Which Assassin's Creed game was the first to feature naval ship-to-ship combat?

Assassin's Creed III was the first Assassin's Creed game to feature naval ship-to-ship combat. Its naval missions let Connor command the Aquila and fight enemy vessels in the waters around the American Colonies.

The naval system was created for the eighteenth-century setting of the game, when maritime warfare was central to imperial and revolutionary conflicts. Players steer the ship, manage movement, use cannon fire, and exploit weather and positioning during dedicated sequences.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag expanded these mechanics into a much larger open-world sailing experience, which is why it is sometimes incorrectly credited as the origin of naval combat in the series. Assassin's Creed Rogue and Odyssey later developed different versions of maritime gameplay, but both followed the feature's debut in Assassin's Creed III.