Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series has been around since 2007 and has been a household name in gaming ever since. But regardless of whether you played the original or one of the many sequels first, you're bound to have experienced some memorable moments of your own while playing.
And that's part of why the series is so beloved by fans. Every game offers something memorable and when you look back on the series as a whole, you'll quickly realize just how amazing it has been so far. But even in a series as praised as Assassin's Creed, some moments find a way to stand out above the rest.
10 The Parting Glass - Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
The end of Assassin's Creed 4 is bittersweet - Edward Kenway ultimately emerges victorious against his foes, but not without losing some friends along the way. So when Anne Bonny begins singing The Parting Glass at the end of the game, it's no wonder it created an image that stayed in the minds of players.
The slow song accompanies a view of all those Edward met on his journey as he goes to meet his daughter for the first time, creating a swell of emotions as the story comes to an end and drives home the fact that Edward was a good man by the end of the game.
9 Fighting On Top Of A Moving Train - Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
Assassin's Creed has never really dabbled in technology when it comes to gameplay. Beyond gunpowder and the inventions of a young Leonardo Da Vinci, the series tends to ignore it in order to ensure weapons like the Hidden Blade remain relevant. But with Syndicate, players were catapulted into the industrial revolution and a world of technological innovation - and also straight onto the top of a moving train.
That's right, the moment the technology was there in the game, Assassin's Creed Syndicate treated us to a memorable affair in which the Frye siblings fight against a Templar gang while scrambling across a moving train - right before it derails off a cliff, of course. While it might lack story significance, it's still great fun.
8 Leaving The Brotherhood - Assassin's Creed: Rogue
Assassin's Creed Rogue never quite got the recognition of the other major Assassin's Creed titles, which is a shame because it meant many players missed out on the unique experience of playing as a Templar called Shay Patrick Cormac. Only Shay actually begins the game as a member of the Brotherhood before turning to the Templars after seeing what the assassins are willing to do to gather the pieces of Eden.
And it is this moment, when Shay decides to leave and is hunted by the people he once called brothers, that is so memorable. It's an emotionally charged moment that uses Shay to make the player question whether the Assassins are truly more noble than the Templars or simply another form of corrupted power.
7 Desmond's Death - Assassin's Creed 3
If this list was being ranked by shock value, then this would be number one. Desmond Miles was the protagonist in every major installment in the series, from the original Assassin's Creed up to and including Assassin's Creed 3. So when he sacrificed himself to free Juno at the end of Assassin's Creed 3, it was a shocking moment that left players wondering where the series would go next.
Unfortunately, without Desmond as a driving force in the story, the modern-day storyline suffered in the games that followed, but that doesn't detract from how dramatic this moment was when players first saw it.
6 Assassinating The Pope - Assassin's Creed 2
There aren't many games that would even consider including the Pope of the Catholic Church, and fewer still that would let you assassinate him. Fortunately for us, however, Assassin's Creed 2 was more than happy for Ezio to go toe-to-toe with Rodrigo Borgia, otherwise known as Pope Alexander VI.
As a boss fight, it was considered anticlimactic by some as the game essentially ends with a fistfight. But most remember it more for the fact they got to assassinate the Pope rather than the mechanics of the fight itself.
5 Yusuf's Death - Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Assassin's Creed: Revelations was the final installment in Ezio's story and brought to a close one of the best characters in modern gaming. But at the start of Ezio's story in Constantinople, you meet an assassin called Yusuf, who quickly becomes one of the most light-hearted and lovable characters in the series.
But when Ezio returns from a journey to Cappadocia, he finds Yusuf's body in his lover Sofia's shop after he is killed by Byzantine Templars. The shock of Yusuf's death and Ezio's reaction is enough to tug at anyone's heartstrings and cause a wave of emotions, that are only strengthened when Ezio delivers a speech in Yusuf's memory a short while later.
4 Cesare Borgia Boss Fight - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Arguably one of the best boss-fights before the series switched to its current RPG-style, the final fight of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood takes place against Cesare Borgia, who Ezio spends the entire game pursuing and fighting against. Unlike the fistfight at the end of Assassin's Creed 2, however, this fight is far more dramatic.
Ezio pursues Cesare through a battlefield filled with Borgia soldiers, climbing and fighting through a burning siege tower in relentless pursuit of his target. Eventually, Ezio catches Cesare and after a brutal duel, he finally ends Cesare with the hidden blade, bringing to an end an epic tale in which Ezio, one of the most powerful protagonists in the series, finally fought against someone who could be considered his equal.
3 The First Leap of Faith - Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed featured many moments that set the groundwork for the series that it would spawn, but none would be so iconic as Altair's first Leap of Faith. In order to prove to the Templars that the assassins of the Brotherhood do not fear death, the leader of the Assassin's, Al Mualim, orders his men to leap from a tower, seemingly to their deaths.
Altair follows his instructions to the letter, throwing himself from the tower in spectacular fashion and landing safely in the bail of hay below, far from the Templar's line of sight. And this moment doesn't just impress the Templars, but also players who had just gotten their first taste of how dramatic Assassin's Creed's action sequences could be.
2 Ezio Meets Altair - Assassin's Creed: Revelations
At the end of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Ezio arrives at Altair's library where he finds the skeletal remains of the master assassin that started the entire franchise. Using the piece of Eden found on Altair's remains, Ezio is able to see into the past and see the final minutes of Altair's life.
These final moments might seem insignificant on their own, but in the context of the series and Ezio's own journey coming to an end, this moment is near poetic in its beauty and execution and provides a rare moment in which we see the two best assassins to ever live at the same time.
1 It Is A Good Life We Lead Brother - Assassin's Creed 2
Ezio's journey began in Assassin's Creed 2 without any indication that his story would be so tragic, and it is only when you look back at the start of the game after seeing Ezio's family suffer so horribly that you can truly appreciate the scene that truly opens the game. After getting patched up following a street fight, Ezio races his brother Federico through the streets and across the rooftops of Florence.
When they reach the top of the church, Ezio and Federico look across the city when Federico says a line that has stayed with nearly everyone who played the game: "It is a good life we lead brother." The conversation that follows only becomes more and more poignant as the game and Ezio's story progresses and offers a perfect opening to one of the best games in the series and one that still holds up today.