disable steam input.

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		SFX, Character Voices, Music.
Surround sound		5.0
Subtitles		Some in-game dialogue is spoken in Italian. Translations are displayed in the subtitles.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech				Available only at local distributors.
Danish
Dutch
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation.
Indonesian				Fan translation.
Italian
Korean
Norwegian
Polish				Available only at local digital distributors. use this if the game won't run in Polish.
Portuguese
Brazilian Portuguese				Fan translation.
Russian				Retail version, download. Origin version has a full official translation by Akella.
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish				Fan translation.

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			Use Helix Mod: Assassin's Creed 2 for better support.
TriDef 3D
iZ3D
vorpX		G3D, DirectVR Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues unresolved

Selecting Story mode in Steam version simply displays an exit to windows screen

When starting a game; selecting "Story mode" option in main menu displays an incorrect message requiring you to quit the game; preventing you to play
So far there's no known fix for this problem; seemingly affecting solely the Steam version of the game.

Issues fixed

Stuttering/Tearing with Vsync On or Off

Ingame FPS Cap workaround and CPU load fix

This is caused by 2 issues - a uneven 59fps fps cap and excessive cpu load when using Vsync To fix the uneven cap. Set the refresh rate to 50hz in game instead (use CRU in case no such option is available in game for you) and use the Vsync as below: For Nvidia cards: use Nvidia's Adaptive Vsync in the Nvidia Control Panel. This minimizes Vsync drops to 25fps For newer AMD cards: turn on Radeon Chill as an FPS limiter set to 50/50 (min/max) and also turn on the "Enhanced sync" feature (don't forget to turn vsync off in-game for AMD's enhanced sync to work). The alternative, if the other 2 are not possible for you, use the normal in-game vsync on. When using VSync, excessive single core use is also evident (typically 99%) with any Quad Core CPU and above. Removing the first core of your cpu availability manually using the Task Manager affinity or alternatively using utility Process Lasso to automatically remove CPU 0 access from the AC2 executable resolves this. The affinity fix also fixes the same issue with ACB, ACR and AC3 when using VSync. Making affinity changes permanent (setting affinity in task manager only lasts until you exit the game): Edit your preferred shortcut for launching the game (desktop and/or start menu) In the target field, set the following (just put the default contents in double quotes and prepend cmd.exe /C ...): For a 4/4 (core/thread) CPU cmd.exe /C start "" /affinity e "<path-to-game>\AssassinsCreedIIGame.exe" For a 4/8 and 8/8 (core/thread) CPU cmd.exe /C start "" /affinity fe "<path-to-game>\AssassinsCreedIIGame.exe" For a 6/6 (core/thread) CPU cmd.exe /C start "" /affinity 3e "<path-to-game>\AssassinsCreedIIGame.exe" For a 6/12 (core/thread) CPU cmd.exe /C start "" /affinity 7fe "<path-to-game>\AssassinsCreedIIGame.exe" For a 8/16 (core/thread) CPU and higher cmd.exe /C start "" /affinity fffe "<path-to-game>\AssassinsCreedIIGame.exe" Verify correct affinity by launching the game and checking affinity in task manager (see beginning) To be used in Steam launch options, to launch the game directly from Steam, it must be a little different: Ex. for a 8/16 (core/thread) CPU and higher C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start "" /affinity FFFE "<path-to-game>\AssassinsCreedIIGame.exe" %command%

Lights shine through walls and other objects

Nvidia Control Panel Fix[citation needed]
This issue is cause by the Nvidia Control Panel forcing graphical settings on. Enter Nvidia Control Panel. Select "Adjust image settings with preview". Select "Let the 3D application decide".

Game freeze when given hidden blade

Press "2" to select the weapon to continue the cut-scene[citation needed]
Default mapped keys do not work as they should.

Error "A Ubisoft service is unavailable at the moment"

Download and install the UPlay client[citation needed]

Program hangs and screen flashes repeatedly on launch

Set monitor resolution to 1280x720 on launch and change resolution in-game[citation needed]

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9
OpenGL	2	OS X only.
Shader Model support	3

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	Havok
Audio	Wwise
Cutscenes	Bink Video	1.9n

Mods

Assassin's Creed 2 Overhaul

Updates most of the textures and particle effects in-game with a mix of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood textures and custom textures.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP	Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 1.8 GHz	AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ 3.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.6 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1.5 GB	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	8 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon X1950 ATI Radeon HD 2000/3000/4000/5000 series Nvidia GeForce 7/8/9/100/200 series 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3.0 support	ATI Radeon HD 4700 Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	DirectX 9.0 compatible	5.1 sound card
Other		Xbox 360 Controller

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.5	10.6
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 GHz	Intel Core i5 2.66 GHz
System memory (RAM)	3 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	9 GB
Video card (GPU)	256 MB of VRAM Shader model 3.0 support	AMD Radeon HD 4850 Nvidia GeForce GT120 512 MB of VRAM

Does not support Lion X (OS 10.7). Should work on any versions 10.8 and above.