Black flag. Excluding all the assassin's creed parts.

Story: II / Brotherhood / Revelations

Character: III / Rogue

Setting: Black flag

The Ezio trilogy, I reckon. I was very invested in Desmond's story and the series felt like it was building towards a conclusion.

Will we ever get the present day AC game?

Unity was the best in my opinion. Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla are all the new design of Assassin's Creed games that earned their own set of fans, but they're so different from what came before with their faux RPG design. The fantasy is broken for me when I sneak up behind someone, stab them in the neck, and their health bar only goes down a little bit.

The first Assassin's Creed game was very repetitive, but they gave you small assassination missions for you to figure out how to get, kill your target, and get out. The next several games in the series were better in every way except for perhaps these missions that mattered most, which they made extremely linear and scripted action missions.

Unity (set in Paris in the late 1700s) was an answer to those frustrations. There was a point in the dialogue where they specifically called it out. "So what's the plan?" "The plan? Come up with your own plan. I'm not here to hold your hand." They gave you expansive areas to carry out your mission, and you could find your own way in, kill your target, and get out. The game has some of its own baggage, like the loot system taking any challenge out of the combat later in the game, when the whole idea was that you were squishy that you should avoid combat, but it delivered on the experience the best since the first game.

Then Syndicate came out next, and they highlighted different ways to do your assassination like you were a big dummy, and they made a significant part of the game about street brawling, so I gave it a hard pass. The next game in the series was Origins, which brings us to the modern faux RPG era.

The original one and the two Ezio games which followed are both worth playing. The American Revolution one ran on rails a bit too much to be fun.

I love Odyssey's giant Greek world. It may be because I love Greek history.

If you liked Odyssey then I'd recommend Origins. Not played Valhalla but it's in the same open-world vein. People rate Black Flag highly, and the Ezio trilogy, but these are more the 'traditional' AC games so not open world in the same way and less ARPG-like than Odyssey. The multiplayer on Black Flag is great to, but not many people playing it these days.

AC 1 & 2, I know they're pretty jank now and black flag stole the show, but it was entrancing for young me, it felt like I was entering another world. I would no shit just wander the world for hours just taking in the simulated culture and learning how people lived, it was so fascinating to see how life was back then. I guess that's why AC3 bored me so much, American history is just not interesting to me as it's so recent relatively

I only properly played 1, 2 and a bit of Black Flag but based on that and what I've seen from all the other games I'm gonna stick with the first one.

Investigations were... well actual investigation, gameplay mechanics while simple and satisfying weren't overly automated and the game wasn't burdened with all the bloat that came afterwards. Simplified movement system from later games, one that's fighting you whenever you try to do something even a little out of game's comfort zone, is probably my major sticking point with the series.

That said, I'm not sure if that would be the best choice for you. If you want to try the classic approach I'd suggest going with the Ezio trilogy (II, Brotherhood, Revelations) as these games are more polished, if a little bloated, compared to the first game. They should still hold up well enough to have fun.

Plot: The Ezio trilogy.
Core Gameplay: Black Flag/Rogue.
Replay value: Odyssey.
I just want to chill out after a long day: Odyssey.
I actually want to get sucked into the setting and characters: Black Flag.

I just finished 1 for the first time in a very long time. I really enjoyed its simplicity and wish we got that gameplay loop again but with the mechanics of at least 2

Currently playing bloodlines before moving onto 2.

I think looking back, I really enjoyed brotherhood the most, but I also think my time with its multiplayer is giving me rose tinted glasses. Revelations' ending is my favourite of all of them and I still think of it to this day.

I also don't think 3 is as bad as everyone says. I really enjoyed Connors story and climbing trees, but desmonds end makes me resent the game somewhat, especially since to me that marked the end of my interest in the series. Playing through 4 confirmed it because after that I didn't play anymore due to it feeling like there was no overarching story to keep me wanting anymore.

Odyssey was one I really enjoyed, I appreciated the Greek mythology as well.

I really want to get into Origjns though.

I didn’t really enjoy Valhalla though. Some of the systems they had in it didn’t click well with me.

Unpopular opinion: AC 3. I loved the new ship mechanic and the story twist.

my favorite one is Unity... In old AC cities and the tools given for moving in it are the most important parts and both Paris modelisation and the controls of Arno are the best of the best.

Origins. Bayek is easily the most relatable and grounded character, and the story does a great job of setting up the origins of the Assassins. My only gripe is that Aya really needed more development and a game of her own.