How does Assassin's Creed 2 hold today? - eviltoast

Hello everyone,

Just have been in an Italian/Renaissance mood lately, and thought it would be nice to give a shot (I never really played the series).

How good is it by today standards? I know that the late episodes of the series have been criticized for being quite repetitive and just filled with low-value artefact gathering, is it the case for this one to?