The best classic Assassin's Creed games to play first

Ubisoft's stealth-adventure series is enormous, but the early historical entries are still the most beginner-friendly place to start. Here are three classics worth playing first, and how to catch them cheaply.

Start with the Ezio era

If you play only one, make it Assassin's Creed 2. Set in Renaissance Italy, it introduced the charming Ezio Auditore, tightened the parkour and combat, and remains the template the whole series built on. It's an old catalogue game now, so it's often heavily discounted.

Follow it with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, which continues Ezio's story in Rome and adds a recruitable brotherhood of assassins plus a surprisingly good multiplayer suite. It's a direct, confident sequel that refines everything the second game introduced, and many fans rate it as the peak of the trilogy.

Go back to the beginning

Curious where it all started? Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition is the original 2007 game that launched the franchise, following Altair across the Holy Land during the Third Crusade. Its mission structure is more repetitive than its sequels and the parkour is rougher round the edges, but it's a fascinating foundation and a genuine slice of gaming history. It's usually only a few dollars.

How to buy them well

• These are older titles, so they drop hard in sales — often 80–90% off.
• Check the current price and all-time low on each game's page before you buy.
• Buy the earlier games first so the story beats land in order.

If stealth and sprawling maps are your thing, browse our roundups of the best stealth games on sale and the best open-world games on sale next. Ready to hunt? Head to our live deals page.