Assassin's Creed: Ranking All The Games From Worst To Best

4. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

After AC III, it didn't feel like Ubisoft knew where to take the series. Tailing, eavesdropping missions and slowly creeping towards a target with half-baked detection mechanics were now more by the numbers that Sesame Street's bat-counting segments - basically, we were collectively checked out. Then, Ubisoft revealed an ultra-cool protagonist wielding twin pistols and twin blades, your own customisable pirate ship, treasure maps, mythical creature hunts - the whole "life of a pirate" shtick. Put that through the Assassin's Creed wringer and we had a game that was one-part "Yo-ho-ho and a bottle full o' rum" and three parts sneaking, stabbing and group-based combat, the combination of which breathed new life into the otherwise stale formulae we'd all grown extremely tired of. Anti-hero Edward Kenway only became an assassin through accident, too, giving his foray into the world of time-controlling artefacts and world-altering items a whole new perspective. His pursuit of nothing but wealth allowed for the right amount of distraction to indulge in side-missions and to raid passing ships, the entire thing being wrapped up in a gorgeous package highlighted by the best visual engine AC had seen so far.