Evolution of Parkour System in Assassin's Creed Games (2007-2021) 

0:09 Assasin's Creed 2:11 Assasin's Creed II 4:16 Assasin's Creed Brotherhood 4:54 Assasin's Creed Revelations 7:18 Assasin's Creed III 11:22 Assasin's Creed Liberation 11:59 Assasin's Creed IV Black Flag 13:55 Assasin's Creed Freedom Cry 14:37 Assasin's Creed Rogue 17:10 Assasin's Creed Unity 20:09 Assasin's Creed Syndicate 22:00 Assasin's Creed Origins 23:36 Assasin's Creed Odyssey 24:45 Assasin's Creed Valhalla

In my honest opinion, Unity has the best parkour system, not only for it's depth, but also the fact that using it in the way the devs intended actually rewards you.

Fun fact: In brotherhood you can perform a secret animation where if you use a horse then jump off a beam, it will trigger the animation that is doing a flip

It blows my mind how good AC 1 graffics were let alone the physics of the parkour. Really impressive

What I really loved about the games pre-Syndicate is that when there was an update to the parkour it felt natural (in most ways). Like Connor being able to rock climb vs Ezio's city climbing, I felt that it was natural for their environment. It seems like with the newer titles Ubisoft basically made the best system (in their eyes) and has decided to not even try to evolve

I FINALLY found an Assassin's Creed parkour analysis video where the person actually knew what they were doing, and how to play the games. Great job!

Also, AC3 Connor has the best running animation in the entire series. He starts running like a rugby player then slowly changes to a free runner. Pretty cool.

Also unpopular opinion. I actually liked the grappling hook in Syndicate. Many of the buildings in Syndicate are spaced extremely far away and before you gain gang territory the streets are littered with hostiles that are hard to avoid from anywhere, but the rooftops. The grapple was fun to use to me and on top of making navigating between the large buildings less tedious, it gave me other ways to approach stealth missions.

Everyone has their own definition of "best," but AC: Unity is undoubtedly *the* most complex parkour system in any game, ever. No contest. The amount of transitionary animations and moving parts makes it a marvel in animation history alone. Shame that it had such a bad launch.

The system in AC3 was breathtaking at the time. The ability to just go into trees was amazing to my young mind, even if it was limited and repetitive. It added unmatched immersion for me. I don't think any game has surprised me as much as 3 in the franchise, it's probably my most played one.

This is the best Assassin's Creed parkour evolution video I've ever seen. It actually mentions all the gained and lost features throughout the years.

The motion capture for Arno's parkour movements was done by Jesse LaFlair from Team Tempest. He's done a LOT of tutorial videos that I used to follow years ago when I was really into parkour.

AC Unity definitely has the most complete system. The ability to parkour down buildings and the stylized moves are super fun and rewarding. The Ezio trilogy is a very close second. Didn’t know about the precision jump mechanics introduced later which explains the clunkiness post Ezio. I like to think Connor has the best tree climbing and natural environmental transversal due to his Native American heritage. It also makes sense to strip the parkour mechanics back some when you go further back in time for the storyline. Certain moves like Arno’s just didn’t exist yet.

Who could imagine that the most bugged AC released is going to be, in the end of time, the all rounder of franchise... best parkout system, breathtaking art direction, great history and a very nice protagonist.

For me, despite it being a really buggy game (though I didn't really experience any bugs at launch tbh) the best parkour system is the one in Unity, it feels extremely fluid specially with the downward traversal mechanics. The separation of upward traversal and downward traversal was incredible.

I remember playing the first game in 2007, there was nothing like it. Running over buildings practically climbing anything it was so cool experiencing this game on the 360 when it launched

I think Unity was the peak of the animations being fluid, dynamic, entertaining and unique. But the earlier games 1, and the Ezio trilogy had my favourite parkour system, where just a bit more thought and planning had to go into scaling structures, with platforming being an entire puzzle mechanic for example with the hidden tombs in AC2 where you had to figure out how to climb around to reach your goal. It also used to make getting to viewpoints and diving off them feel that bit more rewarding and exciting. While all this is kinda gone from AC3 onwards, you can just sorta hold the run button down and go in any direction and the game will sort itself out for you almost automatically.

It's crazy to see a video like this where the player actually knows the nuances of each game's parkour, especially AC1 and ACU. Even knows about the vault of AC1, respect

It’s a shame that so many people where turned away from unity because of it buggy release, it’s truly an amazing game with a beautiful world, great parkour, and even a solid story. I’m constantly going back to the game because of how fun it is!

Revelations was and still is one of my favorite assassins creeds, it’s the only one I’ve ever finished, the parkour felt amazing and the combat is still my favorite, definitely one of the underdogs of the franchise and doesn’t get enough credit for what it done

I think it's worth noting that in AC3 the parkour was changed to influence whether your character tries to go "downwards", "forwards" or "upwards". While I had a genuinely terrible experience with AC3's parkour, I really liked this change.

AC2, Brotherhood and Revelations are still my favorite parkour in the franchise. Sure, Unity has a very fluid and cool to see parkour... but I miss the freedom you had in the earlier games, much like prince of persia. From AC3 onwards they took away a lot of your freedom and also took away one of my favorite element of the franchise: the parkour puzzle. I loved entering catacombs and churches and doing very precise movements to get where I needed to get, looking back and jumping to another grabbing spot, running upwards on a wall and then jumping back to grab a pole... those are the kind of things I miss.

I personally had the most fun in revelation’s. The layout of the buildings and the levels made everything so much more seamless compared to the rest of the Ezio trilogy allowing you to free run as long as you want with little to no mistakes

14:08 Jackdaw had ropes too to swing from. I can remember swinging into battles

11:40 ohhh i loved the change in the music around here, from AC3 theme to AC4 theme, was awesome!

I love AC Unity's parkour style because of this feeling of control over the protagonist's movement. But I get the feeling that the gradual upgrade in Ezio's style really was what made an AC game.

Ezio games had the best system but not the best animations sadly, Unity had best animations but the system is not precise. I like the Kenway parkour system because it is a mix of both. Stylish while precise. I love how Connor can vault flawlessly and how the animation transitions are great. Also you can hold space to jump over unsafe gaps in ac3,4 and rogue.

syndicate: spiderman mode

8:30 YES! Thank you for showing these! I wish someone can make a compilation of these transition animations, they’re so clean!

Thank you. Every other youtuber I've seen who's had titles of "Evolution of parkour in assassin's creed" just has two minutes of bland gameplay from people who don't know how to use these parkour systems to their fullest extent. This is the first video of its kind that I've found that actually goes into detail for these systems aside from channels like Leo K or Jcers. Great video!

I agree that Unity has the best parkour system out of the AC games, it also definitely helps that the entirety of france was designed to let the player take full advantage of the system as long as you put in the effort to learn it. It really helps or hurts the parkour system if the world design isn't made to really let it be used to it's best potential.

I feel like the movement in origins is simplistic and fitting for egypt, especially as it makes sense that stylish free running isn’t something that was really possible with the architecture and layout

Great analysis video! As someone who's been looking into playing the AC games for the first time, this has given me an idea of where to start. Also, I couldn't help but notice the bit of music at the beginning whose title rhymes with "Pool of the Crates". Love the video!

The thing I liked most in this video is the transition in the theme songs of AC Liberation and AC Black Flag . 🤘🔥🔥

Unity still looks like pretty damn good for an 8-year-old game. I wasn’t that crazy about it when I first played but it almost looks better than recent entries.

Hands down the best parkour evolution video on all of RU-vid. Great job 🤩

FINALLY someone who can see the Original Games' parkour system for what it is, you can cancel it anytime and make it faster, it feels perfect, not clunky and makes it more immersive, it's not just animation based, it was just not THAT much perfected until brotherhood, revelations is even beyond that. The best way to play AC games is at 1.1 speed, trust me, try cheat engine and do the speedhack, you'll understand what I mean.

The Ezio games had a feeling that I never experienced in any other AC game. Italy was the best setting for an AC game. The culture, architecture, and colors just really felt perfect. Ezio was the best character. He wasn't Altair, but you knew he was better and more significant to the story going forward. He had more personality than anyone else written for these games. I think a lot of people, especially critics and journalists, didn't go into these games trying to understand the way it should be played. I think Ubisoft forgot where they wanted the series to go and lost the point.

You missed something very cool about Brotherhood's parkour: you can jump from horses to poles above you directly in a very stylish way

This videos was awesome to compare all the changes. Thanks for putting this together. I'm currently doing a first time playthrough of all the AC games from the beginning. This videos has me excited to look for those differences in the parkour between each game. Currently on Brotherhood.

It’s one of these reasons that it’s sometimes easy to fall out of love with video games. Now games have to look pretty, their mechanics simple and a bigger open world is the focus rather perfecting the craft that they previously created; I have to agree with you that Unity really has a good parkour system unique to itself, and it’s sad to see that we’ll see it honed and improved upon.

The first game was an incredible achievement. While the sequels (until Unity) offer improvements, it still looks and feels pretty good, and there was nothing like it at the time.

This is so well-edited. 😭 Thank you for this video!!

amazing video i love and read all the descriptions and i can tell you really put heart into it especially by showing us all the functions, keep it up, seriously well done!

Thinking that Assassin's Creed was released in 2007 with this graphic Is absolutely stunning.

I think something that's probably harder to keep track of but equally important is how much the game's narrative interacts with the parkour system as well. AC2 was the one that really made me think about it most because there was an important upgrade you only get something like 60% into the game (the glove that lets you jump while climbing) and there's a whole mission with cutscenes to address it. There's also the Assassin Tombs which are just there to showcase the parkour. As the series goes on, the game's narrative engages less and less with it as it also adds in many more systems like going through sewers or sailing boats or riding horses, and the parkour is just how the character gets around. There used to be a whole dynamic of rooftops being a separate world for assassins on the lam from guards, but most of the games now barely take place in cities

Oh my, such a detailed and informative video. As an old AC series fan, I really enjoyed every second. Very well done.

respect for actually putting effort into this video bro

I put countless hours in assassins creed 2 when it came out and never knew that there were springboards for long jumps

I don't understand why Ubisoft perfected the parkour system then dropped it into the gutter and oversimplified it.

I think it's important for Ubisoft to switch up how the parkour works in each game. I know it kinda sucks taking away abilities when moving onto the next game but the fact is someone like Evior is not gonna have the finesse and precision as someone like Arno because of the era they're from. It was kind of unfortunate for Syndicate since they had the most modern era and at that point in time it was all about streamlining society and making buildings as tall and monolithic as possible. Hopefully with Codename Red we can get a bit more of that Arno finesse since we'll be playing as a shinobi assassin.

This might be the best video i ve seen about AC parkour system.

Assassin’s Creed Unity still has the best Parkour 🤘

Loved the wall bounce move you did at 18:55, it was one of my favorite free running moves in Unity alongside the free fall.

That's a right comparison video i am looking for😊. You literally tell all up and downs while also giving respected time the game's Parkour needed and i loved it❤❤❤

The Ezio trilogy is my favorite by far. It's not as snazzy as Unity's but more player control felt more rewarding over an easy "press L and let the environment control your run instead".

The transition between AC: liberation, and AC: black flag was so smooth, even the music switched at the perfect time that’s great editing skills there

For someone who wants to master it, AC Unity is truly all they need. The technique, the control required and the satisfying and fluid motions as a result are awesome. Honestly, Unity is the only game where I did not play the game as much I parkoured the entire city

😭It's been over a decade this brings so much memories. Thanks for making this videos!

i feel like this is the only positive video on assassin's creed i've seen in a long time. GJ :)

AC 1 and Ezio Trilogy had the most mechanically sound parkour system and controls. The animations were a bit less flashy and fluid but you were more in control of the character compared to later games.

Unity hands down has the best system. I've been wanting more of the complex systems ever since the game came out. and nearly once a year I redownload it to replay the game (story was crap) but the world was just amazing to go through and play in.

I understand that not everyone will like the grapple launcher in syndicate, but I sort of felt it was a thing that was somewhat needed, in that era. With streets becoming incredibly wide, and the way London has its infrastructure, the traditional methods for parkour would just look out of place and stupid, so your only option would be a lift or just climb straight up. Also the roads are so much wider since they had to adapt to the carriages, which means there are usually very few crossings on the rooftops, and they could be 100s of meters apart, which would really stagnate missions. I personally quite like the rope launcher in syndicate but I would only ever want it in London, because of what I said. Plus I guess the assassin's need to evolve too in some ways.

I just want to thank you for bringing justice de the AC 1 Parkour System, it's the slowest in the series and the most imprecise at times, but it's the most complex and rewarding hands down.

AC Unity and AC1 are my all time favorites regarding parkour, and from combat AC3 and AC Brotherhood and lastly from stealth AC Unity & of course the spin off editions esp The Chronicles Trilogy.

My first AC game was AC3 and i am impressed on how to animations and how the parkour works. But when i tried The Ezio trilogy i was more impressed by how you have more control of the parkour making world exploration even more fun and was wondering why the newer AC games didn’t implement that kind of system. Unity is great but like in this video i agree that the Ezio games have the best parkour.

This is a good video when talking about mechanics and why they were chosen. Personally playing AC valhalla i noticed the feature you mentioned in AC3 where it turns into songle button actions and you cant do as many features as you could with ezio

Wow! This video shows all the work and love that you have put in it! Congratulations

The absolute best free running is from valhalla NO DOUBT. The way you run across fields and occasionally jump a fence or climb a ladder kept me playing for minutes

Unity did NOT only have the best parkour, it also had the best parkour controls!

You made me realise what that little thing that's been bugging me about these rpg AC games, massiveRPG gamer, so Ireally enjoyed the games for that aspect. But there was some element on which I couldn't put my finger... it's the parkour system. Ever since Unity it was that one thing missing. So glad I saw this video. Unity's parkour system is definitely my favourite. Even the game had it's faults, the parkour was the selling point of that game

I really do love how you see Ezio really evolve in his skills and how free running gets easier with him in time and he learns more things. (Even if they say later on it makes him much more sore than it used to lol.)

What you missed in AC Brotherhood is that horse riding inside Rome has got a new feature. In AC II, riding a horse started with a trot when only moving the stick, holding RB or R1 will make the horse gallop and holding X or A will make the horse sprint. In AC Brotherhood riding inside Rome does not allow you to sprint. However, holding A or X will make Ezio get ready to jump off when you release the button. This is a very useful technique to get of the horse faster and start climbing immideately. The cool thing about this is, when you ride towards a wooden beam and jump towards it (I think you have to press the hold button for Ezio to cling to it), Ezio will grab the beam with his hands and with his momentum flip upwards and stand on this beam he just held onto. If there are two beams, ezio will hold on the first beam and with the momemtum of riding the will swing and land with a backflip on the second beam. Its a little tricky and rare move you can do and not that useful actually, but very impressive and fun move to do.

The amount of armor and stuff you got on your outfit in both oddesy and Valhalla can make the freerunning harder actually! When you reach your limit and are full of supplies, you sometimes can't even run from how heavy the stuff is. I found out about that the hard way during an escape unfortunately 😂😅

Damn this video is well made notice how a tone from AC 3 played seconds before showcasing it from AC 2. Or in general the music blend is so perfect between each game

Man, this is ACTUALLY detailed. I like how he mentions every small change to every major change. BTW, my first time on the channel. I personally love the Kenway and Ezio saga. Kenway saga has very nice graphics and feels really like modern games. Whereas Ezio trio. is just nostalgic.

People say they like unity parkour better but i miss the old hardcore parkour of ac1 and ezio triology where you have to learn and master them by yourselves they were the most realistic

In Rogue, you can also use certain (usually military) flags around the world to swing down from a building! Great video, thank you!

Great little detail about ac3. Haythem uses a lot of ezios old animations while connor introduces the new ones

I had no clue of Acs special vaults or 2's spring jump. So cool!

in my opinion, the best parkour is in the Ezio trilogy. It was in these games that you had to think in order to climb somewhere, you were not an assassin who could climb to any height, like a monkey. That's what I love about this trilogy. I do not deny that Unity also has great parkour, but still for me the parkour in AC2, Brotherhood and Revelations remains the best. P.S I don't know English too well, so Google translator made all the mistakes =)

What a special franchise to have grown up with. It was a early time of modern gaming still and I’m so grateful to have been there to experience it

Fantastic video, my man!!!

So nice to see Unity getting love on here. The parkour was so much more tactile and accurate. I don't even like the AC series very much but I always thought it was a shame that most people missed out on such a significant improvement in controls and movement due to how broken it was at launch...and then they broke the parkour again with every release after that. Very unfortunate.

Thank you so much for covering these mechanics with such depth! It means so much to us for you to bring detailed moves to hundreds of fans who have never seen them. Here are a few more that eluded you, particularly in the Kenway saga since I haven't seen them mentioned in other comments: Beginning in AC3 there are now two different types of jumps: The precision jump, which you already know about, and the long jump, which is done by holding jump while approaching an edge or tapping it at any time. This will completely ignore the safety restrictions put in place by the precision jump, allowing you to clear that gap that was giving you trouble at the risk of hurting yourself. Looks like you did exactly this by accident in a later clip? Not sure what's going on there You can rope swing in Black Flag by approaching the vertical ropes at the edge of the ship. Any other swinging objects are repurposed from that mechanic Rogue has another unique descent object: a bright red flag you can tear and ride to the base of the pole one time only before it's destroyed All the Kenway games also have a fast edge descent with varying behavior depending on what kind of surface it start on and when you queue up the action. These will also take you all the way down no matter how high you are, making them just as potentially dangerous at long jumps. They're done by running or precision jumping to an edge and holding block, which also has a chance to cause an accidental air tackle, particularly in Rogue since you can target civilians. See my video Controlled Descents in New York for some examples

Finally found a good parkour comparison video. Subbed* Thanks for the video

Thanks for putting this together! For me, AC Unity, hands down.

To be honest, AC Unity literally has the best parkour system, everything is so smooth and nothing sharp, and the "drop down" thing is so satisfying. Good job Unity.

Unity's parkour looks the coolest, but I found it to be less consistently functional when compared to the Ezio games. Freerunning down was nice, I guess, but after over 150 hours of Unity, the parkour continued feeling clunky and unpolished whereas the parkour in the Ezio trilogy always felt smooth and fun

I really hope that the new assassins creed games will have more in depth parkour as well acrobatics and stylish moves to keep the gameplay away from been repetitive. Amazing video and you actually know how to play assassins creed and your love for the franchise shows ! Kudos !

I actually enjoid parkurs in ac syndicate that gear was so smooth and usefull at least for me and thanks for the video, it s was really good.

This hit me like a blast of energy I want to go train outside now!

Black Flag does also have rope swings, there are a few on each ship for you to try. There are also hooks that easily bring you down, instead of up.

no one mentioned how big of a leap in changes to revelations it was, i truly loved the hook blade, gave more uses than just parkour, rolling over enemy and even hooking them just to throw them at other enemies. in mirage that seem to be set in a similar location I NEED the hookblade back.

Great video!

Yooo, this is actually THE best evolution video of assassin's creed I've seen so far. You actually kept everything in detail and made it easy to understand. It was enjoyable as well also bro. Keep up the good work!

Great video! I can tell it was made from a fan's perspective, with actual solid points about the parkour systems from each game. Such a shame Unity's buggy release changed the future of the AC franchise forever, the game had a huge potential to be a masterpiece if they left it on the oven for another year or two.

Thanks for this in depth look into the parkour systems. I think AC 2 has a wonderful parkour system. One I am very fond of. Though, ACUnity seems to have a very fun system that I did not know about because I didn't play that game. After watching this video I think I'm gonna pick up AC Unity just for the cool parkour

This was a really cool video! I think I'm going to check out your channel

The stone walls in Rogue were not artificial, they were still natural cliff faces, they were just laid out for the player to climb as opposed to the player climbing any cliff face they wanted.