With the Assassin's Creed franchise reaching 11 games in total starting with the original Assassins Creed released in November of 2007 and continuing with Assassins Creed Odyssey in 2018, there is something to say about the long living franchise. For those of you who don't know, the Assassins Creed Franchise consists of 11 games in which you play as an assassin in a secret war between two factions (or creeds) called the Assassins and the Templars. The Assassins believe that humanity must be free from rulers while the Templars believe that in order for humanity to survive, they must be ruled. Assassins Creed Origins which came out in 2017 completely changed how the games were viewed. No longer did your hidden blade provide a free assassination to any enemy you were able to get close enough to. In Assassins Creed Origins you had to have an equal level with your enemy to easily assassinate them. In this article, I will review how the combat system evolved.

In the early games of the franchise, the combat was mindless. The game focused on the smoothness of the combat and, therefore; sacrificed difficulty. Combat in the early games was focused on swordplay and being able to “chain” attacks. These “chain” attacks allowed a player to kill an infinite amount of enemies with one button or something we call “button-mashing”. While this can be argued, this particular playstyle is much less enjoyable, it wasn’t rewarding, required no skill, and gave no sense of accomplishment to the player.

The middle games in the franchise had an evolution to the combat system. Parrying. Parrying was introduced into the combat system when Assassins Creed Unity came out. Assassins Creed unity was the next step to combat in the Assassins Creed franchise. Parrying is a mechanism in the game that prevents players from doing what gamers call “button mashing”. Parrying requires precise timing to correctly utilize it affects. This mechanic in the game continued until Assassins Creed Syndicate, after that, Assassins Creed Origins completely changed the playstyle of combat in the Assassins Creed Franchise.

In Assassins Creed Origins and Assassins Creed Odyssey, the combat was completely changed. Origins redefined how players would view the “assassin” from the franchise. No longer would an assassin have to be discreet and quiet, but now an assassin could focus on out-fighting the enemy. These games embraced the idea of both “assassin” and “warrior” stats. A player could upgrade whichever stats they preferred based on their playstyle. The Assassins Creed Franchises’ combat completely changed over time for the better.