"I will kill every last man who defends him, if I must" - Shay Cormac, Assassin's Creed Rogue
Assassin's Creed: Rogue is the one of two Assassin's Creed games of this year - before I begin, if you've not played the game, that's fine; this is utterly, completely spoiler free, meaning I've done my best to avoid any details of the storyline and characters, so go ahead and read if you'd like. This is all for educational and entertaining purposes regarding the game. I'm a diehard AC fan and was looking forward to this game, completely, so haven't completed it a number of days ago, and currently playing through Unity, here's my thoughts regarding this title. If you'd like, don't forget to read my reviews for ACII, ACB, and ACIII, all flawed, awesome games. BUT let's forget about those for a while, and Enjoy!
Assassin's Creed Rogue isn't a bad game at all - it's sweat, pleasant, and wrapped in a fresh package. If you're a huge Assassin's Creed fan, I wouldn't recommend doing away with this one, for a number of ranging reasons. Before I continue, the first thing I'd like to share is this isn't simply a carbon copy of Black Flag - that'd be a wrong term to describe this game. It basically is to Black Flag what Brotherhood was to II. However, Rogue isn't a spin off - it's a stand alone game, and one which was delightful. Sure, it borrows many gameplay elements from Black Flag, but melds them seamlessly into the game, and they're all appropriate for the setting and all - slicing together Naval and land missions, which are the core focus of the game. Once I loaded Rogue into my console, and the menu came up.... Assassin's Creed II's Ezio's Family track begun to play, and I was immediately flooded with nostalgia - this is precisely looking back on the previous entries of the series, and it's loaded with homage. There's familiar faces within Adewale (IV), and Achilles and Adewale (Assassin's Creed III), and a number of other characters I wouldn't like to ruin for you. The we're able to make a return for many of the key locations in Assassin's Creed III, and sail the seas. Basically, this is a love letter to the major Assassin's Creed fans, combining many elements of those games into one complete standalone. There's no denying that Rogue is graphically, a gorgeous game - the hair textures, the face models, the seas, the auroras and the costumes are solid - sure, granted, it doesn't match up with Unity's graphical power, but easily suprasses Black Flag - simply looking at Rogue is a thrill.
Shay Cormac is the core hero of Assassin's Creed: Rogue - unlike other Assassin's Creed games, we're able to control an Assassin Hunter, one allied with the Templar's. He was once an Assassin, but as told by the developers, one mission goes wrong and Shay falls into the Templar Order - meaning, before he becomes one of them, we play as Shay, as an Assassin, abiding by their tenets and completing many missions for the order, and hunting down Templar's. There's Six Sequences in the game, and although I wouldn't like to spoil how much the game goes in with Shay as an Assassin, but it's pleasant enough, and we're able to like Cormac lots before he becomes an Assassin Hunter - basically, Shay is, besides Arno, the most interesting of the protagonists. Sure, him becoming an Assassin Hunter is rushed, but works well within the context of the character and the story.
There are moments where I begun to sympathise with Shay and his reasons for becoming a Templar Hunter, and it's a necessary, feasible transition. Though, I wont think twice before saying this; Assassin's Creed: Rogue's story is mostly a mess. The origin segments of the game are fantastic, and simply put, loading with variety; throughout the first number of sequences, you explore the seas, participate in stealth missions, assassination's, an earthquake which was put in the Story Trailer and many other stuff, which separates it from games like the original Assassin's Creed. Then again, I was discussing the story's mess. Once Shay becomes a Templar Hunter, the story goes from fantastic to messy. There's simply lots of ground to cover within Six short sequences, tons of characters and many loose ends to tie, and most, if not all, of the characters, besides Shay, are unimportant props. Characters are in a Sequence or Two, and then don't show up for a number of sequences, only to return in a later one, and some other characters are reduces to meaningless cameo's - there simply aren't many characters which are developed well enough for us to care. That said, this didn't completely ruin the game for me, because the first few sequences are awesome, and amazing, but the rest of it was underwhelming, such as Haytham doing barely anything.
There's many compelling moments within Rogue - the game features the best ending of any Assassin's Creed, to date, period. Sure, go ahead and skip this game, but doing so would honestly make you miss out on what is the most rewarding, well put together conclusion of all the Assassin's Creed games (I've completed everything besides Liberation, and am currently going through Unity) - this also builds up Unity impeccably. Seriously, don't go into Unity before playing this one, that wouldn't make many sense because this is a lead up into Unity. Alex Amancio of AC: Unity described it well, so I won't dwell too much into it. The beginning is also beautiful, memorable and introduces the characters in a simply great way.
Regarding it's tone, the developers discussed Rogue being the darkest Assassin's Creed, and... this is completely true. That goes to Unity - Rogue is a dark, tragic tale, but is currently second, balancing the tones perfectly.
Assassin's Creed: Rogue's gameplay is also awesome, not because of the brand new gameplay elements, but because of the variety, in the game you will do many things; assassinate targets, infiltrate with stealth, disguise as an enemy, control Shay through an earthquake, a disaster, rescue many hostages, sail the seas, engage in naval combat, explore the Antarctic, explore the cities, general combat, climbing trees and all those sort of stuff - there's many gameplay things borrowed from Black Flag, but all is implemented well into some memorable scenarios, offering what could be the most variety in any Assassin's Creed. The Arctic is a cool setting, and one which I could easily revisit - sure, it couldve used more snow, but it was great and authentic nonetheless. The rest of the cities are dull, bland and forgettable, so you'll be encouraged to explore other places. A new simplistic feature is one which makes your health decrease the longer you're underwater, but this feature is minor and doesn't add much. There's the Stalker's, men and women who will hunt you down, anywhere at any time, whether you're in cities or in missions, and will plunge their blade into your skin, decreasing your health, meaning you're basically encouraged to be careful, monitor your surroundings and attempt to pick out this Stalker's, such as with Eagle Vision, and a bar borrowed from the Multiplayer which renders their distance from the player's location. There was something similar in Revelations, but this is frequent and risky. There's also a wall jump, which allows Shay to, like a ninja, leaping from one side of the wall to another, scale one in mere moments.
There's a number of new gameplay elements - but I can easily say this; they're mostly all ones from other games which were merely reskinned in this one, which my good friend and fellow Assassin's Creed fan MonsterStomp pointed out me when I was oblivious enough not to notice. So, the gameplay isn't compelling because of the brand new features, because there aren't many, but because of the variety in mission structure. The Modern Day parts of the game are better than Black Flag, but, however, aren't the ideal thing me and most Assassin's Creed fans would like. It's lazy writing, with some intriguing pieces which drive the plot forward, but I'm not sure they're worthy enough.
Assassin's Creed: Rogue is an easily flawed game, but an Above Average one, IMHO. Disregarding this one as a carbon copy of Black Flag would deem this game lesser than it genuinely is; a messy, but compelling and intriguing narrative, highly addictive gameplay with a variety of mission structures, loaded with homage and fanservice, tying up loose ends and some awesome moments which make the game worth buying, although it suffers from many issues, such as the dull cities, underused characters and so on
- + Intriguing Storytelling
- + Variety of Mission Structures
- + Shay is Brilliant
- + Best Assassin's Creed Ending
- - Dull, Mundane Cities
- - Playing as an Assassin Hunter makes for a great story, but unrewarding in gameplay
- - Messy Plot and Characters
- - Doesn't Add Much New Stuff
6.5/10
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and granted, Unity's review will be coming soon - sorry I've been off of Comic Vine for a while because I'm addicted to Rogue and Unity, currently, but I'll restore to posting in the forums soon enough. Share your thoughts below, but please cover up any of your stuff with spoiler tags if you'll be discussing the main campaign. Thanks! Kudos!
- TAS
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