As far as video game franchises go, some are more popular than others. Franchises like Call of Duty come to mind. They had plenty of shooter games that you could just blow your way through, beating any dangerous enemy, while losing some good people while doing so.
Other franchises have been even more popular, even though we keep wondering why.
The Assassin’s Creed franchise is immensely popular, even though Ubisoft is really stretching the franchise, trying to milk it for every coin, mostly through microtransactions and gatekeeping your exploration through level-locked zones.
Here is why the Assassin’s Creed franchise is so wonderful.
The Desmond Series
Thrown into the abyss of being kidnapped by Abstergo, a huge company that also designs video games, khm, self-satire maybe, Desmond Miles is revealed to have a genetic connection with people who are known as Assassins, people on a mission to stop the Templars, an everlasting battle through history.
We follow Desmond’s point of view as he journeys through history through the Animus, a machine which can read the DNA and find the memories of our ancestors stored within. We visit Turkey and Constantinople, then Italy during the Renaissance period, following two iconic assassins, Altair Ibn-La’Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze. After we find various connections to the people who came before, who are warning us of a natural disaster, we shuffle back to the States, to find Haytham Kenway and his son, Connor.
The Desmond series is full of love and loss, and is a tragic story at best.
The Games Were Amazing
The early games of the series, up and concluding with Black Flag, are considered to be the best among the AC series. You get to visit historical locations and see the important people of the time, while also learning about fictitious people who came before and basically guided and shepherded the human race (and used them as slaves).
The games had everything, adventure to say the least. You could explore and partake in an important struggle, while also questioning whether the struggle is real and are there more important things to focus on.
The Games Are Still Good
After a bugfest that was Unity and France, the conclusion of the Kenway saga, we move to London to meet with the Frye twins, and then things go in a different way, the series turns into an action RPG, with Origin, Odyssey and the latest, Valhalla.
If you ignore the gatekeeping and the insulting microtransactions, the three latest games are great. Set in ancient Egypt, Greece and the viking settlement of Britain, we explore different mythologies and find ties to the ones before as well as learn about the future.
The stories are still enticing, but the game design could use a lot less gatekeeping and microtransactions.
The AC franchise is one of the most popular franchises on the planet, having sold millions of copies. You are a part of history, both now and then, thrust into an adventure, a battle for the future, the past and the present. What’s not to love?