How to Play the Assassin's Creed Games in Chronological Order

ign.com:

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise has covered a lot of ground in its 15 years. The Assassin-Templar conflict has taken players across five continents, from Ancient Greece to Victorian London, spanning 2,300 years of history over the course of 13 mainline games.

Following Ubisoft’s recent Assassin’s Creed showcase — during which it detailed Assassin’s Creed Infinity and announced multiple upcoming Assassin’s Creed games — we’ve put together this chronology of the Assassin’s Creed timeline so far. This chronology only includes mainline Assassin’s Creed games; spinoff games aren’t included on this list given their lack of importance to the ongoing Assassin’s Creed narrative.

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There are two ways to look at the Assassin’s Creed chronology. First: In the order of the games’ modern-day storylines. This option makes sense considering the connective narrative of each mainline game is told through the present day. The present-day story progresses chronologically with each release, so if you’d like to play the games this way, simply scroll down to the section how to play the Assassin’s Creed Games by release date. If you’re committed to playing through the entirety of the franchise, this is the order we recommend, as it’s the best way to follow the overarching story and experience the franchise’s evolution from stealth-action games to open-world RPGs.

The second option (detailed below) presents the games in order by their historic settings. These stories aren’t as intertwined as their modern-day counterparts, but they’re where you’ll spend the vast majority of your time in Assassin’s Creed. This is more useful as a matter of interest than a practical playing guide.

With series newcomers in mind, the brief plot synopses below