Top Modes & Mechanics – Assassin’s Creed Series

Say what you will about series with annual releases – they cause franchise fatigue, they’re usually rushed and buggy at launch, or they aren’t fresh and unique enough from year to year. But given that Ubisoft rotates the development of the Assassin’s Creed franchise among several of their studios, fresh ideas can be found in each installment, even if only a year removed from the previous iteration. In anticipation of the upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, we’ve taken a look back at some of the coolest, weirdest, and personal standouts when it comes to the different modes and mechanics from Assassin’s Creed entries of the past.

Den Defense: Assassin’s Creed Revelations

Tower defense isn’t something that would come as an obvious choice for an Assassin’s Creed game, but somehow the team at Ubisoft Montreal made it work in Revelations. In the third installment of the Ezio trilogy, you are tasked with defending assassin’s dens against oncoming Templar onslaughts. These attacks happen at random, and require Ezio to defend a designated zone in order to prevent Templars from recapturing your claimed territory. Perched on a rooftop in front of the den, Ezio is able to place different types of assassins and fortifications to repel Templar armies. Included in your arsenal are ranged troops who can pick off enemies from a distance, air assassins who are able to drop down and instantly kill individual soldiers, and even barricades that can be placed to slow incoming troops and flame throwing battering rams. You can even place Assassin Leaders among your allies to increase morale so others around them fight more effectively. This was definitely an odd addition for Assassin’s Creed, but the large scale level of strategy and frantic game play was a refreshing break from stealth, one on one combat and traversal we’d become used to.

The Homestead: Assassin’s Creed III

In Assassin’s Creed III, Connor can recruit tradespeople from the game world to inhabit the Davenport Homestead and take it from baron farmland to a thriving separatist community with an economy of it’s own. Building your own town is rewarding because it not only grants your new abilities and resources, but it’s just fun and satisfying watching the Homestead grow from a lone farm house to a bustling society free from Loyalist oppression. Among the blue collar citizens your can draft to Davenport are Lumberers, Doctors, Inn Keepers, Artisans, Hunters, and even Miners. All of these citizens will set up shops in Davenport and can be leveled up yielding better rewards and resources that are valuable in his pursuit against the British Templar’s and Haytham Kenway. You’ll also need to get to know your new neighbors, as each offer side quests involved in helping them settle in their new home. We’ll be able to revisit Achilles and the Davenport Homestead in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed III Remastered as part of the Assassin’s Creed Odyssey DLC.

Rebuilding Rome: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood

Ezio’s fight against Cesare and Rodrigo Borgia in Brotherhood involves taking control of Rome away from the Pope and the hidden Templars. Purchasing different shops and rebuilding landmarks in the world is the best way to accumulate wealth and strengthen the Assassin’s Brotherhood. The economy in the Assassin’s Creed II was largely broken as leveling up the Villa and its vendors meant you could quickly gain more money than you knew what to do with. Rebuilding Rome helped to fix that problem, and had added legitimacy as you were actually taking away power and real estate from the Borgias. It’s not as simple as buying any and all shops that you liked. The area where shops operated had to be liberated by torching Borgia towers, and driving the Templa’s out of the region. After this was done, Ezio could purchase and upgrade vendors. Just like in the Villa, the income gained from shops could be banked by Ezio and used to purchase resources in his quest. Accumulating wealth aside, the most satisfying part about this mechanic was the restoration of landmarks. I loved seeing historic areas like the aqueducts or Colosseum regain even just some of their original glory.

Helix Rifts: Assassin’s Creed Unity

Helix Rifts made their first series appearance long before this installment, but Ubisoft Montreal took them to the next level in Unity. These tears in the Animus changed the time period of the setting completely and temporarily take Arno forward to different periods of significance in France’s history. It was impressive to see the effort that the developers went to in order to recreate the environment and time period for something that was only an optional side mission. These Helix Rifts play out like races as you need to collect a predetermined amount of data pieces in a set amount of time. Once enough data is collected, a trapped agent inside the simulation is located, and you must navigate to them as quickly as possible. This did not introduce any terribly unique ideas as you were simply playing with the same traversal and platforming mechanics as the main game. What made it cool was the creative obstacles Helix Rifts put in your way. The simulations you’ve entered are unpredictable and challenges you face in them are things you’d never see in the main story line. One rift requires you to dodge a tornado, while another has German war planes attacking you. It’s wild, unexpected, and very cool.

The Jackdaw: Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag

Assassin’s Creed III whet our appetite for naval combat. It introduced this mode as a set of side missions which were significant, but certainly not the focal point of the game. When Black Flag‘s title and setting was revealed, it was instantly clear that we’d be spending a lot more time at sea. I’ll never forget one of the developer interviews leading up to Black Flag‘s release where a lead designer stated that their goal was to make the Jackdaw feel almost like a second main character in the game. And it absolutely did. While I didn’t have the same emotional connection to my ship like I did Dog Meat in Fallout 4, I certainly gave it more time and attention. Upgrading the Jackdaw armor, cannons and storage and making it my own became one of the most enjoyable parts of the game – I actually found it similarly satisfying to the aforementioned Homestead of Assassin’s Creed III. Oddly enough I recall spending an inordinate amount of time tracking down the sea shanties strewn throughout the Caribbean. Sailing the high seas to the tune of a new shanty was embarrassingly fun and I rarely wanted to disembark my vessel so the songs would continue to play (and if you’re asking me, “William Taylor” was easily the best shanty of the bunch). Here’s hoping the reintroduction of naval game play in Odyssey can replicate the fun I had in Black Flag at the helm of the Jackdaw.