3. Assassin's Creed
Over the years, the original Assassin's Creed has become known as the one with 'all the ideas', that thanks to being far too repetitive, just didn't execute on them properly until the sequel. Whilst that is certainly true in terms of scope, the original AC remains the only entry in the series to have a realistic tone (minus the final boss) that encouraged stealthy play, scouting targets and actually being an assassin. From here on out Ubisoft would embrace things like close-quarters combat and more overblown ways of killing your targets, going from a slower, Hitman-esque experience reliant upon studying your target until the perfect time to strike, into a twin-bladed stab-a-thon. Needless to say, the hype leading up this inaugural instalment was unprecedented. The first major game from a major developer on the shiniest hardware money could buy? Just the mere concept of being a hooded assassin in the time of the Crusades was a winner from the get-go, and it only got better from there on out. It's easy to forget what humble beginnings AC had considering how overblown and expansive the mythology has become, but this first game had an alluring sense of mystery for the modern day story that gave both sides of the Desmond/Altair coin a killer pace for its entirety.