Assassin's Creed Chronicles

I'm finally all done and caught up with the Assassin's Creed series. Just in time for the next one I guess. I really wish they'd end this damn franchise already and give us a satisfying ending to the narrative. Leaving my wishful thinking aside, lets actually get into this review.

So, just like every other Assassin's Creed game this one is developed and published by Ubisoft, and you should know that unless you live under a rock. However, unlike the majority of the other Assassin's Creed games this one is an entirely different genre, its a side scrolling stealth game as opposed to being a large open world game.

That difference in game genre is essentially the main point of the review since its a very different experience playing Chronicles compared to any other Assassin's Creed game. The emphasis on stealth, on calm deliberate choice and on quick precision and execution really does make you feel more like an assassin than any other game in the series since it is you who making these choices and not the game just putting it all together through pregenerated button combos in fights like all the other games. However, the game really isn't the best example of this genre of games, one example that game to my mind while I was playing it was the far mechanically superior 'Mark of the Ninja'. The game also felt a bit restrictive due to it being set on a very linear path with regard to both progress but to the number of solutions each challenge allows you choose from. Comparing again to 'Mark of the Ninja' where you not only have dozens of solutions but a half dozen play styles to pick from this made the game feel rather simple. Lastly, the game itself was also clunky, the combat and movement mechanics were not as smooth or fluid as I felt they should be and again comparing to 'Mark of the Ninja' it was a very slow and clumsy experience playing this game.

I personally enjoyed the simple but more stylized art in the game compared to the rest of the series.

None of us entirely play Assassin's Creed games for just the mechanics though, otherwise we would have all stopped playing ages ago. The narrative is a reason that I keep coming back to the series and I have to say I was very satisfied with the one presented to me in this game. We are given a far more vast and diverse story compared to other games in the series and we cover character and time periods never covered before (China, India and Russia). I found it extremely refreshing and the fact that the narrative from these games is canon and integrated into the other Assassin's Creed game made me smile a little when I noticed those nods in games like 'Assassin's Creed: Syndicate'. The conflicts and characters being presented was also something that I found interesting and I'd welcome more games that have this laser focus on their own narrative as opposed to being lost in pointless side stories like the other Assassin's Creed games.

As a whole, 'Assassin's Creed Chronicles' is a subpar stealth game with a number of more fluid and well executed rivals that came out even before the release of this game. However, if you are a fan of the franchise, you might find the narrative and character diversity and scope refreshing and enough to keep you going through the game itself, which despite not being the best, isn't that bad either and will offer you a bit of challenge here and there.