Assassin’s Creed games are known for their vast open worlds, adrenaline-filled parkour, raging combat, and fascinating stealth. Still, despite stealth and parkour being the USP of the AC universe, its recent titles are gradually shifting towards a more combat-centric gameplay.
Agreed that the latest AC titles have their own charms, but stealth will always be a crucial factor in determining such game’s review and players’ satisfaction for millions of Assassin’s Creed fans worldwide. If you are also one of those who prefer more stealth-based Assassin’s Creed games, then this list is especially for you.
10Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has the worst stealth system in all of the Assassin’s Creed games because it featured more combat-centric gameplay and even removed stealth-friendly tools like smoke bombs, sleep darts, etc.
The game has poor world design in the stealth aspect, and it totally lacks environmental and social stealth. As the entire game revolves around a fierce greek warrior, it rewards you more for direct melee combat than stealth kills.
9Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
To be honest, Valhalla is no better than Odyssey in terms of stealth, but I had to put it ahead of Odyssey as it reintroduced stealth tools and environment/social stealth to the universe.
Still, the environmental design of Valhalla does not encourage stealthy plays. It also lacks crowds of NPCs, even in major cities, which is required to blend in quickly after a kill. This Viking era game focuses majorly on brute direct hand-to-hand combat and raids.
Overall, Valhalla does give you all the stealth mechanics in the game, but they are next to futile.
8Assassin’s Creed Origins
Origins is the transition phase of the AC universe from a classic stealth-oriented action-adventure to a more combat-centric RPG.
Social stealth and black box missions were entirely removed in Origins after the failure of Syndicate. However, it still has a significant number of environmental stealth aspects that allow players to make various creative and enjoyable stealth plays.
7Assassin’s Creed III
Assassin’s Creed III, similar to the earlier AC titles, has an excellent stealth system. Still, unfortunately, most of it is useless as the game focuses more on running into a horde of enemies and taking them down in melee combat, just like Valhalla. Consequently, it has exceptionally limited missions that are built around the stealth system.
6Assassin’s Creed I & II
It is really difficult to separate the very first Assassin’s Creed game from its sequel in terms of stealth. Both the games have an exceptionally good stealth which acts as a solid foundation for future games. AC II watered down the stealth slightly, but it enhanced the basics tremendously.
The only reason these games couldn’t break into the top 5 is that the later games incredibly polished the stealth mechanics introduced in these titles and made it even better.
5Assassin’s Creed Black Flag / Rogue
Black Flag is undoubtedly one of the best Assassin’s Creed games of all time as it convincingly tried to blend great stealth and combat gameplay in one game. Rogue has similar stealth mechanics to Black Flag, so it only makes sense to me to put them together.
Black Flag offers an arsenal of stealth-friendly tools like smoke bombs, berserk darts, sleep darts, etc., which add a lot to its stealth mechanics. Additionally, the whistling, throwing coins, and hiding body features make it even more enjoyable.
As good as it is, it’s still heavily focused on environmental stealth and lacks the aspect of social stealth. Most of its level design is also not stealth-friendly, compelling players to jump into a direct melee combat. Also, the primary focus on naval battles and exploration leaves little space for stealth.
4Assassin’s Creed Revelations
Revelations is a great game from a stand-alone perspective, but it feels a bit dull in the stealth aspect compared to its predecessor, Brotherhood. It carries forward many stealth tools introduced in Brotherhood and even adds more of them which is surely amazing for such an early stealth-based game.
Still, unfortunately, its levels have a narrow scope, and missions are more parkour-focused, making it not stealthy enough for our top 3.
3Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood
Brotherhood is absolutely best at everything it brings to the table. It combined the best of Assassin’s Creed 1 and 2 and created a masterpiece over it. It also laid the foundation of stealth as we know it in AC games for all the future titles.
The game’s introduction of a crossbow, throwing knives, and poison darts definitely added so much to its stealth, but what really makes it shine is the fact that its missions and levels are designed precisely to encourage the players to take the stealthier approach.
2Assassin’s Creed Syndicate
As bad as Syndicate is, the one thing it managed to do flawlessly is its stealth system. In fact, Syndicate was the last most stealth-oriented AC title because of its immaculate stealth supporting level and mission design.
Also, the addition of the much-needed crouch feature undoubtedly made it better, which was missing from AC until Unity. It also carried forward the black box missions from Unity, which gives players an open area with countless ways to approach and kill a target, making them feel the thrill of being an actual sneaky assassin.
1Assassin’s Creed Unity
Assassin’s Creed Unity has the best stealth out of all the Assassin’s Creed titles because of its stealth-focused world design, social and environmental stealth, crouch feature, black box missions, and a vast arsenal of stealth-based equipment.
Even though Unity is considered a failure, it introduced some of the best stealth-favoring features like ‘crouching at will’ and black box missions. Unlike Syndicate, Unity puts complete control of each stealth mission into players’ palms, and they can play it however they please.
There are dozens of ways to approach a place or perform an assassination in all main and side quests of Unity. Add that with the given stealth tools, and you can quickly sweep all the enemies before they even know what hit them.
This wide variety of choices for approaching a location and assassinating a target makes Unity the best stealth game in the AC universe.
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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