Assassin’s Creed is a long-running franchise with several games released throughout the years. Each game features a new set of mechanics, themes, characters, and more. However, parkouring through buildings and walls is one revolutionary feature that makes the game unique.
Parkour was first introduced in Assassin’s Creed I, and games like Unity feature some of the best mechanics in the game. However, over the years, the mechanic has been almost removed by Ubisoft in the recent iterations of the series.
To show some love, I’ve come up with a list of the Assassin’s Creed games with the best parkour mechanics. This list takes in factors like the best maps for parkour, the smoothest movement mechanics, and precise player control.
11Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has plenty of positive points like explorations and adventure throughout the game. Unfortunately, parkour isn’t one of them. The game only adds some minor changes to the parkour system compared to Origins.
However, the game features the demigod ability which allows him to jump from anywhere without taking fall damage. This makes Alexios parkour ability completely pointless as players can just run in a straight line without any fear of dying.
10Assassin’s Creed Origins
Assassin’s Creed Origins does involve climbing up walls and jumping around buildings, but there’s no player engagement in these actions. Bayek’s freerunning doesn’t look great compared to previous AC games while using a lift, roll recovery, side ejects, and other parkour movements.
9Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla features a massive beautiful, open world where you will journey across New England. Unfortunately, the parkour system is the same as Odyseey and the jumping mechanics in the game are quite simplistic and don’t require any skills.
The only changes added are the sliding ability and sprinting and Evior will take fall damage if he falls from higher locations. Additionally, the parkour is quite slow due to Evior’s heavy Viking armor, making it a casual parkour experience.
8Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate shares the same engine and similar animations with Unity, but the parkour mechanics are different in-game. The game struggles with parkour as the transitions between jumping from one place to another feel sluggish and rough.
The game struggles to create a smooth flow between jumps, leading to no momentum while attempting parkour. On top of that, the game makes falling off buildings impossible, making it less risky. It also causes an abrupt stop to any runs you make, making parkour between buildings clunky.
7Assassin’s Creed III
Assassin’s Creed III was the first AC game made with the AnvilNext engine, marking several changes to Assassin’s Creed game mechanics. The main highlight of the parkour system in this game is Connor free running on trees and vaulting over small obstacles in various ways. It also had amazing transitions whenever Connor ran inside an open house.
However, the game introduced precision jump mechanics which caused players to have less control over Connor’s Parkour movement. Overall, Assassin’s Creed III introduced stunning graphics and animations but unfortunately lacked smooth player control while doing parkour.
6Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Assassin’s Creed IV had Adewale taking down the pirates living in the Caribbean and features an exciting storyline. However, the parkour system is the same as Assassin’s Creed III and feels more clunky to use.
The biggest issue with the game was the one-button jumping system that caused imprecise jumps, causing players to hit walls, jump up the wrong tree, or take the wrong path. However, the movement system is still functional, and assassins can freely explore the city and jungle by using the parkour system.
5Assassin’s Creed Rogue
Rogue also features some amazing parkour set pieces set in the city, which can be some of your best highlights while playing the game. Unfortunately, Shay could only climb cliffs that have artificial stone walls. This gave players less liberty to run and parkour through hilly regions in the game.
Also, the vaulting animations disrupted the smooth-flowing parkour that previous games in the franchise featured. Overall, Assassin’s Creed Rogue has its flaws in movement but still provides an entertaining parkour experience.
4Assassin’s Creed I
When Assassin’s Creed I was released, it set waves in the gaming community due to its revolutionary movement system. The game didn’t feature any preset animations while moving, and it gave players the freedom to try out unique parkour styles.
The game introduced various features like climbing, leaping, a vaulting system, and the freedom to cancel any move anytime. It also gave the ability to choose which ledge to grab onto instead of letting Altair grab automatically.
3Assassin’s Creed II
In Assassin’s Creed II, Ubisoft added several different items in Italy to let players parkour better. It included carts and boxes to build the momentum of your run, springboards to make long jumps, hanging pots to leap in different directions, and more.
Additionally, Ezio could climb up walls a lot quicker compared to Altair, giving players the fast-paced feel of parkour to help them reach their destination in a short time.
2Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood/Revelations
The parkour mechanics were unchanged in the next games like Brotherhood and Revelations, allowing players to carry their parkour skills in brand-new areas.
In particular, the only change is that Brotherhood has a lift that Ezio could use to climb buildings quicker.
On the other hand, Revelations added a hook blade that helped Ezio climb and goes down buildings quicker. It also added a zipline for transportation, adding more pace to the quick parkour mechanics in Assassin’s Creed II.
1Assassin’s Creed Unity
Assassin’s Creed Unity features the best parkour movement mechanics by a mile with its gorgeous animations, an immersive world, and complete play control. The parkour in this game is immersive and difficult to master, making players spend hours jumping around buildings in-game.
However, the verticality feature is the primary reason Assassin’s Creed Unity stays on the top of the list. It adds a new dimension to the parkour system, increasing its skill ceiling. Players have to adjust their inputs according to their surroundings to avoid falling.
Additionally, the world of France is the perfect setting for parkour. The locations are cramped to make small jumps but open enough to try different parkour techniques. Overall, the game has several brilliant features, with parkour being the cherry on top.
About Ubisoft Entertainment SA
Ubisoft Entertainment SA is a French video game company founded in 1986. They are headquartered in Montreuil, and have development studios across the world. They are famous for game franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, For Honor, Prince of Persion, Rayman, Tom Clancy’s, Just Dance, Rabbids, and Watch Dogs.
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