If everything is permitted... then nobody is safe.
'Alright, guys, we are Ubisoft, and what do we want?' 'MONEY!' 'Exactly! So, we've Unity comin' up, but let's be honest, most people are still clinging to their PS3. Downgrading Unity is impossible. But we want that sweet, sweet PS3/X360 money' 'I know! Let's grab Assassin's Creed 4, reskin it and call it a day!' 'GIVE THIS MAN A RAISE!'. That's how it went inside Ubisoft's HQ, and how
Assassin's Creed Rogue was born. It was Ubisoft dialing in it and it was bound to be a flop, however, Ubisoft
forgot about one thing... Assassin's Creed IV was amazing and thus a reskin of said game was, by proxy, gonna be amazing as well.
The story follows Shay Patrick Cormac(You don't get
any more Irish than that) an assassin under the care of Achilees, the very same Achilees from Assassins Creed III, years before Connor was born. It's a tale of how Shay grows dissatisfied with how the Assassins do things and join the Templars. Well... how should I tackle this? I think the premise had a lot of
value. Comics have done a great job at portraying a grey and gray morality when it comes to Assassins and Templars. What the game shows, however, is the Templars being as evil as always and the Assassins just being dumb, this is a case of dumb VS evil and not evil vs eviler or grey vs grey, which, I think is a
missed opportunity to add more nuance to the lore. On the other hand, it's fun getting to see how the Assassins were exterminated before Connor's time and why Achilees grew so bitter, the game does a nice job at developing Achilees and we even get to see Haytham again, King of all that is
swag. The modern-day segments are still around, but much less intrusive than before, a plus in my humble opinion, but you play as 'Numbskull', another tester, inside Abstergo Entertainment and we are introduced to another Abstergo Templar big-wig, but it's nothing
worth writing about.
The game is Assassins Creed 4. There's a huge focus in sailing and ship to ship combat, which is as amazing as always, there are very few cities, instead opting for smaller areas on beaches. There's a single large city in the game, New York, which is rather small, and then you get two different maps that are meant to be navigated by ship. Combat remains exactly the same, square to attack, circle to counter and X to break defense, every enemy requiring a different strategy(Nothing too complicated, you'll learn which character models requires to be countered and which one requires you to break their defense), etc etc.
I cannot stress this enough, this is, for all intents and purposes, Assassins's Creed IV. They even went for 'Assassin turned Templar' to justify why you're pretty much playing as any other assassin you've already played as. Heck, even if you adored Assassin's Creed IV I'd
suggest taking a break before undertaking Rogue, as it's pretty much identical in all the ways that matter.
Developers claimed that the game is larger than AC4, and I'm
willing to believe that. The main story is
extremely short, it could probably be beaten in little more than 4 hours... but this is Assassin's Creed, so there's a LOT of side content to find and do... which I did. There's 200 Memory fragments spread throughout, over 100 chests, a TON of viewpoints to sync with(one per city), there are over 20 Templar Crosses that unlock a costume, 7 Native Statues that unlock the Ultimate Armor(It's
great!), about 14 Viking Swords(Which unlocks a sword and a costume) not to mention all the upgrades you can
craft by hunting animals on land and under the sea. The Abstergo sections have 20 different computer puzzles to solve as well as a few collectibles, all of which add tidbits to the Templar lore and even a bit into what's happening with the modern day battle against the Assassins.... if you are a completionist you've got your work cut out for you.
But maybe collecting stuff isn't something you find appealing, fair enough, there are other ventures you can pursue. You've cities that need to be freed from Assassin-allied gangs as well as
preventing assassinations! The latter were one of my favorite activities since you are actively foiling Assassin interference, you have to locate their target and then use Eagle Vision to spot the Assassins before they can murder him or her. It's a
blast and makes so much sense in-context. If you're feeling nostalgic for Assassin's Creed 2 you've also got properties to
renovate for a constant influx of money. There's another new addition, which sadly I felt
detracted from the game: Stalkers. As a Templar you'll be targeted by Assassins, which means that 'Stalkers' will try to ambush you. You'll get a pink glare on the screen to warn you, and then you are supposed to activate Eagle Vision and try to find it before it attacks you. Stalkers were way too frequent to be any fun, eventually I stopped caring and just
reacted to their attacks.
For an AC4 reskin I gotta admit that the game had some of the most beautiful natural environments in the series, exploring the world of
Assassin's Creed Rogue is truly a pleasure. It's a shame that it's a bit... glitchy. Costumes are weird, for instance, the game had me wearing the Templar outfit WAY before I was supposed to. Another time I wore the Whaler outfit to hunt a Whale and then... the game reset me to Shay's Assassin robes. There were a few jumps that just didn't work some times and others did, for no apparent reason. But, being Assassin's Creed, it's probably to be expected that it'll have a few bugs here and there, nothing game breaking thankfully.
It's true, Assassin's Creed Rogue was made on the cheap. But it's also true that it borrows from
one of the best games in the franchise, and even though it's a clone, the core of the game is fantastic. The new elements that it brings to the table, namely the story, are great and while I would've preferred a more nuanced approach, Shay is one of the most interesting protagonists we've had so far, and that's saying a
lot when he has to share a bit of screen time with Haytham! Call it lazy, call it cheap, call it a clone., because it is. But it's also one of the most fun.
9.0 out of 10
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