That's it, I'm giving in!

[Ranorak]

So, you don't have to be a hardcore game fan to see that Assassins Creed is liked by many.
Cosplay merchandise and the release of the 6th(?) game all point to that.

My first run in with the Brotherhood began with Assassins Creed 1, and I did not like it. The combat felt slow, the free running was a bit wonky and lets not even mention the horseback riding. (Seriously, speed limits?)

I never finished the game.

But, I do think the concept is interesting. And people insured me that the sequels significantly improve on the flaws of AC1.

But then there is the story.
I prefer to start stories at the beginning.

So, my question here is the following.

If I wanted to get into the AC series, would I have to suck it up and force myself through part 1, to get to the chocolatey goodness of the later parts?
Or is there an perfectly logic starting point at a later point?

 

[small]

ignore it all, get black flag, and ignore all the future stuff.

its a pirate game shoe horned into assassins creed

 

[CannibalCorpses]

You may not have been reading the forums recently but a lot of people have been complaining about how the series is quite boring and at which number they gave up the ghost. I do recommend playing the first game if only to learn why the game has assassin in the title...it tends to make little or no sense in later games where you basically become unkillable and should be called 'god'.

You've avoided the hype this long...pat yourself on the back and walk away while you can...

 

[Spushkin]

Play AC 2, it's awesome, improved on every aspect of the first game. IMHO, you won't suffer much from missing out on the previous story. Also, play AC: Black Flag if you like pirate-related stuff.

You'll see if you want more after that.

 

[Flames66]

Good luck to you. I have not finished the first game because I found the story too disjointed. I was just getting into riding around the holy land as a bad ass stabby man and suddenly I'm stuck walking around a white room with nothing to do except listen to two shouty lab coats. The gameplay was not fun enough to get past the story problems.

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Assassins Creed II and Black Flag are the only games worth playing in the series.

Don't worry about the overarching story. It gets dumb at the end of AC II and by the time AC III's credits roll around nothing makes sense at all.

 

[erbkaiser]

Ignore 1, play AC2, Brotherhood, and Revelations.
Play IV Black Flag, and if you liked it, also play Rogue.

AC3 is a bit hit/miss, likewise AC:Liberation

I can't give an opinion on Unity as I've not played it yet.

 

[default]

Don't bother my friend. They're really not that great. I have this thing with the AC series like a slightly irrational hatred. They aren't all that offensive at the end of the day. I think I just hate seeing development and expansion of the core mechanics of the game (sneaking around, climbing, swordfighting and stabbing a bloke) being swamped and left behind under pointless fucking garbage piled on top like training new assassins or selling fucking couches.

For that reason, I recommend the first game. It has focus and drive, and actually has some challenge to it.

 

[Flammablezeus]

I say go through the first one. It's the only one with actual assassin mechanics. The rest just make you play as a free-running murderer. Sure, there's stealthy killing in the other games, but no planning out assassinations or anything.

 

[Maximum Bert]

I finished the first one thought it was pretty terrible to be honest although the graphics and art were nice its just a shame the game was lacking its also extremely easy for 95% of it seriously just walk in and counter kill everyone to death that said the assassinations for all their wonky mechanics that dont quite work are the best part about the game everything else is either awfully designed or sufferable at best.

Only played 2 and brotherhood for a bit not enough had changed to get me to wade through another slightly below average game even if they did seem improved. Havent touched the series since then so cant comment personally on the newer ones although Black Flag seems to get more positives so I would suggest someone get that if they feel they have to play an Assassins creed game but I cannot recommend the first entry on anything other than its nice art and graphics as the gameplay and story were bad and very unsatisfying.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Assassin's Creed II pretty much tells you all you need to know about the story. If you really can't go through AC1 that's fine. Play the Ezio trilogy. It's awesome. Those games are pretty cheap now. You'll definitely get your money's worth.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Don't bother my friend. They're really not that great. I have this thing with the AC series like a slightly irrational hatred. They aren't all that offensive at the end of the day. I think I just hate seeing development and expansion of the core mechanics of the game (sneaking around, climbing, swordfighting and stabbing a bloke) being swamped and left behind under pointless fucking garbage piled on top like training new assassins or selling fucking couches.

For that reason, I recommend the first game. It has focus and drive, and actually has some challenge to it.

Exactly this. The series really does nothing well. It's not a stealth game, it's not a platformer, and it's not a combat game. It's really just as Yahtzee says not much more than faffing about.

AC1 is by far the best one, it actually attempted to have core mechanics to it. AC1 is kinda like Hitman-lite. You gather intel to be able to do the actual assassinations, which you automatically get in Hitman. The intel gathering gets old fast as you do the same things over and over again like eavesdropping or beating info out of people. It makes sense and all, but it just doesn't equate to good gameplay. The assassinations themselves are pretty decent, you have to figure out how to get into the area and to the target unseen, it's basically Hitman-lite. AC1 is almost certainly the hardest game of the series, I haven't played them all though. To do the one-hit counter kills against the tougher enemies in AC1, you need to use the hidden blade, which means you need proper timing as you can't block (classic risk/reward). Then, in AC2, you get 2 hidden blades and you can now block with them so the one-hit counter kill is no risk and all reward, there's literally no reason to use any other weapon than the dual hidden blades. I stopped playing after AC2 because I realized that the best part of AC2 were the glyph puzzles. I was hoping the franchise would move more towards Hitman in structure but with AC2, the series went much more into the GTA-like mission structure (direction following simulator) and I was pretty much done with the series. And, I HATED fucking Ezio and the end of AC2 was actually awesome because Ezio's sole purposed ended up being rather laughable, but then the sequels had to make him all important and shit.

 

[laggyteabag]

Assassin's Creed 2, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed: Revelations* and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag are the only worthwhile Assassin's Creed games that I have played. I find Assassin's Creed 1 to be excruciatingly boring to play, and whilst Assassin's Creed 3 has a pretty big graphical and gameplay improvement over the Ezio trilogy, just skip it and go straight for AC4 which has everything AC3 had and more (dont worry about the story; Connor is boring and the story isn't too great either). I cant speak for Rogue (waiting for the PC release) or Unity (havent played it yet), but that is pretty much my rundown of the series.

[small]*Just because you would be missing out on the final part of the Ezio trilogy otherwise. Also watch Assassin's Creed: Embers if you are interested in how it ends for Ezio.[/small]

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I think either AC1 or AC2 are fine places to start the series. AC1 is very much routine: you eavesdrop, you pickpocket, you tail and you interrogate until you gather enough "intel" to unlock an actual assassination mission. Some assassinations are pretty linear, others give you more elbow room for improvisation. You do this nine times in a row across 3 different cities, and the game ends.

AC2 is a little more like GTA, every mission is unique and gameplay isn't as rigurously cut as AC1. Despite the dangers of monotony in AC1, I enjoyed the way you were basically a guy doing his job: you commute to work, do some research, and so on. Sounds boring but I kinda felt like a pro in Altair's shoes, whereas Ezio is an opportunist who more or less makes everything up on the go.

Anyway, you can skip AC1 and head straight to AC2 and its sequels Brotherhood and Revelations (buying the "Ezio Trilogy" is a good deal). But once you play AC2 you probably won't like going to AC1, since the second game rights a lot of wrongs.

 

[MHR]

Just look at a lets play of the AC games you don't want to play on youtube or something. You'll get all the story and let someone else bite the bullet for you.

 

[Ronald Nand]

Assassins Creed 2 and Black Flag are must buys if you are going to in the series, you'll get a good dose of the Renaissance and the Caribbean/Americas from these games. It also comes down to what periods of history your interested in, if you're interested in the period the game is portraying you'll probably enjoy that game.

Unless you are very interested in the Crusades, you can give AC1 a miss, the gameplay has not aged well, and its innovative feature was the parkour which is a normal feature in the sequels.

Assassins Creed 2 is a massive improvement over AC1, plenty as assassinations and interesting environments to run around in. I also recommend Brotherhood, its Assassins Creed 2.5, it adds alot to the game in my opinion and has a good story that connects to Assassins Creed 2. Get Revelations only if you really like Ezio as a character and want to see the end of his story.

The story in Black Flag isn't that good, especially if you are interested the Templar Assassin conflict, forget all about the assassin Templar conflict when you play imagine you are a playing a pirate game and you'll enjoy the story. The gameplay is awesome in that game too, stealth is improved and sailing is a lot of fun.

I don't recommend Liberation or Assassin Creed 3. Liberation is pretty boring, its more of the same thing as Assassins Creed 2 except less better. Assassins Creed 3 has a boring setting in my opinion, the protagonist is not charismatic and dull (although for the purpose of the story it fits), there's only really one interesting and compelling character, the main villian. If you are interested in the American Revolution then you'll probably enjoy AC3 so I recommend having a closer look if you're interested in that period of history.

Haven't played Rogue or Unity so I can't comment on the quality of those games.

 

[JohnnyDelRay]

As someone who only played AC1-AC3, I would definitely say start at AC1. I found that to be an absolute ball-tearer of a game, the only one that makes you feel like a badass assassin doing his thing like only he knows how. Story was great to start the franchise off as well, after that I gave less and less of a damn.

AC2 is very good and fixes up a lot of things about AC1, but less of the assassin feel. AC3 is a lot of boring busywork, dull character, dull story (I'd rather read an American History textbook), dull side missions, assassinations, everything. You get a lot more money than you need, and once you upgrade to the best pistols and swords/daggers, there's nothing to really stop you. Only thing I really enjoyed was the ship fights and hunting.

And from what I hear, if you like AC1 and AC2 enough, then go ahead and skip right to Black Flag, which apparently takes the best from AC3. Whatever you do, I strongly recommend the first one, then the second. You can drop it after that.

 

[Something Amyss]

I played a bit of AC, got tired of it, and then picked up AC2 when people insisted it fixed many of the issues with 1. I feel like I know enough of the story that it doesn't matter. AC2 starts with a bit of a summary, and I never particularly felt like I was missing out.

 

[camazotz]

So, you don't have to be a hardcore game fan to see that Assassins Creed is liked by many.
Cosplay merchandise and the release of the 6th(?) game all point to that.

My first run in with the Brotherhood began with Assassins Creed 1, and I did not like it. The combat felt slow, the free running was a bit wonky and lets not even mention the horseback riding. (Seriously, speed limits?)

I never finished the game.

But, I do think the concept is interesting. And people insured me that the sequels significantly improve on the flaws of AC1.

But then there is the story.
I prefer to start stories at the beginning.

So, my question here is the following.

If I wanted to get into the AC series, would I have to suck it up and force myself through part 1, to get to the chocolatey goodness of the later parts?
Or is there an perfectly logic starting point at a later point?

You can start with AC IV but I'll be honest, I did the manly thing myself and played straight through 1, II, II part 2, II part 3, III, Liberation, and now ACIV (waiting for Unity to patch). It was a long effin journey but well worth it. the AC II trilogy sort of made it hard to appreciate the later titles, though... they all feel so half-baked compared to the Ezio trilogy. AC IV sort of made up for that a bit though.

Edit: playing through the original AC is worth it for three reasons: 1. it takes about 12 hours, not long (AC II by contrast....oooh boy). 2. it's actually a good story and really helps to make events in Brotherhood and Revelations more meaningful. 3. the flaws in AC, once dealt with, help you appreciate the improvements in AC II.

 

[G00N3R7883]

But then there is the story.
I prefer to start stories at the beginning.

If you want story, then honestly, Assassins Creed is not the franchise for you. Potential spoilers follow, but it might save you 150 hours and £150 of disappointment.

I played the first 5 games because I found the concept of the overall story interesting (good guys want to save the world from a prophecy of a natural disaster, bad guys want to enslave the world's population). But it never goes anywhere. Especially "Revelations" was insulting because it doesn't actually "reveal" anything. The main character is in a coma for the entire game so nothing moves forward. A major character is killed at the end of Brotherhood and its never mentioned again in the next 2 games.

Play AC if you like running around an open world, climbing up buildings and stabbing things.