Assassin's Creed Rogue

Assassin’s Creed Rogue is a safe game. Instead of attempt bold new risk, Rogue merely builds upon the mechanics of Black Flag. Without a multiplayer mode to add longevity, Rogue’s endurance does end quickly but the journey to the finish line is well worth it. Assassin’s Creed Rouge is dedicated to the fans that tires up loose ends by answering some of the lingering questions.

Starring Shay Cormac, Assassin turned Templar Forsaken by the Assassin Order, Cormac seeks to stop his brothers from committing another atrocity through ignorance. Joining the Templars Shay will journey across land and sea to stop the Assassin Brotherhood from locating a precursor site and killing hundreds of people. The story can be compelling at times, but not as a potential vision that paints the Templars as potential good guys. Instead of Shay’s own inner conflicts as he attempts to find redemption in his new life and destroying his old one, seeing Shay battle against his own identity is intriguing, especially when coupled with the new positive identity of the previously villainized Templar Order.

Like Shay, the characters you’ll encounter are a mixed basket of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Fans of the series will instantly recognize figures such as Haytham Kenway and Achilles with new additions adding their own personal involve in this journey. The voice-acting, coupled with predictable musical scores that follow the Assassin’s Creed formula, create a tense and alluring atmosphere. Hearing the new rendition of the classic theme adds a new identity to Rogue, giving the overall game more weight within the franchise.

It’s clear that Rogue is meant for those who’ve invested themselves within the franchise, specifically the American saga. The story doesn’t require prior knowledge of the Kenway saga but those who’ve played through Connor and Edward’s journey will appreciate the Rogue’s story more. Seeing how Achilles become the depressed man at the beginning of Assassin’s Creed III and the decline of the Assassin Brotherhood was all put into perspective after finishing Rogue.

You won’t be controlling only Shay in this adventure, but another Abstergo Entertainment employee. After a computer virus places the entire building into lockdown, you’re left to take the blame. Now while the building is being repaired, you alone must relive Shay’s life in order to uncover the mystery surrounding the turn-coat assassin. The hope being that this forgotten figure will expose a vulnerability in the Assassin Order for the Templars to use.

Similar to Black Flag, this sub-story struggles to find footing. You’ll spend your time hacking computers and collecting audio files, but nothing manifest into anything palpable. Since you never see or know who this person is the consequences he or she face mean little to you. During these short sequences you’ll begin wondering when it’ll end so you can return to Shay’s adventure after effortlessly hacking another terminal. These hacking minigames center on the player highlighting different sections of a floating orb using lasers.

The core gameplay draws heavily from Assassin’s Creed III and Black Flag. Sailing through the iceberg littered ocean of the Atlantic is refreshing from the previous environments of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and engaging in ship combat is still entertaining. Overtime you’ll upgrade Shay’s equipment and his ship the Morrigan by collecting resources, investing into property, and finding collectables that include Animus fragments, Templar maps, Viking Swords, totems, and shanties. Collectables not only encourage you to explore missed areas from the campaign, but offers special awards such as new armor and hidden content for gathering all of a specific item.

The side activities come across as you play through the campaign. Different task such as saving citizens, rescuing prisoners-of-war, avoiding ambushes, and locating assassin targets. Unfortunately these tasks tend to repeat themselves more often then you’ll like. For example, the assassination contacts you intercept by capturing their carrier pigeons repeat the same mission type regardless of which area you’re in. This lack of variety quickly turns what should be an interesting experience from a Templar’s point of view into a chore.

The melee combat remains largely unchanged. Blocking, counterattacks and defense breaking are still present in standard combat, and if things become too hectic Shay has an assortment of tools to aid him in battles. Shay’s silent-rifle and grenade launcher makes his arsenal distinct from other characters within the franchise but never manifest as distinguish weapons. Missions centered on their use usually revolve on basic tasks such as destroying small barricades and putting guards to sleep.

Rogue does have its share of issues. On multiple occasions I came across unbearable sound-tearing bugs, graphical errors, and AI issues that could only be solved by restarting the entire game. These issues can sprout up at anytime and become a frequent fear when playing through the campaign.

If you’re attempting to figure out which Assassin’s Creed game to play first, the answer is to start here. Shay’s story closes a few loops left behind in Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed III, and offers a new starting point for the European conflict that’s brewing. Rogue not only closes the Kenway Trilogy in a decent way, but provides us a new outlook at the foes players have been fighting since 2007. It’s thick with information and although intriguing, specifically if you’re a fan, don’t expect a grand adventure as you experience it all.

Adam Siddiqui, NoobFeed
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