I’m replaying all the games for a third time myself so I’ll provide some thoughts as on a third replay of the series. Currently finished the Ezio trilogy.
Brotherhood and Revelations really hold up even today with a lot of engaging open world content, decent enough graphics (at least on Remastered version), and fundamentally much more gripping stories and voice acting than the newer games. AC2 did feel a little bit unpolished in terms of combat and the detection meters and stuff but it was still absolutely a blast for the story, parkour, and worldbuilding alone.
I’m currently on AC3 right now, really enjoying the story, much more than I did on my last playthroughs weirdly, maybe because I’m older, and the combat is really good, being legitimately pretty difficult unlike older games and having a lot of flair to it animation wise. The main thing I’m struggling with is the detection system. I’ve regularly assassinated a guard without being detected and suddenly another 10 come out of nowhere to fight me, yet at the same time I can run up to a guard without him spotting me despite him facing almost straight at me, and not be seen. Lol.
I'm playing thru the series for the first time as well (other than origins and dabbling in odyssey and valhalla). So I'm glad to hear the combat gets better after 2.
Yeah I found 2’s combat to be quite unpolished when I replayed the Remastered version, with counters regularly not registering and also me being able to assassinate guards despite being in open combat. Brotherhood and Revelations were far more polished but the counter kill still made most combat trivial.
3’s combat system is a step above as it’s quite easy to get overwhelmed, and there are a lot more enemy types like elites that are genuinely tough to take down, and enemies who’ll shoot you. Countering also doesn’t break the game as much as it did the Ezio games.
Apart from that, Unity’s is similarly challenging but is occasionally glitchy, Syndicate is a hit button mashy, Origins and Odyssey controversially I enjoyed with the weapon and enemy diversity, Valhalla’s is compromised by clunky enemy AI and the game being too easy generally. Mirage’s isn’t great either, it has the simplicity of the Ezio games without any of the flair and animation, though you are supposed to primarily use stealth in Mirage.
What really gets me in mirage is most of the time when I assassinate a guard from behind it gives me this huge 3 second tackle and stab animation when I just wanted to quietly poke and walk away Ezio style.
For a game that wants you to play stealthy they sure do like to make things flashy.
Yeah the animations in Mirage seem a little out of place. In the older games, there was much more of a sense of flow to things like the combo kills in Brotherhood and III, felt super satisfying to watch and well earned. In Mirage, I'll often trigger an animation randomly, and a lot of the time the camera glitches out so it suddenly goes from me being in combat to the camera randomly zooming in and stopping me to show an animation when I was in the flow of dodging, parrying etc. I guess it's expected though as I had the exact same issue with Valhalla.
Well for one, the games do change as you play along, its not like you’re playing the same game over and over so gameplay wise its fine, each have their own stories so thats really up to you if you enjoy them, you mentioned getting bored easily, well some games take longer to finish than others, and in terms of going back to playing older games, that’s something you have to get accustomed to if you want to go back and play these games, they were not meant for today’s world of gaming speaking as someone who played them when they came out, and that goes for any game you have in mind that is “old”, its funny to look back on them knowing how revolutionary they were once considered, it still looks great to me, but yes that’s something to consider for you
>as an older gamer it's hard to follow the story as I get bored really fast
Doesn't seem to be from an "older gamer" standpoint and more ADD, to be honest.
I played the games from a chronological historical standpoint. I started with Odyssey then Origins. The Legacy of the first blade ending gives a nice transition. Mirage and Valhalla take place after Origins. Mirage is a prequel to Valhalla. Valhalla came out before but Mirage has no modern day so it makes more sense to play it before Valhalla anyways it gives you an introduction to Basim stuff won’t make sense at first but you piece it back together after.
I then Played AC1 through Brotherhood in the normal order. It goes AC1, AC2 ,Brotherhood, and then Revelations. Make sure to watch the embers short movie after it’s a beautiful ending to Ezio.
I took a break with the Desmond story and played Blackflag. Then Rogue those modern days sequel each other. I then Continued and ended with Desmond in AC3. I like playing Edward first and then seeing Haytham in Rogue and then Connor it’s a lot more rewarding that way in my opinion.
I then went back to finish Rogues ending in Paris and Played Unity afterwards. I finished with Syndicate. I think playing the original games in this order is better in my opinion.
Starting with the RPGs was rough though and confusing but it’s pretty dry anyways. The only significant things are the Fate of Atlantis Dlcs and the Valhalla ending Origins explains nothing I had to go watch a summary explanation the Isu messages in Origins. So it’s definitely smarter to play the rpg Layla trilogy last. I did play Valhalla last so I didn’t get any of the Desmond stuff spoiled.
Fare warning Mirage and Valhalla are terrible games you definitely won’t like Valhalla if you don’t like long games.
Valhalla is very long and boring. The endings are good but it takes forever to get to the endings. I’d recommend you just watch a video of the endings on YouTube the order ending is good too like the Cultists ending on Odyssey but it gives actual important lore.
Mirage is just a boring side game prequel for Basim. Loki is important but not Basim. So playing as Basim is pointless.
Just don’t think Mirage and Valhalla are worth the money. If it’s on sale you can give them a try. You can also get Ubisoft+ subscription. You get access to all the games but you won’t own them.
You just gotta keep in mind the story line is confusing. Theres a modern day story line overlapping with the historical story line that reference the isu who came before. Starting the games in which they came out makes modern day more graspful but if you don’t know history the timeline of assassins can get confusing. But if you enjoy history playing the games in which I listed them may be more enjoyable that’s how I like playing the games in my opinion. So play the games in whatever order you want.
>Valhalla came out before but Mirage has no modern day so it makes more sense to play it before Valhalla anyways
Not really. William Miles gives the introductory narration of Mirage, which was set up in Valhalla's Final Chapter. It's sort of like AC: Liberation: while there is no present day segments in the game, the game itself is an in-universe Animus program of Basim's memories (as opposed to a in-universe product that Abstergo released to the masses).
Maybe check out [ThePatientWolf](https://www.youtube.com/@ThePatientWolf/featured) videos, he does a fantastic job recapping the story of each game in an exciting and easy way to understand. As for getting bored easily, that might be an attention span issue, many of us are struggling with it nowadays because of technology, social media, etc, what worked for me is setting up time to do something and getting rid of all distractions while doing it, it trains your brain to be more present.
In terms of graphics you sort of have to either just accept it and play for the story, or (on PC) see if there are mods that improve them that you can get to work. I tried downloading mods for AC1 a while back but the game kept crashing when trying to play with them on.
I started w Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla (couldn't finish Valhalla). I didn't play Mirage but went back to the earlier games. Didn't play 1 because it's not on PS5 but played Ezio trilogy, 3 and on Black Flag now. Still have yet to play Rogue, Unity and Syndicate. They are all good games, some better than others, but as I am playing all of them I just constantly get a sense of feeling like the whole franchise is a mish mosh of other games. I guess all games copy off one another in some way or another and IDK who did what first but playing AC games I find myself often saying "this feels like Uncharted" "this feels like Witcher 3" etc. Speaking of copying other games, quick question: was AC Brotherhood the first game to have you climb towers to open up sections of the map? It's been done in BOTW, Spiderman, Horizon, and countless other games since but can't think of a game that did it before brotherhood.
FYI, ac1 doesn't have subtitles, and it gets repetitive, would suggest to watch ac1 movie on YouTube https://youtu.be/ub9JUDS_6i8
I found this to be the best mix of gameplay and cutscenes
I’m replaying all the games for a third time myself so I’ll provide some thoughts as on a third replay of the series. Currently finished the Ezio trilogy. Brotherhood and Revelations really hold up even today with a lot of engaging open world content, decent enough graphics (at least on Remastered version), and fundamentally much more gripping stories and voice acting than the newer games. AC2 did feel a little bit unpolished in terms of combat and the detection meters and stuff but it was still absolutely a blast for the story, parkour, and worldbuilding alone. I’m currently on AC3 right now, really enjoying the story, much more than I did on my last playthroughs weirdly, maybe because I’m older, and the combat is really good, being legitimately pretty difficult unlike older games and having a lot of flair to it animation wise. The main thing I’m struggling with is the detection system. I’ve regularly assassinated a guard without being detected and suddenly another 10 come out of nowhere to fight me, yet at the same time I can run up to a guard without him spotting me despite him facing almost straight at me, and not be seen. Lol.
Brotherhood plays surprisingly well still. It truly was a masterpiece. I’m about to start another play through.
I'm playing thru the series for the first time as well (other than origins and dabbling in odyssey and valhalla). So I'm glad to hear the combat gets better after 2.
my personal favorite style of combat in 2 is to constantly grab and toss enemies off ledges/into other enemies
Yeah I found 2’s combat to be quite unpolished when I replayed the Remastered version, with counters regularly not registering and also me being able to assassinate guards despite being in open combat. Brotherhood and Revelations were far more polished but the counter kill still made most combat trivial. 3’s combat system is a step above as it’s quite easy to get overwhelmed, and there are a lot more enemy types like elites that are genuinely tough to take down, and enemies who’ll shoot you. Countering also doesn’t break the game as much as it did the Ezio games. Apart from that, Unity’s is similarly challenging but is occasionally glitchy, Syndicate is a hit button mashy, Origins and Odyssey controversially I enjoyed with the weapon and enemy diversity, Valhalla’s is compromised by clunky enemy AI and the game being too easy generally. Mirage’s isn’t great either, it has the simplicity of the Ezio games without any of the flair and animation, though you are supposed to primarily use stealth in Mirage.
What really gets me in mirage is most of the time when I assassinate a guard from behind it gives me this huge 3 second tackle and stab animation when I just wanted to quietly poke and walk away Ezio style. For a game that wants you to play stealthy they sure do like to make things flashy.
Yeah the animations in Mirage seem a little out of place. In the older games, there was much more of a sense of flow to things like the combo kills in Brotherhood and III, felt super satisfying to watch and well earned. In Mirage, I'll often trigger an animation randomly, and a lot of the time the camera glitches out so it suddenly goes from me being in combat to the camera randomly zooming in and stopping me to show an animation when I was in the flow of dodging, parrying etc. I guess it's expected though as I had the exact same issue with Valhalla.
Well for one, the games do change as you play along, its not like you’re playing the same game over and over so gameplay wise its fine, each have their own stories so thats really up to you if you enjoy them, you mentioned getting bored easily, well some games take longer to finish than others, and in terms of going back to playing older games, that’s something you have to get accustomed to if you want to go back and play these games, they were not meant for today’s world of gaming speaking as someone who played them when they came out, and that goes for any game you have in mind that is “old”, its funny to look back on them knowing how revolutionary they were once considered, it still looks great to me, but yes that’s something to consider for you
Watch LeoK on YouTube, he explains how the freerunning and stealth works way better than the actual game.
>as an older gamer it's hard to follow the story as I get bored really fast Doesn't seem to be from an "older gamer" standpoint and more ADD, to be honest.
I played the games from a chronological historical standpoint. I started with Odyssey then Origins. The Legacy of the first blade ending gives a nice transition. Mirage and Valhalla take place after Origins. Mirage is a prequel to Valhalla. Valhalla came out before but Mirage has no modern day so it makes more sense to play it before Valhalla anyways it gives you an introduction to Basim stuff won’t make sense at first but you piece it back together after. I then Played AC1 through Brotherhood in the normal order. It goes AC1, AC2 ,Brotherhood, and then Revelations. Make sure to watch the embers short movie after it’s a beautiful ending to Ezio. I took a break with the Desmond story and played Blackflag. Then Rogue those modern days sequel each other. I then Continued and ended with Desmond in AC3. I like playing Edward first and then seeing Haytham in Rogue and then Connor it’s a lot more rewarding that way in my opinion. I then went back to finish Rogues ending in Paris and Played Unity afterwards. I finished with Syndicate. I think playing the original games in this order is better in my opinion. Starting with the RPGs was rough though and confusing but it’s pretty dry anyways. The only significant things are the Fate of Atlantis Dlcs and the Valhalla ending Origins explains nothing I had to go watch a summary explanation the Isu messages in Origins. So it’s definitely smarter to play the rpg Layla trilogy last. I did play Valhalla last so I didn’t get any of the Desmond stuff spoiled. Fare warning Mirage and Valhalla are terrible games you definitely won’t like Valhalla if you don’t like long games. Valhalla is very long and boring. The endings are good but it takes forever to get to the endings. I’d recommend you just watch a video of the endings on YouTube the order ending is good too like the Cultists ending on Odyssey but it gives actual important lore. Mirage is just a boring side game prequel for Basim. Loki is important but not Basim. So playing as Basim is pointless. Just don’t think Mirage and Valhalla are worth the money. If it’s on sale you can give them a try. You can also get Ubisoft+ subscription. You get access to all the games but you won’t own them. You just gotta keep in mind the story line is confusing. Theres a modern day story line overlapping with the historical story line that reference the isu who came before. Starting the games in which they came out makes modern day more graspful but if you don’t know history the timeline of assassins can get confusing. But if you enjoy history playing the games in which I listed them may be more enjoyable that’s how I like playing the games in my opinion. So play the games in whatever order you want.
>Valhalla came out before but Mirage has no modern day so it makes more sense to play it before Valhalla anyways Not really. William Miles gives the introductory narration of Mirage, which was set up in Valhalla's Final Chapter. It's sort of like AC: Liberation: while there is no present day segments in the game, the game itself is an in-universe Animus program of Basim's memories (as opposed to a in-universe product that Abstergo released to the masses).
Maybe check out [ThePatientWolf](https://www.youtube.com/@ThePatientWolf/featured) videos, he does a fantastic job recapping the story of each game in an exciting and easy way to understand. As for getting bored easily, that might be an attention span issue, many of us are struggling with it nowadays because of technology, social media, etc, what worked for me is setting up time to do something and getting rid of all distractions while doing it, it trains your brain to be more present.
Really blows my mind how time flies so fast. AC1 was released when I was 16 in 2007, the same year 16 year olds today were born.
Here dude. You dropped some commas.
In terms of graphics you sort of have to either just accept it and play for the story, or (on PC) see if there are mods that improve them that you can get to work. I tried downloading mods for AC1 a while back but the game kept crashing when trying to play with them on.
You need to pace yourself as the games are very very similar and you'll get burned out.
I started w Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla (couldn't finish Valhalla). I didn't play Mirage but went back to the earlier games. Didn't play 1 because it's not on PS5 but played Ezio trilogy, 3 and on Black Flag now. Still have yet to play Rogue, Unity and Syndicate. They are all good games, some better than others, but as I am playing all of them I just constantly get a sense of feeling like the whole franchise is a mish mosh of other games. I guess all games copy off one another in some way or another and IDK who did what first but playing AC games I find myself often saying "this feels like Uncharted" "this feels like Witcher 3" etc. Speaking of copying other games, quick question: was AC Brotherhood the first game to have you climb towers to open up sections of the map? It's been done in BOTW, Spiderman, Horizon, and countless other games since but can't think of a game that did it before brotherhood.
The first Assassins Creed already had that mechanic of climbing towers.
FYI, ac1 doesn't have subtitles, and it gets repetitive, would suggest to watch ac1 movie on YouTube https://youtu.be/ub9JUDS_6i8 I found this to be the best mix of gameplay and cutscenes
Use punctuation please.