Assassin’s Creed is one of gaming’s biggest franchises, and the series has seen its fair share of ups and downs since its inception. The original Assassin’s Creed provided an immersive and detailed recreation of a historical period, which did a lot to support the fairly standard gameplay and story.

The series has kept the same gimmick of setting players loose in a historical era over the years, but franchise fatigue and the repetition of annual releases left some Assassin’s Creed fans feeling burned out, leading to vastly different entries in more recent years. Assassin’s Creed is a series that has continually attempted to innovate upon its main formula, to varying success, and for that, the ratings of each game in the series are all over the place. These are the best games in the Assassin’s Creed series based on their Metacritic score.

10 Assassin’s Creed Rogue - 72

When Assassin’s Creed was transitioning to the current generation of consoles in 2014, Ubisoft decided that it wouldn’t leave PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 players in the dust. While PlayStation 4 and Xbox One owners got the shiny new Assassin’s Creed Unity, last-generation holdouts received Assassin’s Creed Rogue, the first mainline Assassin’s Creed game to star a Templar rather than an Assassin.

Unity was a technical disaster at launch, while Rogue was met with a lukewarm reception outside of the spotlight. Both games released when Assassin’s Creed fatigue was at an all-time high, and their reception suffered as a result. Rogue barely managed to knock Unity off this list, beating it out by just two points.

9 Assassin’s Creed Syndicate - 76

Following the release of Assassin’s Creed Unity, many fans were skeptical of the franchise, so tons of people elected to skip out on Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. Syndicate feels similar to Unity in many ways, boasting the same impressive graphics and a reworked combat system, but it sadly flew under the radar due to the disastrous launch of Unity.

Syndicate is unique in that it has the most recent setting of any mainline Assassin’s Creed title, being set in the Industrial Revolution during the late 1860s. As such, the game is filled with things that previous entries in the series could never include, like trains and factories. This setting wasn’t enough to save Syndicate from mediocre critical reception, and Assassin’s Creed took a gap year for the first time since the original game following Syndicate’s release.

8 Assassin’s Creed III - 80

Assassin’s Creed III had an incredibly high bar to reach, and it ultimately failed to reach the heights of its predecessors. That’s not to say it’s a bad game, but it was a lackluster follow-up to the Ezio trilogy.

Assassin’s Creed III had a lot on its plate. It was the conclusion to the modern-day storyline featuring Desmond Miles that the series had been building up since the first game, and it jumped way further into recent history than the franchise had ever gone before. The hype leading up to launch also hurt the game, as fans super high expectations for the first numbered Assassin’s Creed game in a few years.

7 Assassin’s Creed: Revelations - 80

Much like Assassin’s Creed III, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations was hyped up prior to launch as the culmination of Ezio’s story. Not only would fans get to see the conclusion to a story they’d been following for two games, but they’d also get to see their favorite protagonist work alongside Altair, the protagonist from the first Assassin’s Creed game.

It attempted to do a lot of things, but it ultimately failed to resonate with fans as much as Ezio’s earlier outings, netting it a lower Metacritic score than previous releases.

6 Assassin’s Creed - 81

While it may seem dated by today’s standards, the original Assassin’s Creed broke new ground by providing a well-research and historically accurate playground for players to run around in. Being able to climb any building or structure opened up tons of gameplay possibilities, and the social stealth mechanics of hiding in plain sight echoed the best parts of Hitman.

Still, it was an awkward first outing even by the standards of the time, and the formula wouldn’t be perfected until the sequel. It might not be the best game on this list, but it laid the groundwork for everything that came after it.

5 Assassin’s Creed Origins - 81

Following the gap year after Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the series turned in a drastically new direction with Assassin’s Creed Origins. It ditched the crowded urban environments of the games that came before it in favor of the wide-open deserts and primitive cities of ancient Egypt.

The different setting was matched with equally different gameplay, as Origins doubled down on the RPG aspects of the series, allowing players to level up, build their character, and accept tons of quests. The result was an Assassin’s Creed game that felt incredibly fresh, and the protagonist, Bayek, has gone on to become one of the franchise’s more memorable leads.

4 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey - 83

Much like Assassin’s Creed II, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey took the foundation laid by its predecessor and expanded upon it in new ways. Origins introduced heavy RPG elements to the series, but Odyssey took those elements and ran with them, resulting in a game that feels more like The Witcher than Assassin’s Creed.

Being the earliest game in the timeline, Odyssey is lacking series staples like the hidden blade or even the Assassin Order, but everything eventually ties into the main series once the finer plot points are revealed. Odyssey is definitely a departure from the other games in the series, but the changes paid off in the end.

3 Assassin’s Creed IV - 86

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag might not have been the most original Assassin’s Creed game, but its namesake allowed for incredibly varied gameplay that the series had never seen before. Earlier games dabbled with naval combat, but Black Flag took things to the next level, letting players take command of their own pirate crew and sail the high seas at their leisure, exploring uncharted islands and pillaging enemy vessels.

Black Flag is just as much a pirate game as it is an Assassin’s Creed game, and that’s why so many people remember it so fondly. The flashiness of Assassin’s Creed’s combat combined with epic naval battles and boarding made for one of the best pirate adventures in all of gaming.

2 Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood - 89

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is the follow-up to the acclaimed Assassin’s Creed II, which marked the beginning of the series’ meteoric rise to success. As such, there were incredibly high expectations for the game, and it actually managed to deliver.

Brotherhood sent Ezio to Rome, and it proved to be a wonderful setting. While Brotherhood never quite reaches the highs of Assassin’s Creed II, it’s a worthy successor to the game in every way. It also introduced competitive multiplayer to the series, which was truly unique from anything available at the time.

1 Assassins’ Creed II - 90

Assassin’s Creed II is the reason why the series exploded in popularity over the past decade. It took the formula established in the first Assassin’s Creed and provided the necessary fixes and tweaks to create a fantastic game. Ezio is one of the greatest protagonists in all of gaming, and he’s a large reason why so many people fell in love with Assassin’s Creed II.

It also traded the dull and dreary Holy Land setting for a vibrant and much more interesting Renaissance-era Italy. Throughout Ezio’s journey, players would meet several famous faces such as Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Macchiavelli, making even the cast of supporting characters incredibly interesting and memorable.

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