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Actor Idris Elba is knighted in the New Year Honours. The 53-year old Hollywood star from Hackney, London can now officially be called Sir Idris.
Sir Idris, who rose to prominence for playing Stringer Bell in HBO series The Wire and DCI John Luther in BBC series Luther, more recently played the British Prime Minister and the President of the United States, in Heads of State and A House of Dynamite respectively, both of which came out in 2025. Elba is no stranger to the world of video games, either, having played Solomon Reed in the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, Phantom Liberty.
He was knighted for services to young people in recognition of his charity work at the Elba Hope Foundation, which supports community empowerment, education, youth advocacy, and sustainable development. In particular, Elba has been outspoken on knife crime. He said: “I hope we can do more to draw attention to the importance of sustained, practical support for young people and to the responsibility we all share to help them find an alternative to violence.”
Meanwhile, the actor and comedian Meera Syal (The Kumars at No 42) is being awarded a Damehood for services to Literature, Drama and Charity, while the composer Max Richter is being awarded a CBE (Commanders of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to Music. Actor Warwick Davis is also being recognised for services to Drama and Charity with an OBE (Officers of the Order of the British Empire). Davis said: “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me — and I’ve been in Star Wars.”
An MBE (Members of the Order of the British Empire) went to Wicked star Cynthia Erivo, and the author and television presenter Richard Osman (Thursday Murder Club) is being awarded an OBE for his services to literature and broadcasting.
1,157 recipients have been awarded from every part of the UK, with a particular focus this year on those who have gone above and beyond for their communities.
Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images for The Red Sea International Film Festival.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
While the old saying goes ‘A game in the basket is worth two in Steam Wishlist’, as we teeter into a new year it’s good to highlight a couple of the games shuffling our way. Especially when there are quite so many of them that include big stompy mechs. Some of them as big as cities. My engine oil-starved heart beats and thumps in anticipation.
I’ve tried to keep the list to games confirmed for release next year – tragically cutting The Free Shepherd, which is planned to release in 2027 – but there is one exception.
So let’s begin with the outlier that’s likely to wander tardily into 2027.
In the grand spirit of Christmas, I want everyone to know that for this year’s RPS Advent Calendar, I nominated a bunch of games about Japanese assassins and at least one point and click thriller featuring a netherworld of torture devices. Some of those assassins appeared on the final calendar, but not all, and the point and click didn’t make the cut.
Take a guess.
Like other iconic Nintendo series, Metroid has a timeline documenting Samus’ space adventures from past to present. Although the newest outing Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is very much its own thing, it is still part of the Prime series as a new chapter.
Outside of the first-person entries, it’s now apparently been mentioned by Nintendo how this game fits within the entire history of the Metroid series. Speaking to Famitsu recently, Nintendo’s development team reportedly told the famous Japanese gaming outlet how the latest Switch and Switch 2 outing is set after Super Metroid on the Super Nintendo and before Metroid Fusion on the Game Boy Advance (thanks, Nintendo Everything).
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
“Switch required a great deal of effort”.
Arc System Works finally delivered the long-awaited Switch update for Guilty Gear Strive earlier this month.
Now, in a new development update, it has addressed the future of this particular version of the game. It mentions how the Switch version has required “a great deal of effort and ingenuity” and as a result, the team is currently examining what exact form future updates “beyond Version 2.0” could take.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
In recent years, Square Enix has made quite an effort to remaster or remake some of its most beloved games and bring them to modern platforms. We’ve seen the incredible Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, SaGa Frontier 2 Remastered, and Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles in 2025 alone!
However, one game that continues to be left out of that conversation is Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster, which released alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 in June. If you’re a recent Switch 2 owner and are looking for a new RPG to play, look no further than the fantastic game that is Bravely Default.
Amazon has discounted Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster to $29.99 with a limited-time deal, which marks the lowest we’ve seen this game to date. Originally released in 2013 for the Nintendo 3DS, Bravely Default follows four heroes across the world of Luxendarc as they attempt to reclaim the world’s four crystals.
Bravely Default is a fascinating game for many reasons. It initially was set to be a Final Fantasy game, but it shifted mid-development into its own game despite retaining key elements of the series. Revo, best known for his work as Linked Horizon for Attack on Titan, composed the soundtrack, which is still, to this day, an incredible RPG soundtrack.
The remaster brought new minigames, a refreshed UI, and other solid quality-of-life features like fast-forward, encounter rate adjustments, and more. While this is unfortunately a Game-Key Card, the download is only 11GB, so you will not need much space available on your Switch 2 to download this one. This is one of the best Switch 2 games you can buy right now, so don’t miss out on this deal.
Noah Hunter is a freelance writer and reviewer with a passion for games and technology. He co-founded Final Weapon, an outlet focused on nonsense-free Japanese gaming (in 2019) and has contributed to various publishers writing about the medium.
We’re in post-Christmas deals territory, which is a surprisingly good time to shop. Off the rip, we’re seeing new price drops on pre-built gaming PCs, which are becoming all the more popular given the recent price increases on RAM alone.
Amazon has also bumped up its Pokémon TCG stock this holiday, but is anything worth buying? Of course it’s not. Well, there’s a handful of deals to be had, but the independent retailer army that makes up TCGPlayer is leading the way with the majority of the best prices on both the new and secondary market.
Skytech has dropped some cracking deals on a range of their prebuilt gaming PCs before New Year’s Day, and we’re seeing RTX 5070 Ti builds for under $2,000 and RTX 5080 builds for under $2,800. Crazy scenes, let’s get into it.
It’s great to see popular sets like Surging Sparks and Phantasmal Flames Elite Trainer Boxes crop up for less on Amazon, with the former being below market value alongside the Destined Rivals triple booster.
It’s strange to see Silver Tempest sealed product showing up on Amazon right now. Perhaps we’ll see more Sword & Shield-era reprints on store shelves? Regardless, TCGPlayer has the Silver Tempest Elite Trainer Box for far less than Amazon, and the same goes for the Prismatic Evolutions ETB.
TCGPlayer also has the best deal on Destined Rivals Booster Bundles, currently sitting at $52.50. That means you get double the booster packs compared to the three-pack booster deal in the last section for less than double the price. TCGPlayer really has the no-brainer deals right now.
Considering we’ve just entered a memory chip shortage across the board, with even DDR4 RAM going for silly money, getting an RTX 5060 build with 32GB DDR4 for $1,079 is a great deal. You’ll have solid 1080p gaming with either an Intel i5-14400F or AMD Ryzen 7 5700 processor to boot. Personally, I’d go for the Crystal build. It costs the same and gives you far more room for bigger GPU upgrades down the line.
If you’re looking to go all-in with 4K gaming out of the box for under $3,000, the $2,799.99 Aqua build comes with a gorgeous clear white and blue case, complete with CPU liquid cooling, an RTX 5080, 32GB DDR5, and the absolute beast that is the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.
Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of “Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior”. Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.
Whether it’s Snake’s elevator ascent to the rainy cliffs of Shadow Moses or the climactic battle between student and mentor in the final moments of Snake Eater, Hideo Kojima and Konami’s epic spy thriller franchise, Metal Gear, is home to some of gaming’s most iconic moments. Telling a story that spanned multiple console generations and pushed the creative capabilities of video games to their limits, Solid Snake and Big Boss’ adventures are legendary, so much so that many claim they’re among the most important releases the medium has ever produced.
Back in 2015, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain seemingly ended the franchise for good, with Kojima leaving Konami and the Metal Gear Solid IP behind to form his own studio. However, Konami has started resurrecting the series through re-releases and remakes, like Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater coming out later this year. With so many new players experiencing this world of undercover espionage, shady government conspiracy and gruff-voiced dudes with cool eyepatches for the first time, we’ve laid out the chronological order of the Metal Gear Solid series so newcomers and returning fans can catch up.
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Not including remakes, ports or remasters, there are 17 total Metal Gear games: 11 mainline games, five on handheld devices and one on mobile. Although that’s a lot of games, a decent chunk of them are considered non-canon, with their stories overriding events from the main saga and spinning off into their own unique takes on the universe.
2018’s Metal Gear Survive takes place in an apocalyptic reality where a zombie virus has overtaken the world, so it falls outside the main canon. As for the PSP’s Metal Gear: Acid and Metal Gear: Acid 2, they veer from the timeline and tell a new story, making them alternate-timeline spin-offs. Then there’s the Game Boy Color’s Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, which is an alternate-universe Metal Gear sequel that wipes away the events of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, thus removing it from the timeline. And finally, Metal Gear Mobile and Snake’s Revenge have since been deemed non-canon by the community and Kojima himself in interviews.
That leaves 11 games within the main storyline. Each game is considered part of the true Metal Gear Saga, spanning from a fictional alternate-history 1960s to the late 2010s. So, let’s run you through all the games in that story.
We recommend two potential starting points for Metal Gear. For those interested in the complete saga, we recommend 2023’s Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1, which includes the best available versions of Metal Gear Solid 1–3. Alternatively, for those interested in simply trying out the franchise (and for those with a lower tolerance for older games), we recommend starting with the series’ most contemporary iteration, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
These blurbs contain mild spoilers for each game, including characters, settings, and story beats.
The first slot in the saga’s timeline and the most recent game to get a modern remake, Snake Eater follows a US Special Forces operative codenamed Naked Snake during the events of the Cold War. Sent to locate and extract a Russian scientist from the Soviet Union to prevent him from building a weapon of mass destruction known as the Shagohod, Snake’s shocked to find his former mentor, The Boss, has betrayed the US government and sided with the Soviets.
After a heated battle, Naked Snake is brutally defeated and left for dead in the jungle. Surviving the encounter, he’s tasked by his commanding officer, Zero, to return to Russia, find his mentor and kill her, all the while tracking down the Shagohod to prevent nuclear war. By the end of the story, Naked Snake adopts the moniker of Big Boss, becoming a legend among the US Special Forces. However, his battle with The Boss and the secrets he’s uncovered throughout his adventure leave him disillusioned with his duty and the government he serves.
Read our original review of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater or our new review of the MGS3 remake.
Set six years after Big Boss’ climactic battle with his former mentor, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops picks up the legendary soldier’s story as he goes head to head with his former squad, FOX Unit. The game begins with Big Boss learning FOX has gone rogue, betraying the CIA and staging a revolt.
Captured and tortured on a Colombian base by FOX Unit, Boss breaks free but learns he’s been accused of treason. In a bid to clear his name, he decides to hunt down his former allies and pursue their ruthless leader, Gene. By the end of the game, Big Boss learns of Gene’s desire to create a nation of mercenary soldiers known as Army’s Heaven and acquires the mass of funds and equipment saved for the project. Returning to the US, he later forms a squadron of special ops soldiers known as FOXHOUND.
Read our review of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.
Four years after the events of Portable Ops, we catch up with Big Boss, who has left FOXHOUND and the Patriots. Since leaving, he’s formed a new band of mercenary soldiers known as Militaires Sans Frontières (or MSF) with Kazuhira Miller. Using their newfound army to protect countries that don’t have the forces or means to defend themselves, Big Boss and Miller wage war against an armed militia known as the Peace Sentinels after they invade Costa Rica.
During his investigation, Big Boss soon realizes that his former mentor, The Boss, is somehow involved in the Peace Sentinels’ plans. Worse, they have access to nuclear weapons, wielding a supremely powerful mech called the Peace Walker. Rallying on an off-shore oil rig known as Motherbase, Snake and the Militaires Sans Frontières take the fight to the Peace Sentinels, attempting to discover their true motive and secrets. The game ends with Big Boss battling his former ally Paz, who turns out to be a secret agent of Zero’s shady government organization, Cipher.
Read our review of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.
A few months following the events of Peace Walker, Ground Zeroes acts as a prologue to the fifth entry in the Metal Gear Solid series: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. The story sees Big Boss embark on a new mission after learning that Paz survived their climactic battle during the final moments of Peace Walker and is being interrogated by Cipher at a mysterious military base known as Camp Omega. Knowing that she has crucial information about Cipher and could reveal secrets about MSF to the shadowy organization, he rushes to extract her.
While infiltrating the base, he discovers a mysterious Cipher cell known as XOF, which is led by a sadistic, severely burned commander called Skull Face. The prologue ends with Snake extracting Paz only to realize his allies are being attacked by the XOF back at Motherbase. The onslaught destroys the oil rig and eradicates Militaires Sans Frontières, leaving Big Boss on the cusp of death.
Read our review of Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.
Nine years later, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain opens with a severely injured Big Boss waking up in a hospital in Cyprus. Evading an assassination attempt where he’s attacked by a man covered in flames, a telekinetic soldier and a master sniper, Boss is saved by Revolver Ocelot and returns to action as he leads a new mercenary group known as the Diamond Dogs.
Swearing to stop the XOF after they destroyed Militaires Sans Frontières, he adopts the codename Venom Snake and heads to Africa to pick up their trail, learning that the former-Cipher-affiliated group went rogue. Their leader, Skull Face, is instead working on a devastating parasitic weapon with the power to eradicate the Western world. The game ends with Big Boss setting in motion his plans to create a military nation known as Outer Heaven, where soldiers are free to live without being used to further shady government plans.
Read our review of Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain.
11 years later, the story catches up with the first entry in the series: Metal Gear. The game follows Solid Snake: a rookie soldier and member of FOXHOUND. FOXHOUND is once again run by Big Boss, who acts as Snake’s mentor and commanding officer. On his first mission, Solid Snake is sent to track down a weapon of mass destruction being constructed in a military nation known as Outer Heaven.
During his mission, he finds another agent codenamed Grey Fox, who was also sent to track the weapon. Grey Fox reveals the mysterious weapon is a mech codenamed Metal Gear, which has the power to launch nuclear bombs. The game ends with Solid Snake and Big Boss coming to blows, with the latter revealing he was behind Outer Heaven’s plans.
Read our review of Metal Gear.
Four years later, Solid Snake returns to action after he learns Big Boss survived the events of the previous game and is currently constructing a new Metal Gear for the fictional nation of Zanzibar Land.
Teaming with various characters, Snake infiltrates Zanzibar Land and attempts to destroy the weapon of mass destruction, battling Big Boss and his army of soldiers along the way.
See more about Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
Six years after Metal Gear 2, Solid Snake returns in a new mission. This time he’s sent to battle his former unit, FOXHOUND, which has gone rogue, turned against the US and taken over a mysterious government facility on an island known as Shadow Moses. Shadow Moses is allegedly a test site for a secret Metal Gear, with FOXHOUND threatening to use its nuclear weapons if they aren’t supplied with Big Boss’ corpse and a large sum of money.
Snake heads to the facility and fights various members of FOXHOUND, including Revolver Ocelot, Psycho Mantis and a Cyborg version of his former ally, Greyfox. He also meets the eccentric leader of FOXHOUND, Liquid Snake. The game ends with Snake being declared killed-in-action by Colonel Campbell and presumed dead by the government after they intended to double-cross him. He flees Shadow Moses alive.
Read our review of Metal Gear Solid or see more of the best PS1 games.
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty opens two years later, with a now-rogue Solid Snake infiltrating an oil tanker while hunting down a new Metal Gear being transported to the US. There he discovers a prototype Metal Gear known as Metal Gear Ray, which is subsequently stolen by Revolver Ocelot. Ocelot sinks the tanker and escapes, while Snake is blamed for the tanker’s destruction.
Two years later, we shift to a new protagonist: Raiden. An agent of FOXHOUND, Raiden is sent on a mission to an off-shore decontamination facility known as Big Shell, which was constructed to clear the crude oil spill caused when the oil tanker was destroyed during Solid Snake’s mission. Big Shell has been hijacked by a militant group known as the Sons of Liberty, which has taken the US president hostage.
Infiltrating the facility, Raiden soon discovers things aren’t quite what they seem, looking into Big Shell’s secrets and meeting a junior lieutenant named Iroquois Pliskin, who’s clearly hiding a big secret. By the end of the game, Solid Snake joins Raiden’s mission, telling him he’s going after Ocelot (who it’s revealed is possessed by the will of Liquid Snake) and the Patriots.
Read our review of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty or check out more of the best PS2 games.
Marking the end of the main story and Solid Snake’s final mission, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots catches up with Snake three years after the events of Sons of Liberty. Due to the cloning process used to create Snake and the rampant FOXDIE virus still coursing through his veins, we discover that his body is rapidly aging, with the protagonist being told he only has a year left to live. Donning a new nickname, Old Snake, he returns for one final mission.
He’s to assassinate Liquid Ocelot, who is currently running a new version of Outer Heaven which is comprised of some of the biggest private militaries in the Middle East. Equipping his body with nanomachines, Snake sets out to bring Ocelot down, learning that his nemesis intends to once again locate Big Boss’ corpse and execute a mysterious plan. As Snake battles his age and the lingering FOXDIE mutating in his body, he makes his way towards a final confrontation with his most ruthless enemy.
Read our review of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
The final story in the current Metal Gear timeline, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance focuses on Raiden who, as we learned during Guns of the Patriots, has transformed into a cyborg. The story picks up four years after Metal Gear Solid 4, revealing that Raiden now works with a private military company called Maverick Security Consulting.
During an operation in Africa, Raiden is attacked by a rival private military group known as Desperado Enforcement. Wounded and left for dead by its commander, Jet Stream Sam, Raiden continues his investigation into Desperado and learns some sinister secrets about the group and its allies. As the revelations about the private military grow darker, Raiden swears to bring them down, setting off on his own to deliver violent justice.
Read our review of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.
Now that we’ve gotten our hands on the Snake Eater remake, questions remain about what we might see next in the stealth franchise. Konami hasn’t confirmed whether they ever plan to make original Metal Gear games without Hideo Kojima. What we do know for sure is the original games’ messaging about the digital age is as poignant as ever in 2025.
That being said, Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater developer Virtuous Studios did tease that remakes of other Metal Gear games aren’t off the table. Speaking with IGN, the team said, “Regarding remakes of previous games in the series other than Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, we will listen to player demand and consider accordingly.” True to their claims, the studio is rumored to being spreading a poll after Tokyo Games Show that lets fans vote on which Metal Gear game to remake next.
For more game timelines, also see Assassin’s Creed Games in Order and a list of Far Cry Games in order.
Callum Williams is a freelance media writer with years of experience as a game critic, news reporter, guides writer and features writer.
Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise has covered a lot of ground in its 18 years. The Assassin-Templar conflict has taken players across five continents, from Ancient Greece to Victorian London, spanning 2,300 years of history over the course of 13 mainline games.
With the upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, we’ve put together this chronology of the Assassin’s Creed timeline so far. This chronology only includes mainline Assassin’s Creed games; spinoff games aren’t included on this list given their lack of importance to the ongoing Assassin’s Creed narrative.
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There are currently 14 Assassin’s Creed games in the main series and 17 additional spinoff games. Outside of video games, there is also an Assassin’s Creed board game and an Assassin’s Creed TV series supposedly in the works at Netflix.
There’s quite a few places you could start in the Assassin’s Creed timeline, and I personally recommend picking the game set in an era that you find most interesting. That said, it’s hard to deny that the original Ezio trilogy (Assassin’s Creed 2, Brotherhood, and Revelations) has some of the best writing in the series. If you’re interested in more recent games, Black Flag is a solid entry point with seafaring pirate gameplay, while Assassin’s Creed Odyssey lets you dive into world of ancient Greece.
There are two ways to look at the Assassin’s Creed chronology. First: In the order of the games’ modern-day storylines. This option makes sense considering the connective narrative of each mainline game is told through the present day. The present-day story progresses chronologically with each release, so if you’d like to play the games this way, simply scroll down to the section how to play the Assassin’s Creed games by release date. If you’re committed to playing through the entirety of the franchise, this is the order we recommend, as it’s the best way to follow the overarching story and experience the franchise’s evolution from stealth-action games to open-world RPGs.
The second option (detailed below) presents the games in order by their historic settings. These stories aren’t as intertwined as their modern-day counterparts, but they’re where you’ll spend the vast majority of your time in Assassin’s Creed. This is more useful as a matter of interest than a practical playing guide.
With series newcomers in mind, the brief plot synopses below contain only mild spoilers such as broad plot points, historical settings, and character introductions.
Set nearly 400 years earlier than any other mainline game, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey expanded on the RPG elements introduced in Origins to complete its genre-turn from stealth-based action to open-world RPG.
You play as Cassandra or Alexios, the grandchildren of Sparta’s King Leonidas I. Odyssey is set during the Peloponnesian War between Sparta and Athens, and features key historical figures from that period, including Hippocrates, Socrates, and Plato. It weaves the period’s history with its mythology, introducing creatures such as the Sphinx, Cyclops, and Medusa.
Odyssey is set before the formation of the Assassin and Templar orders, though it does feature a key Piece of Eden* in the Spear of Leonidas.
*Pieces of Eden are powerful technological artifacts created by a precursor race of beings known as The First Civilization. The pieces of Eden and the First Civilization are constants throughout the mainline games that connect the past and modern storylines.
After releasing a new Assassin’s Creed game each year from 2009-2015, Ubisoft took a year off and returned in 2017 with Assassin’s Creed Origins, a soft reboot of the franchise and the series’ first game to introduce RPG mechanics.
Origins is primarily set in Ancient Egypt during the reigns of Ptolemy XIII and Cleopatra, though its historic inspiration extends to Rome and the rule of Julius Caesar. Many Assassin’s Creed stories kick off as tales of vengeance, only to unfurl into larger-scale tales of political conspiracy. Origins follows this pattern: The death of Bayek and Aya’s son serves as the impetus for their journey, though as the story progresses, the duo uncover a proto-Templar organization called the Order of the Ancients and ultimately form the Hidden Ones, the first incarnation of the Assassins.
The modern story, meanwhile, introduces Layla Hassan, who serves as the present-day protagonist for Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla.
Released in 2023, Assassin’s Creed Mirage is the series’ most recent installment. Rather than a full-priced open-world RPG, Mirage is a $50 USD stealth-focused adventure designed as “an homage to the first Assassin’s Creed games.” Ubisoft describes it as “a shorter, more narrative-driven game than recent entries in the series.”
Assassin’s Creed Mirage stars a 17-year-old Basim Ibn Ishaq, a street thief with “nightmarish visions” who’d go on to play a critical role in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Mirage will tell the story of Basim, with the guidance of his mentor Roshan, escaping Baghdad en route to the Hidden Ones’ fortress of Alamut.
Unlike the other entries on this list, Mirage doesn’t prominently feature the present-day storyline. You can read our full review of Assassin’s Creed Mirage for more details.
Assassin’s Creed’s Valhalla is the series’ venture into Norse history and mythology. It’s easily the series’ biggest game; the average time to complete its main story is 60 hours, according to How Long to Beat (15 hours longer than the next biggest, Odyssey). Like Odyssey, Valhalla integrates its setting’s history with its mythology, introducing real-life characters — King Harald Fairhair, King Aelfred the Great, Rollo — and mythological figures such as Fenrir and Odin.
It continues the conflict between the Hidden Ones and the Order of the Ancients while balancing the more personal tale of Eivor and their clan’s pilgrimage from a resource-barren Norway to the more fertile lands of England.
The modern-day story seemingly concludes the three-game arc of Layla Hassan.
The first Assassin’s Creed takes place 300 years after Valhalla and introduces us to the series’ original protagonist, Altair Ibn’La-Ahad. Assassin’s Creed laid the groundwork for the franchise’s next 15 years of success, introducing foundational gameplay elements like climbing and assassinations while also laying the groundwork for the time-hopping Assassin-Templar narrative.
It introduces key narrative concepts like the Pieces of Eden and the Animus, the in-universe device that allows each game’s modern-day protagonist to relive the memories of their historic counterparts through DNA.
The past story sees Altair hunting down nine Templars during the Third Crusade, while the present-day story introduces Desmond Miles and the modern Assassin-Templar conflict that runs through AC III.
Assassin’s Creed 2 introduced the series’ longest-lasting protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. A favorite among Assassin’s Creed fans, Ezio’s story ran from 2009’s AC II through 2011’s AC: Revelations.
Ezio seeks to avenge the death of his father and brother, though his hunt for vengeance leads him to uncover a bigger conspiracy and places him at the center of the fight between the Assassins and Templars. Assassin’s Creed II takes players throughout Italy, from Florence to the Vatican, and introduces Ezio to historical figures like Leonardo Da Vinci, Niccolo Machiavelli, and Pope Alexander VI.
In the present day, Desmond begins his work with the Assassins.
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood is a continuation of AC II in both the past and modern-day storylines. The fallout from AC II creates a new antagonist for Ezio, who embarks on another revenge quest while working to rebuild Rome’s weakened Assassins Guild and retrieve the Apple of Eden.
In the present day, Desmond and the modern Assassins head to Italy in search of that same Apple of Eden, a Piece of Eden that may help them prevent the prophesized end of the world.
The conclusion of the Ezio trilogy unites the narrative of the Italian assassin with his predecessor, Altair. An older Ezio travels to Constantinople in search of Altair’s hidden library, which was thought to contain invaluable wisdom. In Constantinople, Ezio searches for the keys needed to open the library — each of which possesses a key memory in Altair’s life. Assassin’s Creed Revelations ultimately reveals Ezio’s role in the wider AC narrative.
In the present, a comatose Desmond is trapped in the Animus, where he works with a past Animus user to escape “the Black Room” and return to consciousness.
Revelations also features one of the series’ best trailers (above) first shown at E3 2011.
The newest Assassin’s Creed game heads to Feudal Japan during the civil wars in the late Sengoku period. Assassin’s Creed Shadows features dual protagonists, each with unique gameplay, though Ubisoft has emphasized that players won’t be missing out by only playing one route. Yasuke is an African mercenary who becomes a samurai in service of Oda Nobunaga. That service leads him to the Iga province, home of shinobi-in-training Naoe, and tragedy brings the two together in a quest for vengeance.
Like Mirage, Shadows doesn’t have its own modern-day protagonist. Instead, the new game coincides with the release of the Animus Hub, which brings the Assassin’s Creed franchise into a single platform and adds additional “modern-day subplots” as well as a reward system to the game.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is best remembered for introducing the series’ naval gameplay. It’s set two centuries after Ezio’s trilogy and roughly 40 years before the previously released Assassin’s Creed III.
Black Flag stars Edward Kenway, an 18th-century pirate and the grandfather of AC III protagonist Connor Kenway. It features notorious real-life pirates of the era, such as Edward Thatch (Blackbeard), Benjamin Hornigold, and Mary Read. It also introduces Adéwalé, the protagonist of the DLC-turned-standalone-spinoff Freedom Cry. After unknowingly killing an Assassin, Edward finds himself embroiled in the Assassin-Templar conflict and on the hunt for a secret First Civilization site known as The Observatory.
The modern-day story stars an unnamed Abstergo employee tasked with reliving Connor’s life in order to create a film (though, unsurprisingly, Abstergo’s true intentions are more nefarious).
Assassin’s Creed Rogue serves as a narrative bridge between AC III and AC IV. It stars Shay Patrick Cormac, an Irish-American Assassin turned Templar hunting down a Piece of Eden. Templar Grand Master Haytham Kenway, the son of AC 4 protagonist Edward and father of AC III protagonist Connor, appears throughout the story.
In the present, you play as another Abstergo employee, referred to as “Numbskull,” doing the bidding of the modern-day Templars.
Following a 1754-set sequence during which you play as Haythem Kenway, Assassin’s Creed 3 begins in earnest with Haythem’s son Ratonhnhaké:ton, a.k.a Connor. Set largely during the American Revolution, Connor seeks to protect his tribe from the war and the First Civilization’s Grand Temple from the Templars.
AC III is loaded with historical figures, including George Washington, Sam Adams, Charles Lee, and Benjamin Franklin.
The present-day story concludes Desmond’s arc, as he and the other modern-day Assassins gather in the aforementioned Grand Temple to prevent the prophesized end of the world on December 21, 2012.
While Assassin’s Creed Unity features scenes that span from 1307 to the mid-1900s, it’s primarily set during the height of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1794. It stars French Assassin Arno Dorian, who becomes involved in the Assassin-Templar conflict while embarking on yet another quest for vengeance.
Historical figures include Napoléon Bonaparte, Marquis de Sade, and King Louis XVI.
Unity’s modern-day story is among the least memorable, as it removed gameplay entirely in favor of cutscenes and ultimately proved inconsequential to the ongoing narrative. You play as a gamer playing Helix, Abstergo’s Animus-powered gaming software created to push Templar propaganda and collect unsuspecting users’ DNA.
Assassin’s Creed Syndicate stars dual protagonists Jacob and Evie Frye, twin Assassins clearing London of Templar control while seeking a Piece of Eden. While a certain side mission extends the timeline to WWI, the majority of Syndicate is set in 1868. Notable historical figures include Alexander Graham Bell, Charles Darwin, and in the future sequence, Winston Churchill.
Syndicate stars the same modern-day character as Unity, who’s working with the Assassins to locate another Piece of Eden in London.
Ubisoft’s latest AC game is Assassin’s Creed Shadows. We have tidbits of information about the next mainline Assassin’s Creed game, codenamed titled Assassin’s Creed Hexe, which will feature “witchier” vibes. Several remakes of older Assassin’s Creed games are also in development, according to Ubisoft’s CEO. The one remake we know for sure is in the pipeline is Black Flag, with the new ‘Resynced’ version theoretically launching in March 2026.
As far as we know, a live action Assassin’s Creed show is still in the works at Netflix, while Tencent’s mobile-exclusive game, Assassin’s Creed Jade, was delayed to 2025.
Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.
