Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise is known for many things, but the boss fights are not one of them. Yet, the more sequels that came out, the further these games got from pure contracts and targets, and the more they started introducing actual boss fights.
Some of these bosses were amazing and silly in their own way, while some of them didn’t quite work out as the devs probably intended. Still, with AC: Valhalla being one of many exciting titles coming out this year, it seemed like a great time to talk boss fights since fans are hyped for some potential Norse God encounters in the newest release.
10 Assassin’s Creed 2: A Fistfight With The Pope
This had to be first right? The pinnacle of all boss fights, past and present, culminates in a bare-knuckle brawl with the Pope himself in an Isu futuristic tomb. Rodrigo Borgia is the man underneath these saintly robes, and he and his family were literal archenemies of Ezio and the Auditores.
Throughout Assassin’s Creed 2 these two powerful figures cross paths a number of times and thwart each other’s plans (Ezio more than Rodrigo), but none of it compares to the pure campy goofiness that is the final fistfight.
9 Assassin’s Creed Revelations: The Never-Ending Chase Scene
Salim Ahmet was a prince of the Ottoman Empire, a Grand Master of the Byzantine Branch of the Templars, and another one of Ezio, the best assassin’s, many arch enemies. These two once again danced around each other, threatening each other, kidnapping loved ones, and going in for the kill numerous times.
After Ahmet tricks Ezio into these important Masyef Keys over, a lengthy chase begins. Again, this is an early game, so a chase was the best a boss fight could get. All-in-all this confrontation is just pure visual spectacle with carts crashing into each other, Ezio using his parachute to hang-glide behind, and finally taking himself and Ahmet off a cliff to fight mid-air before saving the both of them with his parachute right before impact.
8 Assassin’s Creed III: Finally Catching Charles Lee
Charles Lee was quite the scumbag Connor just couldn’t seem to kill in AC3, the guy got away at every turn just to go hatch a new plan somewhere else. Connor doesn’t manage to finally take Lee till the very end of the story, and the “fight” against him is another desperate and long-winded chase through a burning boat, a dock, and finally ending in the Conestoga Inn where the two archenemies share one drink before Connor pushes the knife into Charles’ heart.
It absolutely isn’t a very memorable boss fight gameplay-wise, but the atmosphere and relief of finally taking this guy down make up for the lack of mechanical depth.
7 Assassin’s Creed Unity: The Showdown With Pierre Bellec
Finally, it’s time to talk about an actual gameplay-heavy fight between two people and not a chase or cutscene confrontation. People don’t love AC: Unity, but there are some great parts of it. The relationship between Pierre Bellec and the player character Arno is great and established essentially at the beginning of the game. Bellec trains Arno and even witnesses his induction into the Assassins, so this fight against him near the latter half of unity is a rough one.
The fight itself isn’t incredibly challenging, but it’s very atmospheric, and continues throughout different areas of the Sainte-Chapelle, eventually ending with Arno killing Bellec after he tried to kill Elise.
6 Assassin’s Creed: Al Mualim And The Illusionary Boss Rush
Al Mualim, the final boss of the original game and the very man who tutored, trained and raised Altair. Al Mualim is the Grand Master of this faction of the Assassins, and also turns out to be a previous Templar Collaborator, hiding behind lies, illusions, and falsehoods to cover his own lust for power.
This mystery is slowly uncovered more and more each time Altair kills one of the nine he was tasked with taking out. Finally, it all comes together in a fight against Al Mualim where the man uses the Piece of Eden to create illusions of the 9 Altair spent the game killing, essentially making it a boss rush. After this, Altair then fights 7 copies of Mualim before being bound again by the Piece of Eden. Finally, after a third phase, Mualim is killed, thus ending what was truly a great boss encounter for the time period.
5 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Trying To Pin Down Medusa
Jumping right from the first in the series to the last, Odyssey adds a ton of new and inventive boss fights into the series. In Odyssey, there are 4 “Pieces of Eden” that Kassandra/Alexios must collect to close the gate to Atlantis, and each one takes on the form of a different mythological beast.
They all have their own merits, but the Medusa fight is by far the most unique, with a bit of a tragic romance story right before it. Though, funnily enough, it’s also by far the most annoying on harder difficulties.
4 Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: The Man In Only Underwear And His Final Form
Moving right on to the final of the four Eden fights in Odyssey, the Cyclops. This has arguably the best side quest leading up to it, where players must guide a nearly naked man to a cave across the world so he can introduce them to his “family”. Not exactly one of the historical figures people thought they would meet in this game. Still, the battle against the Cyclops is brutal, with each attack potentially killing the player character, but there are a few tricks.
The best little flourish in this fight has to be when the cyclops claps its hands together to create a soundwave that knocks the character back. It’s nice that this cave finally became explorable, as many players found it at the beginning of the game and had no idea how to get inside the last room.
3 Assassin’s Creed: Jubair Al-Hakim And His Body Doubles
The eighth of Altair’s targets, Jubair al-Hakim, is an example of something players wished there was more of in the later games. targets tricking the player. When chasing Jubair down, multiple assassination icons actually appear on the map, and if Altair goes to the wrong icon he finds a body double.
Sneaky people playing tricks on equally as sneaky assassins was always an amazing concept, and fans have always wanted more of these confrontations where the enemy is hunting the player just as much as they’re hunting them. It works better for the theme, at least better than fighting literal gods with a bow & arrow.
2 Assassin’s Creed III: Connor Vs Haytham “Templar Traitor” Kenway
While the chase to finally hunt Charles Lee down in AC3 was an interesting concept and had a lot of emotional weight to it, the fight between father and son was much better from a gameplay perspective. Connor sneaks into the Fort Lee is supposedly hiding in to end his life, but all he finds is his Templar father Haythem, waiting to stop his son, permanently.
Instead of the standard AC combat, the system in this fight works more like a game such a Sleeping Dogs, where Connor is meant to parry/counter Haythems attacks near objects/terrain and a counterattack cutscene plays every time. While all this is happening, the two are arguing over deep and all-encompassing ideals, so the confrontation really hits the player on multiple levels.
1 Assassin’s Creed Origins: Trial Of The Gods DLC
The Trial of The Gods is one of many pieces of amazing side content in Origins by having Bayek fight against nonsensical “glitches in the Animus” that will take the form of mountain-sized representations of Ancient Gods like Sobek or Anubis.
Each fight is different with its own individual attacks and atmosphere, but at a core level, all three conquests are centered around attacking the glowing orb, and avoiding any AoE spells the boss casts. These fights play out more like combat puzzles than they do the boss fights in AC: Odyssey and fans have already expressed interest in battles like this returning in Valhalla.
NEXT: Assassin’s Creed: Desmond Miles Vs. Layla Hassan — Who Is The Better Protagonist?
