The Assassin's Creed games have always been about putting players in these massive worlds set during historically significant eras and letting players have the freedom to explore and interact with people are things set in those worlds. However, the series has made drastic changes over the years, the first game Assassin's Creed set the precedent for the follow-ups in mechanics like the social stealth aspects, combat, and movement which are the crucial elements that make an Assassin's Creed game.
The first Assassin's Creed does hold up in today's world, with the massive world design, the unique quest design, and the replayability the things that have become evergreen over the years and still keep the franchise on top. While, Assassin's Creed certainly had issues, like being repetitive and a complicated story it still had things players liked, like an iconic main character Altair who has helped shape how future assassins deal with the order. In the current year, a lot of these mechanics still hold up and is a good time to explore which ones still maintain a hold on gaming because Assassin's Creed has been an influence on open-world games.
5 Movement
The first Assassin's Creed game cemented a lot for the future entries with the main pillar including combat and stealth but the main mechanic that has somewhat stayed consistent is the movement with each entry making it more fluid. However, the first Assassin's Creed game made it rather cumbersome at the start where players would input Altair to go a certain way against the player's wishes, but these moments were rather rare as the player moved on.
Even though the movement itself had issues, when perfected it looked rather cool seeing Altair start at street level then out of nowhere he's on top of some building escaping guards. Assassin's Creed wasn't the perfect game, but rather created a blueprint of where to go, and one of those things that stayed in those plans where the "climb everything" mechanics meaning every building was interactive allowing players to have a lot of freedom something many games didn't offer at the time. On top of that, mixing the movement with other mechanics like the combat made everything a lot easier and gave players more options for what they could do.
4 Progression
Since the first Assassin's Creed game was not an RPG which goes to show how much the franchise has evolved over the years, players were given a more linear heavily story-based progression system that can be much more accessible and much less intimidating for players who don't really like those elements. The progression system is rather easy to do and one of the reasons why Assassin's Creed still can be called back on.
Unlike the latest entry Assassin's Creed Valhalla which leans heavily leans into the RPG elements meaning players could stumble upon a weapon that isn't story-based and used for the majority of the game if players upgrade it, however in the first Assassin's Creed this mechanic is much different because the progression is connected to the story, so every weapon players get in each chapter are due to where they are in the story.
One of the reasons why Assassin's Creed is a more balanced game in terms of length is because players won't go out of their way often unless they're looking for collectibles in each city which is one of the few non-story based activities players can do. So when the progression is connected to the story, the game can be less overwhelming which has been much of the complaints of later Assassin's Creed games.
3 Story
The main story that plays out during the historical events is rather easy to follow and many of the later Assassin's Creed games follow the same theme by giving players the targets and players have to hunt down each of those targets. First, being a somewhat historically accurate game, players who play the first Assassin's Creed game will notice that many of the targets are real characters who were alive around or during the time the game is set in.
This grounds the game in realism where players can witness some important details of the time through the eyes of Altair, which makes Assassin's Creed much more fun and unique to play. The interesting thing about the Assassin's Creed games is that their two stories, one that centers around each game and the other that's the overarching story, while Ubisoft has somewhat leaned away from that overarching story players can still enjoy the start of a story that's meant to connect all the games where players are trying to stop the end of the world. So seeing that start and the humbling beginning will be rather interesting now since the games have come from that.
2 Stealth
One of the first major games to come out that year to fully utilize the stealth aspect, after all, players take control of an assassin and because of that many aspects of combat use the stealth and that carries onto the next games. Although many of the games in the recent future move away from the social stealth aspect, the mechanic allowed the first Assassin's Creed game to hold up still today. Because players can play in two different ways being more aggressive or going into the stealth if players use the latter then they'll have a much more immersive time playing Assassin's Creed.
Blending in with the crowd during a major plot point where the player has to assassinate a target gets players' hearts pumping and can become more nerve-wracking because when players use the subtle approach timing becomes important.
So if players blend themselves within a crowd and arm themselves with the iconic assassin weapon, the hidden blade then gameplay becomes much more interesting, and then if players time the kill properly they can get their target with ease and without getting guards to chase them. This aspect makes players feel like they've done the objective properly which can be more rewarding in the end.
1 Open-World
The Assassin's Creed games have perfected the open-world aspect over the years, and how it impacts the story, charterers, and other elements, the open world has been a staple from the very beginning, and the first Assassin's Creed showcases that well for what it did for itself and what it did for other open-world games. In the first Assassin's Creed game players will travel to three cities, each with its distinct personality that makes it seem like players are playing a different game when they travel around.
This aspect of players going to many of the cities in each game has somewhat been removed over the last few entries with games like Assassin's Creed Unity being set in one city. But when players are able to travel around from city to city that aspect gives a better idea of the scope of the game which in turn can make Assassin's Creed more immersive and really fun to play because players will feel like their going on an actual journey which is one of many elements why Assassin's Creed is still a game that can be played today.
Assassin's Creed is available on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.