REVIEW – Welcome to the world of “order” and “peace”! After so many Assassin’s Creed games, we are in control of a Templar this time during the whole title: Shay Patrick Cormac, who’s grown disillusioned with the methods of the assassins and joins the ranks of the enemy. The story is set between 1752 and 1761 during the Seven Years’ War and takes place in various North American locations, including the frozen North Atlantic, the Appalachian River Valley, Alabama, New York and Quebec. We already knew that the new title would be similar to Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, so the main question was, whether the different faction and the “frozen,” winter setting will breathe some much needed fresh air in the all too familiar gameplay elements?

 

While our site is mainly focusing on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita games, Assassin’s Creed: Rogue is a rather significant entry in the famous series, we felt obliged to do a review about the lovely. Ubisoft’s decision to only make an old generation version of this title was rather questionable, to say the least, so this time around we made an exception and reviewed the game on our trusty old PlayStation 3.

I have joined the dark side

Before digging into more technical and gameplay aspects, let’s take a look what Rogue has to offer us this time around. The main protagonist is Shay Patrick Cormac, a 21-year-old recruit to the Brotherhood of Assassins who grows disillusioned with their methods and their cause just as his career as an Assassin begins. He eventually betrays and abandons the Assassins after an assignment ends in disaster, and is later accepted into the Templar Order, offering his services as an Assassin Hunter. Given access to near-limitless resources, Cormac sets out against his former companions, with his actions having dire consequences for the future of the Brotherhood.

 

Cormac has ties to the events that will occur in Assassin’s Creed Unity. There are also appearances from previous Assassin’s Creed characters in the game which includes: Haytham Kenway, the secondary antagonist and the protagonist in the first part of Assassin’s Creed III, Achilles Davenport, Ratonhnhaké:ton’s mentor; and Adéwalé, Edward Kenway‘s quartermaster in Black Flag, and protagonist of Freedom Cry.

An Irish bloke

That’s nice and all, but besides playing as a Templar (like we already did in Assassin’s Creed III) how the story fares compared to older titles? Well, the storyline is a hit and miss as far as the novelty, character and plot development goes.

Carmac is a bit of a bland character until his defection – perhaps his only particularity is his very strong Irish accent, voiced by the completely unknown actor: Steven Piovesan. He gets more interesting later, but don’t expect him to turn into some Darth Vader kind of character – by joining the Templars he remains roughly the same person. He has some inner conflicts when he has to confront his old allies, so the story is still somewhat interesting, but nothing to write odes about. While I wouldn’t call the plot bad, nor “average” but there’s definitely something extra missing from it, like the WTF moment from Assassin’s Creed III, when you learn in the middle of the game, that by controlling Haytham Kenway you worked for the Templars all along, or the very well developed and cool character of Edward Kenway and his fellow pirate captains in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.

Is this a DLC for Black Flag?

By mentioning Black Flag, we have arrived the crucial question about Rogue: is this game roughly the same as the former, highly successful Assassin’s Creed title or are there any noticeable differences? Well, for better or worse, Assassin’s Creed: Rogue has almost the same gameplay elements like in Black Flag. On the sea you have the same Sid Meier Pirates!-like naval battles against hostile ships and fortresses, you can develop your ship, you will have access to the same kind of strategic naval command map. The sea and land animal hunting aren’t missing either, but other than a small gameplay change (we have to avoid ice blocks) the only unusual animal to hunt down is the narwhal with its large tusk.

While you are landed, the combat and the exploration is the same as well. The developers didn’t really bother to put a fascinating and different kind of object to collect either: you will have to chase the same kind of “shanties,” treasures and other stuff which you had to collect ad nauseam in Black Flag.

 

And of course, you will have to occupy different parts of the city: this time around those are assassin bases, how surprising. Well, perhaps the only noticeable difference about Rogue’s gameplay is linked to the combat against the assassins. It’s a similar experience to the multiplayer aspect of previous AC titles, as you will have to seek out enemy assassins and trick them out from their cover, and dispose of them quickly, as they can deal quite a big damage compared to vanilla enemies. It’s an interesting new feature (although it gets a bit annoying later in the game), but not enough to bring some fresh air into the tired formula of Assassin’s Creed landed gameplay.

To sum up the whole gameplay: if you don’t mind to play some more Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag with older generation graphics, you are in for a treat, if you got already burned out from it, don’t bother, it’s mainly the same game with a different story.

“Pushing to the limit?”

Assassin’s Creed: Rogue being perhaps the last significant AAA title for older generation only, one wonders if Ubisoft tried to push the hardware our PS3 and Xbox 360 to its limits? Not quite. While there are some nice new effects linked to the cold, winter weather, Graphics-wise the game looks the same as Black Flag, perhaps even uglier in some parts. I had the impression that the developers were going for more stable framerate this time around (which was atrocious in Black Flag), so they didn’t put so many details in the game as in the previous title.

What’s to be lauded however is the size of the different cities which you can explore during the game. For example, New York is enormous and feels very authentic with lots of people on the streets, and we can get a glimpse of Paris as well.

The revamped version that Ubisoft brings us is exactly the same game we saw a little less than four years ago, without any additions or changes, but with better screen resolution (4K in improved consoles and 1080p in PS4 and One basic), an image rate per second improved and certain improvements in textures, visual effects and stage detail. On the paper the improvement is evident, but this remaster sings to the language his origins of the previous generation in details such as the geometry of the scenarios, the distance of drawn details or the number of elements on the screen, which are not bad, but yes inferior to what is styled in these times, especially on land (on the sea everything is much more beautiful). There are, by the way, graphic modes, with what we can only play in one way: maximum resolution for our system and 30fps.

Essential for a fan?

Assassin’s Creed: Rogue clearly isn’t for you if you already had enough of Black Flag. The problem with Rogue, that while the naval combat and others novelties brought a bit of fresh sea air in Black Flag, we had such an overdose of those just to be able to progress in the game, and unlock new features, that now we feel the same thing about those elements as we felt it with previous AC titles being too much more of the same.

The modern setting is back as well, and yes, it still feels annoying and superfluous. It was ok in the first few games but got boring later, and (besides Melanie’s pretty ass) I didn’t like the new modern parts in Black Flag either. I understand that Ubisoft thinks that it’s an obligatory part of the Assassin’s Creed formula, but Assassin’s Creed: Liberation has shown, that we can do pretty well without it so why bother with those all the time?

However, as a fan of the whole franchise, I can’t deny that I still had fun in Rogue. Playing as a Templar is interesting, and while the story isn’t exceptional, it’s still well embedded in the whole AC world – especially if you liked the last few games. Besides the enormous amount of Black Flag repetition, it’s an okay AC.

-BadSector-

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Editor: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Sofia

Genres: RPG, action

Publication: 2014 November 11