Review #776: Assassin's Creed Chronicles

 They can't hurt you if you see them.

 What's the one era people have clamored for Assassin's Creed to cover? That's right, ancient China. And what about the popular novels/comic books Assassin's Creed Brahman and Subject Four, y'knows, the ones featuring Arbaaz and Nikolai? Well, Ubisoft delivered, with Assassin's Creed Chronicles we get: Assassin's Creed Chronicles China, Assassin's Creed Chronicles India and Assassin's Creed Chronicles Russia. Finally we get the Assassin's Creed China we've always wanted, and finally we get to play as some popular characters from the spin offs! But that's too good to be true, for you see, the Chronicles series of AC is actually a series of low-budget, linear, 2-5 sidescrolling stealth games. Honestly, they should've made new throwaway characters for these games, or make them about Assassins we were familiar with instead of wasting these characters and locales on these lower budget enterprises.

 Assassin's Creed Chronicles China

 In ACC: China you play as Shao Yun, a concubine turned assassin who sets out for revenge on the Templars that killed the Chinese assassin brotherhood. The story is not very interesting and the characters aren't well developed, but the story is told through some still images and voiced dialogue. The name pronunciation leaves a lot to be desired. On the other hand, I kinda enjoyed the art design they went with, many objects look as if they were made out of colored brush strokes. It felt a bit cheap at first, but it grew on me. And while the game plays on a bidimensional axis, there's a lot of going in-and-out of the foreground, featuring twists and bends on the roads you must take, which leads to some very interesting levels.

 The game is very much a 2-D stealth version of Assassin's Creed. Your objective is to reach a certain goal, be it assassinate someone or recover one thing or the other, and most levels have an optional mini-objective worth a few points. Your Assassin can run, jump, climb on walls and ledges, usually painted red to signify you can grab on to it, slide, crouch, hide on the background, hide in crowds, carry corpses(In order to hide them as not to alert other enemies), dash between covers and the such. You get four tools to aid you: A whistle, that can divert enemy attention, a 'noise dagger' that's similar, a firecracker that stuns enemies and a dagger that can be thrown to cut ropes. Something that really helped getting me invested in the game was the fact that you earn new moves after you finish every level, heck, you earn the 'Helix attack', a special stealthy attack that consumes energy, after finishing the game to use in New Game+. Each level also has a couple of upgrades that can be obtained by playing well and earning a certain point threshold. Most of the time the first upgrade is easy to get while the second one is a bit tougher.

 Enemies' lines of sight are displayed as a white cone in front of them, and you're to do your best to keep out of their sight. If seen from afar, or if they hear you, they will start Investigating, while if they actually see you you'll enter Alert Mode, during which you need to hide for 10 seconds straight in order to reset their movement patterns back to normal. Pretty much Metal Gear Solid-lite. When enemies are alert, if they see you they'll go in for the kill. Combat is... passable. It works like Assassin's Creed 3 and 4, in which you have to hit them a few times before you can murder them with triangle(strong attack). You can keep hitting them with Square(Weak attack) but that won't put them out of comission. You can also parry attacks with the circle button, and roll over enemies to hit their backside(or attempt to flee). It feels a bit sloppy, but it's almost fun once you get the hang of it. That said, Shao Jun is very fragile, she can only take a single hit before going down if you don't manage to get any upgrades, and a normal playthrough will get you up to two extra health segments. At least your heals refills over time.

 Each of the 12 missions are divided into mini-segments and you're graded depending on how you played. Ironically for a game about a master assassin, you get the highest amount of points by never getting seen and not killing anyone. I hated the game at first, but it became much more tolerable when I stopped caring about scoring the 'Shadow Awards' and focusing on Brawler or Assassin. I managed to get at least one upgrade per stage, so I can't complain! The game can be very tough if you're going after high scores, but if you don't mind getting lower scores it's not too bad.

 I can't say I liked this game too much, but I'll also admit I'm not the biggest fan of stealth games. There are three 'chase' sequences in the game that I really liked, they were all about split-second platforming while killing enemies on the move, they were very exciting, very fun, and I wish the game had more moments like that instead of being such a slow paced game about waiting and waiting and more waiting.
 6.0 out of 10

Assassin's Creed Chronicles India

 The game is pretty much identical to China, so I'll go mostly over its differences and where it's a bit worse and where it's a bit better. This game is set shortly after the Brahman novel, and it's about Arbaaz investigating the Templars that kidnapped his friend. The art-style has shifted into a more defined, colorful aesthetic, and it shows that you can make a beautiful game on a budget. It really is pretty to look at, so at least it has that going for it.

 Arbaaz has gained a few new moves: You can roll after a jump, to conserve momentum, you can use non-lethal takedowns as well as looting corpses for ammo or documents(if the objective requires it). His tools are a bit different from Shao, he can whistle as well and has a sound-bomb that works just like the sound-dagger, but instead of the firecrackers we get a smoke bomb that blinds enemies instead of stunning them and his Chakram takes the place of the rope-cutting dagger, with the added benefit of being able to bounce on walls. Combat is pretty similar, but now you can dash to either side with X and parrying has been made easier since you only need to tap circle instead of tapping circle and hold on the analog stick the direction of the incoming attack. On the other hand, Helix Attack is now more like Helix Time, which lasts for as long as you've got Helix Energy, and basically turns you into a murder machine.

 But what makes the game worse.... is that it's much more frustrating. It assumes you played China already, so even the first stage is challenging. And what makes it challenging is that the scoring system is VERY harsh, you must stick to a style and get perfect scoring on every segment or you won't get upgrades. I had to replay the first level because I really wanted that health upgrade and I couldn't get it on my first try. On the tutorial stage. Enemies are brutal, some of them can take up to two health-segments with a single hit, and there are new Highlander enemies that you need to distract before you can even stealth-kill. Getting upgrades shouldn't be this annoying, which makes the game too frustrating for its own good. That said, we've got Chase stages again and boy are they fun! They are focused more on speedy platforming than anything else, and they've got some of the best level designs in the game. Honestly, this game really shines when it's you against the clock, and thankfully more than half of the game is made up of time-based stages. Sadly, the final stage has a really bland segment in which you have to wait for a vision-circle to move around before moving, turning what was a fun chase stage into a slow-paced slog. While it's two stages shorter than China, it has a few challenge rooms as extras.

 India is a bit weird that way, the unlock system is made into a chore, and the combat was made too challenging for poor Arbaaz. On the other hand, after you get through the first half of the game you get rewarded with plenty of chase stages, y'know, the game at its best. While I hated the first few stages, I think I the latter half of the game is much better than China.
 6.5 out of 10

Assassin's Creed Chronicles Russia

 This one is easily the worst one of the bunch, and I'll get as to why later. You play as both Nikolai and Anastasia, a girl that has become possessed by Shao Jun. I'd like to say that both characters have different abilities, but in truth, they simply divided the previous games' movesets into both characters. Anastasia got the short end of the stick, she can't fight, she can't loot, she has no tools(besides whistling), the only things she can do are: Stealth kill and use Helix Powers. Nikolai, on the other hand, has tools, can fight, can stealth kill but can't use Helix Powers, at least until you finish the game. It's a... it certainly is an idea, that much I will say. The art direction has changed once again, now outdoor sections feature only grays and reds, you can only find color inside buildings. It's a decent idea, and I love red skies, but it makes this game look very boring in comparison to the previous games.

 Nikolai's tools consist of the whistle, a rifle instead of the Chakram/Dagger, which happens to be much more useful since it can easily kill whoever it hits, although it has a slow recharge, the ever useful smoke grenades return, but, instead of the noise dagger we get the Winch, a multi-purpose tool that can be used to pull specific objects towards you, break vent gratings or shoot an electric pulse that can be used to trigger certain machines, break fuse boxes or electrify anyone standing over water. New elements to the basic gameplay include using telephones to distract guards and, remember how ACC:India had a sniping section at the end of the game? Well, hope you liked it, because there are more of those in this one. They are pretty decent, if you ask me.

 So how does this game falter? Well, level design. The same punishing unlock system from ACC: India returns, which sucks, because this is the hardest game of the bunch. What makes it so hard is that many stages seem to be built around trial and error, you just have to retry multiple times until you understand how the guards move and interact with their designated areas. Other parts require very strict and ridiculously precise timing to pull off, the final stage is particularly egregious about it. Remember all the Chase stages I've been gushing all over? They are pretty much gone in this game, instead, a few stages have a Chase segment included in them, which is rather lame. The final level is a Chase stage, but it's so frustrating. After I finish the game I wasn't feeling accomplished, but rather, I felt relieved I didn't have to play this game anymore.

 Assassin's Creed Chronicles - Russia was pretty bland, the previous games failed to impress, but this one managed to disappoint pretty well. It's a shame, because it seemed like by the end of India they had figured out what made these games better.
 4.5 out of 10

 All in all, the Chronicles series of games are alright for the most part, but it's a crime that Ancient China and the Russian civil war got covered by these games instead of a proper game on the main series. I don't know why Ubisoft opted to cover new eras under this lower budget banner, but I'd say the end result left everyone a bit disappointed.
 6.0 out of 10