Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Trilogy Review

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles trilogy follows the story of 3 separate protagonists spanning almost 1400 years, and exploring 3 separate countries China set in 1526, India set in 1841 and Russia set in 1914. Originally released as 3 separate episodes the first was China which was released in April 2015, then India released in January 2016 closely followed by Russia released in February 2016.

Fans have been in love with the Assassin’s Creed franchise since 2007 when we were first thrust into the bitter struggle for power between the Templars and the Assassins, Altair Ibn-La’Ahhad was the first protagonist we were introduced to, set during the time of the 3rd Crusade we guided Altair through a massive open world adventure. We have followed this format through all 9 of the games right up to Assassin’s Creed Syndicate set in Victorian London and released in October 2015. Although all of the games have followed the same format the visual effects have grown from realistic to stunningly beautiful.

“If you are expecting the stunning graphics of the previous games, you will be sorely disappointed”

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles is a striking contrast to the Assassin’s Creed we have become used to, Chronicles is a side scrolling platform game. If you are expecting the stunning graphics of the previous games, you will be sorely disappointed as Chronicles is inspired by traditional brush stroke paintings.  I accept that the images and graphics add atmosphere to the game, but I personally feel they have taken a massive step backwards for the franchise, even the synchronisation where you get to see the entire area from the vantage point is missing in Assassin’s Creed Chronicles.

The controls are simple enough to master as they do not require the same quick finger combinations that we have become accustomed to in previous games, thumbstick to move and right trigger to sprint, ‘X’ to attack and ‘A’ for special actions. Left trigger is to crouch, you do get to use the bumpers when aiming your throwing knife in ‘China’ or rifle in ‘Russia’ and that is about it really. It took me some time to adapt to playing a side scrolling platform game, which I have not done for many years. I found the movement quite frustrating, as there is really only one way you can approach any activity, the game relies much more on timing than stealth or combat skills.

The sound does not really do anything for the game it does not add or take away it is just there, and I find it hard to think what I heard 30 minutes after I have played the game, I have come to enjoy the dialog in Assassins Creed games and find much of it normally memorable, by either entertaining me or even annoying me, but at least the sound or dialog was entertaining, I felt none of this with Assassins Creed Chronicles.

In all of the Assassins creed games I have played combat consists of 3 elements, defence or block, break opponent’s position and attack, Chronicles has removed 2 of these elements and all you have is attack, this makes the combat very restrictive and spent my time thinking there is so much missing from this game.

The first of the Chronicles ‘China’ takes place in 1526 and tells the story of Shao Jun who returns to her homeland to extract revenge against the Templars who wiped out the Chinese Brotherhood. Her journey takes her through Macau, Nan’an, the Forbidden City and even the Great Wall, although you will be hard pushed to identify any of these famous locations.

The second of the Chronicles ‘India’ takes place in 1841 telling the story of Arbaaz Mir. A master Templar arrives during the Sikh Empire’s war with the East India Company with a mysterious item that once belonged to the Assassins, Arbaaz has to steal back the item while discovering why the stranger has come at the same time protecting his friends and lover.

The third of the Chronicles ‘Russia’ takes place in 1841 in the aftermath of the October Revolution and follows the story of Nikoli Orelov. Before he can leave with his family Nikoli must perform one last mission, steal an artefact fought over for centaury’s by the Assassins and the Templars. The artefact is located in a house where the Tsar’s family is being held by the Bolsheviks. He rescues Princess Anastasia when the rest of the Tsar’s children are massacred, and has to escape with the artefact while protecting Anastasia.

In previous Assassins Creed games, we have a plethora of weapons to choose from and upgrade, not so in Chronicles there is no upgrade to speak of, and the weapons are fairly basic, you have a Sword and Rope Dart as your primary weapons, with Fire Crackers, Throwing Knifes, Noise Darts and Whistle as your secondary weapons. In the last of the chronicles Russia a rifle is introduced as the primary weapon. There is 1 of each weapon and it can’t be upgraded so this has eliminated another large fun part of the game for me.