The Evolution of Assassin’s Creed’s Parkour

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Assassin's Creed's parkour has been an integral part of the series from the jump (ha!), with protagonist after hooded protagonist able to gracefully treat their open worlds like personal jungle gyms. And when Assassin's Creed Shadows launches on November 15, players will get all-new ways to artfully explore, with one of the two playable protagonists - the shinobi Naoe - adding her own interpretations to parkour. In addition to performing acrobatic flips while free-running and climbing or swinging with the help of her physics-based grappling hook, Naoe can use dodge moves during parkour to drop silently and unseen from ledges, or execute dodge rolls at full sprint and then transition into leaps through windows or over railings.

Even before Naoe's elaborate interpretation of parkour, however, the art form's representation within the series has evolved considerably from game to game, changing to meet the needs of each new era and environment while adding unique flourishes along the way. You can discover all its variations as you traverse the landscapes of the Assassin's Creed games included in a Ubisoft+ Classics or Premium subscription, and keep reading to find out more about each game's distinct approach.

The Original (2007)

The fact that 2007's Assassin's Creed made parkour and free-running central to exploring its open world was pretty impressive at the time - but what made it even more so was that players could consistently pull off impressive-looking moves with minimal input. Holding a couple of buttons and moving the analog stick launched the Assassin Altaïr through the urban landscapes of Acre, Damascus, and Jerusalem at high speed, sprinting gracefully across rooftops, leaping effortlessly over gaps (while still