Summary
Now that theAssassin’s Creedfranchise is almost 20 years old, it’s had enough entries where some have flown under the radar, or were unjustly slated upon release because of their context rather than the games themselves. On the bright side, that means there are plenty of underrated entries to check out.
Whether it’s a game that initially released on older hardware, or one riddled with bugs on release, there are plenty ofAssassin’s Creedgames that deserve a second chance and moment in the sun. Here are some that fans of the series should check out if they haven’t already.
Excitement was high in 2014 with a new generation of consoles that improved graphical performance, as seen in the visually stunningAssassin’s Creed: Unityand its unparalleled crowd generation work. However, inUnity’sshadow,Assassin’s Creed: Roguefloundered.
That’s a massive shame, because not only doesAssassin’s Creed: Roguedeliver more of the great ship combat that was beloved inAssassin’s Creed: Black Flag, but it also upended the entire formula by having the player embody a templar instead of an Assassin. That reversal never got its laurels, which is a real shame.
In 2014, theAssassin’s Creedgames hit peak popularity. With multiple entries releasing every year, something will inevitably fall through the cracks. In this case,Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, the firstAssassin’s Creedgame with a female protagonist, still goes unfairly disregarded.
The game offers a unique New Orleans-based setting, a genuine political story,one of the best villains in the franchise, and a fascinating look at pre-Revolutionary America influenced by French culture instead of British.Assassin’s Creed: Liberationis a noble attempt at something unique, and it remains underrated to this day.
Ezio was a beloved character, and many gamers mark his trilogy as the high water-mark of theAssassin’s Creedfranchise in general. Still,Assassin’s Creed 2andAssassin’s Creed: Brotherhoodget far more love than the third and final entry,Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, which takes in the fascinating setting of Istanbul, shortly after the collapse of the Byzantines.
Brotherhoodgave Ezio a powerful, emotional send-off, as well as connecting him to the originalAssassin’s Creed.It’s also one of the more emotionally and thematically mature entries, dwelling on death, legacy, and the emergence of a new age. If that’s not enough, it’s also got one ofthe most important plotlines that affects the entire franchise.
In the 2020s, gamers have become somewhat irate with the open-world enormity ofAssassin’s Creedgames likeOrigins, Odyssey, andValhalla.These titles have staggering amounts of content, but lack focus, and bear an increasing reliance on RPG mechanics rather than the franchise’s trademark stealth action.
Assassin’s Creed: Mirage,a fully fleshed-out expansion toValhalla, attempted to remedy this issue, but gamers didn’t take to it due to a fairly bog-standard story. Still, Baghdad is a wonderful setting. Basim is a fascinating character, and the stealth mechanics have never been better. This one deserves a lot more love.
Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, the pirate-themed adventure starring Edward Kenway, is still considered by many fans to be the best game in the entire franchise. It’s strange that the game’s associated standalone expansion pack,Freedom Cry,has gone so underappreciated in recent years, considering it stars one of the game’s most interesting characters.
InFreedom Cry, players take the role Adewale, a freed slave who used to work on one of the many Caribbean sugar plantations, who embodies the role of Assassin and has a much more literal interpretation of the Assassin’s central ethos of freedom over order. It’s a challenging look at the ugly side of history, and it should have attracted far more players.
Since the beginning of theAssassin’s Creedfranchise, players pointed out that the Metropolitan madness of Victorian London would be a fantastic setting for the central formula. But when that version arrived inAssassin’s Creed: Syndicate, the gaming conversation had turned to weariness of theAssassin’s Creedformula.Syndicatenever quite found its audience.
That’s a big shame because the game is brilliant, with one of the best cityscapes Ubisoft have ever made and a great set of central characters, particularly Evie Frye and the ever-trundling train-based hideout.With a recent 60FPS patch released,Syndicateis well worth a revisit.
Assassin’s Creed 3had massive shoes to fill. Coming off the back of the widely beloved Ezio trilogy of games, the franchise was moving to a new era. It settled on the revolutionary period in America, telling an epic story over the scale of decades through the eyes of Connor, a half-English, half-Native American Assassin.
However, though these elements seemed to spell surefire success, the game never took off as a fan favorite, partially due to a very long tutorial sequence. However,this one is well worth a revisit. Beyond the tutorial sequence is one of the most ambitious attempts to depict a period in American history that remains relatively untouched in video games.
Assassin’s Creed: Unitywas a disaster on launch. Pushed out quickly to coincide with the release of a new generation of consoles,Unitybrought the franchise to Revolutionary France, reinventing the parkour system, and offering unparalleled crowd dynamics in a stunning vision of Paris.
However, the launch was plagued by bugs that made the game a joke. This hit to its reputation is a massive shame, because it turned off a lot of gamers from a game that is incredible at the best of times, telling one of the more intricate, political, and engaging stories in the entire franchise. It remains stunning to this day and is well worth a revisit now that all the technical glitches are ironed out, and it hasa vibrant modding scene.
