The Best Games in the Assassin's Creed Franchise

Assassin's Creed is one of those franchises that everyone has played, abandoned (because of the gigantic maps), returned to, and at some point debated which is the best. The series has gone through several phases, changed its setting, protagonist, and even identity, but has always maintained this mix of real history with fiction, conspiracy, and parkour.

Some games have aged better than others, some divided opinions upon release, and others became almost instant benchmarks. And everyone has a favorite. So, we decided to make a list and organize the best [link]https://umgamer.com/en-us/articles/the-entire-assassins-creed-saga-a-journey-through-history}{Assassin's Creed}! Based on the scores and consensus of critics on Metacritic, we'll discuss each game in the main franchise, without going into detail about the various spin-offs, but giving them an honorable mention. And if you disagree, have questions, or opinions, leave a comment.

If there's one Assassin's Creed game that became the "face" of the franchise for a long time, it's AC II. Here, we leave the Middle East and go to late 15th-century Italy, following the rebellious, quarrelsome, and womanizing young Ezio Auditore in his early years as an Assassin. When a conspiracy destroys the Auditore family, he falls straight into the world of the Assassins and, without choices or training, must avenge his family and clear his father's name.

The game is much more varied than AC1: you travel through cities, you have more tools like poison blades and other accessories, there are more missions with different ways to solve them, and that "historical soap opera" feeling is much stronger because each location has a distinct "personality".

Even though it's a 2009 game, it's still easy to understand: you have your objective, you reach the target, you study the terrain, and you decide whether to do everything stealthily or not. On Metacritic, the game as a whole (including its remakes and compilations) has a score of 90, and the critical consensus is that this game set the standards for the franchise.

"It's me, Mario!" A fun reference you catch in the opening moments of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, when you leave Florence and head into the Italian countryside to continue your quest for revenge. The game is basically AC II, but with more mechanics and a bit of village management that generates resources and new upgrades. Many say that this AC should actually be a DLC for the previous game.

You continue your conflict with the Borgia family; this time, in addition to Rodrigo, the influential bourgeois with aspirations to the papacy, you face his children, Cesare and Lucrezia. The main novelty lies in the management of the village of Monteriggioni, which provides you with resources and upgrades for your tools and weapons.

Not to mention that rough edges and problems have also been resolved, and a very fun multiplayer mode has been added, giving the game a more fluid progression. On Metacritic, using the Xbox 360 version, it comes in second place with a score of 89.

Loved by many, but I got particularly tired of the sheer amount of naval travel involved. It's a game about pirates, so of course there’d be naval battles, but there were times when I preferred to swim, board the ship, kill the Templar, wipe out the crew, and get back to my own ship, board it, and conquer it. Anyway, on to the game.

Here we follow Edward Kenway in the Caribbean seas during the golden age of piracy, starting as a shipwrecked pirate who, by chance, joins the Assassin Order and becomes one of its greatest masters. Besides the main mission and other land-based missions, the game features a huge sea portion, with maritime exploration, island discovery, boarding ships and fortresses, and battles against enormous legendary vessels. And the scene of Mary Read's death. That one hurts.

Based on the PlayStation 3 version, AC IV: Black Flag has a score of 88 on Metacritic.

Assassin's Creed III made a rather bold decision in its creation: to leave old Europe and come to the Americas, directly from the old castles to the American Revolution, and introduced an entirely new protagonist with the difficult mission of winning over an audience that loved the charismatic Ezio Auditore and was charmed by the native Connor. Here, the atmosphere of conflict, war, politics, and identity dominates the game.

This game began to establish the "defining hallmarks of Assassin's Creed", with a more open map, more systems, more activities, and more things happening simultaneously. The story shows, right from the start, the Templar Haytham Kenway (who we’d later discover is Edward's son), arriving in the Americas and meeting a native woman with whom he has a son with an unpronounceable name: Ratonhnhaké:ton, who joins the Assassins' cause to find those responsible for attacking and destroying his village and tribe while becoming entangled in US history, meeting historical figures such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

In the Metacritic ranking, it appears with a score of 84.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey was the game that truly embraced the RPG model started in Origins and takes you to Ancient Greece. Beginning with Leonidas and his 300, it then opens up a huge map for you to explore with side quests, wars, romance options, and a story that pits the two protagonists, Kassandra and Alexios, against each other in a direct confrontation that can end very well or very badly, depending on your choices.

The game takes place when these secret societies weren’t yet known as "Assassins" and "Templars", and shows the beginning of the power struggles of the "Ancients", choices, and consequences. It's much more about you than about "order vs. chaos" all the time.

The game is huge, full of islands, cities, seas, and a very deep story. The game even has an "educational" version that allows you to explore places in ancient Greece and learn about it. On Metacritic, it has a score of 83.

AC Odyssey has a glaring flaw in its DLC, forcing the player to have a child, even though the entire game allows you to choose your sexual orientation. This greatly broke the game's immersion and, for me, was a tremendous failure on Ubisoft's part.

The beginning of it all. With a story that takes the protagonist Altair to the heart of the Crusades and the key historical moment of the Templars trying to control everything with the Apple of Eden, the forbidden fruit of knowledge that, according to legend, caused the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise. Here, the game was much more straightforward, with a more "humble" map, and a system that simply puts you in a cycle of studying the target, preparing the terrain, killing the target, delivering the mission, and repeating everything again.

You had a game with parkour that allowed you to run across rooftops, jump between obstacles, hide in safe havens, and a progression system that rewarded you with new weapons and tools for each successful mission. Without upgrades or stats, you felt the difference between your character at the beginning and end of the game. On Metacritic, it scores 81, placing it ahead of others with the same score due to being the first game in the franchise.

Another "origin story", but this time, telling the origin of the Assassin Order, its motto, and even its emblem, which we had no idea what it was, but in reality, is the skeleton of an eagle's head!

The Medjai's revenge against those who murdered his son leads him to discover and infiltrate a secret society that seeks to protect humanity from the "Hidden Ones", who use unknown powers to control the masses and dictate the course of humanity.

Here you have the beginning of the RPG era of Assassin's Creed, with skill trees to unlock talents and upgrades, combat focused on the "parry" mechanic, where you have to wait for the enemy to attack, find an opening in their defense, and strike at that moment of vulnerability. AC: Origins even had an unlikely crossover with Final Fantasy XV, rewarding you with a Chocobo to ride in the desert. The game has a score of 81 on Metacritic.

AC: Shadows was one of the most requested Assassin's Creed games for years in the fanbase. An AC set in ancient Japan, with ninjas, samurai, and katanas. However, when it came time to choose link]{https://umgamer.com/en-us/articles/assassins-creed-yasuke-is-a-great-protagonist-for-ac-shadows}{Yasuke}, a real samurai who lived during the Sengoku Period has made this one of the most controversial and debated ACs in history.

Now, speaking of the game, we control two protagonists: Yasuke, a foreign samurai taken in by the shogun Oda Nobunaga who became a legend due to his height of almost two meters and strength, and Naoe, a ninja linked to the lineage of assassins, who wants revenge on those who destroyed her home, the village of Iga.

The game has a day and night cycle, two very distinct protagonists that allow for varied gameplay and give a layer of strategy to players who can choose a stealthy or combative approach, and earned the game a score of 81 on Metacritic.

The finale of Ezio Auditore's saga takes the protagonist to Constantinople and the former home of the Assassins, the Masyaf Fortress, in search of secrets hidden by Master Altaïr in the city's vault, before the Templars seize it, while he becomes entangled in the intrigues of the Ottoman Empire and the remnants of the Byzantine Empire. This game also features the coolest and friendliest NPC in the entire saga, Yusuf Tazim.

This game expanded on everything we saw in Brotherhood, including the Hook Blade in the arsenal, improving the fun "hide-and-seek" multiplayer, and now you managed not only the businesses of a city, but an entire neighborhood, which helped you find safe places to stay, fewer enemies, and discounts on purchases and upgrades. Assassin's Creed: Revelations received a score of 80 on Metacritic and is considered the best of the three games featuring the Florentine protagonist.

The definition of "okay, right?" in relation to map size. Here you got not just one huge map full of mountains, seas, secrets, and caves, but two! One in the icy regions of ancient Norway during the Viking era and another in old England. One of the largest maps in the entire franchise, which made Ubisoft "put the brakes on" in the next game.

In Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, we control Eivor Varinsdottir, a Viking warrior who leads a Norse clan in raids and settlement in 9th-century England. You explore the game's vast map by land and sea, have romantic options, attributes, skill trees, and everything that had already been seen in the RPG aspects of Odyssey and Origins, but refined and improved. This game has a score of 80 on Metacritic and receives criticism for the enormous amount of content that diluted the impact of the narrative.

“Let’s go back to our roots”. That was the promise of AC: Mirage. We return to the Middle East, back to the scheme of studying the target, preparing the mission, assassination, and escape, as in the first Assassin’s Creed. We also have a slightly smaller map, after Valhalla “exaggerated” the size of the terrain to be explored. The RPG mechanics have also been set aside in several aspects, and we have a more linear story.

We follow the story of a street thief, Basim Ibn Ishaq, who, after being caught in a daring robbery and in the middle of a plot he doesn't understand, joins the assassins to clear his name. The appeal here was simple: a more straightforward Assassin's Creed, with a more restrained pace, attempting to evoke the classic feel of stealth and target hunting, without a multitude of systems and an infinite map. It also appears on Metacritic with a score of 76.

My personal favorite. Why? Because it doesn't have a sea! Because it doesn't have ships! Because I couldn't stand any more naval battles after AC IV.

Leaving that aside, in this AC we go to Victorian London, during the Industrial Revolution. An urban environment, with factories, smoke, and two protagonists who could be switched between at will. The siblings Jacob and Evie Frye. They have slightly different characteristics, with Evie being more stealthy and Jacob more combative. Not like Yasuke and Naoe, but there was still some room for strategy in using the protagonists.

The new cable-launching mechanic allowed you to climb buildings and glide across rooftops quickly. You could drive carriages through the city, explore London vertically with your cable, in a mechanic reminiscent of the Bat-rope from Batman Arkham. You dominated city districts through gang wars and gained resources and security by securing a district for yourself. On Metacritic, AC: Syndicate has a score of 76.

The "black sheep" of the Assassin's Creed family. AC: Unity is a game with a deep story, a fun multiplayer mode that puts various assassins freely roaming the streets of Paris during the French Revolution, and a very charismatic protagonist, almost rivaling Ezio in terms of charm. But what went wrong? Ubisoft's policy of releasing one AC game per year resulted in this game being riddled with bugs.

Back then, it wasn't uncommon to see various videos, images, and GIFs of NPCs swimming in the air, disappearing into the ground; the image of Arno's face without a "face," just hair, eyes, and teeth floating in the void, haunting the internet like a creepypasta. Truly, Unity became a huge problem for the franchise, tarnishing its reputation in a way that hasn't been forgotten to this day. It's a shame, because the company's work in recreating 1789 Paris was so good that it was used in the restoration of Notre Dame Cathedral after the 2019 fire. The Metacritic score of 72 might scare some away, but if you have the chance, play it.

Although not part of the main timeline, Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry, Assassin's Creed Liberation, and Assassin's Creed: Rogue are three games with a considerable fanbase and stories that complement the games and bring completely new perspectives to the world of assassins.

AC: Liberation, released in 2012 for the PS Vita, was the first AC game with a playable female protagonist. Before Evie, Kassandra, or Eivor, Aveline de Grandpré was already using her hidden blades to liberate the city of New Orleans from Templar rule in 1765. The game stood out for its (very poorly utilized) disguise mechanic. Aveline could disguise herself as a society lady and infiltrate restricted locations without drawing attention, as a slave laborer and blend in with the oppressed, or use her assassin's outfit for combat and stealth.

AC: Freedom Cry was released as a spin-off of AC IV, a standalone DLC where you controlled Edward's ally, Adéwalé, a former slave turned pirate and assassin sailing the Caribbean seas with his ship. His main objective is to free slaves and disrupt the system's structures. The game uses the same base and mechanics as the fourth game, so if you enjoy sailing and naval exploration, this is a must-play. And the trailer is thrilling.

AC: Rogue was the first time we could control a Templar. After playing a bit with Haytham Kenway in AC III, this game brings us a Templar protagonist to control, acting as a bridge between AC: Black Flag and AC III. Shay Patrick Cormac, an Irish assassin who turns against the Brotherhood after a catastrophic incident while hunting for Ancient artifacts. It was also the last AC to use the classic engine, Ubisoft AnvilNext. After that, this engine was abandoned and subsequent games used the engine from Unity onwards, Ubisoft AnvilNext 2.0.