Today marks the release of Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection, which means thousands of people will be playing through some old games in the Assassin’s Creed series. The collection features three titles in the series: Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood and Assassin’s Creed Revelations. All three were good to great titles on PlayStation 3, so hopefully they’ve aged well.
This collection has got us thinking about Ubisoft’s premier series, and more specifically which game in the beloved franchise is the best one. To celebrate this occasion, it made sense to take a look back at Ubisoft’s history and rank the Assassin’s Creed games from worst to best.
Before we get onto the list, here are a few things to consider. First off, only games that took place on a PlayStation console were considered. That means no Assassin’s Creed: Altaïr’s Chronicles or other small spin-offs, although they’d rank pretty low on the list, anyhow. Second, and most importantly, there wasn’t some mathematical formula to come up with this list. It’s all just a matter of opinion.
We hope you enjoyed our look at the Assassin’s Creed series. Ubisoft’s open-world stealth series has had a number of different settings over the years and delivered good games, so it wasn’t easy to decide on an order of this list. Most of the games are well worth playing, even if they don’t all blow the player away.
In your opinion, which are the best Assassin’s Creed games? Which is the worst entry in the franchise? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Ranking Assassin's Creed
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Ranking the Assassin's Creed Series
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12. Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines
While it's definitely impressive that Ubisoft was able to get the series working on PSP, there really isn't any reason to play Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines. The gameplay feels clunky, it looks outdated and the story isn't anything special.
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11. Assassin's Creed Chronicles
Assassin's Creed Chronicles showed how well the series could translate to a 2D setting, but the installments actually got worse over time. While India and China both were enjoyable, the Russia installment was absolutely terrible. A sequel could be something special, but this just feels like missed potential.
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10. Assassin's Creed
The original Assassin's Creed was a good proof of concept, but it wasn't anything special. The game was simply too rough around the edges and forced players to ride from area to area on horseback for way too long. Only those that want to know how Desmond's story began should check this out.
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9. Assassin's Creed III: Liberation
While the Vita offering in the series was better than its PSP counterpart, Assassin's Creed III: Liberation still isn't great. The series simply isn't meant for handhelds and feel way too limited by the lack of power. It's too bad as the New Orleans setting is awesome.
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8. Assassin's Creed Unity
There was a lot of hype going into Assassin's Creed Unity, but it simply couldn't live up to it. While the game is gorgeous, it lacks the charm of its predecessor and launched with plenty of bugs. It was a rare misstep for Ubisoft as it couldn't fully capitalize on the good ideas it had.
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7. Assassin's Creed: Revelations
There is always a point of diminishing returns and for Ubisoft it was Assassin's Creed: Revelations. The third game to star Ezio was totally fine, but it felt more like filler than the next logical step for the series. Thankfully, this ended up being the last game to star the Italian assassin.
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6. Assassin's Creed Rogue
Assassin's Creed Rogue was basically an expansion pack for Black Flag and there are way worse things to be. While it isn't quite as fun the second time around, it's still really cool to be a pirate and sail from island to island.
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5. Assassin's Creed III
While it didn't live up to expectations, Assassin's Creed III was still a solid entry. The game's US setting was interesting to explore, as its forests were a stark contrast to the huge cities in past games. History buffs will also get a lot out of it taking place during the American Revolution.
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4. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
The second game to star Ezio was Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The ambitious sequel featured a new mechanic that allowed players to gain a group of followers, and introduced a surprisingly good multiplayer mechanic to the mix. It was a proper sequel to the second game, even if its mission design wasn't quite as impressive.
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3. Assassin's Creed Syndicate
Assassin's Creed Syndicate was an impressive return to form for the series after Unity. Playing as both Jacob and Evie Frye is a blast, and it's the best playing game in the entire series even if some of the mechanics could use an update. Syndicate was simply a really good video game that came out when the series desperately needed a solid entry.
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2. Assassin's Creed II
It really can't be stressed enough how much of an improvement Assassin's Creed II was upon its predecessor. It took all of the potential that the first game showed and actually delivered on it. Few games feel this realized, and it's this reason why gamers adored the second entry in the series. Throw in the game's best protagonist, the likeable Ezio, and you quickly realize why no other Assassin's Creed entry has been able to spawn several sequels in the same time period.
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1. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Very few games have ever allowed players to drink grog and sing sea shanties while steering a pirate ship, but few games are as good as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The pinnacle of the Assassin's Creed series allowed gamers to live their pirate fantasies, hangout with Black Beard, and find hidden treasure throughout the environment. It also features a fun first-person story set in modern times that makes fun of Ubisoft, and you have one of the greatest games that the publisher has ever put out.