Assassin's Creed: 10 Most Shocking & Heartbreaking Moments
2. The Lisbon Earthquake (AC Rogue)
AC Rogue has always had a mixed - but arguably unfair - reception due to its tampering with the traditional Assassin/Templar formula, but it does make for one of the most emotionally complex entries in the series, leading to possibly the greatest mission in the series and a tragic moment that nobody saw coming.
Nowhere in the game are the motives of the Assassins called into question more than when, in a surprising move away from the North Atlantic, Shay Cormac is called to Lisbon, Portugal to recover a mysterious Isu artifact. At first, players believe they're heading back to the glory days of Ezio, with a magnificent level set inside a renaissance-era church and the tease of uncovering its mysteries to find an ancient secret.
Then Shay finds the artefact and, instead of some incredible moment of discovery, all hell breaks loose.
The artefact transpires to be a device which keeps its physical surroundings stable and, when removed, causes the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 and the deaths of around 30,000 people. As a player, Shay is forced to flee the collapsing city while watching the deaths of all those people around him. It's both a massive shock to the player and Shay, who then goes on to question the entire ethos of the creed. It's a major turning point for the series, which begins to merge the Assassin/Templar conflict into more morally grey areas.