Every Assassin's Creed Game Ranked

Welcome to MojoPlays! Today, we’re ranking every “Assassin’s Creed” game. In a series this long, there’s bound to be highs and lows.

For this video, we’re only looking at the mainline “Assassin’s Creed” games and aren’t counting the many smaller spin-offs, like the “Assassin’s Creed Chronicles” games.

Following Aveline de Grandpré in colonial New Orleans, “Liberation” sees players battling against Templars and slave traders in the 18th century. Though this game started out life as a small title for the often-forgotten PS Vita, it quickly grew to be one of the best games available for the handheld console – but given the Vita’s smaller library, that isn’t saying much. Since then, it’s been released on seventh and eighth generation consoles, but the ports leave much to be desired. While “Liberation” did try to be refreshing, the hardware limitations are too much to bear, and the story lacks the coherence of the other games in the series.

It may be the game that started it all and is certainly a classic, but the original “Assassin’s Creed” is too dated for many modern gamers to stomach. Though it gets points for nostalgia and introducing all the core elements we still expect in new entries, it has plenty of issues. All three of the major cities are washed-out and boring to platform through for hours on end, the combat is tedious, and don’t get us started on the tailing and eavesdropping missions. Finally, while Altaïr was a good enough protagonist at the time, we’ve had many more dynamic and interesting characters in the years since; it’s easy to find him boring if you go back and replay.

A casualty of Ubisoft’s old habit of releasing at least one “Assassin’s Creed” game every year – two in 2014 – “Unity” certainly suffered for not getting the time it needed. Though the “Romeo and Juliet” story of Arno and Elise was at least something new, and the turmoil of the French Revolution could have been a phenomenal setting, the game was plagued with bugs. With one of the most disastrous launches in video game history, game-breaking glitches were to be found around every Parisian corner. Though if you go back and play it now it’s definitely improved, it’s hard to wash away the taste of that infamous missing face glitch – and you’ll still encounter frame rate drops.

The conclusion of Ezio’s story deserved to be a grand adventure, sending him to Constantinople to follow directly in Altaïr’s footsteps. Unfortunately, “Revelations” wasn’t able to innovate as much as any of its predecessors. The writing is strong and Ezio meets plenty of interesting characters and historical figures, not to mention the all-new hook blade and other gadgets, but “Revelations” is bogged down by missteps. The worst offender, by far, is the tower defense mini-games. Luckily, tower defense hasn’t been in the series since, but this doesn’t mean you can avoid it while playing “Revelations.” It’s still an important piece of the story though, disappointing as parts are.

A new continent was needed to make “Assassin’s Creed” fresh, and that’s what we got when this game took us to the heart of the American Revolution. Unfortunately, overly-ambitious cinematic trailers left many players feeling short-changed when the game released, on top of the fact that the first few hours were spent playing as Haytham Kenway rather than Connor. Strange story contrivances meant Connor had quite a role to play, conveniently present for all the Revolution’s major events, like the Midnight Ride and the Boston Tea Party. But time has been kind to this game, and it added plenty of new features – like hunting and sailing – that have become mainstays of the franchise.

The most modern game in the entire series, “Syndicate” takes place in London in the 1860s, and sees twin assassins Evie and Jacob Frye brushing shoulders with everyone from Charles Dickens to Queen Victoria. As always, the setting is a rich and lively one to explore, especially once you get your hands on the grappling hook. But “Syndicate” had many of the same issues as its immediate predecessor: too little innovation, with more of the same gameplay and story beats we’d been seeing since 2007. While the Frye twins were a welcome departure from lovesick Arno, “Syndicate” was a firmly average “AC” title.

To conclude the Kenway legacy and rival Arno’s commitment to the Brotherhood, “Rogue” was released alongside “Unity” with a new take on the series’ warring factions: this time around, you were going to play as a Templar. It’s an interesting set-up, with Shay Cormac, a disillusioned assassin who jumps ship after tragedy strikes in Lisbon. Though it had plenty more naval combat and revisited some areas from games past, “Rogue” also took us northward, into the Arctic Circle, for exciting, icy environments that we hadn’t yet seen. But “Rogue” could have been better if the ideological divide between the two factions was explored more; without this, the story ends up a little half-baked.

The biggest gameplay overhaul in the series to date, “Origins” went above and beyond every previous game in regards to its combat system and open world. No more mindless button-mashing and instant-kill counters, in “Origins” there was a fully-realized looting and weapon upgrade system, not to mention the much-needed rework of eagle vision. Now, instead of your historical immersion being broken by glowing enemies, you could take control of Bayek’s pet eagle Senu and scout Egypt from above. The story also delivered on the promise in the title: though it took a while to get there, we finally found the origins of the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order.

This is Ezio Auditore in his prime. He’s finished his journey to becoming an assassin and is now a respected leader, tasked with taking down the Borgias and returning Rome to the people. While the story is outstanding, the gameplay didn’t necessarily move on, and button-mashing swordplay is “Brotherhood’s” bread and butter. And though Rome is vast, you can’t forget that the previous two games each had numerous areas for you to explore – plus, all the best characters were ones we’d already met in the last game. It would still be cool to see a return of the assassin recruitment system in some form, though.

The oldest game in the series to date, “Odyssey” took us all the way back to Ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War. Much like “Origins” contained the entirety of Egypt, “Odyssey” intricately recreated Greece and its many islands, all with their own distinct feel. But it’s impossible to ignore how divisive “Odyssey” has been among long-time fans, with many saying it goes too hard on the RPG elements and lamenting the fact that in this “Assassin’s Creed” game, you don’t often get the opportunity to assassinate anybody. But with such likable characters and a very human story about family at the heart of this ancient epic, it’s easy to forgive “Odyssey’s” flaws.

While the naval combat felt a little out of place in “AC III”, when “Black Flag” released a year later, it all clicked into place. Players took on the role of ruthless pirate Edward Kenway, as he plunders the Caribbean alongside history’s most famous bandits. Offering more freedom of exploration than any game before it, you can inhabit the beautiful environments of Cuba and the Bahamas while you hunt for treasure. Though the story takes a while to really get going, and Kenway is the most reluctant assassin in the whole series, he grows more than any other protagonist. And perhaps “Black Flag” would be the best game of all, if it wasn’t for all those tailing missions.

Altaïr was fine at the time, but the introduction of Ezio showed us just how good a character an assassin could be. To this day, Ezio is held up as the best protagonist the series has ever produced, leaving behind some enormous boots to fill after his trilogy concluded. And “Assassin’s Creed II’s” engaging story – a personal tale about Ezio growing up and seeking revenge for the murder of his father and brothers – is largely the reason for this. It also introduced us to the brighter settings of Renaissance Italy, as Ezio traveled through Florence, Venice, and his family’s Tuscan villa. An improvement on the first game in every capacity, “II” is clearly still the franchise’s peak.