The Assassin’s Creed games are among the best games for ‘reliving’ history. A series that has portrayed medieval Crusader states, Renaissance Italy, Ptolemaic Egypt and beyond, each Assassin’s Creed game invites players to journey into an impressively rendered albeit heavily fictionalised version of the past.
Since the first game released in 2007, Assassin’s Creed has continued to fortify its best-selling status with beguiling variations of historic people and places. Here are the most notable Assassin’s Creed games in order.
2007: Assassin’s Creed
The first Assassin’s Creed game was released in November 2007. It took place during the Third Crusade in the Levant in 1191, and turned the cities of Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus into open world, parkour playgrounds. Assassin’s Creed introduced main character Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad as a member of the historical Order of Assassins, albeit thrown into a fictionalised conspiracy plot which enrolled the voice talents of Nolan North and Kristen Bell.
In the words of long-time Art Director Raphael Lacoste, “The world of Assassin’s Creed was created to stir the imagination, to travel in time in order to discover epic locations and witness some of the world’s most pivotal moments in history.” This is where that journey begins.
Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut
Image Credit: Ubisoft
2009: Assassin’s Creed II
Set mainly in Florence and Venice, Assassin’s Creed II was Ubisoft Montreal’s next game, which they brought to market with a development team triple the size of that which created the original Assassin’s Creed. The sequel continued an overarching speculative fiction thread, while situating the game in Renaissance Italy between 1476 and 1499.
The game fleshed out the science-fiction of the Assassin’s Creed universe and elaborated on the technology of the animus, which allows 21st century character Desmond Miles to relive the “genetic memories” of his ancestors. In this case, players control Ezio Auditore da Firenze as he roams through Venice, Florence and San Gimignano.
Dr Farhad Daftary joins Matt Lewis to tell us what the Assassins stood for, how they interacted with Christians and other Muslims, and why the Old Man of the Mountain was so important.
Listen Now2010: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Assassin’s Creed II sold over 9 million copies, and led to two direct sequels in Brotherhood and Revelations. Brotherhood expanded the city of Rome, which is briefly glimpsed in Assassin’s Creed II, and takes place during the years 1500-1507.
Making allegiances with characters such as Niccolò Machiavelli, Ezio challenges the rule of the Borgias in Rome and pursues Cesare Borgia for control of an ancient technology. Brotherhood also added a multiplayer mode to the series for the first time. Within a year, Brotherhood had sold 7.2 million units.
Assassin’s Creed II
Image Credit: Ubisoft
2011: Assassin’s Creed Revelations
The fourth major instalment in the Assassin’s Creed series wrapped up Ezio’s storyline, while resurrecting Altaïr in a brief cameo. Revelations was set in Constantinople at the peak of the Ottoman Empire. Its fictional history spans the years 1511-1512, and features historical figures such as Manuel Palaiologos, Prince Suleiman, Piri Reis and Niccolò and Maffeo Polo.
The artists working on revelations drew on fascinating historic sites, and washed them with a darker colour palette. The Grand Bazaar is rendered as a maze of colourful stalls, at a reduced scale, while the ruined Hippodrome recall classical Greece. The ancient underground city of Derinkuyu, Turkey, inspired a locale in Cappadocia.
2012: Assassin’s Creed III
Revelations was swiftly followed by Assassin’s Creed III, the first game in the series to be set in North America. Through the sci-fi animus technology, series protagonist Desmond Miles relives the experiences of his English-Mohawk ancestor Ratonhnhaké:ton, alias Connor. The game had entered development two and a half years earlier, after the release of Assassin’s Creed II.
Assassin’s Creed III Remastered
Image Credit: Ubisoft
Assassin’s Creed III allows players to collude with and confront historical figures from revolutionary North America, including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Paul Revere and Marquis de Lafayette. Each is created first as a character within the story, then as a historical figure.
2012: Assassin’s Creed Liberation
A spin-off called Assassin’s Creed Liberation was released the same year, developed by Ubisoft Sofia. Taking place alongside the story of Assassin’s Creed III, Liberation is set in late 18th century Louisiana and focuses on the series’ first female protagonist, French-Haitian Aveline de Grandpré.
2013: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Black Flag is one of the most warmly regarded entries in the series for its introduction of ship-based exploration on a seamless open world map. It took place in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of piracy in the early 18th century, and followed Welsh pirate Edward Kenway.
It was one of the best selling games of the year, with 15 million copies sold by 2020. An Aveline expansion pack for Black Flag continued the narrative established in the Assassin’s Creed Liberation spin-off.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Image Credit: Ubisoft
2014: Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry
Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry is a spin-off from the main series. It centres on a slave revolt in Haiti in the 1730s, following protagonist Adéwalé who establishes a fictionalised covert network in Port-au-Prince. For historian Alyssa Sepinwall, Freedom Cry is notable because it “leads players to sympathize with enslaved people fighting against oppressive enslavers.”
2014: Assassin’s Creed Rogue
While Ubisoft Montreal continued work on Assassin’s Creed Unity for a new generation of consoles, Ubisoft Sofia were working on Assassin’s Creed Rogue. The seventh major instalment in the series, Rogue was intended to finish the North America saga while building on the fan-favourite sailing feature.
Rogue was set during the Seven Years’ War, with players sticking with Shay Patrick Cormac, an Irish immigrant from New York. But one of its most important moments takes place in Portugal in 1755, during the devastating Lisbon earthquake which remains one of the deadliest in history.
2014: Assassin’s Creed Unity
Assassin’s Creed Unity launched on the same day as Rogue. It distinguished itself with its large-scale version of revolutionary Paris. The game’s main storyline opens with a crowd of Parisian citizens storming the Bastille on 14 July 1789. Unity proceeded to cover a number of famous landmarks from revolutionary Paris in one of the most impressive city recreations in the series.
Palais de la Cité in Assassin’s Creed Unity
Image Credit: Ubisoft
2015: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Syndicate was set in Victorian London. It introduced twins Jacob and Evie Frye to the series, both of whom could be controlled. It also let players pilot carriages around 19th century Bloomsbury. After 2013’s Rogue, Syndicate was the second major entry in the series not to be made by Ubisoft Montreal. Instead, Ubisoft Quebec led development, having previously served as a junior partner in the series.
Syndicate introduced players to the Industrial Revolution, and Ubisoft’s gas-lit London is populated by themes of technology, poverty, banking, pollution and mass production, as well as empire.
Historical characters featured in the game included Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Florence Nightingale and Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire who lived in the United Kingdom after being deposed by the British Crown.
2017: Assassin’s Creed Origins
Origins effectively reset the series formula, releasing two years after Syndicate and energising the series with cues from leading RPGs like The Witcher III: Wild Hunt. Its sophisticated ancient Egypt setting benefited from inspiration from archaeologists and historians.
The vast, video game interpretation of Ptolemaic Egypt became the first setting in the series to host Assassin’s Creed innovative Discovery Tour mode. In Origins, Discovery Tour took the form of a walking tour through the game’s historical landmarks. Players can wander around the ancient world, taking in the sights accompanied by audio commentary, timelines and textual information.
In medieval Baghdad, there was a particular focus on two elements of knowledge expansion: recording existing principles, and further expanding on this knowledge through experimentation. Al-Mahani represents a key figure in this transitional period of scholarship, translating and commenting upon Euclidean geometry, as well as laying the mathematical groundwork for future astrologists and scientists.
Listen Now2018: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was developed in parallel with Origins by Ubisoft Quebec. It explores the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta in the 5th century BC. By 2020 it had sold 10 million copies. Discovery Tour made a reappearance, encouraging players to explore places like the Amphitheatre of Cyrene and subjects such as democracy in ancient Athens.
2020: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
After the release of Origins in 2017, Ubisoft Montreal focused on Valhalla. Valhalla presents a virtual recreation of early medieval England and has the player control a Viking raider named Eivor Varinsdottir. It was launched and partly developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was the biggest launch in the series to date.
Already a vast proposition in terms of runtime, additional content for Valhalla took the action to Viking-era Ireland and to Francia during the reign of Carolingian emperor Charles the Fat. History Hit explored 12 historical locations from France that make an appearance in the Siege of Paris DLC.
In the 16th century, Japan was embroiled in what is known as Sengoku jidai - ‘The Warring States’ period. It was a time of bloody battles, social upheaval and is known as the most violent in Japan’s history.
Listen Now2023: Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Assassin’s Creed Mirage aimed to revive the stealth aspects of the series promised, but not quite fulfilled, by the original Assassin’s Creed. Mirage put the player in early medieval Baghdad, an extraordinarily realised interpretation of a historic city at the height of its influence. It was yoked to a compelling story whose success is at least partly related to the fact that it could be completed by humans obliged to find time to sleep, eat and work.
2024: Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is set in Japan. It presents the African samurai Yasuke and the adept shinobi Naoe, and appears to span a vast open world in the mould of Origins and Valhalla. A Japan-set iteration of the game has long been on the lips of players, a demand only partially sated by Sucker Punch Productions 2020 Ghost of Tsushima. Shadows puts the action in feudal Japan where its developers, Ubisoft Quebec (responsible for Odyssey), invite players to create a scheming shinobi league.
