7. Assassin's Creed I

Altair must act carefully if he wishes to reclaim his honor. 

Assassin's Creed I came onto the gaming scene as a title with massive potential. It brought forth interesting new content including a unique dual-story consisting of present-day Desmond, being manipulated by people and technology that are way over his head. Desmond simply doesn’t know the history, but in due time he comes to know a lot more about his Assassin ancestor, Altair, than he thought was humanly possible. Due to the sheer amount of mechanics it possessed, this game raised the bar for what was going to be expected from future installments in the series.

The concept of the game was unique at the time given that traditional stealth games only involved hiding in the shadows. What makes Assassin's Creed stand out from the crowd is that it allows players to blend into a crowd; a feature that has persisted throughout the entire series. Of course, exploration has no limits; players can go anywhere and kill anyone if they wish. Also, this was the game that gave gamer’s around the world the tingles as they activated the hidden-blade for the first time. That was the year when there was a shortage of sharp pencils and a surplus of students paying the school nurse a visit after having gored their wrists on their hidden weapons. As groundbreaking as these features were, there were some things about the game that didn’t impress.

Even assassin's believe in living to fight another day. 

One of the biggest problems in this game is that it quickly takes on the flavor of an endless grind. This opened the door for a story that might strike some as slow-paced and speckled with uninspired elements from time to time. While fun for its time, Assassin’s Creed didn’t take big enough risks to set itself up to become a classic.