Assassin’s Creed Rogue- PlayStation 3

I’m a longtime Assassins Creed fan, and have played most of the more prominent games in the series. I was incredibly excited at a dual release of AC in November. I played Unity first- loved its recreation of Paris, but overall the story was bland, and it was just full of monotonous and repetitive ‘treasure hunt’ tasks. I view it as a missed opportunity by Ubisoft to create a more outstanding and unique AC game for next gen consoles.

Having just finished the main storyline of Rogue, in hindsight I should have played this game before Unity to keep some semblance of story continuity ( AC storylines tend to jump around anyway). What gets me the most is that after playing Black Flag last year, almost all of the missions and activities in Rogue ARE EXACTLY THE SAME! Black Flag as a game was far better total package, and Rogue has a better storyline than Unity but suffers from being a carbon copy of Black Flag mechanics.

Not being a professional software developer, I could also see some of the flaws in gameplay when they copied over the codes from previous games. The free running and parkour system always has it problems ( sometimes jumping in a 90 degree opposite from where you want to go), but being shot at by snipers through buildings, having enemies instantaneously appear, or the lack of ability to engage multiple enemies effectively means that the experience is compromised a little!

Not that Ubisoft probably cares, but a pet peeve of mine is the irritating ‘wild goose chase’ missions, where you chase your target for minutes on end, and the whole battle drags out from one melodramatic cut scene after another. Rogue has these plus more! I also find the meandering story line curious in the sense that if I was Shay, I would not just casually give away an important manuscript early in the game ( like its a library book) only to rant and rave about how important it is, then spend a lot of time and trouble trying to re find it!!

Lastly, the story of the First Civilization, Pieces of Eden, and the Assassin/Templar conflict captured my imagination, but it very disappointing that with each game after ACIII that no more background and depth is added to these elements. I’d love to see more explanation about the First Civilization, on top of how their artifacts can last for 80,000 years.

Overall, its worthwhile to put the time in to play it if you are a fan, but I’m glad I didn’t pay full price for it, and don’t think was worth the initial release price. Just wait till it is on the bargain shelf.

There is very little original about AC Rogue. They basically try to mesh the larger naval combat of AC Black Flag (with restrictions), with the colonial aesthetics of colonial America from AC III.

The great gimmick is that the Assassin you play this time around turns over to the Templars and (effectively) destroys the Assassins in North America (leading to the situation faced by Connor in AC III). The high point of the game is the protagonist from the Animus, Shay Cormac. His transition from the Assassins to the Templars is actually a bit slow on the plot, about a quarter of the way in the game, and very well done. It is incredibly credible, and the Templars are successfully shown as people, with a different philosophy than the assassins, as opposed to cartoonish mustache twirling villains.

Unfortunately, the present day events destroy most of that, and the present day Templars basically are villains from a cartoon. The present day events are fast becoming a drag in the overall quality of the story for the series, mostly because Ubisoft is profoundly dedicated to in not advancing the plot. We learn a few bits of information, as we did in Black Flag, but while there is an advanced story inside the Animus, mostly nothing happens outside the Animus.

The fighting is still being improved and works really well, they introduce the air rifle for multiple darts which is very neat, and also a grenade laucher which basically is a cheat if you are having trouble with a segment.

The very neat part is that since you are basically fighting against assassins, you frequently face opponents with similar characteristics than yours. It introduces elements which were mostly from the multiplayer games into the single player storyline and it was very well done.
The story is effective, but a bit brief, so we in effect learn nothing more from the Templars than we knew before. They apparently have no “powers” like the assassins do, but still seem to be more effective through the ages; and so far their most effective operatives seem to be assassins who turned sides. It doesn’t seem a viable strategy.

It is funny that now the sides are backwards and you basically play for the British. Ubisoft had promised by AC III that there were no “right” sides on the war, but there was the Assassins supported the Rebels against the British and while the Rebels weren’t perfect it was basically the Assassins siding with the Rebels and the Templars with the British. Bringing this back to the Seven Year War, now it is still the Templars with the British and the Assassins with the French.

The game suffers from way too many elements. They preserved the hunting element, preserved the fishing game moving it to more frozen waters; but several gameplay elements are clearly leftovers with no purpose. Why preserve renovations? They served something of a purpose in AC Brotherhood, but now they are such a pointless legacy that many times the “renovated” building is unchanged graphically from the previous one. There is very little purpose to the naval missions as well and they should have been dropped in Black Flag already.

The game knows the story is short so it adds an incredible amount of collectibles. Unfortunately, they lead nowhere. Collect all the pieces of the Viking Sword, the Sword you bought for money is twice as good. Found all the markings for the native armour… congratulations you look ridiculous. It was somewhat better introduced in Black Flag, and had much better graphics, here it is a powered down and recycled concept (it was pretty powerful in Black Flag, here the efficiency is much smaller). Then there is the Templar armor, and a bunch of other stuff. So while you may finish the story quickly, the treasure hunt later will take a long time.
In effect, it preserves the best elements of naval combat of Black Flag. The rivers are very narrow making for very tough fights, there is little open sea for the normal battles, but just enough. It abandoned the useless elements of AC III.

In effect, there is very little new here, but it combines several of the best elements of the previous two AC games. I wish we learned more of the Templars from the inside, but learning more about the universe isn’t really the way the series is progressing. The best part is the best protagonist since Enzio.