Modern times

The 'Modern Times' is set in September 2012. You play as Desmond Miles, a descendant of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze. You have been kidnapped by an organization known as Abstergo, who are working on the Animus project.

Assassin's Creed II reveals a bit more about modern times than it's predecessor.  There are still Assassins and Templars, although the Assassins have gone mostly into hiding and the Templars are disguised.  One of these disguises is the company Abstergo.  It is still uncertain just how much the Templars have grown in influence and how many organizations like Abstergo exist.

At the end of Assassin's Creed II, it is revealed that the earth is possibly going to experience a geomagnetic reversal in the near future. This is revealed by Minerva at the end of Assassin's Creed II. The pictures by Minerva look Mayan, and December 2012 is when the Mesoamerican longcount calender falls upon the 13th longcount.  The last time a 13th longcount passed was August 11, 3114 BCE.  Each longcount ushers in a new era, so the Mayans thought, and was welcomed with celebration.  However, there are some who believe that this means that the Mayan thought that the world would end on that date, with the all too common 'their calander stops at December 21, 2012' phrase, but the calender actually extends to a repeating of the longcount 1.0.0.0.0.0, last seen November 13th, 2720 BCE.  No dates follow this particular longcount (occuring on October 13th, 4772) but there is no reason to suggest the world comes to an end, rather, that the dates were simply getting irrelevant to their culture's own time period and they felt no need to go further.  The game's storyline clearly makes use of the hype involving the reversal of the magnetic fields on Earth, leading to a period where solar radiation could easily penetrate to the surface and cause quite a few troubles for life.  It is likely that the Pieces of Eden will be used to thwart this disaster in the third installment, perhaps coupled with considerably more playtime in Modern Times.

Characters in Modern times include: Desmond Miles, Lucy Stillman, Shaun Hastings, Rebecca Crane and Warren Vidic.

It is interesting that although in 2012, neither Abstergo's guard or the Assassins use guns in Assassins Creed 2, instead using advanced weapon sticks resembling swords and hidden blades, respectively. When, however, the Assassins attack Abstergo in Assassins Creed, shooting can be heard. The reason that the Abstergo guards were using the weapon sticks was to not kill Desmond, Lucy, Rebecca, or Shaun, but rather knock unconscious. Abstergo still needs Desmond, so killing him wouldn't help them achieve their goal.

It is suspected that Assassin's Creed takes place in Italy, considering that the outside of the hideout looks almost exactly like Italy in Ezio's time, and that the underground parking lot in Abstergo and the Assassin's hideout have signs that have words in Italian, including "sezione", which means "section" in English. In Abstergo's garage there are signs in italian saying "Parcheggio reservato" meaning "Reserved parking" and "Altezza totale" meaning "Altitude". In the end of Assassins Creed II Lucy says that they can hide out in a cabin north and Rebecca later says that it's a long drive meaning that the cabin is possibly in Austria or Germany or Switzerland.