This is the oldest [b]Assassin's Creed[/b] game to receive the post-launch Steam achievements treatment. Because of that, it's likely the oldest one a certain group of players will revisit - and it'll probably stay that way. [b]Assassin's Creed (2007)[/b] through [b]Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (2010)[/b] don't even have Ubisoft Connect (formerly Ubisoft Game Launcher (formerly uPlay)) achievements. Some of the unique additions here include the tower defense minigame, bomb crafting, and a first-person, exposition-heavy walking-simulator. Yes, I'm serious.
Its age shows, and it [i]has not[/i] aged well. This is the last [b]Assassin's Creed[/b] to fully commit to mapping face buttons to individual character limbs. There are still segments outside the Animus. The Mediterranean Defense [i]minigame[/i] is really just menu management every 20-60 minutes, reminiscent of old MySpace-era idle games. Notoriety is something you constantly have to manage. People look back fondly on the Ezio trilogy, often forgetting these annoyances. Believe it or not, the series has come a long way with its control scheme and quality-of-life improvements in terms of what you actually spend your time doing.
You're required to play the tower defense minigame to reclaim districts, which in turn is necessary to recruit more Assassins for [i](legitimately useful)[/i] aid in combat or [i](less useful)[/i] Mediterranean Defense. It's infamous for having an easy tutorial followed by missions that are much harder - or at least require real thought toward resource management. Most attempts end with losing at the final siege phase. At times, it felt more efficient to just lose and retake the district the traditional way. There are some unique mechanics here I don't remember from other games in the franchise - bomb crafting, the hook blade, even paragliding - that make this game stand out a bit, but none of them are enough to carry it.
Finally, there's Desmond's Journey and The Lost Archive. These were effectively broken when Ubisoft removed multiplayer, but they're still required for achievements and now need a mod to fix. They play as first-person, mostly walking simulator, rarely 3D platformer experiences. You play as [spoiler]Subject 16 / Clay Kaczmarek, narrating his life through post-mortem "therapy sessions" inside the Animus[/spoiler], solving vague platforming puzzles across several sessions. It only takes a couple hours, but it's honestly wild to realize in hindsight how much backstory Ubisoft built for the present-day [b]Assassin's Creed[/b] characters, only to [spoiler]kill the main character in the very next game and later abandon these plotlines entirely[/spoiler].
