Assassin’s Creed Games In Order

Here are all of the Assassin's Creed games ever made, listed in chronological order of their release, complete with a brief overview of each AC game.

Assassin’s Creed is undoubtedly one of the biggest and most popular contemporary video game franchises, and it is also one of the most recognizable titles to come out of Ubisoft.

It has also been the source of much controversy due to the way the franchise seemed to stagnate for years after it initially became popular.

The franchise has been around for over ten years at this point, with a total of over 20 games released in that time span.

The next one is already on the way, so here is a list of all the Assassin’s Creed games released so far, including a short overview of each one.

Let’s jump right into it!

Table of ContentsShow

Main Series

The main series includes games that belong to the canon for Assassin’s Creed, and they are the games released for PC and major consoles.

Believe it or not, the original Assassin’s Creed game was very unique at the time it came out. It featured an interesting take on storytelling by using genetic memory as a means of throwing us back to the medieval ages in the Middle East. We take on the role of an assassin named Altair ibn La-Ahad as he stabbs his way through sprawling medieval cities.

Despite how spectacular this all seemed initially, anyone who played the first game will agree that it devolves into repetition fairly quickly. Because of this, the first Assassin’s Creed would serve mainly as a launching platform for the games that would come afterward and make more of the concepts that it introduced.

Assassin’s Creed II is a direct follow-up to the first game that takes place immediately after its modern-day events. It makes a significant leap when it comes to the era that the player would be assassinating in this time – Renaissance-era Italy.

Ultimately, Assassin’s Creed II is one of the most widely beloved entries in the series. It introduced one of the most likable and recognizable Assassin’s Creed protagonists – Ezio Auditore da Firenze – but it also made some critical improvements to the gameplay that helped streamline and diversify it, making it a more enjoyable experience.

Brotherhood is a continuation of Ezio’s story, which doesn’t deviate much from the mechanics of Assassin’s Creed II. Instead, it simply builds upon them, most notably by adding a new management system that allows the player to recruit people as assassins. Players can then call upon them for aid in combat or send on missions that would yield various rewards.

Other than that, there were some minor changes to the combat that made it more fluid. Brotherhood was also the first Assassin’s Creed game to include competitive multiplayer.

Revelations is the final chapter of Ezio’s story, and it features a dramatic shift in setting, migrating from Italian cities such as Firenze and Rome to the heart of the Ottoman Empire – Istanbul. However, there were no such major changes in regards to the core gameplay mechanics.

The only notable additions were the “hookblade,” which allowed for zipline traversal of the city and some new assassination opportunities, as well as a tower defense minigame. As such, Revelations remains a quite forgettable entry in the series – unless you’re in it for the story, that is, as it wraps up Ezio’s story quite nicely, and in a way that is sure to pluck at the heartstrings of the original game’s fans.

Assassin’s Creed III makes another timeline jump, although not one as major as that of Assassin’s Creed II. This time, the game takes place during the American Revolutionary War. We play as a Native American named Ratonhnhaké:ton who adopts the alias of Connor to blend into American society.

The game moves the focus away from sprawling urban environments to the untamed wilderness of the Civil War era America, and the free-running mechanics are adapted accordingly. Other than that, it also introduced weather changes, animal hunting, naval exploration, and several new weapons not seen in earlier games.

The game was remastered for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and the Nintendo Switch in March 2019.

Black Flag, like the previous game, is also set in the Colonial era, although it takes place several decades before the events of Assassin’s Creed III. The player assumes the role of Edward Kenway, the grandfather of the previous game’s protagonist.

As obviously implied by the pirate theme, Black Flag places a lot of importance on naval exploration. It also adopts a more open-world approach than any of the games that came before it.

Apart from the upgradeable ship, the ability to build up your assassins’ guild like in Brotherhood, and the improved naval combat, Black Flag didn’t introduce any other major components to the Assassin’s Creed formula.

Freedom Cry was initially launched in December 2013 as a DLC for Black Flag, but it was released as an independent game soon after. Considering its original purpose, the expectations were never too high from the start.

It features a new protagonist, Adéwalé, a former slave turned assassin, and the events of the game/DLC take place twenty years after those of Black Flag.

Unsurprisingly, Freedom Cry doesn’t offer any big changes in terms of mechanics and storytelling. This is only natural, considering that it was initially a DLC. It does, however, add a good amount of new content and some new pieces of gear that help make Freedom Cry feel distinct from Black Flag, if only marginally so.

The final game to be set in the Colonial era, Rogue is one of the staler Assassin’s Creed games.

It is the first and only game that would have the player assuming the role of a Templar rather than that of an assassin, and there are some gameplay changes to reflect this. Most notably, a greater accent is placed on some more conspicuous weapons, such as the grenade launcher.

Rogue continues the naval exploration trend of its predecessor, moving the setting from the Caribbean to the Arctic, but no big changes to the core mechanics were made, apart from the addition of new weapons.

The game was originally released only for the PS3 and the Xbox 360, ported to PC a year later, and was finally made available on the PS4 and the Xbox One in the form of a 2018 remaster.

After the brief naval detour of Black Flag and Rogue, Assassin’s Creed migrates back to the expansive European cities with Unity, as we assume the role of Arno Dorian, an assassin operating in Paris during the French Revolution.

Unity also put a greater accent on RPG elements, as it allowed a greater deal of character customization and their play style than what was seen in the previous entries.

Other than that, it was the first game to feature cooperative multiplayer. It did not expand much upon the core formula apart from adding – you guessed it – more weapons. Most notably, there’s the Phantom Blade, which is essentially just the crossbow and the traditional Hidden Blade combined into a single weapon.

Syndicate takes a minor temporal step ahead of Unity in terms of the setting, moving from Revolution-era Paris to the Victorian era London. This is the first game in the series to feature multiple protagonists, as both of the Frye twins (Jacob and Evie) are playable throughout the game.

Gameplay-wise, the only notable additions are, once again, a selection of new melee and ranged weapons, while the multiplayer aspect of the game is omitted entirely. Ultimately, Syndicate was the last Assassin’s Creed game before the big shift that Origins would bring.

Origins broke the years-long stagnation of the franchise by introducing some major changes, both in terms of setting and in terms of gameplay. It takes us all the way back to Ptolemaic Egypt and greatly refreshes the stale Assassin’s Creed formula with a new combat system and RPG elements.

A big change to the combat system was the introduction of hitboxes, as opposed to the paired animation system of the previous games. What this means is that the player can damage multiple enemies with a single attack. This is a two-way street, however, as it is easier for multiple enemies to overwhelm the player.

As such, Origins provides a more dynamic combat experience that feels ever so fresh and fluid compared to what we were used to with this franchise. The game also features a much more spacious open-world than what we’ve seen before, allowing the player to switch seamlessly between the cities and the wilderness of ancient Egypt.

Released in late 2018, Odyssey takes place several hundred years before Origins. It focuses on the Hellenic world and the Peloponnesian War (nothing to do with Homer’s Odyssey, mind you), and allows the player to choose which side they wish to fight for.

The game also allows the player to pick between two protagonists (Alexios or Kassandra), both of whom are mercenaries and descendants of none other than King Leonidas.

Gameplay-wise, it continues in the footsteps of Origins, featuring plenty of RPG elements, a wide selection of weapons, and a huge open world to explore. On top of that, it also marks the return of naval combat, which is similar to what was already seen in Black Flag and Rogue.

Launched in November 2020, along with the new PlayStation and Xbox consoles, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will take the players straight from ancient Greece to the 9th century AD. It focuses on the Viking invasion of Britain and the ensuing conflict between them and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The player walks in the shoes of a Viking named Eivor, who will be much more customizable than past protagonists were.

On the gameplay front, Valhalla mostly expands on the mechanics from Origins and Odyssey, albeit with a greater focus on stealth, some minor new gameplay mechanics, and some new weapons that fit the setting such as flails and greatswords.

On top of that, Valhalla presents a wider array of enemy types with different abilities, as well as better AI, all of which helps keep the game fresh in the long run.

The next game on the list is Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which will be released in 2023. The game will bring you back to its original roots and focus on stealth and cunning gameplay.

Players will find themselves in the shoes of Basim, before he joined what would essentially become the Assasin’s Order. It takes place partly in Baghdad around 20 years before the events in Valhalla.

Spin-offs

In the second category, we will be covering the non-canon Assassin’s Creed games (spin-off video games).

These games are generally simpler and smaller in scope, as they are developed mainly for handheld consoles and/or smartphones.

Altair’s Chronicles is the first of the lesser spin-offs of the main series. It is a prequel to the original Assassin’s Creed and was developed primarily for the Nintendo DS. Even though it is a 3D game, it adopts a side-scrolling progression through levels and actually lacks the open-world exploration that had been a staple of the franchise for years.

In addition to the DS, the game was also released for a variety of mobile operating systems, including iOS, Android, Symbian, Windows Phone, and even Java ME. Plus, it has been released for the Linux-based webOS, which is used by many LG smart TVs today.

Following almost two years after Altair’s Chronicles, Bloodlines was developed exclusively for the PSP. Thanks to the more powerful hardware found in Sony’s handheld console, Bloodlines managed to stay much truer to the standard Assassin’s Creed formula than Altair’s Chronicles did. It included free roaming and pretty much retained the combat system of the first game.

Launched alongside Assassin’s Creed II, Discovery was a 2.5D side-scroller similar to Altair’s Chronicles. With that in mind, the gameplay was rather basic, although the formula was well adapted to a 2.5D environment. In addition to the DS, the game was also released on iOS several months later.

Liberation, much like Discovery, was released alongside a main game. However, Liberation was developed primarily for the PS Vita, and it was closer to a full-fledged Assassin’s Creed game than any of the handheld games that came before it. It retained an open-world setting, featuring more advanced graphics, as well as the series’ fluid combat system.

Liberation was ported to the PS3, the Xbox 360, and Windows two years after the release of the original in the form of Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD. Among other things, the most obvious improvement was made in the graphics department, and the game was better adapted to the new platforms.

Furthermore, it was remastered once again and released as Assassin’s Creed Liberation Remastered in March 2019 for the Xbox One, the PS4, and the PC.

Released soon after Black Flag, Assassin’s Creed: Pirates was a game developed primarily for iOS and Android smartphones. As such, it was a fairly simple game that focused on real-time ship combat. It was eventually removed from both the App Store and the Play Store.

Another mobile game, Identity was developed first for Apple’s iOS and was subsequently released on Android three months later. It is highly reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed II and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, as it goes back to Renaissance-era Italy.

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China is the first game in the three-game series of 2.5D platformers inspired by the main Assassin’s Creed series. Chronicles: China moves away from photorealism in favor of a more simplistic, watercolor-style graphics, and does a great job of adapting the series to the new genre.

The second game in the Chronicles series is India, and it takes place during the conflict between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company, mid-way through the 19th century. The mechanics remain identical to those of China, despite more detail-heavy graphics and some new signature weapons of that period.

Released only a month after India, Russia is the closing chapter in the Chronicles series. It takes place during the October Revolution in 1918, which is the furthest in time any Assassin’s Creed game went when it comes to the setting.

As before, the only addition to the game were some new weapons that could be found in said period, while the graphics adopt a more washed-out aesthetic to do justice to the era it portrays.

Assassin’s Creed Unity: Arno’s Chronicles is a bit of an odd title in the franchise. At its core, the game is a simple 2D action-platformer whose main distinguishing features lie in the fact that it is completely offline and free from any microtransactions. However, relatively few people ever played it, and for a good reason.

Namely, the game was released exclusively on a small selection of Huawei Honor smartphones. While it was originally only supposed to be a timed exclusive, it never actually ended up being introduced to the Play Store, or any other store for that matter.

To this day, the game is only available pre-installed on a couple of Huawei Honor models from 2017 and 2018, and though it would theoretically be possible to download an APK and run the game on other Android smartphones, the lack of support would likely lead to a very buggy experience on newer versions of Android.

The latest of the Assassin’s Creed mobile spinoffs, Rebellion is a free-to-play mobile strategy/RPG game. It takes place during the Spanish Inquisition, though it features a diverse cast of characters from different parts of the world, including recognizable ones such as Ezio himself.

The gameplay is pretty much what you’d expect from this type of game, though the “chibi” character design is a first for the series.

Remasters and Collections

Lastly, we’ve put together a brief overview of all the remasters and collections of Assassin’s Creed games that were released over the years.

  • Assassin’s Creed: Heritage Collection (2013) – A collection of the first five games (AC 1, AC 2, Brotherhood, Revelations, and AC 3) released for the PS 3, Xbox 360, and PC.
  • Assassin’s Creed: The Americas Collection (2014) – The second collection that included three Assassin’s Creed game that took place in the Americas at the time i.e. AC 3, Liberation, and Black Flag, also released for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
  • Assassin’s Creed: Liberation HD (2014) – The remaster of the original Assassin’s Creed Liberation for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.
  • Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection (2016) – Remaster/collection that included Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood, and Revelations, released for the PS4 and the Xbox One.
  • Assassin’s Creed: Rogue Remastered (2018) – Remaster of Rogue for the PS4 and Xbox One.
  • Assassin’s Creed III Remastered (2019) – Remaster of Assassin’s Creed III for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.
  • Assassin’s Creed: Liberation Remastered (2019) – The second remaster of Liberation for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
  • Assassin’s Creed: Rebel Collection (2019) – A collection that includes remastered versions of Black Flag and Rogue, released only for the Nintendo Switch.

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