5 times Assassin's Creed broke its own rules

No matter one's personal taste, Assassin's Creed Undeniably one of the most recognizable gaming franchises, with many standout elements to instantly set itself apart. While some fans may innocently retell the deep lore of the series, spanning nearly two decades and Assassins vs. Templars competing, ancient races and artifacts, and memory manipulation are, for many, not even the essence of this franchise. From the signature hidden blades and hidden presence of assassins for assassinations to the emphasis on stealth and parkour mechanics, special vision, and, of course, leaps of faith, Assassin's Creed Games constantly change historical settings, protagonists, and even genres, yet some things remain set in stone.

Despite certain staples, some entries dare to challenge The most stable rule of Assassin's Creed series To broaden horizons and offer something completely fresh, guided by the setting or story of the game. Yes, not every long-term fan likes the modern changes Assassin's Creed Games have gone through, but it is undeniable that such development is the result of the emergence AC popularity, with Valhalla and the odyssey One of the best-selling Ubisoft titles. Today, we're exploring Assassin's Creed Games that break the franchise's own rules For better or worse, but to this day stands as the unmatched title in the longest-running series, even if they went against the tide.

Assassin's Creed Rogue

Like the cult of the Templars

At the conceptual level, Assassin's Creed Rogue Can only be the most unique AC Game to date. No hiding in the shadows or public Templar murders; The protagonist, Shay Patrick Cormack, defects from Assassins to become the first playable Templar hero in the series' history. He actually seeks to brutally kill his former allies and cripple the entire Assassin Brotherhood. Makes such an unexpected angle evil A truly special offering, boldly turning the tables and portraying Assassins and Templars in a completely different light.

Not only that, but Assassin's Creed Rogue Also notable for breaking another series rule: There is no penalty for killing civilians. In any previous game, killing a peaceful NPC would result in immediate memory desynchronization, explained via the Animus glitch. in AC WickedHowever, given the ruthless nature of the hero, players are free to kill civilians without any desync pentaly. If only Assassin's Creed Rogue The game was bolder and more memorable to support such an interesting concept that is still unique in the entire franchise.

Assassin's Creed Origins

“Be My Eyes”

Although not as recognizable as white hooded robes or hidden blades, the special “assassin” vision has long been a staple in the series. In past games, players could easily change their perspective to identify enemies and targets in a crowd, or to highlight different points of interest and key objects in their surroundings. The feature, however, is absent from almost all of the latter AC Games, like Assassin's Creed Origins Brought some notable changes to the way the vision mechanic worked.

AC origin Introduces a bird friend, Senu, who serves to provide eagle visions in the open world. Players are able to switch to a bird's eye POV at almost any moment to scan their surroundings from above, highlighting enemies, keys, or anything worth picking up. This is a good way to plan approach or escape routes. Genesis also introduced enemies that shoot at Senu, blocking the player's access to Eagle Vision until they deal with those targets. ever since Assassin's Creed OriginsA bird friend has become a new staple, also appearing in the odyssey, Valhallaand Miragebefore AC shade Brought back the traditional assassin philosophy for Nao, no wing buddies to be seen.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

Where did I put my hidden blade?

until today, Assassin's Creed Odyssey remains AC A game set in the oldest historical period: Ancient Greece of 422 BC. The Assassin Brotherhood was founded around 47 BC, making it Assassin's Creed Odyssey less than one Assassin's Creed Much of the game and an open-world action-RPG, unshackled by the old rules of the franchise. The game proudly embraces its nature, offering strong RPG mechanics, character selection options at the start, dialogue choices, and even stronger leveling, progression, and loot elements than ever before. With all that, some signatures AC Elements were essentially lost for time, including the franchise's hallowed icon: the hidden blade.

every Assassin's Creed The game has a hidden blade as a staple of playable characters, but no the odyssey. The game, however, still allows for an aggressive stealth playstyle with a focus on assassination, but instead of hidden blades, in odyssey, The hero wields the spearhead of Leonidas, a powerful ancient relic with unique abilities. Spears are used very creatively AC OdysseyAllowing for some OP abilities like brutal takedowns and enemy teleportation. It should be noted that the hidden blade made its appearance AC Odyssey After all, in Legacy of the First Blade DLC, but it was completely left out of the base game, so not every player can witness it.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

Was Eivor male or female? History is silent

for some time, Assassin's Creed The games focused on one protagonist (well, two actually, if we're considering the modern-day parts), which tied in with the franchise's extensive lore of reviving memories of its ancestors. Later entries started experimenting with that, retconning the whole process of how the Animus works with memories and changing some long-standing rules on the fly. in Assassin's Creed SyndicateFor example, players take control of the twin heroes, Evie and Jacob Frye, play as each in dedicated segments or switch between them in free roam. later, Assassin's Creed Odyssey Became the first to fully embrace RPG elements, including character selection at the start of the game. Players can play the entire story as Cassandra or Alexios, becoming the second antagonist. However, things get even weirder Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

in AC ValhallaNot only can players choose whether Ivor of the Raven Clan, who is none other than the Odin avatar, is a man or a woman, but Cab changes the character's gender at any moment with the press of a single button, depending on how they might feel today. The Animus' explanation for this is unclear (through reconstruction anomalies caused by the mixed DNA of Ivor and Esu DNA from Odin), but it was clear that Ubisoft was willing to sacrifice some old lore for the sake of flexibility and constructability. Valhalla More modern and accessible.

Assassin's Creed Shadows

No faith, no leap

Even fierce Viking warrior Ivor, with the gender-swap act, wasn't the most unlikely hero in the series so far; Assassin's Creed Shadows It was pushed even further. There are two playable characters AC shade Aside from a few mandatory sections for each, players can often switch between them as they please. While the swift shinobi Nao represents the assassin side of the game, embodying every quality. AC From what players are used to – like the classic emphasis on flexible traversal and stealth – Yasuke is an entirely different story. This samurai warrior is far from any previous one Assassin's Creed The character, by comparison, Eivor seems like an exemplary killer.

In Yasuke AC shade For better or worse, he plays like any other character in the series to date. In battle, this samurai is pretty much unstoppable, allowing players to push the action portion to new heights. However, while shining in battle, Yasuke has some serious limitations: aside from his hatred of the Templars, he is not an assassin and has little to do with religion. Yasuke's movement in the world is very limited. He can't do all the parkour AC The character in front of him, which prevents him from reaching the roof of the world and higher ground, requires players to switch to Naoe instead. On top of that, Yasuke can't even perform his signature leap of faith, instead falling from high points like a sack of potatoes while swearing in the process – something players haven't seen before in the series.