All 12 Major Assassin's Creed Games, Ranked By Storyline
Assassin's Creed brought the stealth genre to new plateaus, proving assassins can remain hidden in broad daylight. The elusive assassins serve as the main characters of the games. While the original Assassin's Creed was an action-adventure stealth game, the series later shifted into an RPG (role-playing game). More RPG elements mean added storylines as part of immersive quests.
The best Assassin's Creed games contain gripping storylines. Those with weak narratives are considered subpar entries in the series. An all-around masterpiece means an Assassin's Creed game has exciting side quests to supplement the main story. These are the best examples of those.
Updated On August 9th, 2021 by Hodey Johns: This list was originally a top ten and, while the nice, round number is appreciated, with only twelve major games, it seemed a shame to judge ten entries and leave off two. This list now has all major installments of the game ranked in order. Additionally, there was a major shakeup to the original list. After replaying each of the games, some plots were found to be underrated while others were viewed with rose-colored lenses. This list was shuffled to account for solely for their respective stories, leaving gameplay and other factors entirely out of the equation.
12 Assassin's Creed Valhalla
With sky-high expectations, Assassin's Creed Valhalla's story failed in almost every conceivable way. Eivor is a boring and unrelatable character, routinely ranked as the worst assassin of all time, even factoring in minor games in the series. The story is equally dull and filled with nonsensical characters with motivations no one can relate to.
This is hardly a matter of opinion. The game has the worst completion rate of any open-world game in history. Assassin's Creed Odyssey was tagged as being fun, but too long. Assassin's Creed Valhalla manages to be boring and even longer. Outside of the Animus, the game is arguably more convoluted than the failed story inside of the Animus.
Thankfully, Ubisoft seems to have recognized this story bombed badly and is changing the formula for Assassin's Creed Infinity. Hopefully they can rescue a story that was once the envy of the entire gaming world. There are already theories about what the next Assassin's Creed story will be about.
11 Assassin's Creed Rogue
The seafaring Assassin's Creed Rogue is overshadowed by Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag mainly because of its story. Many criticize Assassin's Creed Rogue for having worse gameplay mechanics to boot.
The story alone sticks out like a sore thumb. Edward Kenway from Black Flag is more interesting than Shay Cormac. His reasoning behind his betrayal and subsequent series of murders is confused. The novelty of playing as a Templar for the first time soon wears off. Rogue's historically story (for a video game) was somehow too long. Players are alright with losing some of their favorite characters to a traitor, but Cormac was not an engaging enough character for the fan base to accept these deaths.
10 Assassin's Creed III
The open-world design of Assassin's Creed III was fun at times, but it was a letdown concerning the story. The game forces players to go through a lengthy tutorial spanning about seven hours. It takes place during the American Revolutionary War in the 1700s. This part of the story is fascinating enough, especially when meeting some of the series' historic figures.
It's really outside of the Animus where the game suffers. Without revealing too many spoilers, one of the game's major characters changes allegiances for poor reasoning at the last second and players get no input on this humanity-destroying mistake. Faced with two bad choices, gamers get to see the greater evil unfold.
9 Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is commended for its breathtaking open-world. The game's Story Creator Mode allows content creators to edit and design narratives within the game, and some of these creations have led to the most compelling stories to date.
Especially since the game lets players choose a male (Alexios) or female (Kassandra) protagonist, Assassin's Creed Odyssey deserves praise, though there are plenty of awesome female assassins that shape the lore of the series. As a standalone game, the story is good. Compared to other Assassin's Creed games, however, it falls short of expectations.
8 Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Once Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag came to next-gen consoles, it had high expectations. Thankfully, Ubisoft delivered a game with a cohesive narrative. Perhaps it's the setting of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag that makes it so fun.
It continues the story of Assassin's Creed III, years after samples were retrieved from Desmond Miles' body. The story takes twists and turns, including a stint involving Edward Kenway in prison for piracy. The templars are recuperating in the Caribbean, and Kenway must stop them!
7 Assassin's Creed Unity
Assassin's Creed Unity was critically scorched at release and rightfully so. The game's mechanics were borderline non-functional and refunds demands were at an all-time high. The story downplayed the revolution and ditched this historic moment for a love story.
Still, after the game was patched up, the story itself is compelling and Élise sheds light on the Templar mindset better than Cormac dreamed. Arno is a dud as a protagonist, but his journey of investigating the feud between Templars and Assassins is compelling in its own right. It might not be the story players wanted or deserved, but it was a good enough plot in its own way.
As a bonus, some analysts suggest that the Paris in Assassin's Creed Unity is the best rendering of a city in video game history.
6 Assassin's Creed: Origins
The Assassin's Creed series takes players to different time periods and locations, which is why the series has remained relevant. Assassin's Creed: Origins brought players to Ancient Egypt, providing a picturesque representation of the region.
The game's plot is interesting at first but takes questionable turns mid-game. Players who are in it for the side and main quests are well-rewarded, Assassin's Creed: Origins has multiple engaging storylines.
5 Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
The Frye twins are caught amid a plot with the Templars, who want peace through forceful control. Like all mainline Assassin's Creed games, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate contains a vibrant open-world with an abundance of main quests and side quests that are interwoven with the story.
This could be the most light-hearted game in franchise history. Not to mention the Jack the Ripper DLC, which takes place twenty years after the base game, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate has genuinely fascinating storylines.
4 Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection contains three games featuring Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a master assassin and an influential figure in the series. Naturally, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood is among the best Assassin's Creed games of all time. There are numerous storylines for the player to complete.
The game is crammed with side quests, each more intriguing than the next. Reaching 100% is impractical, but that won't prevent die-hard fans from pouring over a hundred hours into this open-ended game.
3 Assassin's Creed Revelations
While players got tired of the gameplay, the conclusion of the story with Ezio and Altaïr is fan service at its finest. Never are players more connected to the characters than this.
This is true on a literal level; Ezio realizes that his conquests will be viewed by future generations and so he decides to speak to them directly by speaking to himself. It's a closing chapter on the best sequence of stories that Ubisoft has ever crafted.
2 Assassin's Creed (2007)
With a plot involving time travel, elusive organizations, and historical figures, the Assassin's Creed series was opening up every conceivable door since day one. The story only became more involved with each installment.
The original Assassin's Creed games had the best stories because they focused on central characters like Desmond Miles and Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad. In this case, it's hard to beat the original. The gameplay of the first Assassin's Creed needed more polish, but the story involving a sophisticated time travel machine called the "Animus" was spot on.
1 Assassin's Creed II
There was a simpler time when Assassin's Creed was more about a well-written narrative and less about spectacular combat. The various storylines in Assassin's Creed II take gamers to places like inventor Leonardo da Vinci's workshop. It's well-known that Leonardo da Vinci drew designs for a wing glider, but few guessed they'd fly the machine itself in the game.
Assassin's Creed II routinely shows up on lists as the best Assassin's Creed game. The game's plot helps explain why it's highly regarded.
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