Summary
TheAssassin’s Creedfranchise has changed a great deal over the years. The move to RPGs that shook the franchise up entirely is a great example of how major the changes between entries can be, and this extends to how much the player can change events or the world around them if they were to play again.
From minor shifts in the early games to true story changes and multiple endings in some of the more recent entries, the franchise has a lot of different ways to play the games. As the next major entry inAssassin’s Creed Shadowsapproaches, players are looking forward to see whether they will be able to continue changing things in the next entries.
There aren’t a lot ofdifferent ways to playAssassin’s Creed 3. Although a fantastic entry in the franchise, this game set during the American Revolution doesn’t feature multiple endings or give the player a lot of significant choices in the story, which is similar to many other entries in the franchise. However, the number of side quests the player completes can matter.
By this stage, theAssassin’s Creedseries had adopted side quests as a normal, and even significant, piece of the games. The way the player played these, including the additional objectives or not, was significant for full synchronisation, which was a valuable commodity in this entry.
Although it was still early in the series, there were certain ways that playerscould change little pieces of their gameplay experienceinAssassin’s Creed 2. Part of this was in the cutscenes which the player could interact with, making minor differences depending on whether they choose to do certain things or press nothing.
The big changes the player can enact are mostly on parts of the world itself. Players can choose to decorate and reinvigorate Monterrigoni by investing money and can complete additional quests to slightly affect other aspects of the world. While these ideas would be expanded upon later, this was the beginning of a run of games with world-changing ideas.
Assassin’s Creed Revelationswas a merging of Ezio and Altair’s stories, wrapping up the part of the franchise that had focused entirely on those two. It also gave the player a variety of options in terms of taking over different parts of the Mediterranean with assassin recruits, picking up from ideas introduced in the previous games and allowing players to shape the world around them to some degree.
The “brotherhood” elements of the games introduced previous toRevelationsallowed the player to create an entire Creed of Assassins via training and side quests. This affected gameplay a great deal, even if it didn’t actually change the larger story a great deal, it remains part of the headcanon for many fans that Ezio did indeed trainmany other assassins near the end of his life.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicateisan underrated game in the franchise. Set in London during the Industrial Revolution, giving players a chance to explore a very different, modern, type of world than most entries in the series. It also had dialogue options, a rarity in the series as the story in each game is usually pre-set.
While that is still the case in Syndicate, players can make some minor changes to cutscenes, more than ever before in the series. They can also play many missions as either Jacob or Evie Frye, allowing for some slight changes and differences based on which of the Frye twins they are using at any given time.
The firstAssassin’s Creedgame had a completely pre-set story which the players were unable to affect directly. However, players will find it useful to explore outside the Animus, whenever Vidic and Lucy aren’t standing there. Templar secrets can be found through exploring their computers, and though this isn’t part of completing the game, Desmond’s “nighttime snooping” is referenced in the second game, making these optional parts canon.
Additionally, the main part of the first game involves Altair completing investigations before committing each assassination. Players only have to complete three investigations to progress with the kill, but they can do up to six different investigations to make the assassin bureau more impressed, and to have a more informed final shot at the assassination. These were slight changes but shifted the player’s experience more than many of the later entries allowed.
AlthoughAssassin’s Creed Brotherhoodalso didn’t really allow for major changes to the story based on player decisions, it contained an important shift which allowed players to affect the world within the game much more than previous entries using the brotherhood system.
By taking over Borgia Towers, the player is allowed to recruit more assassin recruits to train and fill these towers out. The player can then access a variety of training scenarios and assassin recruit missions, leveling up their forces and tearing down Borgia influenceas Ezio continues to fight them. Though this is only a side quest element of the game, it drastically changes the world within Rome that the player will experience.
Assassin’s Creed Valhallais still a member of the RPG club forAssassin’s Creedentries, even if the choices allowed are generally thought of as being less significant than those inOdyssey. As Eivor, players can choose five important moments in the story which will determine whether Sigurd, Eivor’s brother, will stay or abandon his sibling at the conclusion of the game.
Additionally, players can make other significant choices, such as identifying the correct traitor among Soma’s people in the Grantebridgescire arc, which affects the ability to recruit Birna and how pleased Soma will be with Eivor.There are other choices that affect who joins Eivor’s crew, and even whether Eivor ends up on a permanent Zealot hit list, making the player’s decisions feel like they have a real impact in this game.
The most free, wide-open and lengthyAssassin’s Creedgame to date also gives players the most choices of any entry. Right from the start, the player chooses whether they’ll play as Alexios or Kassandra, with the other ending up as the villain of the story.
From there, players can choose whether to kill their own father, resulting in being hated by Spartan soldiers from then on, whether to kill Deimos, changing much about the story, and plenty more. There are many characters whose fate is directly decided by the Eagle Bearer, and far more of these decisions matter and change the story than players will realise on their first time playing through the game.Odysseymight be the longest game in the franchise, but it is also theone that requires multiple playthroughsthe most, so all of these story elements and choices can be fully explored.
