360 Assassin's Creed games list- which to buy/play

I have never played any of the Assassin's Creed games, but they look awesome. Now that there are three Creed's on sale for xbox this week, I have been considering buying and playing them. I checked online for information about the AC series and was overwhelmed by the amount of games and content.

Feel free to offer any opinions or suggestions beyond what I am asking. Normally I make my own decisions on games, but there are so many games, add-ons, and so much information, that I feel inundated.

Here are my questions-

Do I need or want to start with AC1?
Since I have never played them and have limited time, which one should I start with?
I read Black Flag is excellent, but the controls might be overwhelming for a new player, is that so?
Are there some/any I should avoid?

Any help is appreciated.

@gatsbythepig:

I would start with 1, I never played it before so you could start with that but if you didn't want to start off with that go with the third one my friends and I spent countless hours playing that game

I've played 1, 2, 2 Brotherhood and 4. I would absolutely recommend playing those. In terms of order, I would start with 2. The story, characters, setting and gameplay are awesome, some people consider it the strongest entry.

Brotherhood adds some deeply cool elements and continues the story, has everything great about AC2.

Black Flag has so much going on, I couldn't stop playing it. There's a free roaming naval warfare aspect with your ship, all the parkour and sword fighting, and the main protagonist actually develops and changes with the events of the story.

I don't think AC has a steep learning curve, you're introduced gradually to it's gameplay while the scene is set. This is great as you get to grips with it.

I haven't played the other entries, but with Revelations, AC3, Rogue and Unity not being as widely acclaimed, and given the huge amount of content in the one's that are, I haven't felt the need as yet.

If you do play and enjoy them, it could be fun to go back and play the first one, but if you're worried about plot continuity I'm not sure it's as important in AC as it might be for other games. If the modern day narrative sections intrigue you and you want to know more, could be cool to do.

Start with AC 1 because it had such a big impact. But if you play the newer versions you'll find AC 1 to be lacking. But remember it's the first entry in the series. I still think it's the best.

I would play them in order. AC, AC2, Brotherhood, Revelations, AC3, Black Flag and Rogue.

AC has a great story, and is important to the series. It lays the groundwork for the whole story. Some people say the missions get repetitive, but it never bothered me, and like I said the story is really good, and important to the proper understanding of what is going on.

AC2 is my personal favorite game of the series. I'd also recommend Brotherhood and Revelations for the story, and to complete the Enzio trilogy. All 3 games are tied to each other.

AC3 could be skipped, but it sort of ties into Black Flag and Rogue. Also sort of ties into Liberation (originally a Vita game, but available on Live Arcade), and Freedom Cry (Black Flag DLC). I would definitely play Black Flag and Rogue at the very least.

I have had AC for a couple of years but just recently got the rest (up to 3), play them in order for sure. It does have a good story line that way and playing them out of order will mess with you as you can do more things in the later versions than in the first couple and it'll have you trying to do things the character isn't capable of doing, it did for me anyway when I went back to AC.