Parkour to plot: The Assassin’s Creed games that perfected each element

It’s hard to be a gamer and not hold some affection for the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Whether you lean toward the older, classic stealth-focused entries or the newer RPG-lites since the 2017 pivot, AC has remained a key part of gaming culture since 2007.

Across 14 mainline games, the series has seen great, mediocre, and downright unforgettable entries. Sure, no single title does it all, but that’s what makes this once-legendary series so appealing — each one nails something specific, spoiling us all for choice. Whether it’s stealth, parkour, or combat, some Assassin’s Creed games simply perfected a key element better than the rest. No, this isn’t a “top 5 AC games ever”, but rather just a celebration of the franchise’s core elements, and where they peaked.

5 Assassin’s Creed Syndicate had the series’ best parkour

This was Unity refined, back while we still had ledges and buildings

In 2014, the Assassin’s Creed franchise entered a new era of visuals, presentation, and parkour, with Assassin’s Creed Unity. Unity boasted an all-new free-flowing parkour system, and while it really did feel smooth and responsive, it was equally floaty and unreliable, especially considering the game’s terrible PC launch. I’ve since grown a lot of respect for Unity, but just a year later, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate came out, which honed and perfected Unity’s parkour system, and was the last “true” AC game in many people’s opinions, myself included. It even got a 60fps update recently, giving me the opportunity to replay the game and get lost in 19th century London again.

Before the franchise pivoted hard into the diet-RPG genre with AC Origins in 2017, Syndicate became a rather underrated gem in the franchise. As a high-schooler who was studying the Industrial Revolution at the same time as I was playing it, there was simply no experience as surreal and atmospheric as Syndicate and its soot-coated factory walls and horse-drawn carriages. Add to that a parkour system that was its most refined version ever, and a time when the series still had bustling towns and buildings to climb, jump, and hop across instead of mountains, and open fields, and you have a game that isn’t just one of my favorites in the entire franchise, but one where the original series’ parkour shines the brightest. Perhaps the one game in the franchise that could also take the title of "best parkour" is the recently-released AC Shadows, but it does stealth far better than it does parkour.

4 Stealth in Assassin’s Creed has peaked with Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Shadows does shadows right

I’ll be honest — I was positively excited for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, considering it looked like it would herald in true next-gen visuals and gameplay. Now, I was partly right, because the game really did benefit from the extra time it spent in development, and is decidedly one of the best-looking open-world games on the market today. However, the writing and acting fell flat, but that’s not the point. What Shadows does the best in the entire series is stealth. In fact, it would’ve been a shame if an Assassin’s Creed game with Shadows in its title was bad at stealth.

From crawling through bushes and crevices to extinguishing lights and disappearing into corners, Shadows finally made stealth feel immersive again. You can prone, crouch, and slink around castles and pagodas, striking from the dark like a ghost. What makes it sing is the setting — feudal Japan is tailor-made for stealth gameplay, with ample verticality, vegetation, and moody lighting. The entire environment feels like it’s inviting you to sneak around. Assassin’s Creed Shadows didn’t just do stealth well — it made it the most exciting it’s been since Brotherhood, and finally put the “assassin” back in Assassin’s Creed.

3 Combat was the most brutal in Assassin’s Creed III

Tomahawk to the face

I first saw Assassin’s Creed III in a gaming lounge, right before a Hitman: Absolution preview. Watching Connor in his gray-and-blue robes flip through enemies and drive a tomahawk into a soldier’s chest had me sold on the spot. This wasn’t just AC — it was visceral, stylish, and unlike anything I’d seen before.

The combat was a giant leap forward. AC III gave us the Frontier to explore, introduced rope darts and muskets, and let us fight like absolute machines. It took heavy inspiration from Arkham-style counters but made it its own — fluid, impactful, and gloriously savage. Sure, later games added more weapons and complexity, but none captured the raw brutality of Connor’s fighting style. That crunch of a tomahawk, that weight behind every counter, and the ruthlessness of his finishers gave AC III an identity that’s never quite been replicated. I’ll admit, nostalgia plays a part — but this was peak AC combat for me.

2 Assassin’s Creed II’s story is still my favorite

Ezio’s journey hits every emotional note

Let’s put it out there — Assassin’s Creed III, Black Flag, Rogue, and Origins, all had really fantastic stories that left the most impact, and are quite unforgettable. However, I don’t think I’d find much disagreement if I said that the Ezio trilogy, in the hearts of every player who’s ever loved Assassin’s Creed, shines the brightest. From a young, brash teenager getting into brawls, sneaking into his girlfriend’s house and being on a first-name basis with the local doctor, Ezio was thrust into an all-new life. This new life was one of responsibility, where he had to take care of his mother and sister as he tried to avenge his family’s death, all while navigating his place in an ancient brotherhood where the stakes were always life or death.

From climbing the Santa Trinita church and looking at the Il Duomo, appreciating life, to battling the pope in the Vatican City as an ancient goddess talked through him to a man who would come to live over 500 years later, Ezio Auditore da Firenze went through it all in Assassin’s Creed II. Combine that with Jesper Kyd’s legendary Ezio’s Family theme that eventually became the entire franchise’s musical motif, and you have a story no player would ever forget.

1 Open-world exploration never felt as good as in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

Ancient Greece during lockdown? Sign me up.

I’m not the biggest fan of the RPG-heavy Assassin’s Creed entries. Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla brought on Ubisoft’s infamous formulaic bloat, and I usually long for the tighter, more focused games pre-2017. But credit where it’s due — Odyssey nailed exploration like no other AC game has.

I played Odyssey during the pandemic, and escaping into its gorgeous recreation of Ancient Greece was exactly the kind of digital therapy I needed. The sprawling open-world was vibrant, richly detailed, and genuinely fun to get lost in. I climbed mountains, dove into deep-blue oceans, and roamed through ruins that whispered history. Despite the grind and padded questlines, Odyssey never once stopped being beautiful. And Kassandra? Easily one of the franchise’s best protagonists — sharp, witty, and a joy to embody. Odyssey may not be my favorite AC overall, but when it came to wandering a world and just soaking it all in, very few entries in the Assassin's Creed series come close.

Assassin’s Creed has always had something for everyone

The beauty of Assassin’s Creed is that no two players ever have the exact same favorite — and that’s by design. Each game in this series has brought something new, something different, and some have perfected particular elements, even if the rest of the package might not have always been flawless.

We may never get one perfect Assassin’s Creed game, but these five prove that perfection can still exist — one element at a time.