Accepted answer: no
I have never played any version of Assassins Creed but have read many good reviews about the series. In particular, the 2nd version (Assassins Creed II) seems to be most highly acclaimed.
Having never played the game, I figure I would start with Assassins Creed II, but I am afraid I would not understand the full story line/plot of version II, without having played Assassins Creed I. However, I don't necessarily want to invest all the time to play and beat Assassin's Creed I, only to get to the 2nd ('better') version.
Is it possible to understand the storyline plot of II simply by watching cutscenes from version I and/or reading wikipedia sites about version I? Would I be missing out on anything by taking this approach?
This is for the Xbox 360 incase that makes a difference.