Best Assassin's Creed games, ranked

Best Assassin's Creed games of all-time
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Ranking the best Assassin's Creed games is quite the task. After all, there have been many different entries over the course of the series' history, with fresh experiences still to come amid the upcoming Ubisoft games. From Altair's original adventure back in 2007, to the latest entry that takes us to the streets of Baghdad in Assassin's Creed Mirage, the series has evolved and grown to encompass not only tightly focused stealth action, but sprawling RPGs too. 

With a fair few upcoming Assassin's Creed games currently in the works, we're hoping to see at least one of them amid the new games for 2024. Witch trials-themed Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe is particularly intriguing, while feudal Japan era Assassin's Creed Codename Red will bring players to time in history we've been eager to see Ubisoft give the AC treatment for quite some time now. There's never been a better time to replay some of your favorites or pick up a couple more from Ubi's back catalogue – and that's where we come in. 

So, if you're ready to venture through history with us, read on below as we take you through our ranking of the best Assassin's Creed games. 

Recent updates

Our list of the best AC games was updated on January 17, 2024. We don't have anything else to add right now, but keep checking back to see where any new Assassin's Creed games sit in our rankings.

23. Assassin's Creed Freedom Cry

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2014
Platform(s): PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch

This one was a tough call, because Freedom Cry was born as Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag DLC, but had bigger ambitions and eventually became a standalone title. While its combat and sidequest structure make it all but inseparable from Black Flag, it deserves an honorable mention at the top of this list for its story alone. Here, former slave Adewale stands against the slavemasters of Haiti in the name of freedom, proving that the Assassins' mission can take on many important shapes.

Freedom Cry puts you in the thick of a slave trade and is unflinching in how it depicts that brutality. You can't miss the human auctions or runaway slaves who will be killed without your help, and being a participant rather than an observer makes it impossible to ignore. But perhaps most importantly, Freedom Cry shows how those slaves and the nation's freemen are active participants in their own liberation, working with Adewale rather than waiting passively. In that regard, Freedom Cry does something that is not only important, but almost entirely unique, and that deserves a shout out.

22. Assassin's Creed Altair's Chronicles

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2008
Platform(s): Android, iOS, Nintendo DS

Before Ezio's trilogy was a twinkle in the eyes of the AC development team, there was Altair's Chronicles. The mobile prequel to the original Assassin's Creed, it sees Altair hunting for a mythical artefact called The Chalice in constricted 3D world. It's a disaster from start to finish: Assassin's Creed's combat is simplified down to the point that it's no longer interesting, locations and missions are same-y, its story (complete with forced romance) is hackneyed, and the dialogue is consistently awful with occasional forays into Vader ‘Noooooooo!’ territory.

The one thing Altair's Chronicles sort-of has going for it is visuals, including lovely (if overused) environmental designs, which at least make it aesthetically-pleasing. But that's not nearly enough to make up for its many and varied shortcomings, and with new mobile AC games surpassing its visual quality, it’s best to give this one a pass.

21. Assassin's Creed Identity

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2016
Platform(s): Android, iOS

Assassin’s Creed Identity launched on iOS with the intent to be more like the full-blooded console releases, albeit with an RPG spin. Set in the Italian Renaissance, Identity attempts to recreate the series’ signature sneaking-and-stabbing gameplay, shrunken down for shorter sessions. Ezio’s been swept aside for custom-created characters, each brought to life using a marvellous Italian name generator.

Sadly, you’ll probably spend more time messing around with that than you will the actual game. It’s a free-to-play affair, sending you to and fro to eliminate some guy / collect this artifact / escort this person in exchange for skill points you can spend on outfits, equipment, and move-sets. Spotty controls result in a lot of running into walls rather than up them, but at least you won’t have to avoid the usual swarm of civilians - there’s barely anyone in the streets, meaning that it’s up to the flat textures and boxy buildings to build the atmosphere. 

20. Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2016
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One

The final side-scrolling stealthy spin-off (say that three times) from Ubi and Climax Studios, Chronicles Russia is gorgeously drawn in the hues of 20th century propaganda, but fiendishly difficult. The sneaky quest of Nikolai Orelov in 1918 Russia, this is actually the most modern Creed adventure to date. Orelov is, of course, still an Assassin, complete with hidden blade but just to shake things up he's armed with a rifle for picking off enemies from afar and a winch for yanking doors off grates to sneak through. 

There's plenty of satisfying Assassin-ing to do here but Chronicles Russia manages to be the worst of the arty trilogy with some seriously infuriating difficulty spikes if you choose to do anything other that, well, spike your enemies silently. Add in some frustrating timed levels and the interesting Assassin's lore and new characters become bogged down by an experience that just feels like it hasn't been thought through quite hard enough. Unlike Chronicles China or India, both fun stealth side scrollers in their own right, this one is for fans of the Brotherhood only. 

19. Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2009
Platform(s): iOS, Nintendo DS

If you only played the Assassin's Creed mobile games, you might get the idea that the series' trademark is side-scrolling your way through corridors of oblivious guards/corpses-to-be. Assassin's Creed 2: Discovery won’t do much to dispel that notion; you play as Ezio, conducting assassination missions for a series of clients, all of which are nondescript and ultimately unimportant. They just act as vehicles to push you into a 2D platformer that takes on a few infinite-runner qualities, if you feel like charging in full steam and destroying every barely competent guard you meet.

It's a simple game that doesn't have the depth of most Assassin's Creed titles, but it does accomplish what it sets out to do. Creating a smoother, more interesting platforming experience than the mobile companion games, Discovery set the standard for 2D Creed games back in 2009. It's since been bypassed by the superior Chronicles: China, but might still be worth a play if you can find a DS copy, since Ubisoft has since removed all evidence of the mobile version.

18. Assassin's Creed Bloodlines

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2010
Platform(s): PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch

Released alongside Assassin's Creed 2 and Discovery in a calculated assault on everyone's wallets, Bloodlines on PSP continues Altair's story following the events of the original game. As opposed to previous handheld/mobile entries in the series, Bloodlines tries to approximate the 3D look and free-for-all gameplay of the console releases. In the case of the former, it does a decent job, with crisp visuals that make it look like a true AC game but when it comes to gameplay, Bloodlines misses the haystack: small environments funnel you into battles constantly and the combat system means fights often feel as ungainly as hand-stitching in oven mitts.

Plus, while Bloodlines does have an involved story that's not as awful as Altair's Chronicles, it often falls flat and isn't strong enough to make up for the lacklustre combat. The game's one saving grace is Maria - Altair's sharp-tongued associate who fans might remember from a certain dream sequence - whose interactions with Altair give the story some life and depth. Sadly, even she's not enough to save the production.

17. Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2016
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One

Acting as part two of the three-part Assassin's Creed Chronicles mini-series, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is the franchise's first foray into what was, at the time, the Jewel in the Crown of the British Empire. Unfortunately, you'll only see a limited amount of it, because main character Arbaaz's linear, 2.5D path doesn't leave room to explore much of anything. Beautiful backdrops and a satisfying sense of movement make up for that somewhat, but that only does so much to fix the game's other pressing issues.

Forcing you to suffer through unsatisfying, sloppily designed missions, the tedious stealth ‘option’ is basically mandatory. Chronicles India punishes you for even attempting to liven things up with combat, handing out automatic low scores or outright failure for your efforts. And in a game where points are directly tied to important upgrades, that just feels like bullying. Clumsy attempts to up the tension - like forcing Arbaaz to run slower than he did five minutes before, for no reason - lead to even more frustration, and awkward pacing makes the game drag horrendously. Falling short of its predecessor, Chronicles China, in almost every respect, this is an entry you can safely vault right over.

16. Assassin's Creed Pirates

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2013
Platform(s): Android, iOS

It takes serious confidence to slim down a mini-game from one of your previous titles and release it on its own. But Ubisoft was riding high on the crest of Black Flag's success in late 2013, and the result was Assassin's Creed Pirates, a mobile game that is just Black Flag's ship combat, playable on the go.

Pirates does try to be a proper Assassin's Creed game, with a story involving Assassins, Templars and magic DNA time machines, but that's just window dressing - you spend 99% of your time shooting cannonballs at other ships just 'cause. But the designers knew that, and so they made a point of prioritizing the combat and making sure that controlling ships via touch features feel simple and natural. Pirates sits low on this list because it’s just a facet of another Assassin's Creed game, but that facet is so well designed that it deserves recognition.

15. Assassin's Creed 3

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2012
Platform(s): PC, PS4, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch

Assassin's Creed 3 is, in many ways, a test drive. It was the first Ezio-less Assassin's Creed in five years, the first set in a populated wilderness (fields in Italy don’t count), and the first to feature the series' now beloved ship combat. It does a lot of things right, creating a Frontier you can explore for hours, and it’s sensitive to Kanien'kehá:ka culture. Unfortunately, it gets a lot of other things - fundamental, obvious things - very wrong.

Main character Connor is often too aloof and superior to be sympathetic, and the amount of times he steps in to save the incompetent Founding Fathers is hard to take seriously. The game contains sections that emphasize stealth, but the actual stealth controls are poor, so these parts are far more annoying than fun. And, hurting from a tight development schedule, the game shipped with enough bugs to make an entomologist swoon. Sadly, the way it controls is awkward at best and game-breaking at worst and let's not even talk about how climbing every tree is exactly the same. AC 3 has a lot of good ideas - crafting, ships, a working eco system - and a fascinating time period but is ultimately disappointing. Sorry Connor. 

14. Assassin's Creed Liberation

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2012
Platform(s): PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch

Assassin's Creed Liberation might now be available on console but it still bears the marks of its time on the Vita. Aveline's combat is just as fluid and satisfying as some of the strongest Assassin's Creed games, and presenting its story as the Templars' altered version of events is one of the more clever lore twists offered up by the Creed but there's no escaping how cramped the game feels, both in physical size and its storyline.

One-woman-wonder Aveline is a fascinating character with a lot of gusto, but her motivations are never really made clear, and neither are those of her enemies. And with only one city, some outlying swamp, and a temple to investigate, it doesn't make you want to explore the world the way an Assassin's Creed game should. All told, it fits squarely in the middle of the Creed quality scale: not great, but not terrible, and serviceable for fans in need of an AC fix.

13. Assassin's Creed Rogue

Best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2014
Platform(s): PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch

If you got your first look at Assassin's Creed Rogue with no context, you might come away thinking it's Black Flag DLC. That isn't too far from the mark - the story of an Assassin-turned-Templar named Shay Cormac, Rogue focuses on the period of time between Black Flag and AC3, and lifts heavily from Black Flag's trove of assets. Ship combat is virtually the same, music and sound effects are extremely similar, and Shay fights the same way Edward does nearly stab for stab. It's just much colder and don't go swimming in the North Atlantic. It's really not as nice as the Caribbean and will KILL you. 

With Black Flag's style of combat and exploration on the way out with the release of Unity, some fans hail Rogue as a welcome retread, and it does a standout job of replicating Black Flag's best parts. Plus, new environments like the North Pole, and minor additions to ship combat, give those mechanics a little extra juice without changing them too much. There's also the fact that it effortlessly sees off some of the North American arc's most beloved characters which makes for welcome fan-service. Throw in the nicely reversed element where you're constantly at risk of being slaughtered by Assassins and Rogue is definitely still worthy of your eagle vision. 

12. Assassin's Creed

The best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2007
Platform(s): PC, PS3, Xbox 360

The game that started it all isn't looking as hot as it was eight years ago, but it isn't quite falling apart at the seams yet either. Effectively a tech demo for what the franchise could become, the original Assassin's Creed gives you one thing to do (assassinate, if you hadn't guessed) and tells you to do it ten times over, with only the most repetitive of sidequests to break things up. Much of what earned it acclaim at the time of its release has also faded, as graphics have gotten better and Ubisoft honed the controls for AC games so you don't run up walls quite as much.

But what the original Assassin's Creed has going for it is a place close to the series' heart: you learn everything you can about your target, you plot the assassination, and you execute. The high-profile missions offer some variety in that regard, since each target behaves in a unique way that favors a different kind of approach. It's bare-bones, and it's been done better since, but the game isn't irrelevant yet.

11. Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China

The best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2015
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One

Continuing fine tradition of AC side-scrollers, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China perfects their best parts and improves on them by borrowing tricks from one of the best stealth games of all time (hint: it's the one with the ninjas). Stealth mechanics are integrated seamlessly and give the gameplay a lot more flavor, and true free-running segments create intense and welcome action. Add in a beautiful art style that disguises its lesser budget, and Chronicles: China is easily the best among Assassin's Creed's not-quite-2D library.

On the downside, its short runtime and basic setup don't allow for the exploration of a truly great Assassin's Creed, and the lack of variety between environments means that the world quickly becomes repetitive. Plus, protagonist Shao Jun's revenge plot is light on heartfelt storytelling, and instead unapologetically replicates that of her mentor, Ezio Auditore. But it's a fun and challenging title that advances the quality of the series' smaller offerings and redeems the format.

10. Assassin's Creed Unity

The best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2014
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One

Let's get this out in the open: Assassin's Creed Unity had problems. An ambitious project that promised to revamp Assassin's Creed's standard battle mechanics, create a bigger world than in any previous title, and build a completely new multiplayer from scratch, it bit off more cake than it could chew and was an infamously glitchy mess at launch. However while that may be the story that lives on into gaming infamy, it's really not Unity's full story. With week one glitches ironed out, French Revolution Assassin, Arno's adventures are a beautiful and ambitious journey through a genuinely incredible Paris. 

In addition to being gorgeous and upping the graphical standard for every Creed to come, Unity's assassination system is revolutionary, opening up new opportunities for creative killing by honing in on weak links in the environment's security. In addition, it offers up cerebral challenges in the form of murder mysteries and riddle solving, which are a lot more intricate and interesting than AC has seen in the past. If all Unity ever brings to the series is the ability to kill a man through the wall of a confessional and some serious brain teasers, its earned a place of esteem on this list.

9. Assassin's Creed Revelations

The best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2011
Platform(s): PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch

Pick a popular game, and chances are good that the protagonist is somewhere between 15 and 35 years old. They might as well be dead after that, because you're more likely to run across a unicorn in-game than a silver-haired main character. Ezio Auditore is not only an exception to that rule, but the best, thanks to the brilliant story at the forefront of Assassin's Creed Revelations. Featuring easily one of the most thoughtful and mature tales the series has yet woven, Revelations set the standard for every Assassin's Creed story since.

Admittedly, that brilliance isn't felt in every part of the game. Constantinople is fairly drab and forgettable, and the tower-defense mini-game added to territory-claiming is basically the worst. But that only speaks to the strength of Revelations' narrative, which focuses on sacrifice and loss in a painfully honest way that satisfies your heart as much as it breaks it. Both Ezio and Altair get the loving send-offs they deserve, because Revelations knows that there's strength in telling a different kind of story.

8. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

The best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2010
Platform(s): PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch

On paper, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. A direct, swiftly-produced sequel to Assassin's Creed 2 that restricts your movements to one city and de-emphasizes story: it had shameless cash-in written all over it. But those of us who prepared for disappointment were met with a pleasant surprise: Brotherhood is good. So good that it changed the face of the series forever by implementing brand new mechanics that influenced the series for years to come. Capturing territory, addictive multiplayer, and control over a legion of Assassins you can summon at your whim all came from Brotherhood. 

Ezio's second adventure in Rome might not have the multiple locations of its predecessor - except a heartbreaking section in Monteriggioni we still can't get over - but this is a city of constant discovery. Atmospheric lairs lie beneath the streets and Da Vinci offers up even more fun Renaissance Bond gadgets for you to play with. Parachute, anyone, or poison dart launcher? How about driving a 15th century tank? Brotherhood even hides emotional slices of plot for the curious to find, and Rome itself is so diverse that you're never left wanting for much more.

7. Assassin's Creed Syndicate

The best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2015
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One

In a world where steampunk is basically its own genre, Victorian London has been done to dapperly-dressed death. Yet when Assassin's Creed Syndicate showed up to the party fashionably late in 2015, it took to exploring the city with such unbridled amusement and sincerity that it was hard not to love, and had us asking for more like pitiful movie orphans.

Remembering to have fun where stiff-lipped Unity forgot (ironic, given that a stiff upper lip is sort of England's thing), Syndicate makes sure its many diversions are worth getting distracted by. Whether you're zooming across an impromptu zipline from your hidden blade or solving paranormal mysteries with Charles Dickens, Victorian London is never less than entertaining and sprawling and beautiful to boot. 

Charming twin protagonists, Evie and Jacob Frye both of whom you can play at your leisure, add to that enjoyment with snarky banter that never feels snide or off-putting. These feel like real people you'd want to have pint with. Just maybe don't make any jokes about Templars. Letting you play happily with everything and even hurtle through the city in carriages, causing absolute chaos, Syndicate brings together the best parts of the entire Assassin's Creed series under one fancy umbrella, showing what the series is capable of when it tries.

6. Assassin's Creed Mirage

The pack shot for Assassin's Creed Mirage featuring Basim

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Assassin's Creed Mirage dials back the sprawling RPG feel of the games that came before it to bring the series right back to roots in a game that feels both new and nostalgic. With the story focusing on Basim, who we first met in Valhalla, we follow him as he goes from street thief to Master assassin after joining the Hidden Ones. With all of the familiar tools back in play - such as smoke bombs and throwing knives, social stealth also features, with throwbacks to older features that haven't been as prominent in recent outings in the series. 

Mirage delivers an engrossing, more tightly focused adventure set in Baghdad that puts stealth and parkour at the heart of the experience. It really is a love letter to classic Creed for the modern era. 

5. Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

The best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2013
Platform(s): PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Switch

While AC2 soared to success on an updraft of enthusiasm for a burgeoning series, Assassin's Creed Black Flag arrived on the heels of the disappointing AC3, when confidence in the series was at an all-time low. It faced a hostile climate with little faith that a game about pirate Assassins could possibly succeed. And in proper buccaneer fashion, it blew the doors right off the place, taking every piece of the Assassin's Creed franchise and turning it to gold. Pirate of the Caribbean Assassin, Edward Kenway, is an irresistible rogue and absolutely cancels out his poe faced grandson Conor. 

There's almost nothing about the Assassin's Creed series that Black Flag didn't either invent or radically improve; against all expectations, it offered up the biggest and richest game world the franchise had yet seen, an incredible variety of addictive missions, ship combat that was suddenly fun, and an effortlessly beautiful soundtrack that you've probably listened to at least once while nowhere near the game. Plus, Black Flag goes beyond the video game basics, gives an honest treatment of an often misrepresented historical period, and deftly tells the tale of a time, a place, and a people that ultimately came to ruin. It's masterfully crafted, jaw-droppingly beautiful as whale tails rise and fall on the ocean wave, and we're still singing the sea shanties in the shower. 

4. Assassin's Creed 2

The best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2009
Platform(s): PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Switch

You've seen the numbers already, you know what this means. Assassin's Creed 2, the previous gleaming jewel in the Brotherhood's hooded crown has been finally surpassed. But why has the 2009 classic remained the pinnacle of the franchise until now? It's simple. Everything. Assassin's Creed 2 took the mechanics of its drab predecessor and breathed life into it. From the moment of Ezio's birth - yes, you do have to use face pad buttons to control his little chubby arms and legs - this is a game that delivers heart, soul and a world so gloriously expansive you feel like a kid in a murderous sweetshop. 

Florence, Rome, Venice, the glorious Italian Renaissance becomes your playground and with it's gradually unfolding narrative, Assassin's Creed 2 keeps handing over fresh toys. One hidden blade, two hidden blades, undiscovered tombs hiding deep below Italian cities, THAT Jesper Kyd soundtrack, everything keeps delivering long after you've finished the main story. The endless charm of Ezio, the seas of extra missions that enrich the world and even the relentless pursuit of a perfect Monteriggioni combine to make Assassin's Creed 2 everything that the franchise promises to be. Plus, the modern day elements are where you're truly introduced to the 21st century Assassin order. Danny Wallace's grumpy Shaun Hastings comes into play and an intriguing series of events in the present day gets the ball rolling for every AC game since. In short it was pretty perfect. Until...   

3. Assassin's Creed Origins

The best Assassin's Creed games

Release date: 2017
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One

Assassin's Creed Origins journey through Ancient Egypt doesn't just deliver a, y'know, origins story for the Brotherhood, but a beautiful world so rich and expansive that every step in any direction has the equal chance of serving up some new hidden treasure, or just a lion that really wants to eat your head. Bayek of Siwa, our new proto Assassin, and his equally murderous wife Aya are a new kind of heroes for the franchise, entirely oddly relatable despite their slaughtery quest for revenge across Egypt. 

And what an Egypt. The country is the true star of AC Origins and you'll be clambering up the tallest towers not just to improve your eagle Senu's perception - yes, true eagle vision - but just to take in the sights of this glorious world. Never has a photo mode felt so welcome. Your screenshot button isn't going to know what's hit it. Origins isn't just a pretty face though. Assassin's Creed has had the big reset button well and truly pressed. Combat has been entirely revitalised with light and heavy attacks on your right shoulder buttons, dodge is key, and you're going to have to fight tooth and nail to survive. The revitalised levelling system means you'll need to tread carefully to make it to the next battle.

An RPG quest system too means you've got endless choice of how to play. Origins takes away all the irritants of previous Creeds and makes it all about you. Kill how you please, ride where you want, climb every wall, find every loot chest of endlessly fun weaponry and ridiculous bows and arrows. There are no restraints here and tailing missions have been well and truly ditched. This is a new Creed, a perfect evolution of everything that has come before and even has a new modern day element that means you might just care what happens next. 

2. Assassin's Creed Valhalla 

Ubisoft

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Release date: 2020
Platform(s): PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X

There are two types of people in the world. Those who have taken their antihistamines and enjoy clambering into piles of hay to lie patiently in wait for passing villains, and those who would rather shatter castle gates with flaming battering rams. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla then, happily, is for everyone. With a renewed focus on the stealthier side of the Brotherhood via an actual ‘Hidden Ones’ hut in your settlement of Ravensthorpe, it brings back the heart of the series. But miraculously, Eivor’s adventures do this without taking away everything we love about the new Creeds. 

Story is vital across this sprawling beautiful world and everything you do here feels like it genuinely matters. Whether that’s experiencing the glorious mini world events, selecting an Ealdorman for a county, or crashing your longship onto a beach and blowing your horn before pillaging to your heart’s content. This campaign is a true saga too, full of characters who’ll sneak into your heart whether you want them to or not, making every region and adventure a genuine risk. Stopping to take in the scenery is an ideal way to exercise your screenshot button and appreciate the incredible world-building but also compose yourself for the next potentially emotional narrative pummeling. 

Then there’s the mythical realms, the whole other countries, the satisfying new combat switcheroo and expansive skill tree. Finding your feet in England is a true rise to glory for Eivor and there’s an almost overwhelming amount to do. But therein lies the joy of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Whether you want to fish, take in the scenery from the back of a wolf, hunt down Thor’s armour, or even Excalibur, this is a world where it all quite comfortably fits. Choose your weapons, pick some targets, hunt them down and then do something else entirely tomorrow. Valhalla is relentlessly, terrifyingly brilliant.  

1. Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Release date: 2018
Platform(s): PC, PS4, Xbox One

Read everything we said about Assassin's Creed Origins above, and then imagine if that was all done again, but in Ancient Greece, oh and about 100% more in depth. Welcome, fellow roof wanderers, to Assassin's Creed Odyssey. It takes players back to way back before the Order was even a thing, and tells a story through the medium of two new protagonists - Kassandra and Alexios. You actually get to choose who you play as right at the start, and then the rest of the game plays out according to your choices. And boy, will you have a lot of choices to make. This game is huge. 

But not huge in a way that you end up feeling like there's too much, or too little, to get involved with. This is a world that is filled with side quests and distractions galore, with each one being deal with the same quality and finesse. Not a boring fetch quest in sight, my friends. Just hours of glorious cutscenes, incredibly memorable characters and a whole lot of romance. 

The combat's had a load of tweaking too, ironing out some of Origins' quirks in favour of an expansive abilities tree and upgradeable / moddable armour and weapons that might just give Destiny 2 Forsaken a run for its money. This is the most customisable Creed ever, and you won't begrudge any of the time you spend tweaking your gear in menus, because it'll immediately pay off in the combat. No-one's made an open-world RPG with this much depth and brilliance since The Witcher 3. This really is the ultimate Creed. 


For more of the ultimate in what to play, check out our best PS4 games and best Xbox One games.

Louise Blain

Louise Blain is a journalist and broadcaster specialising in gaming, technology, and entertainment. She is the presenter of BBC Radio 3’s monthly Sound of Gaming show and has a weekly consumer tech slot on BBC Radio Scotland. She can also be found on BBC Radio 4, BBC Five Live, Netflix UK's YouTube Channel, and on The Evolution of Horror podcast. As well as her work on GamesRadar, Louise writes for NME, T3, and TechRadar. When she’s not working, you can probably find her watching horror movies or playing an Assassin’s Creed game and getting distracted by Photo Mode. 

With contributions from