Assassin's Creed XI

Assassin's Creed Chronicles

Company Status: The date is February 11th 2016 - 2 months after the release of Jack the Ripper DLC or 3 months after Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. Ubisoft came out with a blog post stating, "This year, we also are stepping back and re-examining the Assassin’s Creed franchise. As a result, we’ve decided that there will not be a new Assassin’s Creed game in 2016." Why this date you might ask? Well Climax studios, a company that made a Boaty McBoatface supply of games, made a little series highlighting three different assassins on the side. You might have never heard of these figures, but they have most certainly been covered in the comic books. The games were released between April 21st 2015 and February 9th 2016. Maybe the company was waiting to see how well their movie fared before publishing another game. That can't be it, because even Assassin's Creed: Odyssey was in development for 3 years. Whatever the case, they had decided to conclude all stories and tell a brand new one. So before we advance to the next game, let's talk about all the auxiliary content that they came out with.

Game Premise: These games are unlike anything you played before. Reminiscent to Mark of the Ninja, you will be playing a very short campaign of around 6 hours each. They are only like 4GB. Also like my review of the other game mentioned, these games are hard. Not only do you have to become familiar with the 2.5D environment, but everything you do must be perfect. Make a false move and you will be penalized severly without a chance to upgrade your abilities. The games will continually add enemies with special abilities to counter the ones you've unlocked, obstacles that will disable your options, and timed sections to test your reflexes. You will gain Helix abilities, open chests with small chunks of the character's backstory, and obtain optional objectives. Each game feels different but carries the same template. So let's cover them now.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China

About: Do you remember Shao Jun from Assassin's Creed: Embers back in November 15, 2011? She invented the Rope Dart and wore that sweet outfit you could have gotten for Assassin's Creed: Syndicate and your Xbox Avatar. How about the way she adapted the hidden blade in her shoe? Ezio did give her the precursor box to guard right before he died. Essentially she returns to China and decides to kill the Eight Tigers. That's where you come in. As a side point, the game was offered for free with Assassin's Creed: Unity Season Pass and the week of February 1, 2019 in the Uplay Store. There is a sword and outfit you can get from Uplay too.

Chest Lore: The thing that I found very interesting is the little scrolls you can collect from chests throughout the levels. For example, women's breasts and feet were usually bound to preserve a certain style of look that would be attractive for a mate. However, our assassin danced so well that hers were not. She was also used as a personal spy by the emperor until he died. She eventually found her way into the Assassin's Brotherhood... that is up until they were wiped out with most of her friends and family. You slowly go through a list of tutorials being trained by Ezio and wind up in a cage you easily break out of.

Abilities: You start off with the core ability to whistle. You can increase the "strength" to reach the ears of guards farther away. You can use your rope dart to grapple ceilings. Eagle Vision highlights guards with their patrol routes (like in Assassin's Creed: Revelations) and a variety of objects. Eventually you gain the ability to throw knives to cut down ropes or noise darts to distract guards. Firecrackers act like your typical smoke bomb where guards in a small radius will be stunned for a few seconds. Despite all your toys, you have no range abilities unless you want to use up four of your throwing knives on one target.

Impressions: The artwork is astounding to look at as you move around all of China. Splashes of red show you where you can move around (like in Mirror's Edge). With little health and ways to escape, the game practically forces you to find ways to sneak past your targets. The scoring is tough but fair. 80 points "Shadow" without engaging the target, 70 points "Assassin" killing targets without being seen, and 60 points "Brawler" all alerted guards killed without being hit. There is this weird "style bonus" added if you manage to hit a number of "gold" checkpoints. I did manage to at least get one upgrade per level, but not without lowering my weapon Obi-Wan Kenobi Style a few times along the way. Although you can't loot bodies, there are several refill containers that provide up to 5 of a specific weapon. They won't deplete if you accidentally loot them when you are full on ammo too. The story was just the right amount of challenge contained inside a unique gaming experience.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India

About: The game revolves around Arbaaz Mir. This isn't the first time we see this assassin. No siree. Hamid and Arbaaz go way back in the comic Assassin's Creed: Brahman, searching for that notorious Koh-i-Noor precursor artifact. The comic is pretty decent, running 100 pages long taking me about 30 minutes to finish. There's an interesting sub-plot around a "nobody" engaged with a actress when something happens with the Abstergo Industries Visor. Then suddenly he gets chased by these "robots" and a bunch of other tragic events happen. Someone should make a tally how many times that diamond has been faked. It makes an appearance in The Last Majaraja DLC in Assassin's Creed Syndicate too. The cool part of this game is you get to visit a Precursor Temple.

Chest Lore: Most of the scrolls inside the chests summarize the events in the comic. Arbaaz takes up a mute servant, Raza. They fail to save the founder of the Sikh Empire when General Francis Cotton poisons his tea. They find the diamond among a hoard of treasure and make an escape. Honestly, that's about all I remember. There is a lot more you can read if you find the story compelling. The game picks up when a terror comes upon your land and takes the Koh-i-Noor (diamond), Hamid (mentor), and Pyara Kaur (lover princess).

Abilities: You're given the option to use non-lethal methods to knock out guards. You can now pickpocket or loot bodies for supplies. Eagle Vision will show you patrol routes and what items you would loot off people. You officially have smoke bombs that will stun guards for quite a bit of time. Whistle and noise darts are still available to distract enemies. Instead of knives, you now have sharkams that can even bounce off walls to cut the rope holding onto cargo.

Impressions: I don't understand why I have to enable subtitles before every game. Don't they realize I don't speak these foreign languages? Things get a little bit harder when there are little birds that chirp when you run or tigers that roar when you get close. Then again, it is nice to sneak by guards that are asleep on the job. Things get a lot harder when there are a ton of areas that require exact precision and make you shake your head in disbelief the 20th time you spawn back at the checkpoint. Objectives like killing 10 targets in 3 minutes or making through 20 guards with your weapons taken away will irritate you. Having guards that are immune to assassinations and smoke bombs in those same sections will infuriate you.

Ultimately, it is the new scoring system that destroys you. They added multipliers that stack up 5 times each time you receive a gold. Miss just one and you can wave goodbye to any upgrades. Gathering Helix Fragments not only doesn't provide you enough points to cover the difference in the ending tally but will also cost you precious time in chase sequences. The fact that they don't reappear after being collected only compounds the fact that they want you to die. Although I finished the story, the game was far too punishing. No amount of added challenge rooms can help pad out the primary issues of this game.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia

About: Back in November 10th 2010, we read about Daniel Cross great-grandfather Nikolai Orelov. Later a sequel was made and both The Fall & The Chain was packaged into something called Subject Four alongside the remastered version of the game for people to read. We see lots of small references to the games like Mr. Miles, incoming solar flare, picture of a satellite dish. Tragically, the comic is very hard to read when you learn about what happened to the Assassins and Nikolai's family. Even more worrisome when you hear the Daniel Cross deleted final words in Assassin's Creed. However, the game takes place somewhere in middle of events when Nikolai accepts one last mission before fleeing the country. The difference here is you find a little girl who has a reaction from the crystal around his neck and the precursor box.

Chest Lore: Much of the chest scrolls summarize what happens in The Fall comic book. Nikolai is extremely reckless and can probably be described as a failing assassin. He is openly mocked by the wielder of the Staff of Eden and left alive because of that failure. Compounded by the loss of his first child, our assassin became a savage and directed most of his rage into completing his contracts. The country gets ripped to shreds as the Assassin Brotherhood struggle to keep secret as the military bares down on the people. Nikolai accepts one last contract in order to bribe the guards for the paperwork out of the disaster.

Abilities: A rifle may help you shoot out some spotlights, but they will not kill a "strong" enemy with one shot in the head. A winch is equipped to your gun that pulls a number of objects toward you or sends an electrical pulse to blow out a generator. Whistle and smoke bombs also make a return. The other half of the game revolves around the "little girl" you save that somehow learns how to kill with a blade. Helix Abilities are exclusively made with this character as she has no other abilities than to whistle and assassinate.

Impressions: Maybe I should come out and say that this game made me rage quit. The "art style" was pretty simplistic as anything that wasn't designated as important was shaded a light grey. A lot of models like trains, buildings, and streets were terrible to look at. Though I cannot deny that the setting fit the tone of a depressed assassin entirely focused upon his mission. But then that wouldn't quite fit the other person's perspective, would it? However, whatever difficulty I had in India was made twice as bad in Russia. I wasn't even able to get one upgrade! The game makes enemies and situations bad when you have to kill 10 guards with a measly dagger without being spotted. Chase sequences no longer require a timer because one false move will set you back to the checkpoint. Every single enemy now has a way to counter you in some form or fashion. I got to Sequence 6 before ultimately giving up and quitting the game.

Review

Assassin's Creed Chronicles removes the modern day setting completely by allowing you, the player, to take control of three previously mentioned assassins. The scoring is wonky as it tries to make stealth, assassinations, and fighting all fun while ultimately rewarding those who don't take any action outside the bounds of the mission. Side objectives give added challenge but fall flat when the only fair reward from your effort is a small chunk of lore. The artwork is beautiful and does a wonderful job painting red in areas you can traverse in a 2.5D environment. But the absence of substance and not knowing when the camera will pan around a building can be confusing for new players. Fans of Assassin's Creed will enjoy vising China, fans of Assassin's Creed: Brahman will enjoy vising India, while masochists are the only ones who will enjoy visiting Russia. Since the first game seemed to fair better than the others, that is the only game I recommend people playing.