Hey, it’s time to check those Assassin’s Creed games I’ve missed again. I don’t know why I even care about the series anymore, with Ubisoft’s lack of understanding of international digital distribution (I still have to invent ways to play the game in English, since all they sell here is in Russian with no choice), lack of understanding what the series are even about and constant boring design decisions. But I still do. So, I decided to check the 3 2.5D stealth action platformer titles called Assassin’s Creed Chronicles – China, India and Russia. All of them were designed by Climax Studios (who have very few good games on their very long profile) and made in Unreal Engine, which already makes them different from the “normal” Assassin’s Creed game. They are also linear and not open world. And they were all released and probably designed years after the fantastic Mark of the Ninja got released. So, I was hoping, that these games will be an interesting take on the rather stale franchise. Oh boy was I wrong…
It’s almost pointless to even discuss the games separately, given how they all follow the same structure, have the same basic mechanics and the exact same problems. So let me explain what the games are. They are “2.5D”, meaning that the game action technically happens in 2D, but there may be several planes to each segment, and you sometimes can switch between those and sometimes cannot. Your character has most of the agility and abilities of a “main” Assassin’s Creed title, with the ability to climb and parkour all over the place, assassinate people and use some tools, one big addition being the ability to scale to the ceiling from the floor with a grappling hook-like rope, which wasn’t a thing in other games until Syndicate. Everything is simply linear this time around.
Sadly, not just “linear”, but specifically usually extremely limited in ways and options on how you can tackle every section. If you have played Mark of the Ninja you probably remember how freeform and fluid that game was. None of the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles titles are like that. They usually have 2 main modes the gameplay is in: it’s either a very limited 2D gameplay usual to Assassin’s Creed about stealth, action, parkour and assassinating enemies, or it’s about almost QTE-like escape sequences. First, sometimes allow you to be smart about your tools and abilities and at times present a fun challenge, but also as often require you to do things in a very particular order with extremely scripted events leading to instant game overs or just feel very boring to do.
Which is especially felt in those escape sequences that feel as if no one has ever even tested them before the games were released. They require you to do perfect button presses and guesses on what is going to happen, without being particularly well designed to hint at what you should do. And, of course, the finicky Assassin’s Creed controls don’t make it any easier either. So if you do decide to play these games (please don’t), be prepared to die most of the time to badly scripted events and poor controls over and over again, while re-watching tiresome mini-cutscenes.
I actually didn’t finish the last game at all because of that. Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia turned out to be pretty much all about these terrible sequences where you can do everything perfectly and still fail the scene and die. And that’s where the main differences between the games lie, I feel. I mean, sure, they all have distinct and actually interesting visual styles. And they all have potential to be special, to tell stories in interesting settings. But they don’t, the stories are barely there, with India probably having the least stupid of them all. So otherwise the difference is mostly about the fact that China is more like a stripped down 2D linear Assassin’s Creed with bad escape sequences, India is all about parkour and more varied (but badly designed) stealth sequences and Russia is all about those terrible terrible escape sequences and QTEs.
I suppose, people who devour all AC content including the comic books and other pointless crap would actually be more interested, since the characters have been used in other media. But given the quality of said media and the fact that the AC series story has devolved into regurgitating things that were said in the first 3 numbered games, it’s hardly important or interesting.
Just consider what we could have had here. 3 Mark of the Ninja-quality Assassin’s Creed titles (or at least one) with great visual style and interesting stories. A glitter of hope in the bloated tired franchise that started as a very unique new take on stealth action adventure genre in a unique setting with a unique and properly developed story and an exciting look into history. Instead we got the perfect example of everything wrong with Assassin’s Creed – cheap, pointless copies of something great with rare examples showing that the games could’ve been much more, but weren’t. “Just a fading fucking reminder…” Because the developers either couldn’t or simply didn’t care.