Come, visual effects junkies! Come, history enthusiasts! Come, warriors! None of you will be dissatisfied as this saga has so many angles to enjoy. Set in the epic and multi-generational conflict between the Brotherhood of Assassins and the Knights Templar, all Assassin’s Creed Games in order of release date are listed below.
With historical plots and characters throughout the centuries, visually striking scenery throughout the world, and epic fight scenes throughout their chapters, these games will draw you in and keep you hooked.
1. Assassin’s Creed (2007)
Desmond Miles finds himself in quite a predicament. Abducted by Dr. Warren Vidic of Abstergo Industries, Desmond is made to go from present-day bartender (2012) to medieval assassin by way of a machine called Animus. Using this machine, Desmond is able to access and live through the memories of his ancestor Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad, a member of the Assassin Brotherhood during the Third Crusade.
His primary mission as Altair is to locate and assassinate nine targets. As Altair moves through the Holy Land, the player must perform reconnaissance and ultimately locate and terminate each target through combat. Throughout this mission, Altair learns that these men are actually members of the Knights Templar, the Brotherhood’s sworn enemies.
His targets are involved in a conspiracy to uncover and retrieve a relic called the “Apple of Eden,” which is thought to possess divine powers that could be used to enslave many people if placed in the wrong hands.
As Desmond navigates between living Altair’s ancient memories and periodically reporting back to Present Day, he makes shocking discoveries about Altair’s ancient mentor as well as Present Day Templars and their modern motives, including their ties to Abstergo.
2. Assassin’s Creed II (2009)
The second chapter of Assassin’s Creed brings our Desmond to 15th century Italy during the Renaissance period. With the help of Dr. Vidic’s assistant, Lucy (revealed to be an undercover agent for Present-Day Assassins) in Present Day, Desmond escapes the clutches of Dr. Vidic. Lucy’s updated version of Animus as well as her secret team put Desmond, once again, on an enthralling mission.
He is now living the memories of his ancestor, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a man seeking revenge on the part of his executed family members. Enzio learns that he is part of a family line of Assassins. He trains to become an Assassin himself and journeys across Italy seeking vengeance.
During his journey, Ezio encounters allies in Niccolò Machiavelli and Leonardo da Vinci. As Ezio confronts his final adversary, the Grandmaster of the Templars, Rodrigo Borgia, he learns of Borgia’s plot to open what he calls the “Vault” which contains great and influential power. He also discovers two Pieces of Eden in Borgia’s possession – an Apple of Eden and Borgia’s papal staff.
Borgia escapes from Ezio with the staff but Ezio remains in possession of the apple. Desmond now jumps to a later memory of Ezio’s, where Borgia is now Pope Alexander VI. Ezio breaches Vatican City and beats Borgia in hand-to-hand combat, gaining the papal staff and letting Borgia live. Using the two Pieces of Eden, Enzio opens the “Vault” and is introduced to Minerva, a member of the “First Civilization.”
He learns that the purpose of the Pieces of Eden and is told that he will be responsible for fulfilling the “prophesy.” A gripping and dramatic ending point peaks when Dr. Vidic and Abstergo locate Desmond and the team in Present Day, causing this chapter to end with the protagonists on the run and mention of an approaching cataclysmic event threatening Present Day earth.
3. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (2010)
Desmond, Lucy, and the team are now hiding out from Abstergo with the new Animus. When Desmond accesses Ezio’s memories once again, he sets out to find the Apple of Eden in hopes that it will deter the coming cataclysmic event. At this point, Cesare Borgia, Rodrigo Borgia’s son, comes on the scene as a new threat. He kills Ezio’s uncle, Mario and in the process, takes the Apple of Eden for the Knights Templar.
Ezio escapes to Rome and begins to build up the Assassins Brotherhood. Over several years, Ezio and the Assassins launch strategic maneuvers and assassinations aimed at weakening Rodrigo and Cesare’s power over the city. Ezio rises to the position of Mentore in the Brotherhood and begins to lead the Italian Assassins. He watches Rodrigo and Cesare secretly and sees Cesare outmaneuver his father and ultimately kill him.
Through witnessing these events, Ezio learns the secret whereabouts of the Apple. Ezio is able to retrieve the Apple and with it, he turns Cesare’s followers against him and Cesare is finally arrested by the army of Pope Julius II. Ezio finally hides the Apple in the Temple under the Colosseum, which gives Desmond and the team its location in Present Day.
In the temple, however, Desmond meets a being named Juno – a First Civilization being like Minerva – who tells him that he is a descendant of the First Civilization. When Desmond touches the Apple, Juno overwhelms his body and makes him stab Lucy. The game ends on a low note with the death of Lucy and Desmond falling into a coma.
4. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (2011)
Unconscious Desmond is once more placed in the Animus in the safe mode called the “Black Room” with the hopes that if he continues to enter the memories of his ancestors – until he has seen everything possible – it will fix his mind and bring him out of a coma.
Desmond enters into the memories of Ezio once more, where Ezio is returning to Masyaf, the former stronghold of the Assassins, and discovers that Altair’s library can be opened with five discs which operate as keys to the door of the library.
The Templars are in possession of one key and the rest are in Constantinople, where Ezio heads next. As he retrieves Altair’s keys, Ezio is able to relive Altair’s memories through them. Once he has all five keys, Ezio opens Altair’s library to find the corpse of Altair and a sixth key. The library was actually a vault – for Altair’s own Piece of Eden.
Enzio does not take the Apple from the library and instead begins to actually talk to Desmond (aware of his presence). He drops his weapons in a symbolic gesture and seems to pass the torch of finding answers on to Desmond. At this point, Desmond meets Juniper, another entity from the First Civilization, and is told of a central vault in New York which holds certain data that may assist Desmond in saving the planet from a solar flare. Desmond awakens to find he is with Lucy’s team. He tells them “he knows what they must now do.”
5. Assassin’s Creed III (2012)
Desmond is now reliving the memories of his ancestor, Haymeth Kenway, in 18th century Colonial America amid the Revolution. Haymeth is in possession of a stolen medallion, the Key to the Temple’s inner chamber which Desmond is trying to gain access to in Present Day.
Haymeth has a son, Connor, with a Mohawk woman and, after she is killed during what is thought to be a Templar attack on her village, Haymeth is revealed to be a member of the Templar Order and not the Assassins. Desmond is now able to access Connor’s memories and follows as Connor is trained by retired Assassin, Achilles.
Connor attempts to work with his father toward peace between the Templar and the Assassins but to no avail. Haymeth challenges his son and Connor prevails against him, killing his father and retrieving the Key. As instructed by Juno through a mystical sphere, Connor buries the key in the grave of Achilles’ son, Connor Davenport.
In Present Day, Desmond takes possession of the key and enters the Temple’s inner chambers. Juno and Minerva appear and Desmond discovers that he has a choice. He can sacrifice his life by activating the pedestal and save the planet from the flare, but he will also unleash Juno on the humanity who is determined to conquer them. He can also let the solar flare occur, which he will survive, and mentor the remaining survivors while keeping Juno locked away. Desmond decides to sacrifice himself and hopes that humanity is able to fight against Juno.
6. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (2013)
In the beginning of this chapter, we find that Present Day Templars in Abstergo are searching for the Observatory, a First Civilization artifact that can be used to spy on anyone in the world. An unknown individual is hired to use samples from Desmond’s body to search the memories of Edward Kenway, father to Haytham Kenway.
Edward is an 18th century pirate who gets caught up in a Templar conspiracy to find Bartholomew Roberts, the “Sage,” who is the sole person that can lead them to the Observatory. Edward finds Roberts and, in turn, the Observatory and the device that powers it. However, Roberts betrays Edward, landing Edward in prison for piracy. After his escape, Edward trains to become an Assassin and joins the Order. He defeats Roberts and the Templars, and he restores the device to the Observatory.
In Present Day, the unknown player is approached by an Abstergo employee who persuades the player to hack Abstergo’s systems and deliver data to the Assassins. As the hacking is occurring, Juno appears and reveals that the world is not ready for her. John is revealed to be the reincarnated Sage and was actually trying to resurrect Juno.
The Sage has apparently no loyalty to either faction of Templars or Assassins. Abstergo security kills John and eventually the Assassins make contact with the player. It is unclear what the Sage’s motive was or what the identity of his followers are, but they are known as the Instruments of the First Will.
7. Assassin’s Creed: Rogue (2014)
“Rogue” begins again in Colonial times with the player tracing the memories of a new member of the Brotherhood, Shay Patrick Cormac. Cormac is a promising yet defiant recruit and when Port au Prince is destroyed by an earthquake after a mission to retrieve a Piece of Eden, Cormac is sent to retrieve another artifact.
When another earthquake hits as he tries to obtain it, Cormac discovers that the Brotherhood’s missions are, in fact, causing these catastrophic events. Learning the Brotherhood’s plan to still continue these searches, Cormac abandons the Brotherhood and aligns himself with the Templar. He joins the Templar Order and works to assassinate all high-ranking members of the Brotherhood.
After assassinating all but two, Mentor Achilles and Liam O’Brien, Cormac follows them to the arctic and is joined by Haythem Kenway. As they meet Achilles and Liam in the arctic temple, the Assassins admit that they have seen reason, that they are destroying civilizations by retrieving the artifacts. Liam, however, attacks Cormac in vengeance and the artifact is destroyed, causing another earthquake.
A dramatic scene unfolds as the men try to escape the dangerous quake while fighting with one another. Liam perishes in a fatal fall while fighting Cormac and Achilles is defeated by Haythem back at the ship. Back in Present Day, the player is ordered by a high-ranking Templar to upload Cormac’s memories to the Assassin servers in an attempt to dishearten them with these dark moment’s in Brotherhood history.
8. Assassin’s Creed: Unity (2014)
In this installment, the player first sees a memory from 1307 where a sword and a book are being hidden in a crypt in France. The player is then contacted by the Brotherhood and informed that Abstergo is searching for the corpse of a Sage in order to obtain precursor DNA from it for what is called the Phoenix Project.
We are then introduced to the memories of Arno Dorian, the son of a French nobleman in 1776. Arno’s father was an Assassin, unbeknownst to Arno himself, and his father is murdered. Arno is taken in by Templar Grand Master De La Serre who knows the truth about Arno’s heritage.
Years later, Arno is supposed to deliver a message to De La Serre but neglects to do so. He finds De La Serre dead and is wrongfully accused of his murder. While imprisoned in the Bastille, he befriends a prisoner named Pierre Bellec, an Assassin, and they escape together during the Storming of the Bastille.
Arno joins the Brotherhood and sets out to assassinate those responsible for De La Serre’s death. He frees François-Thomas Germain, a prisoner of Grand Master Lafreniere, and kills Lafrenierre himself. He learns, however, that the prisoner he freed is actually the Sage and he killed Lafrenierre wrongfully. This fatal error causes Arno to track down Germain as well as rescue his long-time love, Elise.
Together, Arno and Elise track down Germain and they assault him. Germain has the Sword of Eden which Germain uses to temporarily incapacitate Arno and kill Elise, but Arno ultimately kills Germain. Arno puts his skeleton in the Catacombs of Paris which means Present day Abstergo will never find his corpse.
9. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (2015)
The player is once again contacted by the Brotherhood and asked to sift through the memories of twin Assassins, Jacob and Evie Frye, in London during the Industrial Revolution. The Brotherhood in London has been defeated and the Templar has full control of the city.
Outside of the city, the twins learn of a powerful Piece of Eden and return to London to find it and liberate the city. They liberate sections of the city and sabotage resources of Grand Master Starrick. Evie discovers that the Piece of Eden they are looking for is called the Shroud of Eden, which has the power of healing and can make its possessor immortal.
As the twins assassinate all of the Templars in Starrick’s circle, he decides to go after the Shroud himself. The search on both sides leads to the vault in Buckingham Palace and Starrick gets to the Shroud first. The twins ultimately kill Starrick and return the Piece of Eden to the vault.
In Present Day, a team of Assassins race to the vault only to be beaten there by a team of Templars. Fighting erupts and a Templar escapes with the Shroud. The Present Day Assassins learn that the Templars will use the Shroud to create a living Precurser and Juno is also after the Shroud for unknown purposes.
10. Assassin’s Creed: Origins (2017)
We open on 49 BC where a man named Bayek and his son are abducted are pressured to open a vault in the Temple of Amum, Bayek escapes but his son is killed in the process. He sets out to exact revenge on the culprits with his ally, Aya. Together, they hunt down the abductors one by one and discover that some are high ranking officials in royal households in both Egypt and Rome.
They enlist the help of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar and Cleopatra reveals that the men responsible for his son’s death are members of the Order of Ancients, adding more names to the list of assassinations. As Cleopatra’s list of enemies grows thin, she takes the throne as Pharaoh while she and Caesar cut off Bayek and Aya, aligning themselves with the Order.
In response, Bayak and Aya recruit more people to the Brotherhood and begin orchestrating assassinations of Caeser’s lieutenant and Caeser himself. Aya threatens Cleopatra and ensures that she will rule well for the people.
In Present Day, we are introduced to Layla Hassan, an employee of Abstergo assigned to locate a relic in Egypt. Instead, she finds the tombs of Bayak and Aya and retrieves their memories. Layla is approached by the brotherhood and she tentatively joins their cause.
11. Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (2018)
With the help of the Brotherhood, Layla enters the memory of siblings known as the Misthios in ancient Sparta in order to find the Staff of Hermes. A man named Elpenor hires the Misthios to assassinate a man he refers to as “The Wolf of Sparta” which turns out to be their stepfather, Nikolaos.
They confront Elpenor and ultimately execute him. They learn of the Cult of Kosmos whose aim is to kill the Misthios and their family so they can use the Peloponnesian War to gain control of Greece. The Misthios, while locating and eliminating Cult threats throughout Greece, meet their real father, Pythagoras, and learn that their bloodline in Leonidas is closely connected to Precursor artifacts like the Spear of Leonidas.
They begin to retrieve Precursor artifacts with the intention of sealing off Atlantis to protect it from evil factions like the Cult and they destroy the Precursor pyramid to prevent it being used for political evil. In Present Day, Layla finds Atlantis and activates it. She is warned by the shockingly still-alive Misthios that balance is required between the Brotherhood and the Templar, not the destruction of one. The Misthios pass the Spear of Hermes to Layla, calling her the “prophesied one” and they die.
Happy Gaming!
A dream to lovers of atmospheric and action games alike, Assassin’s creed gets better with every new chapter. Gripping combat scenes, beautifully created scenic backdrops, and mysterious plotlines all converge in the riveting and brilliant game play. With eleven different installments and additional downloadable content, entertainment is seemingly endless in this history-meets-science-fiction saga!
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