7 Most Polarizing Assassin’s Creed Games

While the Assassin’s Creed franchise has its fair share of fans, many of its entries have been polarizing, to say the least. Like any franchise, it has grown, evolved, and course-corrected many times over its lifetime, making for some games where the fanbase is split down the middle.

Whether it’s the switch to an RPG, the switch back to a more linear experience, or times when the games have leaned too heavily in either direction, some entries in the franchise are bound to pick up controversy.

7 Assassin’s Creed

The Origin Of It All

Though Assassin’s Creed was no doubt revolutionary when it first came out, in the time since reviews have split a little more down the middle. Some believe that the game’s revolutionary aspects put it in good stead, whereas others are wary of the tedious tailing missions, drab world, and repetitive mission structure.

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Where anyone lands on the debate probably depends on whether they played Assassin’s Creed on launch or not. There’s no doubt that Assassin’s Creed hasn’t aged particularly well, and for some, that’s simply too big a hurdle for it to overcome.

6 Assassin’s Creed 3

Join The Revolution

After the Ezio trilogy of games, Assassin’s Creed fans were excited to see the game take an entirely new direction as it moved into the American Revolutionary period and the slaughter of the most modern Templars yet. However, what was meant to be a fresh start for the game became mired in controversy for a convoluted story, a world that threw away the dense cities of its predecessors, and severe pacing issues.

However, Assassin’s Creed 3 also has a lot of charm too with an inspired choice of a tomahawk-wielding central Assassin of Connor and a new focus on wildlife and wilderness. For some, those innovations don’t outweigh the problems, making Assassin’s Creed 3 one of the most polarizing entries in the series.

5 Assassin’s Creed: Rogue

Templars Spinning Off

As the franchise was boldly moving into the PS4/Xbox One generation with Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Ubisoft decided to release two games, with Assassin’s Creed: Rogue being the entry for PS3/Xbox 360 owners who hadn’t made the switch to the new generation yet. This made Assassin’s Creed: Rogue a clear lackey to its bigger brother, and its so-so reviews on release only reinforced that idea.

However, some fans have reevaluated Assassin’s Creed: Rogue as being underrated, citing the novel notion of playing as Templar killing both Assassins and Templars, a focus on the amazing naval combat of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag that was yet to come, and a story that explored entirely new areas of the game world. In modernity, fans are split, making it a very polarized entry.

4 Assassin’s Creed: Mirage

A Bold Step Backwards

After the release of Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, many gamers were clearly unhappy with how far the series was leaning into its new RPG direction, forsaking a stealth focus, and bemoaning the content bloat that could see a single playthrough stretch into hundreds of hours long. Assassin’s Creed: Mirage was intended as the remedy to that by vastly limiting the game’s tools and content bloat, but it has proved similarly polarizing.

Some fans didn’t like the franchise clearly taking a step backward and not innovating into something new and complained of a story that did little to make assassination targets meaningful. While the legacy of Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is yet to be cemented, it still proves to be a controversial entry whose merits and flaws are yet to be agreed upon.

3 Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate

The Victorian Age, Iterated

Before the soft reboot of the entire franchise with Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate took the franchise to the long-desired location of Victorian London. However, this was at peak fatigue for the Assassin’s Creed franchise as a whole, and many saw Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate as a mere reiteration of its predecessor’s worst flaws.

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However, fans have recently begun to reassess Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate positively, praising its lively depiction and in-depth depiction of London that takes a long time to see everything, its two-protagonist system, and its story that showed hints of how far the series still could go. Still, a wide-reaching consensus hasn’t been reached, and the legacy of the game remains in contention.

2 Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

The Viking Age Is Over

As the first Assassin’s Creed game to release on the newest consoles, expectations were high for Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, particularly with its popular Viking setting and theme. However, the game has proved severely polarizing since its release and has come to define how the franchise is talked about to this day.

While many will praise the historical detail and graphical fidelity, there are severe doubts about the game’s overbearing length, fairly dull protagonist, and unfocused story filled to the brim with historical characters that seeds too much ground to boring sidequests. Despite Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla‘s biggest swings, its fans, and detractors have strong opinions in both directions and the consensus remains polarized.

1 Assassin’s Creed: Unity

The Franchise Tipping Point

As the first entry of the franchise on the PS4/Xbox One generation, expectations were sky-high, particularly with stunning new tech that vastly increased crowd density and visual fidelity. However, the game launched with a litany of bugs and technical issues that marred the game’s reception long after it was released, still being a joke to this day, among other critiques of its convoluted narrative, bland protagonist, and simplistic combat.

However, as the game has aged, many more have come back to defend the game as a still visually stunning rendition of Paris as one of the best Assassin’s Creed settings ever with more expressive combat than its peers and a genuinely affecting story. Most fans have made their mind up about Assassin’s Creed: Unity, and almost ten years after its release, its legacy remains as polarized as ever.

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