Assassin’s Creedis one of the biggest video game series ever. With the release ofAssassin’s Creed Shadows, there are now 15 mainline titles in total if we account forLiberation. The launch of Shadows is the perfect moment to rank everyAssassin’s Creedto date, from worst to best.
I’ve playedShadowsfor around 4 hours, and my (very) early impressions are positive. I love the stealth sections, and the combat is simple and pleasantly grisly, but I’ll have to spend at least a couple dozen hours more in Feudal Japan to decide the game’s place among its peers. Before you dig in, remember that this is my subjective opinion and that I encourage everyone to share their own rankings in the comments down below.
14Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation
I was kind of jealous when I found out thatLiberationis exclusive to the PS Vita. After trying it for about half an hour on thehandheld, my jealousy intensified because New Orleans looked gorgeous, even on Vita’s tiny screen.
But reality set in after the game came out for PC, and I had the chance to play it. While Aveline is one of the better main characters of the series, and while New Orleans is indeed stunning, the rest of the game was middling at best.
The plot, aside from the ending, was loose and uninteresting. The gameplay lacked compared to the phenomenalBlack Flag, and the hardware limitations of the system the game was originally designed to limitLiberation’sscope and make it a disappointing entry despite a few high points.
13Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
UnlikeLiberation, I’ve never beatenAssassin’s Creed Syndicate. While the visuals were, and still are, impressive, and while I love the period the game takes place in, as well as its two protagonists,Syndicatewas just too bloated and too much of a collect-a-thon for me to persevere until the end credits.
Conversely, I loved the assassination missions and the redone traversal system (the zipline was a great addition to the free-running formula). But in 2015, I was too jaded withAssassin’s Creed, and I simply couldn’t force myself to finish the game. That moving train base was cool as heck, though.
12Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Talking about bloat,Assassin’s Creed Valhallais the ruler of the realm. After the fantasticOdyssey, playingValhallawas a chore, and I gave up after about 30 hours. The middle part of the game was just too tedious for me to continue, and medieval England was too bland of a setting to give me any compelling reason to push through the mid-game like its predecessor did.
I also didn’t like the combat that much, which felt worse than in its predecessor, and the endless raids wore me down quite fast. I guessOriginsandOdysseyburnt me out too much to enjoyValhallabecause the game is considered one of the high points of the franchise.
11Assassin’s Creed Mirage
During the early game,Miragefelt great. An old-school, succinctAssassin’s Creedentry that brings back the gameplay of yore and doesn’t overstay its welcome. But the title’s limited budget had reared its head after about a third of the game.
The story is forgettable, and the game looks solid, but the animations look like they were taken fromAssassin’s Creed II. Basim is a blank character, and while parkour and the return of stealth and social stealth mechanics are very enjoyable, the game fails to become anything other than just another entry in the franchise without any part that truly stands out.
At least Baghdad, with its bustling markets and faithfully recreated architecture, impresses while traversing its rooftops.
10Assassin’s Creed Rogue
Rogue’s elevator pitch piqued my interest, but the game was too similar toBlack Flagto become more than just another notch on my wall of finished games. The missions in which you prevented assassinations, along with the plot, were the game’s silver lining, but the rest was so-so.
You’d sail around the world with your ship, battle other ships, and do everything else you did with Edward across a less interesting map that wasn’t as alluring to explore as the Caribbean. Overall, I enjoyed playing it, but its highs weren’t riveting enough for me to place the game higher on the list.
9Assassin’s Creed Revelations
I didn’t playAssassin’s Creed Revelationsuntil a couple of years ago, when I beat the game on mySteam Deck. It was very satisfying to finally see the conclusion of Ezio’s trilogy and traverse Constantinople with the hookblade that made parkour faster and more satisfying than in earlier games.
At its core,Revelationsis a repackagedBrotherhood, with the game offering the same collection of gameplay features that made it enjoyable throughout, but a lot of recycled content combined with any real progress in terms of gameplay and game mechanics, aside from the hookblade and that annoying tower defense mini-game, made this entry less entertaining thanBrotherhood.
Still,Revelationsis a pretty solid game and a worthy addition to the franchise. I like the story very much, and seeing Altair make an appearance was a pleasant surprise. The main reason for visiting this entry was to see what happened to Ezio and, without spoiling any details, I can say that the ending was very fitting for him and that I don’t regret spending a few days in the digital recreation of Ottoman era Constantinople.
8Assassin’s Creed III
Similarly toAssassin’s Creed Revelations, I didn’t playAssassin’s Creed IIIin 2012 when the game came out. I had waited for the release of the remaster to embark on Connor’s journey across the US during the American Revolution.
While the change of scenery is welcome, Connor just didn’t have the same screen presence as Ezio, and that multi-hour intro sequence almost made me give up.
But I persevered, and the payout was definitely worth it. The colonial cities you explore in the game are so different from the collection of Renaissance cities from the Ezio trilogy. Completely different architecture, married to the unique atmosphere of the American Revolution, was a breath of fresh air. I also really liked the “back to the basics” approach since I played this one after finishing the reinvention of the franchise that wasAssassin’s Creed Origins.
The missions were mostly great, but the story wasn’t as impactful as in earlier games. However, seeing the American Revolution from the imaginary angle of the eternal battle between the Templars and Assassins made up for Connor’s lack of charisma. On the other hand, the modern portion of the story nailed it, and I was very happy to see the conclusion of the original trilogy I started playing back in 2008.
7Assassin’s Creed Unity
Assassin’s Creed Unitywas, for years, the odd one out of the series. Utterly broken at launch, with unreal system requirements, the game was to be avoided for years. But in early 2021, a few months after I bounced offValhalla, and equipped with agaming PCthat could eatUnityfor breakfast, I finally decided it was time to experience the imaginary retelling of the French Revolution.
While Arno was not as strong a character as Ezio, he was charismatic enough to give me a reason to push through the early game, which was a bit dull. But once Paris opens up to the player, and you get to explore one of the prettiest cities of the series and enjoy the refreshed free-running mechanics,Unityturns into one of the bestAssassin’s Creedgames to date.
The story’s great, the relationship between Arno and Elise is convincing, without feeling stilted or phony, combat is simpler than in newer games yet challenging, and the mission design is a clear win. It’s too bad the game’s legacy is that of bugs, poor optimization, and technical deficiencies becauseUnityis, to me, an excellent game.
6Assassin’s Creed Origins
Originsstarts rather slowly. It wasn’t until I passed through the gates of Alexandria for the first time that I started to truly enjoy the game. Then I climbed the Pharos of Alexandria, looked at the massive expanse that awaited me in the desert, and decided to go out and explore all of it.
Originsis, like every otherAssassin’s Creedgame, a collect-a-thon, and the decision to reinvent the formula by introducingmodern RPGmechanics and level-gated areas worked against it during the early game. But once you become powerful enough to freely choose which area of the game to explore next,Assassin’s Creed Originsturns into an excellent RPG-lite.
The redesigned combat is a bit clunky, but I liked it because it was, dare I say, pleasantly challenging and a clear opposite of the one-dimensional design of past titles. The exploration was very rewarding thanks to the massive size of the game coupled with a ton of cool equipment to obtain, and the story was some of the best of the entire series.
The only two nitpicks are frustrating parkour that makes Bayek do the exact opposite of what you planned to do and the dull modern part of the story.
5Assassin’s Creed
While most fans of the series don’t like the first game much, I love it. I remember getting a newgaming PCpowered by a GTX 8800 GT a couple of weeks before the game came out on PC, withAssassin’s Creedbeing the first proper test for the new machine. And, oh man, was I impressed.
The game’s visuals were unbelievable back in 2008. Densely packed cities with tons of minutiae details, huge crowds of people found everywhere, detailed textures and character models, and rich, warm, meticulously detailed lighting madeAssassin’s Creeda looker like no otheropen-world gamebefore it.
The mission design was simple yet very effective. The process of arriving at the local Assassin chapter, gathering clues about Altair’s next target, and embarking on an assassin mission felt so good.
Then you’d locate the target and be free to approach it in whichever way you want. You could lie low on roofs and then do an air assassination, find a hole in the security and try to make a run for it, or just silently approach the target and kill it without anyone even noticing it. Brilliant!
Yes, the game was barren regarding side content, Altair wasn’t the best main character ever, and the story was fun, but far from the highs we’ll see in the sequels. But I love the firstAssassin’s Creedregardless and consider it one of the best games of the franchise.
