Back in 2007, an idea to make agame that incorporated parkour, stealth mechanics, and action-packed sword combat in a historically accurate Holy Land during the Third Crusade kick-started Ubisoft’s highest-earning and most beloved franchise. Assassin’s Creed today might not be as good as it was in its heyday, but it’s a series like no other.
Every Main Assassin’s Creed Game, Ranked By Story
Which Assassin’s Creed game has the best narrative?
Nearly everyone has played the mainline Assassin’s Creed games, but fans who want more of the Assassin vs. Templar action should set their sights on these underrated Assassin’s Creed games that, for one reason or another, managed to elude the fanbase when they were released but deserved more love and attention.
8Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles
A Pocket-Sized Adventure That Deserved More Recognition
Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles
For a game starring Altair, the original master assassin, Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles barely made a mark when it launched on mobile phones, and more notably, the Nintendo DS, in 2008. Rather than offering anopen-worldexperience like its console counterpart, it streamlined the formula into a linear action-adventure game. The combat was simplified, platforming was more rigid, and the stealth mechanics were bare-bones at best. But for a handheld title in an era where mobile gaming was still in its infancy, it wasn’t half bad.
Instead of retreading the events of the first game, Altair’s Chronicles acts as a prequel, following Altair’s mission to retrieve the Chalice, a powerful artifact tied to the Assassin-Templar conflict. While the story doesn’t add much to the overarching lore, it was the first attempt at expanding the Assassin’s Creed universe beyond home consoles. And, to its credit, it had some decent mechanics for a DS game, including touch-based minigames for pickpocketing and interrogations.
Looking back, Altair’s Chronicles feels like a relic of its time, overshadowed by better portable entries. But as the first handheld Assassin’s Creed game, it paved the way for future attempts to bring the series to the handhelds of the time.
7Assassin’s Creed Bloodlines
The Sequel Nobody Played
Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines
Released in 2009 as a direct sequel to the original Assassin’s Creed, Bloodlines ambitiously attempted to continue Altair’s story exclusively on Sony’s PlayStation Portable. The narrative picks up after Altair’s confrontation with Al Mualim and his pursuit of the Templars to Cyprus, where the Order establishes a new base following their retreat from the Holy Land.
One of its biggest strengths was its connection to the main storyline. Unlike Altair’s Chronicles, Bloodlines actually added meaningful details to Altair’s character arc, particularly his relationship with Maria Thorpe, the Templar-turned-love-interest who would later become the mother of his children. Despite hardware limitations, Bloodlines managed to implement core gameplay systems including counter-basedcombat, social stealth mechanics, and the iconic hidden blade assassinations.
The development team cleverly designed more compact but vertically dense environments to compensate for the PSP’s processing power, resulting in locations like Limassol and Kyrenia feeling surprisingly full of climbing opportunities. The game even connected with Assassin’s Creed II on PS3, unlocking exclusive weapons and additional Templar coins for both games. Bloodlines also expanded on the First Civilization storyline, introducing new Pieces of Eden and archive entries that hinted at future plot developments in the mainline series.
6Assassin’s Creed: Identity
The Forgotten Mobile Experiment
Assassin’s Creed Identity
When Assassin’s Creed: Identity launched in 2014, it represented Ubisoft’s most ambitious mobile project at the time. Set in the Italian Renaissance between 1501 and 1506, the game broke new ground by introducing full character customization to the series, allowing players to create their own assassins complete with different facial features, clothing options, and weapon load-outs.
The class system went beyond simple cosmetic choices: Berserkers specialized in aggressive combat with high health pools, Shadow Blades excelled at stealth and critical strikes, Tricksters mastered disguise and crowd manipulation, while Thieves combined agility with ranged combat proficiency. Each class featured unique skill trees that could be upgraded using points earned from missions.
The game’s version of Florence was divided into multiple districts, each with distinct architectural styles and guard patterns. Identity introduced procedurally generated contract missions that dynamically created objectives and enemy placements, ensuring no two playthrough experiences were identical. But despite its ambitious design, Identity was held back by its platform.
Touchscreen controls were clunky, and the game was riddled with microtransactions, a problem that plagued many mobile titles of the time. It was eventually delisted, making it one of the more obscure Assassin’s Creed games. But for those who got to play it, Identity was a surprisingly deep experience that deserved a better fate.
5Assassin’s Creed 3: Liberation
The Franchise’s First Female Protagonist
Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation
Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation broke new ground in 2012 by introducing Aveline de Grandpré, a female assassin of African-French descent operating in Spanish-controlled New Orleans. But sinceAssassin’s Creed III: Liberation was originally a PlayStation Vita exclusive, ahandheld consolethat didn’t sell too well, most players never got to experience her story.
Set in 18th-century New Orleans, the game follows Aveline’s fight against slavery and corruption, making her one of the most socially significant assassins in the franchise. One of its standout features was the Persona System, which let Aveline switch between three disguises: Assassin, Lady, and Slave, each of which had unique abilities.
The Lady persona could charm guards and access high-society functions but had limited combat options. The Slave persona could blend with workers and incite riots, while the Assassin persona provided full access to weapons and abilities but attracted constant attention.
The game’s recreation of 18th-century New Orleans featured historically accurate locations like St. Louis Cathedral and the French Quarter, complete with period-appropriate architecture and social dynamics. Liberation even tied into the modern-day storyline through Abstergo Entertainment’s attempts to manipulate historical events, with players discovering hidden messages that reveal the truth behind the company’s sanitized version of events.
While it was later remastered for consoles, Liberation never got the recognition it deserved, partly because it was overshadowed by Assassin’s Creed III, which was released alongside it.
4Assassin’s Creed Chronicles
The Trilogy That Nobody Talks About
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India
With its 2.5D side-scrolling gameplay, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles was unlike any other entry in the series. Instead of sprawling open worlds, it delivered a more linear experience, focusing on stealth, platforming, and quick assassinations.
In Chronicles: China, players follow Shao Jun, a disciple of Ezio Auditore, in his quest for vengeance in 1526. The game brought new mechanics like noise darts, noise-creating firecrackers, and the unique Jian sword combat style, recreating Ming Dynasty China during the reign of Emperor Jiajing and incorporating historical elements like the influence of the Eight Tigers, the Emperor’s powerful group of eunuch advisers.
India followed Arbaaz Mir during the tense period of 1841 when the Sikh Empire was on the brink of war with the British East India Company. The game introduced the chakram as a versatile weapon that could both kill and create distractions. The helix rifle in Chronicles: Russia gave Nikolai Orelov ranged combat options during the October Revolution, while the grappling hook added vertical traversal possibilities within the 2.5D space.
3Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry
From DLC to Full Game
Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry
What started as a DLC expansion for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag became its own standalone game, but Freedom Cry never got the attention it deserved. The game tells a powerful story about a former slave-turned assassin Adewale, set against the backdrop of French colonial rule in Port-au-Prince. The game’s systems were carefully designed to reinforce its narrative theme of liberating slaves, which wasn’t just a side activity but the core gameplay loop, with freed slaves joining Adewale’s crew or providing resources for upgrades.
8 Most Iconic Locations across Assassin’s Creed Games
Ubisoft is a masterclass in recreating historic locations in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and these are the most iconic.
The combat system was modified to feel more brutal and personal, with Adewale’s machete and blunderbuss reflecting his direct approach to confronting slavery’s horrors. Naval gameplay from Black Flag returned and was refined with the smaller but more maneuverable Experto Crede, Adewale’s brig that specialized in close-quarters combat and quick raids on slave ships.
The game’s recreation of 1735 Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) managed to capture the complex social hierarchy of the time, from the wealthy French plantation owners to the Maroon resistance fighters hiding in the mountains. Side missions explored various aspects of colonial life, from investigating smuggling operations to disrupting slave auctions. The soundtrack, composed by Olivier Deriviere, blended traditional Caribbean instruments with haunting vocals that emphasized the story’s emotional weight.
Freedom Cry’s narrative didn’t shy away from showing the brutal reality of the slave trade while also highlighting the resistance and resilience of the enslaved people, making it one of the series' most impactful historical narratives.
2Assassin’s Creed Unity
The Redemption Arc
Assassin’s Creed Unity
WhileUnity’slaunch issues overshadowed its innovations, the game’s technical ambition revolutionized several core systems. The new Anvil engine created the most detailed historical recreation in the series, rendering an almost 1:1 scale version of Revolutionary Paris with interiors for about 25% of all buildings.
The crowd system could display up to 30,000 individual NPCs, each with its own AI routines, creating massive revolutionary gatherings that accurately depicted the period’s chaos. It also introduced a revamped parkour system, giving players more control over movement, and had some of the best stealth mechanics in the franchise.
The game’s co-op missions were intricately designed with multiple approach options, from rooftop infiltration to underground passages through Paris' historically accurate catacombs. Side activities like murder mysteries require actual detective work, with players cross-referencing clues and witnesses to identify culprits.
Unity’s representation of the French Revolution showed both sides of the conflict, from the decadence of Versailles to the poverty of the Cour des Miracles, while key historical figures like Robespierre and Napoleon appeared in missions that explored their complex motivations.
Over time, Unity received numerous patches, fixing most of its issues. Today, it’s recognized as one of the most underrated Assassin’s Creed games, proof that a rocky launch doesn’t define a game’s legacy.
1Assassin’s Creed: Rogue
The Redemption Arc 2.0
Assassin’s Creed Rogue
Released alongside Unity,Roguewas doomed from the start. While Unity showcased the power of new-gen consoles, Rogue was left behind on older hardware. As a result, many players skipped it entirely. But Rogue had one of the most unique stories in the franchise, putting players in the shoes of a Templar, Shay Cormac, which allowed it to deconstruct the series' traditional moral framework.
Shay’s story of betrayal unfolds across three distinct regions: the North Atlantic’s treacherous ice sheets, the Appalachian River Valley’s wilderness, and a reimagined New York City caught in the Seven Years' War.
The naval gameplay expanded on Black Flag’s foundation with new hazards like icebergs that could be shot to create waves, and ram-breaking mechanics for crushing ice sheets. The Morrigan, Shay’s ship, introduced unique weapons like the puckle gun for short-range devastation and oil slick fires for area denial. It also inverted traditional assassination missions by putting players in the role of protecting targets from assassins, complete with new tools like the air rifle with sleep darts and shrapnel grenades.
Rogue’s connection to other games went beyond simple references: it showed the Colonial Brotherhood’s fall that set up Connor’s story in AC3, continued Haytham Kenway’s narrative from Black Flag, and literally connected to Unity’s opening sequence. It’s a shame it was overlooked, but for those who gave it a chance, Rogue was one of the best Assassin’s Creed experiences Ubisoft ever delivered.
6 Best Assassins In Video Games
Playing as an assassin in a video game carries its own charm and these six are the best in the business.
