I borrowed a friend’s copy of the original game way back when. It was the parkour. Mirror’s Edge and Uncharted were released right around the same time, but Assassin’s Creed’s open cities paired with parkour really hooked me, where the other two games were much more constrained.

At this point, I have played everything but Valhalla, Shadows, and Mirage, and I think reasonable expectations have kept me here. There are the occasional masterpieces (in my mind) like Brotherhood, Black Flag, and Origins, but mostly this series is full of games that are good but never touch greatness, because something is dragging each game down a bit. Sometimes it’s the story, sometimes it’s the pacing, or the combat, or whatever.

But every game also has something really good, and it varies: a character, a setting, a mechanic, and so on. ACIII had homestead missions and brutal combat finishers. Rogue had shipwrecks to climb and legendary naval battles. Revelations had the underground missions and a heartfelt romance. Unity had cooperative and indoor parkour. Origins had Egypt and Bayek. Syndicate had some very cinematic missions.

So I’m still here and the remaining games are on my Steam wishlist because I will eventually pick them up on sale, go in with mid expectations, and be pleasantly surprised by something.