It all started in 2020, right before Christmas. I had bought a copy of Assassin's Creed: The Rebel Collection for Nintendo Switch, on sale. One night, when my girlfriend and son were out-of-town, I expectantly launched Assassin's Creed: Liberation.

At the time, I was a Nintendo gamer. While I had played adventure games, strategy games and first-person shooters growing up in the 1990s, I mostly abandoned gaming when I started college around the turn of the century. I only got the itch back years later -- around 2007 -- when I borrowed a Nintendo Wii from work and fell in love with Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Galaxy and the Zelda games.

I would later upgrade to Wii U, Nintendo's ill-fated HD successor to the Wii, mostly to play Mario Kart 8. I was always curious about AAA gaming on other platforms, though, and I remember buying a downloadable copy of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag when it came out for Wii U in 2013 or 2014. Its installed size meant that I had to store it on an external hard drive, though, and there were connectivity issues, so I only made it to Havana before I gave up. I resolved to buy an expensive SD card to store the game on, but never did.

Eventually, I did start my Assassin's Creed journey, and I'm glad I did. I recount that experience below. If you haven't played these games, be warned: spoilers abound.

Assassin's Creed: Liberation

I started with Assassin's Creed: Liberation, instead of Assassin's Creed III, because it seemed like the less ambitious title, and I wanted to save the longer titles for last. I was immediately blown away -- being able to move around freely in 18th century New Orleans was a completely new experience, and I savored it.

I remember thinking that it was simultaneously one of the very best games I had ever played, and also one of the worst. I loved being to explore the historical settings (including the Bayou), and I enjoyed the combat and liberating forts. The story, however, was hard to follow and seemed inconsequential. Wardrobe changes were mostly annoying (the "lady persona" can't climb anything), and lots of missions seemed like busywork. When I finished the main story, I was happy to move on.

Verdict: 2/5

Assassin's Creed III

It took me a couple of weeks to finish Liberation, and I was excited to play my first full-length, full-fat Assassin's Creed adventure: Assassin's Creed III. I had spent two years in California, one year in third grade and one year at university as an exchange student, and I was somewhat familiar with the history of the revolution. Getting to experience the Siege of Boston first-hand was thrilling, though I admit to finding directing Paul Revere on his ride a tad silly.

At the time, I was really into Lin-Manuel Miranda's hip-hop musical Hamilton, about Alexander Hamilton and the American revolution. Playing Assassin's Creed III dovetailed nicely with listening to the songs over and over and over, and spending an inordinate amount of time on Wikipedia learning about the history.

I spent 75 hours doing everything I could in Assassin's Creed III, except placing bait, hunting down every last feather or participating in the harder Boston Brawlers fights. I did play The Tyranny of King Washington DLC, but found the supernatural elements off-putting, the tone unnecessarily grim (people strung up on trees everywhere, really?), the pyramids silly and the final boss fight something that I would have preferred to avoid.

All in all, though, Assassin's Creed III was a fantastic experience, and I couldn't wait to boot up its successor.

Verdict: 4/5

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

I was initially a tad disappointed in Black Flag. While I loved Havana as a city, Nassau and Kingston seemed bland in comparison to New York City and Boston of III. While the Caribbean was vast, all those little islands were nearly identical to one another, and I found the plethora of fishing villages bland as well.

Black Flag just seemed like the less ambitious of the two, compared to III. The history was not as compelling and the environments were not as fun to explore. Naval combat was markedly improved compared to Assassin's Creed III, but I respected III more for having introduced the mode in the first place.

Also, I really missed all the ambitious action set pieces of III. That game had all these extra missions (many of them part of DLC packs, I believe), which often had little to do with the main story, but were a hoot to play. I found Black Flag wanting in that regard, and I also bored quickly of all the tailing missions.

Still, I watched Black Sails on Starz while playing, a series which mixes real-life characters also found in Black Flag with literary figures from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic book Treasure Island (which I also read while playing the game). I have found that when playing historical games, accessing other media about the same historical period at the same time really enhances the experience.

Eventually, I did warm to Black Flag. I beat all the legendary ships, completed the imaginative diving assignments and really enjoyed the Freedom Cry DLC (sneaking around in plantations and murdering guards was enjoyable, and the action set piece where you have to rescue slaves from a sinking ship was a sight to behold). When the once-bustling open world had become devoid of life and interesting assignments, I reluctantly moved on.

Verdict: 4/5

Assassin's Creed: Rogue

I didn't expect much from Rogue, but was pleasantly surprised. Sure, it's just a reskinned Black Flag, and it's much too short, but what's there is good.

I had reluctantly collected most collectibles from the other titles, but mostly found them to be a waste of time. Not so with Rogue, though -- if there was a chest, chances were that the game was trying to draw my attention to something worth exploring, like a shipwreck with an accompanying database text.

Also, the action set piece in Lisbon during the earthquake is remarkable, one of the best in the series. The story as a whole is fairly compelling -- an Assassin becomes disillusioned with his cause and joins the Templars. I did find having to murder my old friends a real bummer, though.

Still, I found the period of history recounted by Rogue, set during the Seven Years' War, fairly dull.

After the final confrontation at the palace of Versailles, leading up to the events of Unity, I was aching to play that game. However, at that point I had seen enough of Assassin's Creed to know that I wanted to play it all, and I resolved to do so on my PC.

Verdict: 3/5

Assassin's Creed

Making the switch from playing on a console to playing with a mouse and keyboard on my PC was pretty jarring. Still, the game's age allowed me to play it at 4K resolution, on my office monitor, despite my aging graphics card, making the experience far better for me that it would have been back in 2007.

I was fascinated by the fact that the first installment was so different from what I had played. Sure, I could climb on almost everything, jump into haystacks and explore fantastic cities, but other than that, I recognized little else from the later installments.

If I can overlook the ghastly color filters, I enjoyed the cities. The game divided the cities into distinct sections, and unlocking each one was fun. I immensely enjoyed exploring the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and comparing it to contemporary pictures.

Still, all the activities proved highly repetitive. The main assassination missions were fine, but the final boss battle, with Al Mualim, reminded me of the final George Washington battle in The Tyranny of King Washington, and I had to push myself to finish it.

Verdict: 2/5

Assassin's Creed II

I found that Assassin's Creed II had improved by leaps and bounds compared to its predecessor. I felt that Ubisoft had mostly gotten the "classic" formula in place for Assassin's Creed II, with an ambitious mission structure and an engaging protagonist. (I felt that Altaïr went from being arrogant to being humble essentially instantaneously in the original, which is not the kind of character progression you want.)

Having spent time in Florence and in Venice, I found those two cities captivating. Roaming around Venice, especially during Carnival, was intoxicating, as was marveling at the Duomo and the Piazza San Marco (with the basilica and the clock tower).

I felt that the story started out strong, with a classic revenge tale, but got muddled by the end. I believe I finished all the content, including assassinations, races and the DLC, but found it a bit overwhelming by the end. I was happy to move on.

Verdict: 3/5

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

This was the title I had been looking forward to the most, since it tends to appear at the very top of all those YouTube videos ranking all the Assassin's Creed games. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

It got off to a great start, though. The action set piece where you get to defend Monteriggioni was thrilling, and I really enjoyed exploring the city in the present day, with vespas and everything. (Of course, real-life Monteriggioni looks little like its fictionalized version, but that's beside the point.)

I did not find Rome to be particularly interesting. Sure, the Vatican, the Colosseum and the Pantheon are all there, and they're fun to explore, but the rest of the city I found to be mostly very big, and very uninteresting, full of square houses that all looked the same.

If Assassin's Creed II was a monumental leap compared to the original, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood proved to be an incremental upgrade, an Assassin's Creed version 2.1, if you will. I found having to "renovate" shops as dull and pointless as I found the practice in II, and I felt similarly about the plethora of collectibles.

Also, the namesake brotherhood wasn't fully formed, I felt. Recruiting assassins was a one-note experience, where Ezio laughably repeated the same phrase over and over ("the liberation of Roma has begun," following by a rote response from the would-be assassin and Ezio staring awkwardly at the other person for a full second). Pressing a button to have assassins materialize from thin air, striking your opponents, was convenient, but also a bit silly.

I never got around to fully liberating Rome from Templar influence. There was one Borgia captain that ran away almost immediately, and I never found a way to capture him. After countless attempts, I chose not to consult YouTube and rather left the mission unfinished.

The story felt even more unstructured and random than that of Assassin's Creed II. While I enjoyed the tombs in II, the Lairs of Romulus were a lot less compelling.

I had taken an extended break between Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and during that break I spent 115 hours playing Red Dead Redemption II (verdict: 5/5). That experience, playing a much newer, more ambitious game, probably did sour me a bit on Brotherhood. In particular, going from riding a horse in Red Dead Redemption II to riding one in Brotherhood was a night-and-day experience.

Ultimately, I couldn't wait to finish Brotherhood.

Verdict: 2/5

Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Playing yet another iteration of Assassin's Creed II was not a very attractive prospect. I started the game, noticed that all those horrendous renovation activities remained intact, as well as those clumsy controls, and decided to go on another break from Assassin's Creed. (I played the fantastic A Plague Tale: Innocence, verdict 5/5. Yes, I do enjoy these immersive historical games, and I have Assassin's Creed to thank for making me realize that they exist.)

I still yearned for Unity, though, and I had resolved to play all mainline games, so I reluctantly started playing Revelations once more -- and was pleasantly surprised!

Where Rome was boring and monotonous, Istanbul was awe-inspiring and mystical, with all those mosques and their minarets, piercing the sky. Unlike Rome, which I have only visited briefly during a day trip when I was 16, I had spent more time in Istanbul, and I greatly enjoyed exploring the area around Hagia Sophia. I also felt that the city model was more detailed, with poor areas contrasting nicely with the well-off areas.

Revelations seems to have a reputation for being fairly short, but I mostly found that to be a blessing. The story wasn't very ambitious, but easy to follow and did not overstay its welcome. I greatly enjoyed the Altaïr missions, especially the last one, where he sits down in his chair one final time juxtaposed with Ezio paying his respects.

I hadn't particularly enjoyed the modern day storyline in the other games (and games like Red Dead Redemption II demonstrate that the best course of action would've been to excise it completely), but I initially found it particularly vexing in Revelations.

I couldn't interact with Shaun and the others, and instead had to go on these first-person platforming missions to get Desmond to reveal his story. At first, I kept falling down, and I had to watch quite a bit to YouTube to get the hang of it. I was surprised to find that I quite enjoyed the last mission, the one set in Abstergo's familiar headquarters.

I never let my notoriety get too high, and I thus only had to endure one tower defense mission. That's the thing about a "big tent" franchise like Assassin's Creed: there may be mini games in there that you don't find enjoyable. Your job is to identify those unpleasant activities as soon as you can, and avoid them. Red Dead Redemption II has them too, and I actively avoided going hunting or playing card games, and still had a fantastic time.

In the end, I was sad to leave Revelations. Cappadocia made for a nice excursion, and I actually wanted to collect all collectibles, mostly as a way for me to explore more database entries and see all the sights.

Verdict: 3/5

Next steps

I played Assassin's Creed on my Linux PC, Assassin's Creed II on Switch (as Ubisoft finally got around to releasing The Ezio Collection on that platform very recently and I greatly prefer playing on the couch with headphones on to playing on my office PC). I played Brotherhood and Revelations on my Steam Deck, and I plan to play the remaining games on that platform.

I had played Assassin's Creed III on Switch, which technically was the remastered version. However, the Switch version had received fewer upgrades than the PC version, and as a result I was dying to experience the more modern games on a more powerful platform.

I started out with Liberation, but only spent an hour or so playing. It really is a frustrating game and it is not worth replaying. Everything that's good about it is done better by the other entries, and there's a lot that just doesn't measure up.

I'm currently re-playing Assassin's Creed III. I don't normally replay games, but with III, I can't stop. The environments of the prior entries feel cartoonish in comparison, and the frontier is so much more realistic than, say, the area around San Gimignano in Assassin's Creed II (the gorgeous Tuscan city with the medieval skyscrapers). It really is a next-generation experience.

The downside to that is that I can no longer play in silky-smooth 60 frames per second, but have to make do with 40 frames per second. That's a bummer, but I've gotten used to it.

Story-wise, III is even more ambitious than I remember, with Haytham being a particularly compelling and well-acted character. I don't find the prologue overly long on this second play-through, but I'm looking forward to getting reacquainted with the stoic and principled Connor (an underrated protagonist, in my view).

At this rate, I still have months to go before I finally start playing Unity, and see how the story that started in Rogue plays out. I'm looking forward to the French revolution, to the London of the industrial revolution, to running up and down the pyramids, exploring ancient Greece and Eivor's story in Valhalla.

In particular, I'm looking forward to the Discovery Tours. I played parts of one when Valhalla was playable for free one weekend, and I immediately fell in love with the experience.

Currently, I'm not really looking all that much forward to Mirage. Of course, that's on account of my having just played the Ezio trilogy. Luckily, it will probably take me two or three years to get to Mirage, and at that point in time, perhaps the prospect of doing a corner swing will seem a lot more exciting than it does right now.