The highly anticipated Assassins Creed: Odyssey hits shelves today and whilst some of us at Respawning might not be hugely into the series anymore, we all have a favourite Assassins Creed game so let’s take a moment to discuss our personal favourites!
Clarissa
I’ve only really played 2 to completion. I played one back in the day for about 30 minutes before going eh……and never picking it up again. I was tempted back into playing the second by my best friend who promised it was better….which it was, and I played that game to death! My absolute favourite bit was the Glyphs, I love puzzles, even if i absolutely suck at them. I love the cleverness of it all. The same friend told me that Glyphs weren’t really a thing in the next instalment….so naturally I didn’t bother buying it and then the franchise stormed away from me. I picked up the Ezio collection when it came out….but its still in the wrapper….maybe i’ll give it a go soon……..maybe…….
Ben
It is my general opinion that the Assassins Creed series should have ended at the end of 3, meaning I haven’t played any further through the series. I do own Black Flag and intend to give it a go but I still I do, I have no plans to play the upcoming game. But, that being said, I have completed every game in the series except 3 and Revalations. I can easily identify my favourite game in the series though. Brotherhood. The reason why I rate this game so highly is that of the management system underneath everything. You can build your own cell of assassins within Rome. There are a few different things you can do with your team, either keep them around to help you on your missions by directing them to kill targets of your choosing or send them off on missions around the world to help liberate cities around the world from Templar control. Essentially, you’re becoming the next Head Assassin of the Assassins Creed. This along with the fact that the game is just really good and has a decent story to go along with it puts it at the top of my list.
Javier
All of them. I am a huge fan of the Assassin Creed series and have played most of them (all main games except rogue), they all have their own way of being different whilst being part of a much larger storyline. My ultimate favourite, however, has to be Black Flag and that’s mostly because of my love for pirates. It’s also because it’s such a massive, varied game. You get to sail from one island to the next taking dudes down and conquering the entire region. It’s what every pirate game wants to be!
Chris
The best Assassin’s Creed is Assassin’s Creed 2, of course. It expanded upon the gameplay we saw in the first, and exploring the different city-states of feudal Italy was interesting; much like in the first title, every city felt unique and had it’s own flair, whilst trying to more or less realistically depict the cities as they were at those times. The introduction of the handgun was a tad OP, but that aside, the combat was fluid and challenging without being stupid, and Ezio’s plot really immersed you. Witnessing his rise from young noble douchebag to wisened master assassin over the course of his life was great, and that final boss fight with the Pope is easily one of gaming’s most memorable. The Desmond parts were still interesting at this point, too – kind of a shame they didn’t seem to know what to do with the general plot after he offed himself. The related titles, Brotherhood and more so Revelations, were decent, too.
At this point, I suppose, the franchise was still new, and still trying – sadly, with the franchise becoming so persistent to have essentially annual releases these days, it feels a like it’s suffering Battlefield syndrome – too much, too often. Yes, you hear some talk of Black Flag, and even a little about Syndicate, but almost no-one ever mentions things like Assassin’s Creed 3, Unity (in a positive way, at least), or Origins, or any of the dozens of spin offs and mobile titles like China and India and that. It’s like these titles just didn’t grab people. The series is also incredibly hesitant about going into the more recent past, or fully into the present, which is a shame. Hopefully Odyssey will be good, but will it bring the magic back, or prove that the franchise really needs to lay low for a few years to recover..?