Here's a game that took WAY too long for me to finish (considering how much I like this series). I finished June 2024 but I started October  2023.

I was reluctant to start this game. I love the setting. I love the size of the map, and I love its "simplicity" when compared to the ENORMOUS maps that came with Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed those games, but the maps sometimes felt like a drag. This map felt right-sized to tell Basim's story.  

At the end of Valhalla I was also very lukewarm about Basim.  I felt like he done Leyla wrong by killing her, but I had totally forgotten that Basim is actually Loki reincarnated...so...yeah... I don't know if I should feel bad for him, feel good that he's back and can take this story in a new direction, or just feel OK with the moral grayness of it all.  The first game that kicked off the series had things portrayed in Black and White for the most part, but as the series has progressed, things have become more...ambiguous. I guess I'll hold off on getting that Assassin Brotherhood tattoo 😂

Synopsis from Wikipedia:

Following the events of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The Last Chapter, the modern-day Assassins use a blood sample provided by Basim Ibn Ishaq to relive his memories during the age of the Abbasid Caliphate.

In 861 CE, Basim is a young street thief living in Anbar with his childhood friend and companion, Nehal. For his entire life, Basim has been haunted by visions of a monstrous jinni, which Nehal had been helping him cope with. While just a simple thief, Basim has greater aspirations and attempts to join the Hidden Ones, but is flatly rejected by the senior Hidden One stationed in Anbar, Roshan bint-La'Ahad. In an effort to prove himself, Basim sneaks into the Caliph's palace to steal a chest sought by both the Hidden Ones and the Order of the Ancients. Basim retrieves a disk-shaped artifact from the chest, which displays a holographic message, before he is confronted by the Caliph, al-Mutawakkil. Nehal kills the Caliph to save Basim and they both flee the palace.

In retaliation for the Caliph's murder, the guards begin slaughtering all thieves in Anbar, including many of Basim's friends, and he angrily blames Nehal before parting ways. Now on the run, Basim manages to escape the city with Roshan's help, and she takes him to the Hidden Ones' mountain fortress at Alamut. Over the next few years, Basim trains under Roshan and is eventually initiated into the Hidden Ones. When their Mentor, Rayhan, learns of the Order's rapidly expanding influence in Baghdad, he decides to send a contingent of Hidden Ones to the city to investigate, led by Basim and Roshan.

Upon arriving in Baghdad, Basim learns that five Order members have infiltrated the Caliphate's highest levels of power, and are exploiting it in order to excavate or rebuild ancient Isu artifacts. He proceeds to hunt down four of the Order members, assassinating them and their subordinates and foiling their respective plots.

During this time, Basim reunites with Nehal, who is distrustful of the Hidden Ones and encourages Basim to investigate the artifacts the Order is looking for, believing they are both somehow linked to them. Eventually, Basim confronts the Order's leader, Qabiha, al-Mutawakkil's former concubine, who claims that the answers he seeks lie in an Isu temple underneath Alamut. Qabiha then tries to convince Basim to accompany her to the temple, but is killed by Roshan, who warns Basim not to investigate any further.

Disobeying Roshan, Basim travels to Alamut with Nehal, only to find the fortress under siege by the Order's forces. Basim rescues many captured Hidden Ones and rallies them to fight off the attack while he heads to the temple after convincing Rayhan that the power held within could be used to defeat the Order for good. However, he is confronted by Roshan, who reveals that she is aware of Basim's true nature and attempts to stop him from entering the temple, fearing what it may awaken within Basim. Basim defeats Roshan, but spares her life and enters the temple with Nehal. Inside, he finds more disk-shaped artifacts[c] and discovers that the temple used to be a prison where the Isu Loki was held in at some point before escaping. Basim also realizes that Nehal never existed; both she and the jinni were in fact representations of his repressed memories as Loki. Deciding to embrace his nature as Loki's reincarnation, Basim "fuses" with Nehal and regains his memories.

Upon leaving the temple, Basim is welcomed back into the Hidden Ones, which causes Roshan to resign in protest. Now fully aware of his past life as Loki, Basim muses that he has been reborn in a new world, and looks forward to a "reunion" with those who were responsible for his imprisonment.

Overall this game was fun to play. I enjoyed the 'classic' locale and being able to visit locations that seemed and felt familiar.  There was no modern/current era story to be hand, which was a bit of a bummer, but I hope this gets rectified in future games.  Part of me wants this series to wrap up the Ancient Alien elements of it, or at least merge them into the present era gameplay and lore. From Watchdogs: Legion we know that the Assassin's Brotherhood is around in the near future (2030ish?), so the Assassins aren't going anywhere, but it would be nice to get some more coherent story now that we know that the ancients are still around. I would play this again on a more difficult setting. It was fun :-)

Some stats:

• Gamerscore: 530/1000
• Achievements: 27/50
• Time played: 1d 5h42m