Yea seriously, game releases are usually light around this time so to have these videos potentially make me dive into a game from a franchise once a year or so would be pretty cool. This made me get Odyssey and last year made me finally play Links awakening
Who else wants Barrett to do this once a month with different game franchises? I'm joking and I know videos like this are tons of work but I eat this stuff up, great work from Barrett
"Who is Desmond..." = Goosebumps every time. I also wanna give a shout out to the Multiplayer in AC: Brotherhood. Me and my friends had a LOT of fun with that game
Black Flag is one of my all time favorite videogames. The world is very open yet explorable, Edward's arc is wonderful, and this game gave the world one of the greatest gifts ever: renewed interest in sea shanties
Sea shanties were good if you just play the main memories the story is decent but not a good Assassins Creed game. The side content is repetitive after the first four hours. Same thing over and over again relying on the ship combat which in my opinion is too easy and pretty dull to be relied on as the main draw of a game. The places you explore are literally copy paste sand Islands making the at first seemingly interesting setting dull. You're doing the same thing over and over again a dull gameplay loop . The only Assassins Creed I have trouble getting through on a repeat playthrough. I do not see the hype for this game. One of the most overrated games of all time never mind an overrated Assassins Creed game. X
I’ve only played Black Flag and Odyssey and the ending scene in Black Flag is still one of the most emotional I’ve experienced to date. The nostalgia is a straight nut punch to the feels.
If you liked Odyssey, play Origins. I know reviews generally prefer Odyssey, but the gameplay, music, and story of Origins was flat out incredible. I consider it to be directly behind Black Flag in #2.
I feel like Arno is over looked because of peoples perception of how “bad” unity is. He had a sort of Ezio swagger He’s definitely top three of my fav AC characters
Wow Barrett! You did such an incredible job with this! Truly so much hard work paid off with such a compressive In Review for the series. Thank you so much!
3 роки тому+8
This was honestly one the most interesting rankings I've seen. It's so nice to see different perspectives on this franchise because, like you said at some point, it's all over the place and it has a tone of ups and downs, so it's pretty interesting to see what fans find appealing about it and what takes them away from it. Personally I don't have a clear ranking but to me my favorite games are those who "makes you feel like an Assassin" (meme aside). I like when the games let you investigate, plan and finally hunt down your target like a shadow, like a blade in the croud. And on the narrative side I like to see the conflict of ideologies and the political struggles between different kinds of people, while at the same time indulging in the batshit insanity that is the lore. And I think this is why I love AC1 so much.
You my friend, understand what Darby McDevitt envisioned for this brilliant series. Such a shame that Ubisoft got greedy and chose quantity over quality with the last two games.
Finished Valhalla after about 88 hours and man.... the ending was so underwhelming... the fact that there literally aren’t end credits also had me wondering aimlessly for a few hours wondering where it ends
The whole game was underwhelming for me. Suuuuper disappointing. Boring repetitive gameplay and dull lame story. 2 years off to come up with this is not a good glimpse into the future
AC: Brotherhood perfecting the AC gameplay is a perfectly bullseye accurate take 👌🏼 I’m so shocked as to why the “L2 to call an assassin to kill an enemy” mechanic was ditched immediately 😫
It was still used in Revelations & AC3. With Black Flag & Rogue it wouldn’t make sense narratively since Edward doesn’t become an Assassin until the end of the game & Shay became a Templar. I have no excuse for why they didn’t do it for Unity or Syndicate.
@@Phanthief95 In Unity, you didn't become a Master Assassin until the end, so you have no real authority to be calling down Assassins. In Syndicate, Evie, Jacob, and Green were the only Assassins in London at the time. The Rooks were the only ones you could call into combat.
@@SpectreStatus Connor wasn’t a Master Assassin in AC3’s story but he still summoned the Assassins he recruited. As for Syndicate, I’m still wondering why Jacob & Evie never built up the Brotherhood in their story, having the only Assassins in London be them & Henry.
@@Phanthief95 Ok, but the Assassin Order in North America was virtually obliterated at that point. Normally an Assassin would not be actively recruiting their own cell of initiates unless there was no one else, and there wasn't. So there it makes more sense. In the case of Syndicate, even though there was an established Brotherhood already, the Frye twins elected to tackle the most fortified Templar infrastructure in Europe virtually cut off from support. Much easier than trying to form and train a competent side-branch of the Brotherhood (which would've taken time AND would've possibly been an affront to the Assassin Brotherhood once they found out) is to simply form a new gang from the existing underworld. They're already trained in their own business and they can take the fight to the Templar infrastructure immediately. Also, the Rooks have FAR more members than any half-way decent Brotherhood the Frye Twins could train.. and they're not exactly Mentor-level in Syndicate like Ezio.
Barrett this was awesome, dude! I listened to the whole thing while doing some drawing and the time just flew by hearing about your journey. Great work, can't wait for the next one.
Barrett, this video is amazing! Thank you for putting all that time in and playing through all these games! As a huge AC fan since the first game, I loved seeing the different thoughts you had compared to mine over the years. Would love to see this series continue!
I mean it takes that type of game that people have been hungry for because ubisoft refuse to take the series in a good direction. If you ask me it's the fans and ubisoft's fault. But nah, it gives a different feeling when playing that vs a good ac game.
I want them to go back to a version of AC to a more linear narrative ASSASSIN focused game. And spin off the massive open world games as something else.
Hell yeah Syndicate underrated for sure, I enjoyed Odyssey more just because of Kassandra. Can't wait to play Valhalla when I get my hands on a PS5. Good work Sad Boy, the time flew watching this video.
"Pirate stories are rad as hell, the first 2 Pirates of the Caribean movies are the most underrated trilogy of all time and Treasure Planet did not get the love it deserved" ... Will you marry me, Barrett?!
FINALLY! I cheered when you placed Syndicate above all else, it is SOO underrated, and more players need to try it out. I loved that WW1 mission, and I would love it so badly if there is actually a "modern Assassins Creed" that is not just a "Watch Dog moniker"
@@littleleafers I actually bought syndicate a few days before this video and beat it yesterday, its actually pretty good, story was decent not the best but the gameplay is really really good.
Does Syndicate play completely differently on the consoles or something? I tried it on the PC and the gameplay and menuing felt SO clunky and awful that I couldn't stand it and put it down.
@@werdfeefs7027 Well TBH, "most" console ports have pretty bad UI/UX for PC users, since they developed with controller in mind and not KB+M. But I still find it acceptable. This is also a 2015 game, which is still relatively early in the PS4/XOne console cycle, UI/UX has definitely improved since Origins onwards. Compared to what came before like AC1/2/3, I think its pretty alright.
It’s just so refreshing and satisfying to see someone give so much well deserved praise to Syndicate. It’s SUCH a great game and it’s wonderfully to finally see a ranking where everyone isn’t repeating the same bland nothing criticisms that address nothing and quickly moving on. As you said, far more people really need to go back and play Syndicate while giving it a solid chance and they’d love it.
What you mentioned about Ubisoft thinking that women don't sell is a point that bothers me a lot. Not you mentioning it, but because it's a fact. They chose to "degrade" Aya as a side character after she was supposed to be the main character in Origins. Also in Odyssey, Kassandra is Canon, but who's on the cover? Right. Alexios. Same for Valhalla. Female Eivor is supposed to be Canon and they still put male Eivor on the cover. This is kinda disappointing to me. But even before that, when coming to Syndicate. All cinematic trailers of Syndicate heavily feature Jacob as the protagonist. In one of the trailers Evie doesn't even appear. And in the other trailers, she's just a side character. Also on the cover. Just smh.
Pleasantly surprised how high you have AC: Syndicate, and AC: Valhalla, because these two were my absolute favorites in the AC series, and I'm glad I didn't let all the negative reviews Valhalla had, deter me from trying it. Also, great to see how much enthusiasm and love you have for the series as a whole.
@@Curton6693 it was definitely a big deal being the end of Desmond's story. But yea the pacing was just so bad and that meant everything to me. I played it at launch and beat it and remember liking it. I recently replayed it and it took 5 hours to get to connor, with the hood. I was like what a fuckin joke lol. The mission designs didn't help either
Such a great video!! Thanks for all your hard work, Barrett! I really love how passionate you are. I sent this on to my best friend who loves the AC games but isn't a huge video game fan in general so she isn't familiar with Kinda Funny. I just know this video will resonate with AC fans. Your break downs and reasoning for your ranks are so well communicated, the video essays out of the next gen trio are always something to look forward to.
I loved this video and I appreciate all of the editing gameplay clips into it (rather than just a video of you talking the whole time). It was fun watching the graphics progression. Excellent work! Also solid final list.
@@thelot9880 I love what I do and the playing video game side of it isn’t hard. Correct. But don’t discredit the amount of hours I put into writing the script, collecting footage, recording my video and VO, and editing this all together. The edit alone took 3 weeks.
2:01:27 Fun fact: There’s even more AC lore tied to the Jotnar in Eivor’s dreams. The Jotnar are actually the Greco-Roman Isu, & some of them are Isu that we’ve met in the series. More specifically, Minerva (who communicates to Desmond through Ezio at the end of AC2), Juno (who forced Desmond to kill Lucy & who Desmond sets free at the end of AC3), Jupiter (who tells Desmond about the Grand Temple at the end of Revelations), & Aletheia (who is tied to the Staff of Hermes in Odyssey & is heavily tied into Loki’s story in Valhalla).
38:12 It wasn’t really the Templars who killed Blackbeard, just British soldiers. Also, his last words were awesome: “In a world without gold, we might’ve been heroes!”
Really really great work Barrett. AC is one of my favorite franchises, so hearing your thoughts on all of them was a nice trip down memory lane. Keep up the great work! And shoutout to KF for this kind of programming!
I get that the dual release of Rogue and Unity may be seen nowadays as a bad decision from Ubisoft, but as someone who was obsessed with the franchise back in 2014 and couldn't afford a next gen console, I was super glad to at least get to play an AC game even if it's just a Black Flag reskin. So I'm kind of glad they made Rogue, and I still think it's a pretty solid game, especially if you liked Black Flag's gameplay loop.
This is making me realize that I have played a TON of Assassins Creed games throughout my life lol the earlier games with Ezio and Altair are honestly nostalgic for me at this point. I'm happy I was able to experience every game back in the day one by one as they came out.
So cool to see all the next gen of KF teams putting out this awesome video essay type content and streaming content and diversifying what KF is as a company and channel. I’m so proud of you BossBaby!
Barrett is the man. Loved this. Personally, Origins is my favorite. Bayek was so memorable and well developed. I’m a full supporter of a bayek sequel. Bayek’s performance is the whole reason it’s my favorite. Since it was the start of the rpgs, there still wasn’t a lot of emphasis on choice, which I think helped because it made Bayek a developed character rather than a character that I sculpted to my visions. The perfect blend of savior and badass
My ranking (including Mirage) as someone who has 100%ed all but four of the games (ACI, IV, Rogue, and Unity - still finished the campaigns multiple times over for them) with full synch: 1. Odyssey 2. Origins 3. Valhalla 4. ACII 5. Black Flag 6. ACIII 7. Syndicate 8. Brotherhood 9. Revelations 10. Mirage 11. Rogue 12. Unity 13. ACI I've been a die-hard fan since 2009, but I really do prefer the RPG style to the original games. Odyssey is the best all-around game, Valhalla has the best narrative (very rewarding if you're a long-time fan; by far the best Isu story in the series), Syndicate has the best stealth and black box design, and ACII is still the peak of the older style of game. The RPGs have a massive leg-up in worldbuilding, world design, side content (which, aside from ACIII, was pretty bad in the older games), and historical and cultural immersion. Unity (although I'll put it above ACI) is the only entry I have generally negative feelings towards, as it is mechanically a mess (A+ parkour animations don't matter if the actual mechanics are unfinished and clunky), feels incredibly unfinished (stealth especially sucks, particularly when full synch objectives are designed around having a whistle that, for some reason, isn't in the game), fails to thoroughly explore the great themes it introduces (outside of the fantastic epilogue speech), and completely wastes its historical setting. Not to mention the insane map bloat with the side-content (which, to be fair, Syndicate does worse). Putting Syndicate above 2/3 of the Ezio games is probably a hot take (although after watching this video I see I am not alone), but Syndicate is just special. Best stealth in the series, insanely charming characters, a perfectly British tone to everything, and a fantastic city design. Brotherhood and Revelations are excellent (Revelations still has one of the best stories in the series) but are too short to really compete with the games I put above it. I also know that many hate ACIII, but I love it. Best antagonists in the series (with the best white room death conversations), a top three music score for the series, and super fun (if easy) gameplay. I quite like Connor as well; his naivete can be annoying, but it's the thematic point of his character (one that would be a lot clearer if they hadn't cut his fantastic epilogue speech). Valhalla goes below Origins and Odyssey because, in my opinion, it is quite a massive step back in terms of side content. Still better than the older games in that regard, but a far cry from what the preceding RPGs accomplished. The DLC writing also irked me; despite all DLCs being set after the main game, they are written as if they are set right after Eivor reaches England, meaning that all character and story development is completely ignored. I get that they wanted them to be accessible, but every game since Brotherhood has allowed players to access post-main narrative DLC early in the game, simply with a spoiler warning attached. I have no idea why the Valhalla team chose to write their DLCs that way (Eivor doesn't know that she/he's Odin, Rollo isn't present for the siege of Paris despite being there historically, Dawn of Ragnarok does basically nothing with the Isu parallels, etc.)
Ranking the main DLC for fun: 1. The Fate of Atlantis (Odyssey) 2. Curse of the Pharaohs (Origins) 3. Wrath of the Druids (Valhalla) 4. Forgotten Saga (Valhalla - Way more fun than I ever expected and is surprisingly story-heavy) 5. Dawn of Ragnarok (Valhalla - I have a lot of writing issues with this one, but you got to admire the scope and how fun it is) 6. Legacy of the First Blade (Odyssey) 7. The Tyranny of King Washington (ACIII) 8. The Siege of Paris (Valhalla) 9. The Hidden Ones (Origins) 10. Freedom Cry (Black Flag) 11. Dead Kings (Unity) 12. The Da Vinci Disappearance (Brotherhood) 13. Jack the Ripper (Syndicate - Fun gameplay and near-perfect black box missions, but there are massive story issues and the completion grind is ridiculous for a DLC with this short of a story) 14. The Lost Archive (Revelations - I feel like I'm one of the six people that actually really likes this DLC) 15. The Copernicus Conspiracy (Brotherhood) 16. Bonfire of the Vanities (ACII - A lot of people hate this one for the pacing and how it obstructs the story; fwiw it's fine to me and has a great ending cutscene) 17. The Battle of Forli (ACII) 18. Benedict Arnold (ACIII) 19. The Last Maharaja (Syndicate - I have no idea how this even passes as DLC. Syndicate's open-ended style for its side missions is already really bad in-game, and every single one of this DLC's missions uses that structure) I'm not ranking smaller DLCs, or else this list would be way too long.
I also love odyssey the world felt alive the story was good wasn’t on pars with ac3 but it kept me going but the main thing I love bout it was that u play as a isu hybrid and they dive deep into the isu lore odyssey is my top 5 ac game
Never realised how much nostalgia I had for these games until watching this video. Grew up on them, playing every entry up until Unity. Nice walk down memory lane
More Barrett please! This video is great and much respect for playing so much AC in such a short timeframe, I played Valhalla then Odyssey back to back and can't even think about playing any more
This is an excellently in-depth ranking. You did an extremely great job here. Plus, delighted that AC Syndicate was so well ranked by you, it is by far my favourite along with AC: Valhalla and AC2/Brotherhood and Black Flag.
I stopped playing halfway through brotherhood, and havn't touched an AC since, but after this video, i just might jump back in again :-) Fantastic work Barrett, and thanks for the shout out of Treasure Planet ! :D
Well done Barrett! Great video! Two hours and I haven't felt bored not a single moment. It's compact info and interesting. I can't 100% agree with your score, since Odyssey was my top game, but I guess that's because I'm a Greek named Herodotus. Also it was an amazing game!
*FINALLY an AC fan who isn't blinded by nostalgia and gives the more recent entries the love they deserve!* Excellent content, man. 👍🏻 Love from Brazil.
59:29 - Don’t forget Unity’s big sell was using Ubi Connect and loot boxes to put you into teams of 4 to do special missions and assassinations that interweaved with the single player story missions. Each player could wield a different weapon (spear, axe, sword ...).
Could have listened to you talk about Valhalla all day. I feel in love it, might be my personal number one behind or ahead of black flag. Great reviews man!!
I really enjoyed this video. One of the things I love about Barrett’s content is everything is well thought through and reasoned, but he usually comes out with a different conclusion to the one I have; making the process all the more compelling. Usually that’s some great hot takes on the Star Wars franchise. I thought I was going to be disappointed with this video, as we had gotten all the way up to Syndicate without any surprises and his initial experience mirrored mine completely; then he goes and puts it at the top?!??!!. 😊 I guess that means I have to go back a play Syndicate to completion. Damn you Mr Courtney. Seriously mate, great job.
Barrett, as a huge fan of the AC series this was a great watch. Very glad it was trimmed from four to two hours -- I think it's much more consumable. Excited for the next one!
Barrett this is phenomenal. I love assassins creed and would not have ranked it this way at all but this was awesome and well thought out and really special. Reminded me why I loved these games
I appreciate the love for Rogues story. I always thought it was overlooked but really enjoyed the story, and more Black Flag gameplay was a plus for me. I played Rogue before Unity, but I knew a little bit about the opening of Unity from some preview coverage and ended up starting Unity like an hour later so the end of Rogue was not lost on me at the time. And personally my order is pretty similar to Barretts up to that point, but i would put Rogue just below Black Flag. Edit: I'm also glad that Syndicate got some love because its my favorite of the old style games. And when I played Odyssey, I never had to wait to get up to level for something. I was always way over leveled for every area, and I appreciated that they would level up with me. That was probably because i enjoyed the side content and did pretty much all of it. before i attempted story missions in an area. Watching this has made me reconsider some of the order of things so my ranking would be Valhalla Odyssey Syndicate Origins Black Flag Rogue Brotherhood Revelations AC2 Unity AC3 AC1
42:20 You can also read about the end of Edward’s story in the AC novel Forsaken, which covers the early life of Haytham up to his death in AC3. To any AC fans, I highly recommend it, & it is canon to the series.
Barret this is an amazing video! Please keep up the great work and can't wait for your next franchise in review. After watching you convinced me to go back and try AC again.
Can we all just agree the Ezio Family’s theme from AC2 is masterful
So masterful it became the theme of the franchise
Yes, yes we can
Yes, and similarly all franchise has masterful music
Everyone liked that
Jesper Kyd's entire AC2 score is one of the best soundtracks of all time.
This video was 14 hours long but I used Helix credits to trim it down.
Hahaha, underrated comment
Who else wants Barrett to do this once a year with different game franchise’s?
Yea seriously, game releases are usually light around this time so to have these videos potentially make me dive into a game from a franchise once a year or so would be pretty cool. This made me get Odyssey and last year made me finally play Links awakening
Who else wants Barrett to do this once a month with different game franchises? I'm joking and I know videos like this are tons of work but I eat this stuff up, great work from Barrett
100% his deep dives like this are great
Far cry would be a good one
Please do Metal Gear. Barrett. Why? Because it’s (in a David Hayter Snake voice) METAL GEAR!
Barrett still the most under appreciated member of KF. You're killing it bro.
Think that’s Joey but I getcha.
I totally agree! Wish they'd give him their own show!
"Who is Desmond..." = Goosebumps every time.
I also wanna give a shout out to the Multiplayer in AC: Brotherhood. Me and my friends had a LOT of fun with that game
Black Flag is one of my all time favorite videogames. The world is very open yet explorable, Edward's arc is wonderful, and this game gave the world one of the greatest gifts ever: renewed interest in sea shanties
Sea shanties were good if you just play the main memories the story is decent but not a good Assassins Creed game. The side content is repetitive after the first four hours. Same thing over and over again relying on the ship combat which in my opinion is too easy and pretty dull to be relied on as the main draw of a game. The places you explore are literally copy paste sand Islands making the at first seemingly interesting setting dull. You're doing the same thing over and over again a dull gameplay loop . The only Assassins Creed I have trouble getting through on a repeat playthrough. I do not see the hype for this game. One of the most overrated games of all time never mind an overrated Assassins Creed game. X
This is one of the best videos I've seen on UA-cam. Such a great journey. I jumped from unity to Valhalla and now I want to go back and play the rest.
I’ve only played Black Flag and Odyssey and the ending scene in Black Flag is still one of the most emotional I’ve experienced to date. The nostalgia is a straight nut punch to the feels.
If you liked Odyssey, play Origins. I know reviews generally prefer Odyssey, but the gameplay, music, and story of Origins was flat out incredible. I consider it to be directly behind Black Flag in #2.
This took a lot of dedication. That’s a lot of dang hours.
Playing like 600 hours of games for a single video feature is impressive dedication. Major kudos to Barrett.
Honestly Arno has my favorite designed AC protagonist the cloak just looks so good
He did have the drip
I feel like Arno is over looked because of peoples perception of how “bad” unity is. He had a sort of Ezio swagger He’s definitely top three of my fav AC characters
Right
I think Arnos master outfit is leagues better than his original but he is pretty dope
Wow Barrett! You did such an incredible job with this! Truly so much hard work paid off with such a compressive In Review for the series. Thank you so much!
This was honestly one the most interesting rankings I've seen. It's so nice to see different perspectives on this franchise because, like you said at some point, it's all over the place and it has a tone of ups and downs, so it's pretty interesting to see what fans find appealing about it and what takes them away from it.
Personally I don't have a clear ranking but to me my favorite games are those who "makes you feel like an Assassin" (meme aside). I like when the games let you investigate, plan and finally hunt down your target like a shadow, like a blade in the croud. And on the narrative side I like to see the conflict of ideologies and the political struggles between different kinds of people, while at the same time indulging in the batshit insanity that is the lore.
And I think this is why I love AC1 so much.
You my friend, understand what Darby McDevitt envisioned for this brilliant series. Such a shame that Ubisoft got greedy and chose quantity over quality with the last two games.
Finished Valhalla after about 88 hours and man.... the ending was so underwhelming... the fact that there literally aren’t end credits also had me wondering aimlessly for a few hours wondering where it ends
The whole game was underwhelming for me. Suuuuper disappointing. Boring repetitive gameplay and dull lame story. 2 years off to come up with this is not a good glimpse into the future
@@iLLBiLLsRoastBeats bruh this is the best AC story in YEARS. it's long as hell, but the ending is fantastic if you're a longtime AC fans
@Frans Delt yeah, good overall. Felt like Civ 6 or something where the main focus is to gain alliances and very little emphasis on a narrative arc.
Origins did that too
@@parixitchaudhary5823 bRuH
AC: Brotherhood perfecting the AC gameplay is a perfectly bullseye accurate take 👌🏼
I’m so shocked as to why the “L2 to call an assassin to kill an enemy” mechanic was ditched immediately 😫
Definitely my favourite in the series
It was still used in Revelations & AC3. With Black Flag & Rogue it wouldn’t make sense narratively since Edward doesn’t become an Assassin until the end of the game & Shay became a Templar.
I have no excuse for why they didn’t do it for Unity or Syndicate.
@@Phanthief95 In Unity, you didn't become a Master Assassin until the end, so you have no real authority to be calling down Assassins. In Syndicate, Evie, Jacob, and Green were the only Assassins in London at the time. The Rooks were the only ones you could call into combat.
@@SpectreStatus Connor wasn’t a Master Assassin in AC3’s story but he still summoned the Assassins he recruited.
As for Syndicate, I’m still wondering why Jacob & Evie never built up the Brotherhood in their story, having the only Assassins in London be them & Henry.
@@Phanthief95 Ok, but the Assassin Order in North America was virtually obliterated at that point. Normally an Assassin would not be actively recruiting their own cell of initiates unless there was no one else, and there wasn't. So there it makes more sense.
In the case of Syndicate, even though there was an established Brotherhood already, the Frye twins elected to tackle the most fortified Templar infrastructure in Europe virtually cut off from support. Much easier than trying to form and train a competent side-branch of the Brotherhood (which would've taken time AND would've possibly been an affront to the Assassin Brotherhood once they found out) is to simply form a new gang from the existing underworld. They're already trained in their own business and they can take the fight to the Templar infrastructure immediately. Also, the Rooks have FAR more members than any half-way decent Brotherhood the Frye Twins could train.. and they're not exactly Mentor-level in Syndicate like Ezio.
Ezio, don’t you recognize me? It’s a-me, your Uncle Mario!!
Tim Getty's send this man a plaque and some nuggets.
Wtf Barrett!? Fantastic content in general, not just for KF. I was entertained through the entire 2 hrs dude!
Barrett this was awesome, dude! I listened to the whole thing while doing some drawing and the time just flew by hearing about your journey. Great work, can't wait for the next one.
Syndicate was so under-rated and had good dlc with the jack the reaper
Barrett, this video is amazing! Thank you for putting all that time in and playing through all these games! As a huge AC fan since the first game, I loved seeing the different thoughts you had compared to mine over the years. Would love to see this series continue!
Ghost of Tsushima is the best Assassins Creed game...
Good work on this one Barrett!
I mean it takes that type of game that people have been hungry for because ubisoft refuse to take the series in a good direction. If you ask me it's the fans and ubisoft's fault. But nah, it gives a different feeling when playing that vs a good ac game.
I want them to go back to a version of AC to a more linear narrative ASSASSIN focused game. And spin off the massive open world games as something else.
I agree. It’s weird how they were close to mastering stealth mechanics then it just turned into an action RPG
Hell yeah Syndicate underrated for sure, I enjoyed Odyssey more just because of Kassandra. Can't wait to play Valhalla when I get my hands on a PS5. Good work Sad Boy, the time flew watching this video.
I dont normally comment on videos but your time care and dedication was phenomenal. Fantastic video this should have way more views and likes
"Pirate stories are rad as hell,
the first 2 Pirates of the Caribean movies are the most underrated trilogy of all time
and Treasure Planet did not get the love it deserved"
...
Will you marry me, Barrett?!
I’m already spoken for
Even the third Pirates, while bloated and goofy and a bit much, it had a lot of fun ideas and great characters.
FINALLY! I cheered when you placed Syndicate above all else, it is SOO underrated, and more players need to try it out. I loved that WW1 mission, and I would love it so badly if there is actually a "modern Assassins Creed" that is not just a "Watch Dog moniker"
Because of this video I'm going to try Syndicate for the first time. I'm excited!
@@littleleafers I actually bought syndicate a few days before this video and beat it yesterday, its actually pretty good, story was decent not the best but the gameplay is really really good.
@@brandonzamora43 Sweet! I bought it last night. I'm gonna play it this weekend
Does Syndicate play completely differently on the consoles or something? I tried it on the PC and the gameplay and menuing felt SO clunky and awful that I couldn't stand it and put it down.
@@werdfeefs7027 Well TBH, "most" console ports have pretty bad UI/UX for PC users, since they developed with controller in mind and not KB+M. But I still find it acceptable. This is also a 2015 game, which is still relatively early in the PS4/XOne console cycle, UI/UX has definitely improved since Origins onwards. Compared to what came before like AC1/2/3, I think its pretty alright.
Wow! Awesome review. Very well done Barrett. I can only imagine how much hard work you have put in to make this great video.
The Syndicate love here is fantastic, such a good game
Yeah I loved it too. Was a huge Evie fan. Was hopping Jacob was the Ripper in the dlc.
Dat cane tho. 👍🏾
Fucking booooooo
@@wkadalie It wouldn’t really make sense if they did that, & that’s because of the World War I stuff where we play as Jacob’s granddaughter.
@@Phanthief95 it could make sense. If he was programmed by the templers and evie found him and deprogrammed him.
It’s just so refreshing and satisfying to see someone give so much well deserved praise to Syndicate. It’s SUCH a great game and it’s wonderfully to finally see a ranking where everyone isn’t repeating the same bland nothing criticisms that address nothing and quickly moving on. As you said, far more people really need to go back and play Syndicate while giving it a solid chance and they’d love it.
Dude Syndicate is the hidden gem, I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did and thanks for showing it the love it deserves!
I don't know if I would've placed it at number one, but it's definitely top tier.
Metal gear seems fitting for this series one day
Would love to see Greg do that
@@BarrettCourtney This is Greg's calling.
What you mentioned about Ubisoft thinking that women don't sell is a point that bothers me a lot. Not you mentioning it, but because it's a fact.
They chose to "degrade" Aya as a side character after she was supposed to be the main character in Origins.
Also in Odyssey, Kassandra is Canon, but who's on the cover? Right. Alexios.
Same for Valhalla. Female Eivor is supposed to be Canon and they still put male Eivor on the cover.
This is kinda disappointing to me.
But even before that, when coming to Syndicate. All cinematic trailers of Syndicate heavily feature Jacob as the protagonist. In one of the trailers Evie doesn't even appear. And in the other trailers, she's just a side character. Also on the cover.
Just smh.
Pleasantly surprised how high you have AC: Syndicate, and AC: Valhalla, because these two were my absolute favorites in the AC series, and I'm glad I didn't let all the negative reviews Valhalla had, deter me from trying it. Also, great to see how much enthusiasm and love you have for the series as a whole.
The amount of work that went into making this is crazy. Well done Barrett! Hope you get more opportunities do to similar projects in the future.
I love the themes from the earlier games. Assassin’s Creed 2, 3, and black flag were epic! Man it was a different era for games......
Are you remembering a different ac3 than me? Games have changed for the better in terms of that game
@@GuyOnTheInternet53 I enjoyed the story to that game a lot. The pacing was atrocious in the animus world, but it did feel like a big deal
@@Curton6693 it was definitely a big deal being the end of Desmond's story. But yea the pacing was just so bad and that meant everything to me. I played it at launch and beat it and remember liking it. I recently replayed it and it took 5 hours to get to connor, with the hood. I was like what a fuckin joke lol. The mission designs didn't help either
I thought this was going to be like a 15 minute video.
...My body is ready.
15 minute video from barrett 😂.
I found Black Flag to be The Best.
Same
“Oh my god it’s happening. Everybody STAY CALM!”
Shout out to Barrett, fantastic video. The hours this must’ve taken is mind boggling.
I agree with the list too! Great analysis.
I finally had the time to watch this. I truly hope Barrett continues these franchise reviews. These are awesome to watch.
Such a great video!! Thanks for all your hard work, Barrett! I really love how passionate you are. I sent this on to my best friend who loves the AC games but isn't a huge video game fan in general so she isn't familiar with Kinda Funny. I just know this video will resonate with AC fans. Your break downs and reasoning for your ranks are so well communicated, the video essays out of the next gen trio are always something to look forward to.
I loved this video and I appreciate all of the editing gameplay clips into it (rather than just a video of you talking the whole time). It was fun watching the graphics progression. Excellent work! Also solid final list.
Amazing job Barrett! This was an absolute delight to watch and a great way to reminisce about some great games and memories.
Mad props to Barrett, a lot of hard work and hours playing to make this for us, you rock man!
@@thelot9880 I love what I do and the playing video game side of it isn’t hard. Correct. But don’t discredit the amount of hours I put into writing the script, collecting footage, recording my video and VO, and editing this all together. The edit alone took 3 weeks.
Incredible amount of love and effort put into this one Barrett! Well done my dude
2:01:27 Fun fact: There’s even more AC lore tied to the Jotnar in Eivor’s dreams.
The Jotnar are actually the Greco-Roman Isu, & some of them are Isu that we’ve met in the series. More specifically, Minerva (who communicates to Desmond through Ezio at the end of AC2), Juno (who forced Desmond to kill Lucy & who Desmond sets free at the end of AC3), Jupiter (who tells Desmond about the Grand Temple at the end of Revelations), & Aletheia (who is tied to the Staff of Hermes in Odyssey & is heavily tied into Loki’s story in Valhalla).
These massive in review specials are incredible barrett. Keep up the great work.
38:12 It wasn’t really the Templars who killed Blackbeard, just British soldiers.
Also, his last words were awesome: “In a world without gold, we might’ve been heroes!”
Really really great work Barrett. AC is one of my favorite franchises, so hearing your thoughts on all of them was a nice trip down memory lane. Keep up the great work! And shoutout to KF for this kind of programming!
I get that the dual release of Rogue and Unity may be seen nowadays as a bad decision from Ubisoft, but as someone who was obsessed with the franchise back in 2014 and couldn't afford a next gen console, I was super glad to at least get to play an AC game even if it's just a Black Flag reskin. So I'm kind of glad they made Rogue, and I still think it's a pretty solid game, especially if you liked Black Flag's gameplay loop.
This is making me realize that I have played a TON of Assassins Creed games throughout my life lol the earlier games with Ezio and Altair are honestly nostalgic for me at this point. I'm happy I was able to experience every game back in the day one by one as they came out.
So cool to see all the next gen of KF teams putting out this awesome video essay type content and streaming content and diversifying what KF is as a company and channel. I’m so proud of you BossBaby!
Man congrats 🎉🍾🎈🎊 this is an awesome video!
Wait. So Syndicate is secretly the Batman gotham by gaslight game we never got?
This was so awesome man! Thanks for the hard work!!
This format was better than the Zelda one. Loved watching this!
Syndicate is GOAT
You killed it again with this InReview Barrett! Looking forward to next years Persona InReview!!!
I had no desire to watch this content but it was in my queue and gave it a chance. Best content on the channel.
Brilliant video, my list would look quite different but I appreciate how much work went into making this video. Brilliant job x
Barrett is the man. Loved this.
Personally, Origins is my favorite. Bayek was so memorable and well developed. I’m a full supporter of a bayek sequel. Bayek’s performance is the whole reason it’s my favorite. Since it was the start of the rpgs, there still wasn’t a lot of emphasis on choice, which I think helped because it made Bayek a developed character rather than a character that I sculpted to my visions. The perfect blend of savior and badass
I was literally thinking as he started the Syndicate section that it is the pinnacle of the original Assassin's Creed formula! Such an amazing game.
This video is perfect timing since I played half of the AC series in the past year.
My ranking (including Mirage) as someone who has 100%ed all but four of the games (ACI, IV, Rogue, and Unity - still finished the campaigns multiple times over for them) with full synch:
1. Odyssey
2. Origins
3. Valhalla
4. ACII
5. Black Flag
6. ACIII
7. Syndicate
8. Brotherhood
9. Revelations
10. Mirage
11. Rogue
12. Unity
13. ACI
I've been a die-hard fan since 2009, but I really do prefer the RPG style to the original games. Odyssey is the best all-around game, Valhalla has the best narrative (very rewarding if you're a long-time fan; by far the best Isu story in the series), Syndicate has the best stealth and black box design, and ACII is still the peak of the older style of game. The RPGs have a massive leg-up in worldbuilding, world design, side content (which, aside from ACIII, was pretty bad in the older games), and historical and cultural immersion. Unity (although I'll put it above ACI) is the only entry I have generally negative feelings towards, as it is mechanically a mess (A+ parkour animations don't matter if the actual mechanics are unfinished and clunky), feels incredibly unfinished (stealth especially sucks, particularly when full synch objectives are designed around having a whistle that, for some reason, isn't in the game), fails to thoroughly explore the great themes it introduces (outside of the fantastic epilogue speech), and completely wastes its historical setting. Not to mention the insane map bloat with the side-content (which, to be fair, Syndicate does worse).
Putting Syndicate above 2/3 of the Ezio games is probably a hot take (although after watching this video I see I am not alone), but Syndicate is just special. Best stealth in the series, insanely charming characters, a perfectly British tone to everything, and a fantastic city design. Brotherhood and Revelations are excellent (Revelations still has one of the best stories in the series) but are too short to really compete with the games I put above it.
I also know that many hate ACIII, but I love it. Best antagonists in the series (with the best white room death conversations), a top three music score for the series, and super fun (if easy) gameplay. I quite like Connor as well; his naivete can be annoying, but it's the thematic point of his character (one that would be a lot clearer if they hadn't cut his fantastic epilogue speech).
Valhalla goes below Origins and Odyssey because, in my opinion, it is quite a massive step back in terms of side content. Still better than the older games in that regard, but a far cry from what the preceding RPGs accomplished. The DLC writing also irked me; despite all DLCs being set after the main game, they are written as if they are set right after Eivor reaches England, meaning that all character and story development is completely ignored. I get that they wanted them to be accessible, but every game since Brotherhood has allowed players to access post-main narrative DLC early in the game, simply with a spoiler warning attached. I have no idea why the Valhalla team chose to write their DLCs that way (Eivor doesn't know that she/he's Odin, Rollo isn't present for the siege of Paris despite being there historically, Dawn of Ragnarok does basically nothing with the Isu parallels, etc.)
Ranking the main DLC for fun:
1. The Fate of Atlantis (Odyssey)
2. Curse of the Pharaohs (Origins)
3. Wrath of the Druids (Valhalla)
4. Forgotten Saga (Valhalla - Way more fun than I ever expected and is surprisingly story-heavy)
5. Dawn of Ragnarok (Valhalla - I have a lot of writing issues with this one, but you got to admire the scope and how fun it is)
6. Legacy of the First Blade (Odyssey)
7. The Tyranny of King Washington (ACIII)
8. The Siege of Paris (Valhalla)
9. The Hidden Ones (Origins)
10. Freedom Cry (Black Flag)
11. Dead Kings (Unity)
12. The Da Vinci Disappearance (Brotherhood)
13. Jack the Ripper (Syndicate - Fun gameplay and near-perfect black box missions, but there are massive story issues and the completion grind is ridiculous for a DLC with this short of a story)
14. The Lost Archive (Revelations - I feel like I'm one of the six people that actually really likes this DLC)
15. The Copernicus Conspiracy (Brotherhood)
16. Bonfire of the Vanities (ACII - A lot of people hate this one for the pacing and how it obstructs the story; fwiw it's fine to me and has a great ending cutscene)
17. The Battle of Forli (ACII)
18. Benedict Arnold (ACIII)
19. The Last Maharaja (Syndicate - I have no idea how this even passes as DLC. Syndicate's open-ended style for its side missions is already really bad in-game, and every single one of this DLC's missions uses that structure)
I'm not ranking smaller DLCs, or else this list would be way too long.
I also love odyssey the world felt alive the story was good wasn’t on pars with ac3 but it kept me going but the main thing I love bout it was that u play as a isu hybrid and they dive deep into the isu lore odyssey is my top 5 ac game
Great work man! Crushed the review!
Great video Barrett. Keeping my fingers crossed for a Persona in Review, even the early PS1 ones are worth it
Never realised how much nostalgia I had for these games until watching this video. Grew up on them, playing every entry up until Unity. Nice walk down memory lane
Barrett this is amazing, and so much work. Well done!
Personally I'd put Odyssey higher and Black Flag a bit lower but I respect the decisions for sure.
Great work, Barrett. I mainlined the end of Valhalla before watching this so I could see your rankings. Bravo!
Barrett if you see this, hell of a review vid. looking forward to what you decide to tackle next
It’s so satisfying finally seeing someone give syndicate the love it deserves
This was really well done! Great job Barrett.
More Barrett please! This video is great and much respect for playing so much AC in such a short timeframe, I played Valhalla then Odyssey back to back and can't even think about playing any more
This deserves way more views! I’ve played every game so many time. And now I’m gonna do it again!
Been waiting on this for awhile! Zelda in review was awesome, and I’m ready for some hot takes on the assassins creed series!
This is an excellently in-depth ranking. You did an extremely great job here. Plus, delighted that AC Syndicate was so well ranked by you, it is by far my favourite along with AC: Valhalla and AC2/Brotherhood and Black Flag.
I am very in love with these final rankings.
I stopped playing halfway through brotherhood, and havn't touched an AC since, but after this video, i just might jump back in again :-) Fantastic work Barrett, and thanks for the shout out of Treasure Planet ! :D
Well done Barrett! Great video! Two hours and I haven't felt bored not a single moment. It's compact info and interesting. I can't 100% agree with your score, since Odyssey was my top game, but I guess that's because I'm a Greek named Herodotus. Also it was an amazing game!
Appreciate the dedication Barrett! I know this took awhile to make. Awesome video 👍
*FINALLY an AC fan who isn't blinded by nostalgia and gives the more recent entries the love they deserve!*
Excellent content, man. 👍🏻
Love from Brazil.
Fake fan
59:29 - Don’t forget Unity’s big sell was using Ubi Connect and loot boxes to put you into teams of 4 to do special missions and assassinations that interweaved with the single player story missions. Each player could wield a different weapon (spear, axe, sword ...).
Yeah he definitely skimmed over the multiplayer aspects of all of the later games, for better or worse.
the genuine reaction to the fact AC is just batman is perfect and was exactly like how I reacted when I played Arkham city after AC Unity lmao
Barrett, this was incredible. Thank you for all your time and hard work! ❤️❤️
Could have listened to you talk about Valhalla all day. I feel in love it, might be my personal number one behind or ahead of black flag. Great reviews man!!
I really enjoyed this video.
One of the things I love about Barrett’s content is everything is well thought through and reasoned, but he usually comes out with a different conclusion to the one I have; making the process all the more compelling.
Usually that’s some great hot takes on the Star Wars franchise. I thought I was going to be disappointed with this video, as we had gotten all the way up to Syndicate without any surprises and his initial experience mirrored mine completely; then he goes and puts it at the top?!??!!. 😊
I guess that means I have to go back a play Syndicate to completion. Damn you Mr Courtney.
Seriously mate, great job.
Extremely well done! Thanks for going through this all so thoroughly!
Barrett, as a huge fan of the AC series this was a great watch. Very glad it was trimmed from four to two hours -- I think it's much more consumable. Excited for the next one!
And now I have to play Syndicate, what a fucking underrated game holy shit.
Barrett this is phenomenal. I love assassins creed and would not have ranked it this way at all but this was awesome and well thought out and really special. Reminded me why I loved these games
I appreciate the love for Rogues story. I always thought it was overlooked but really enjoyed the story, and more Black Flag gameplay was a plus for me. I played Rogue before Unity, but I knew a little bit about the opening of Unity from some preview coverage and ended up starting Unity like an hour later so the end of Rogue was not lost on me at the time. And personally my order is pretty similar to Barretts up to that point, but i would put Rogue just below Black Flag.
Edit: I'm also glad that Syndicate got some love because its my favorite of the old style games. And when I played Odyssey, I never had to wait to get up to level for something. I was always way over leveled for every area, and I appreciated that they would level up with me. That was probably because i enjoyed the side content and did pretty much all of it. before i attempted story missions in an area.
Watching this has made me reconsider some of the order of things so my ranking would be
Valhalla
Odyssey
Syndicate
Origins
Black Flag
Rogue
Brotherhood
Revelations
AC2
Unity
AC3
AC1
can we just agree this is the best work kinda funny has ever ...and i mean ever put out
This is by far the most unique ranking of assassins creed games I’ve seen. And it’s the one I agree with the most.
Over 2 hours long? We're not worthy! You rock Barret, keep it up
Amazing video man, really smooth.
This is awesome, looking forward to the journey sir!
I am now Synchronized with the AC universe. Thanks Barrett! I can tell you put a ton of hours and effort into this and the quality really shows!
42:20 You can also read about the end of Edward’s story in the AC novel Forsaken, which covers the early life of Haytham up to his death in AC3.
To any AC fans, I highly recommend it, & it is canon to the series.
Well done Barrett. Th is some fantastic work and makes me appreciate Assassin's Creed more than I thought I did.
Barret this is an amazing video! Please keep up the great work and can't wait for your next franchise in review. After watching you convinced me to go back and try AC again.
As a heads up a bunch of games are on sale on PSN (Syndicate is 8.99) until Feb 18