The Assassin’s Creed franchise has managed to reinvent itself and continue releasing huge numbers of games, even as other franchises around it begin to slow down. The franchise has focused on continuing stories, expanding the open worlds that gamers have always felt freedom in, and trying out different gameplay styles. This includes the major shift into RPG territory for several of the more recent games.
However, one of the features that the franchise has never held onto tightly is that of cooperative and multiplayer play. At one point, these ideas were all the rage in the series. More recently, Assassin’s Creed Invictus has been announced, a solely multiplayer game that heralds the future of the franchise heading back into this territory. This has prompted fans to revisit the previous games in the series which offered multiplayer options of various kinds.
Every Assassin's Creed Game, Ranked
From the original to now, every Assassin's Creed game has its highs and lows, but which is the best?
5 Assassin’s Creed Unity
Metacritic Score: 72
One of the initial great failures of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Unity, has become a cult classic after a bug-laden release. The game, set in Paris during the Napoleonic Era, remains the only one with a truly cooperative mode available. Despite the poor release, the major selling point of this entry was the co-op mode provided. However, this didn’t continue into the next entries, as the series moved away from this idea toward the larger open-world RPG style of game.
Despite the main story missions within Unity remaining single-player, players could access Brotherhood Missions through taverns in the game map. Here, players could start their own missions or request to join their friends in their adventures. This provided an experience that remains unique in the long-running franchise to this day. Up to four players could join together in co-op missions, all playing as their own version of Arno along with all their gear from their own game. It made for an exhilarating shift from the multiplayer modes that previous Assassin’s Creed games had offered.
4 Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Metacritic Score: 89
The third Assassin’s Creed game released, Brotherhood was the first in the franchise to feature any multiplayer abilities. The main campaign remained single-player, and focused on Ezio Auditore’s ongoing battle with the Borgia family and a heartbreaking ending for Desmond. But in addition, the game featured a separate mode where players took on the role of Templars in training. Here, they were forced to fight against each other in the Animus to unlock more skills obtained from former Templars in generations past.
Brotherhood came with eight different game modes, many of which were takes on the common FPS multiplayer game modes that were still incredibly popular at the time. Maps for the multiplayer mode included a variety of locations across Italy from Assassin’s Creed 2, as well as Brotherhood’s own campaign. Despite not being all that cooperative in nature, the multiplayer mode in Brotherhood was ground-breaking for the series.
3 Assassin’s Creed Revelations
Metacritic Score: 80
The direct sequel to Brotherhood, Revelations, continued and concluded the story of Ezio, while bringing original protagonist Altair into the story of the main campaign as well. The multiplayer, though Ubisoft made it clear that this was not the focus of the game, was expanded in this entry. New modes were made available, such as Capture the Flag, which had been heavily desired by fans.
7 Assassin's Creed Games With The Most Replay Value
Every Assassin's Creed fan undoubtedly has their favorite game in the series. These entries have some of the best replay value in the franchise.
In addition, there was a clearer objective for fans who loved the lore of the series. Templars that leveled further in the multiplayer mode were able to access more information about the company. This gave the mode a little more direction and helped improve upon the base ideas from Brotherhood’s initial foray into multiplayer territory.
2 Assassin’s Creed 3
Metacritic Score: 84
The final installment of the original Assassin’s Creed franchise was Assassin’s Creed 3. This entry saw Desmond Miles pass on and leave the franchise, and saw the series leave Altair and Ezio behind. It gave way to a new protagonist, leaving behind the format of focusing on the same historical character for more than one game.
Additionally, the multiplayer mode introduced in the previous two entries was expanded further in Assassin’s Creed 3. A proper cooperative game mode was added called Wolfpack, which featured up to four players working together as assassins and attempting to kill several specific NPCs within a time limit. This cooperation was a big hit, and the other returning multiplayer modes were also much loved by fans. This helped give Assassin’s Creed 3 the level of fond remembrance in the franchise that it holds today, and makes ideas like Invictus seem more viable.
1 Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag
Metacritic Score: 88
The latest entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise to feature the same kind of multiplayer mode introduced in Brotherhood was Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. This beloved entry once again expanded upon the multiplayer options and game modes. It added a Game Lab which players could use to modify the game modes themselves, and modes like Wolfpack returned to add a more cooperative element to the multiplayer.
Black Flag, unfortunately, didn’t add anything to the multiplayer modes that involved the ship and naval elements, which were a major factor in the main story and single-player campaign. However, many players regard the Black Flag multiplayer modes as the most refined version of the original Assassin’s Creed multiplayer, with the most varied options available.
All Assassin's Creed Games, Ranked By Best Open World
Assassin's Creed is synonymous with expansive open worlds, but which entry in Ubisoft's franchise is the best in this area?
