What if you take Assassin's Creed II and iterate it and make it just a little bit better in every way? You get Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The best of the pre-AC4 games (haven't played AC4 yet), Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood has a tutorial that I don't know if it's better than AC2 or just worked better since I'd already played all of AC2, but it taught me how to actually use Assassin's Creed movement properly and no longer was I jumping up random walls all the time. Movement in general is a little more polished with jumps more often being in the direction you aimed them and an extra climbing ability that adds a lot more to the game than you'd think. Don't have much else to say. This is just a more polished version of AC2. Probably can't start with this one though because I don't think its story works well as a starting point.

Be sure to check out the multiplayer. I haven't played the multiplayer in this entry, but its sequel is not worth playing and I have checked out that multiplayer and it's fantastic so dig in here rather than buying a separate game that sucks. Note: Multiplayer is not included in the remaster. Therefore, don't get the remaster. You can get the original on pc, ps3, Xbox 360, and Xbox One backwards compatibility.