Patrice Désilets, the creative director who built the first Assassin’s Creed, finally has a release window for Project 1666: Amsterdam — 16 years after he left Ubisoft. The trailer leans hard into witchcraft, possession mechanics, and stealth that punishes detection rather than rewarding open combat. It’s the most credible spiritual successor to early Assassin’s Creed that’s appeared in a decade.
While Désilets’s team finishes the work, here are seven Assassin’s Creed alternatives for PC that scratch a similar itch right now. We picked games that cover specific Assassin’s Creed strengths — historical setting, parkour-driven stealth, social-stealth, blade combat, open-world traversal — rather than chasing the franchise as a whole.
Why Assassin's Creed players want alternatives in 2026
The franchise is still shipping, but the design has fragmented.
- The action-RPG direction stretched the formula. Odyssey and Valhalla traded the original tight stealth-and-parkour loop for sprawling RPG systems. Some players loved it; many wanted the old shape back.
- Mirage was the smaller course-correction. Ubisoft heard the criticism, shipped Mirage in 2023 as a deliberately tighter, classic-style entry, and it landed well — but it’s a short game compared to Valhalla.
- The wait between major entries keeps growing. Shadows in 2025, then a roadmap of side projects. The gap is real, and it’s why the genre has fragmented out.
- Project 1666 is still ahead. Désilets’s Amsterdam game is set for release in 2027 at the earliest. The waiting room is open.
We’re not telling you to abandon Assassin’s Creed. We’re recommending you have a backlog ready for the months between the next two entries.
Quick comparison
| Game | Best for | Price (approx.) | Assassin’s Creed similarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ghost of Tsushima | Open-world feudal Japan, stealth-and-blade combat | Around $60 | High |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | Verticality and traversal in a defined setting | Around $20 on sale | Medium-high |
| Hitman World of Assassination | Pure social stealth and contracts | Around $30-40 | High (stealth design) |
| Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice | Japanese setting, blade-first combat | Around $40 | Medium (combat-only) |
| Middle-earth: Shadow of War | Open-world parkour and lieutenant systems | Around $20 on sale | High (movement) |
| Dishonored 2 | Stealth-action with powers and freedom of approach | Around $30 | High (stealth design) |
| Project 1666: Amsterdam | Assassin’s Creed creator’s spiritual successor | Around $60 at launch | Highest (when released) |
The 7 best Assassin's Creed alternatives on PC
Ghost of Tsushima — best open-world stealth in feudal Japan
Ghost of Tsushima (Sucker Punch, 2024 on PC) is the closest single-title replacement for Assassin’s Creed on the modern hardware bar. The open world of Tsushima Island is dense without being bloated, the stealth-and-blade combat lets you choose between honorable katana duels and dishonorable shadow tactics, and the side stories are written with more care than Ubisoft’s checklist content typically gets. The Director’s Cut adds the Iki Island expansion, which is the strongest side area in the game.
The wind-guided navigation system replaces the minimap, and it is the single best modern open-world traversal decision any game has made. The map gets out of your way, and the world becomes the directional tool.
Where it falls short: The post-game and replay loop is light compared to live-service Assassin’s Creed entries. Combat is excellent but the build variety is narrower than Valhalla’s.
Pricing:
- No free tier
- Around $60 at full price; frequently around $40 on Steam and Epic sales
- vs Assassin’s Creed Mirage: similar price tier, longer experience
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5.
Download: Steam · Epic Games Store
Bottom line: Pick this if you can only buy one Assassin’s Creed alternative. The most complete package on the list.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider — best traversal and verticality
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Eidos-Montréal, 2018; Definitive Edition with all DLC) gives you the closest equivalent to Assassin’s Creed’s parkour-and-puzzle exploration loop, just with Lara Croft in a Mesoamerican setting. The hidden tomb puzzles are genuinely good — environmental logic puzzles that require you to read the architecture rather than follow waypoint markers. Verticality is everywhere; the game punishes players who don’t look up.
The crafted stealth sections (mud camouflage, jungle ambushes) are the most underrated part of the design. They work exactly the way Assassin’s Creed stealth should work and rarely does — visibility-based, vegetation-driven, and forgiving in interesting ways.
Where it falls short: It is a more linear game than open-world Assassin’s Creed entries. The combat is the weakest layer of the trilogy.
Pricing:
- No free tier; frequently included in subscription services like Game Pass
- Around $20 on sale; the Definitive Edition often goes for under $15
- vs Assassin’s Creed Mirage: significantly cheaper, particularly on sale
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia (defunct), with Steam Deck verified.
Download: Steam · Epic Games Store
Bottom line: Pick this for traversal, tomb puzzles, and a more focused 20-hour story.
Hitman World of Assassination — best social stealth
Hitman World of Assassination (IO Interactive, 2022 bundle of Hitman 1, 2, and 3) is the cleanest realisation of “social stealth” as a complete game system that exists. Each contract is a small, hand-built sandbox where the dozens of disguises, environmental triggers, and scripted opportunities create real freedom in how you reach the target. Replay value is unusually high — you can complete the same map five times and play it as five different games.
The IO team behind Hitman is also the team behind 007 First Light, which became a sales phenomenon in late 2025 — they understand stealth design better than nearly anyone in the industry. Hitman is the closest pure-stealth playground available right now.
Where it falls short: There is no traversal or open world in the Assassin’s Creed sense. If you valued the rooftops more than the contracts, this is not the right fit.
Pricing:
- Hitman Free Starter Pack lets you try the first level (ICA Facility) with no time limit
- Around $60 for the full World of Assassination edition; often around $30 on Steam sales
- vs Assassin’s Creed Mirage: comparable price, profoundly different shape
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch (cloud).
Download: Steam · Epic Games Store
Bottom line: Pick Hitman if pure stealth is what you valued in Assassin’s Creed. Skip it if you wanted parkour and movement.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice — best blade-first combat in Japan
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (FromSoftware, 2019) is on this list for the combat. It is the most demanding katana-based fighting system any major game has shipped — every encounter is a posture-and-deflection puzzle where flinching loses the duel. The Sengoku-era Japan setting overlaps with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but the game asks you to engage rather than disengage from your opponents.
The grappling hook traversal is also worth flagging. The verticality of Sekiro’s environments rewards exploration in a way that feels closer to early Assassin’s Creed than the Origins-to-Valhalla era did.
Where it falls short: Brutal difficulty, no difficulty settings, and a hard expectation that you’ll learn the boss patterns. Stealth in Sekiro is more about positioning before the fight than full social stealth.
Pricing:
- No free tier
- Around $40 at full price; regularly $20 on Steam sales
- vs Assassin’s Creed Mirage: cheaper, dramatically more challenging
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia (defunct).
Download: Steam · Epic Games Store
Bottom line: Pick Sekiro if blade combat in a Japanese setting is your priority, and you accept the From-difficulty curve. Skip if you want stealth-first design.
Middle-earth: Shadow of War — best open-world parkour and emergent enemies
Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Monolith Productions, 2017) is the open-world parkour Assassin’s Creed game in everything but name. The free-running through fortresses, the assassination chains, the climbing animations, the eagle-vision-style enemy tagging — it is the most direct stylistic borrow from Assassin’s Creed any major game has done. The Nemesis system goes further: orc captains remember you, level up after killing you, and become genuine recurring villains in a way Assassin’s Creed never tried.
The 2018 patches removed the loot-box monetisation that hurt the launch reception. The current version is a complete single-player experience with no microtransaction nudging.
Where it falls short: The story is a Tolkien fanfic detour that hardcore lore fans will find suspect. Some structural padding in the late game.
Pricing:
- No free tier
- Around $20 on sale; the Definitive Edition with all DLC frequently sells for $15-25
- vs Assassin’s Creed Mirage: significantly cheaper, similar shape
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, with Steam Deck support.
Download: Steam · Epic Games Store
Bottom line: Pick this if traversal and emergent enemy storytelling are what you want. The closest mechanical analogue to AC on the list.
Dishonored 2 — best immersive sim stealth
Dishonored 2 (Arkane Studios, 2016) is the immersive-sim flavour of Assassin’s Creed. Each mission is a sprawling sandbox where powers (blink teleport, possession, dark vision) interact with environmental systems in ways the developers couldn’t have planned. The two-character playthrough (Corvo or Emily) and the multiple non-lethal paths through each level make the game replayable in a way few stealth-action games are.
The Karnaca setting — Mediterranean architecture, plague-ravaged neighborhoods, dieselpunk technology — has a visual identity unlike anything Assassin’s Creed has shipped. Worth the price of admission on aesthetic alone.
Where it falls short: Some performance and stability issues on PC have persisted since launch. The game is short by modern standards at 15-20 hours.
Pricing:
- No free tier
- Around $30 at full price; frequently around $10 on Steam sales
- vs Assassin’s Creed Mirage: dramatically cheaper, denser per hour
Platforms: Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One.
Bottom line: Pick Dishonored 2 if you want maximal player freedom in stealth design. Skip if you require modern AAA polish.
Project 1666: Amsterdam — best spiritual successor (incoming)
Project 1666: Amsterdam (Panache Digital Games, release window announced) is the entry on this list you cannot play yet, but it is the most directly relevant. Patrice Désilets, who designed the original Assassin’s Creed and Brotherhood, has been working on this since 2014 with multiple resets, and the recent trailer and prologue demo finally gave the project a concrete identity: witchcraft-driven stealth, possession mechanics, and a 17th-century Amsterdam setting.
We’re flagging it here because the team behind it built the foundation of what Assassin’s Creed became, and the recent reveal makes it look like the most credible spiritual successor in the genre right now. Wishlist it; it is worth watching the development cycle.
Where it falls short: Not playable yet. Earliest realistic release is 2027.
Pricing:
- No demo currently available
- Pricing not announced; expect around $60 at launch based on the publisher pattern
- vs Assassin’s Creed Mirage: TBD — but the spiritual lineage is the strongest
Platforms: Windows announced; consoles likely.
Download: Steam page (wishlist) · panachedigitalgames.com
Bottom line: The wait is real, but this is the closest thing the genre has to a “next big AC” outside Ubisoft itself.
How to choose
Pick Ghost of Tsushima if you can only play one game from this list. It captures the largest share of what makes Assassin’s Creed work, in a setting that doesn’t overlap with the existing franchise.
Pick Shadow of the Tomb Raider if traversal, environmental puzzles, and the explore-an-ancient-civilisation loop are what you valued. The cheapest entry on the list and a tighter narrative.
Pick Hitman World of Assassination if you wanted Assassin’s Creed to be a pure stealth game. Replays of the same level are genuinely fresh.
Pick Sekiro if combat is your priority and you want a Japanese setting that pre-dates Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Hard, but rewarding.
Pick Middle-earth: Shadow of War if traversal and enemy persistence are what you want. The closest mechanical analogue to AC on the list.
Pick Dishonored 2 if you want maximum stealth freedom and an immersive-sim playground. Different setting, similar instincts.
Wishlist Project 1666: Amsterdam as the closest spiritual successor incoming.
Stay on Assassin’s Creed Mirage if you haven’t played it yet — Ubisoft’s deliberate course-correction to the classic shape is exactly the game many players asked for after Valhalla. Mirage holds up.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Assassin’s Creed alternative on PC?
Ghost of Tsushima is the most complete single-game pick. It captures open-world traversal, stealth-and-blade combat, and a strong solo campaign in one package. Middle-earth: Shadow of War is the closest mechanical analogue to Assassin’s Creed itself.
Is there a free Assassin’s Creed alternative?
Hitman has a free Starter Pack with one level (the ICA Facility) and no time limit, which is the closest thing to a free demo of professional stealth design on PC. Hitman is the only meaningful free entry on this list.
What is Project 1666: Amsterdam?
Project 1666: Amsterdam is the upcoming game from Patrice Désilets, the original Assassin’s Creed creative director. Sixteen years in development at Panache Digital Games, it focuses on witchcraft-driven stealth in 17th-century Amsterdam. The recent trailer gave it a clear identity, and the earliest expected release is 2027.
Will there be another classic-style Assassin’s Creed after Mirage?
Ubisoft has been clear that Mirage was the tighter, classic-style entry intended to follow Valhalla, and that future entries will alternate between RPG-scale games (Shadows, Hexe) and smaller classic-style entries. The cadence has not been formally confirmed.
Is Ghost of Tsushima better than Assassin’s Creed?
Better is the wrong frame. Ghost of Tsushima makes different tradeoffs: tighter open world, no settlement-and-leveling RPG layer, more focused combat. If you’re looking for one excellent stealth-action open world to play in 2026, Ghost of Tsushima is the strongest single pick.
Can I play Project 1666: Amsterdam early?
A short prologue demo from earlier in development is available; the full game is not yet playable. Panache Digital Games has not opened a closed beta to the public.
