Assassin's Creed: Rogue
Forgotten History: There are so many different Ubisoft sub-companies, housing about 14,000 members total, that it got kind of confusing when they released two games at once on November 11 2014. One game, Assassin's Creed: Unity, was produced by Ubisoft Montreal - a team of around 3,200 people - for the Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows. However, the one we will be discussing about today is Assassin's Creed: Rogue. Not only does it conclude the Kenway Trilogy (if you consider Assassin's Creed: Liberation as a DLC) like how Assassin's Creed: Revelations wrapped up Ezio's Trilogy, but it also preludes into the other game. This one was produced by a much smaller crew of about 180 people from Ubisoft Sofia. It was initially released just for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.
Marketing: Assassin's Creed: Rogue wasn't really publicized like the rest of the series. Since at the time there was no PC version, the only thing they offered beyond the standard package was the Collector's Edition. There's no new figurine. The small, yet expensive package merely had the typical soundtrack, artbook, and a few lithographs. With a cinematic trailer and a story trailer, I'm surprised it wasn't until 4 months later that the game was released for the PC on March 10 2015. Then again, there wasn't any multiplayer. There was a remastered version but only for the Xbox One and Playstation 4 on March 20th 2018 (3 years later). Other than increasing the population in New York City, the update simply made par of what was already released on PC. And since Nintendo Switch is grabbing every game possible, the Assassin’s Creed: The Rebel Collection was released with both Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed: Rogue on December 6th 2019. The graphics are actually pretty good for a moving console.
DLC: The downloadable content for the game was reduced to a series of cosmetics. The so-called Templar Legacy Pack was a way to say "all content in one package" to the public. It included one region: The Siege of Fort de Sable. Inside the fort was a series of chests for Officer, Commander, and Templar Packs. The Armor of Sir Gunn Quest was their way of making you collect even more items - 20 Templar crosses - for a piece of armor you may never use. I regret not going to this area early in the game. I would have made more use to all those cosmetic outfits.
Story
You're a Templar: You play as Shay Cormac, an assassin that was sent to visit a Temple that was supposed to hold some ancient relic. Upon touching the device, a devastating earthquake tears apart Lisbon. What's cool about this is it actually happened in 1755, like the one in Haiti in 1751. This particular sequence when you run across the crumbling city of Lisbon is perhaps the only time I thoroughly enjoyed the game. You exchange some angry words with Achilles, that felt ultimately forced to pivot the character's ulterior motive, and decide to "join" the Templars since their philosophy closely resembles his own. Quickly after that, you find yourself destroying the whole Brotherhood.
I personally did not like the story. We've already had a few assassin traitors: Lucy Stillman, Daniel Cross, and Haytham Kenway. What I would have liked to see is a Templar traitor, or even a more-than-reasonable Templar would have sufficed. This would have opened the way to a new fighting style and outlook without reusing the same methods we see in every other game in the series. Being part of The Great Purge (1757-1763) of the Colonial Assassination Brotherhood wasn't exactly what I had hoped for when I started the game. I cringed when finding out I had to murder Adéwalé, the legendary quartermaster of the Jackdaw in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and liberator of the Caribbean slaves in Freedom Cry (DLC). But I guess a lot of people like exploring the grim and gritty version of what we once loved.
Filling the Void: The one thing I applaud the story for doing is tying up loose ends. It takes place between 1752 and 1760 which occurs after Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag but before Assassin's Creed III. It also explains the dramatic tale of how Achilles could have swooped so low to avoid teaching Connor about the Brotherhood. Most importantly, it explains what is in that box Adéwalé refused to open at the end of Freedom Cry. I really wanted a moment where they reveal some ultimate twist where a virus or glitch in the system altered your recollection of events to the point where your character or the characters he interacted with were really different people. Sadly, that never came to be. I will admit the line "Even the Devil can quote scripture to fit his purposes" did get a chuckle out of me, and I liked Benjamin Franklin's explanation of the "battery" when charging the box. I guess they could only do so much with 6 sequences. You can tell by how ugly the ice is in the final mission that they simply ran out of time. Even the unspectacular music couldn't salvage the lack of thrilling content seen in the previous games.
New Features
It's Cold: A third of the game is spent in the freezing climate of the North Atlantic. With the drop in temperature comes an abundance of new mechanics and content. One big thing I noticed was how the chilling water effects your screen. In addition to the droplets that periodically splash as large waves and rain pour in the big ocean, small snowflakes will also cover over your monitor as you land in covered haystacks. Trying to swim will slowly drain your health as crystals freeze the corners of your HUD. Instead of using a diving bell to sink to the bottom of the ocean, there are a handful of locations you explore old ships broken and marooned on the fringes of an iceberg. Speaking of giant icebergs, there are some you can shoot that will reveal Animus Fragments and some much-needed resources. The waves they create as you destroy them can devastate smaller enemy vessels. Beware the snow tornado! While whaling, you have to brace yourself before a chunk of ice crashes into your rowboat or the rope snaps under the pressure. You'll constantly see enemies trying to huddle by a campfire or shiver as they patrol the area. The Aurora Borealis can be seen over your head in certain areas at night.
The Hunted: Being a Templar isn't easy. It will now be your job to find ways to counter the Assassins. In New York City, you'll have to reclaim the areas from the "gangs" by cutting down their flag, destroying their equipment, and taking on their leader. They will use all the same techniques the Brotherhood taught you. If they try to use smoke grenades, press 'A' to use your gas mask. Your eagle vision will not highlight these members when they are in a hiding spot (though you can still try using your eyes to see them). It will instead provide you with a compass that points towards where they might be. The game also gives those with Misophonia nightmares when - like how the One Ring calls out for you - you'll hear faint whispering get louder the closer you get to your sneaky friends. Instead of accepting Assassination contracts, you will now intercept their homing pigeons and hunt down around 7 members as you defend against their target. These members can be easily found as they wander around observing their environment.
Air Rifle: In addition to your unique sword & dagger weaponry, you'll "retrieve" a prototype air rifle that does all sorts of cool things. Utilized very similar to the blowpipe, the rifle can fire sleep and berserker darts physically aimed at a range of 35m (the moment the target appears within the mini-map) or directly fired at a range of roughly 20m (using the 'Y' button) towards enemy targets. You can also fire out a set of fireworks that will lure enemies to investigate or trigger an explosion from anything explosive. Firing is completely silent and gives you a better option when you do not want to give away your position using the pistol.
You are also able to use its air compression to launch over grenades. I only recommend using it when undetected. The target system does not lock onto your targets and it does take a second or two to setup. You are allowed a limit of 3 grenades each (pending +1/+2 upgrade) and can cause a large amount of guards to be incapacitated using sleep or berserker grenades. Be aware that rage targets die after the timer expires. It is most effective when used after luring everyone into a circle with a set of fireworks. Nothing is better than watching a set of 8 guards fight against one another in a Battle Royale. You are also able to use shrapnel grenades to knockout people, but for some reason I found some of the officers withstanding the initial blast. Instead, use them to break open special highlighted gates and icicle walls. If you run out of grenades, you can always take the longer and stealthier approach by picking the lock.
Vessel Changes
Ship Upgrades: The Morrigan has quite a few differences compared to the Jackdaw. Chain cannons were completely removed from the ship's bow and replaced with chase cannons. Instead of dropping fire barrels behind you , you now drop oil barrels that burn fire on the surface (which I guess is easier to see). You can now upgrade your cannons to fire twice the payload between reloading. With this comes better maneuverability with your ship. Your swivel gun has been replaced with a puckle gun. It can fire 20 rapid shots at enemy vessels or soldiers when boarding, highly efficient compared to the limiting 5 shots from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. A ram is later added that breaks through ice.
Ship Combat: I found ship warfare to be rather lackluster in Assassin's Creed: Rogue. The updated features of your ship makes it overall easier to take down ships much bigger than you. I actively ignored the suggestion to "upgrade your vessel before starting this sequence" at every chance I had and still managed to defeat a Man O' War with only the basic level upgrades. It was fun holding down the left trigger and pressing 'A' to ram enemy ships. I also enjoyed how hunters will try to ram and board your vessel.
Legendary Ships: There are 3 locations where you can encounter legendary ships. Unlike Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, these are more "legendary battles" since there will be more than one ship on both sides. They aren't too difficult as long as your vessel is fully upgraded. The fourth and final battle "Storm Fortress" might test your mettle after seeing what you are put up against. They are just as enjoyable as its predecessor.
Sea Shanties: I've always loved these songs that play while traveling out at sea. It reminds me of the opening sequence of Little Mermaid. There are now a total of 49 shanties. That is a total of 20 new ones (with a couple removed) over its predecessors. However, I hated how the wind interrupts the singing. Fire the cannons, travel through a storm, but a little extra wind makes your crew shutter.
Naval Campaign: Borrowing heavily from Kenway's Fleet, I am happy to report that you do not have to be online to play the little game. All resources are made up and the points don't matter. You will gain a new destination and decoration for each mission you complete. Most of the decorations will be displayed in Fort Arsenal (your homebase) in New York City. I personally would have visited that place more to look at them if there were a harbormaster, tavern, or general store close by. The higher level missions will give nicer rewards like sails, outfits, or weapons. You can refer to your friends online for additional assistance. My biggest problem is it takes around 40 hours to finish. Not just that, but you must have started Sequence 6 (the last one in the campaign) to continue the "British Seven Years' War" after 20 missions. So after beating the game in 25 hours, a feat that would have taken a measly 10 hours if I ignored collecting everything, I was only able to do 26 out of 33 missions. If you calculate the increasing amount of time for each mission, that would mean that some of the final missions can take you up to 3 hours each. Some have resorted to using exploits by rewinding the clock. In any case, it is still very easy to capture ships and send them on missions in the background for a very nice sum of reals that is needed early in the game.
Overall Changes
New Coat of Paint: Assassin's Creed: Rogue is generally criticized for being a direct copy of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. It is a bit more complicated than that. There are a lot of new improvements. There are tutorial messages that will appear over the screen to explain new features. You can reload your pistol while running and load your second shot using the left bumper. Abandoned ships now have a burning ship icon appear on all maps. Whistling now adds a sound wave echo to show you the distance it traveled. A small bar on your alert status now shows you how long you have to wait until the guards stop looking for you. They added sub-categories to the ship appearances (I still wish they would have divided up the menus). You can do the objectives for the tower in any order. No more paying to reduce your wanted status as the system is contained within a specific area and automatically depletes overtime. I didn't see any scary wolves pop on my screen for a quick-time event (but you still might need to watch out for those bears). Although there are limits to when you can fast travel, you can do so at nearly anytime (even while falling off a tower because you didn't face the haystack). You don't need to be online to find white whales, and they included narwhals (which are real if you didn't know). Every tavern has a different song playing which is nice since the board games are now localized in each one. Because of the changing of your weapons, your standard equipment is bound to left and right directional pad while your new equipment is bound to up and down.
Paint Bleeding Through: There are also a lot of things I did not like about the game. They remapped the spyglass from the right bumper to up directional pad (and using right trigger to zoom in). Your quartermaster will comment after every cutscene and visiting every location. This wouldn't be so bad if he could finish his statement before reaching your destination or encountering a storm that muffles out his voice. A lot of key locations don't have the necessary venues for your merchandise. There are only 6 sequences and you must do the first 5 to stop seeing the "Progress further into the story to unlock this activity" message and be able to search out some of the collectables. Collectable icons on the mini-map can "light up" whether you are on the ground or on top of a house. No one will be helping you out this time around when taking over a fort. I hate being called "numbskull" in every encounter in the real world. There is a surprising lack of effort into the hunter challenges. Getting material to upgrade your equipment or craft your outfits is so bad that I only upgraded the first tier of health.
Bugs
Oh my goodness. The amount of problems I had with this game filled an entire page. Poor animation with how your body and torso turn, the way your body "flies" over large gaps, and frozen hiccups when pulling in a human shield in tight corners are all issues I've experienced. Too many people talking and repeating the same lines when you win a spontaneous battle. I still can't smoothly climb up trees, rocks, rooftops, chimneys, windows, and boats. There is no consistency when you fast travel whether you are 150m away from the dock, docked but still holding the wheel, or properly spawned on the docks. You can't fast travel to your boat in the location you are currently positioned at. You can't seem to fast travel inside caves or anything involving the DLC location: The Siege of Fort de Sable. Custom Markers don't stay where they should after fast travel. Not all the markers appear on the screen when synchronizing on top of a tower. Locations to obtain rewards from collecting all of a specific item don't stay on the map. I've hit islands when my ship was 150m away. The spacing in the subtitles can be a little off.
Abandoned Ships are problematic. The minute timer started counting down the moment my ship grazed the vessel, the resources didn't line up on the mini-map once the ship moved, and I couldn't let go of the wheel because of "high winds or storms" all at the same time. Hunter Ships don't give up. I've found them stuck ramming my ship while I was on shore, stuck circling my position while whaling, chasing my ship across the open sea when my status expired long ago, and continuously trying to board when the grappling hooks failed to pull me into them. Assassinating affected targets right away is nigh impossible. Something weird happens when a sleepy target is falling to the ground or a raged target flails their arms around. The game will register your undetected jab as a battle strike even if they aren't facing you. Obtaining warehouse keys is all over the place. I somehow once obtained a key in a bush before even stepping inside the fort. Another time the soldier's indicator on the mini-map never disappeared after his death. I've seen cases where the objective list never updated or when I never had to loot the key off the corpse. My theory tied to many of these problems is the game has an issue with how it registers saves and resets. I noticed that anytime I made a transition out in sea, the area would reset. Ally ships would disappear and stinkin' huge enemy ships would appear right in front of me. That would explain why I felt like the animals around me would teleport anytime I reached down to skin one.
Miscellaneous Details
Collectables: When it boils down to it, the rewards for collecting the items were rather pitiful. 50 "Prosperity" gems reward you additional money from all sources. 25 cave drawings was cute but didn't seem to relate any to the series. 24 War letters for chatter between the assassins or the Templars. I only obtained 150 of the 200 Animus Fragments when I realized it was all part of The Prophecy of Juno, whatever that is. The rest unlocked outfits: 20 Templar artifacts (crosses) for Sir James Gunn's Armour (DLC-only), 24 Templar Maps for Templar Armor (Reduces damage from projectiles), 12 Assassin Interceptors for Templar Enforcer (Gives better sight on nearby stalkers), 7 native totems for Native Armor (Reduced incoming melee damage) , 15 viking swords for Viking Armour (gives terrible fashion sense) & Viking Sword, and 4 legendary battles for Templar Master (bragging rights), 40 renovations for Governor’s Sword, and 15 Hunter Challenges for Hunting Sabre. There is no telling how many treasure chests I've collected, only to be drowning in money after gaining all those renovations. Just check out neoseeker or gamerguides for a complete list of everything you have to do. Though, I guess unlocking the Big Mouth Cheat was probably the funniest thing I have seen in awhile (even if you can't save your game with it on).
Navigation: River Valley is an interesting part of the game. It is entirely possible to park your vessel somewhere and explore a good half of the region by venturing through the landscape and taking the rafts across the river. Much of the land will not have "locations" tied to them, but there will still be a tower you can sync to for visibility and fast travel. I sort of regret not taking good ol' Morrigan for a spin around the block. However, I do not miss the climbing. Something about having to find the appropriate tree trump 30m away from an item, making sure your camera is facing the right branch so that you don't hop down onto the ground, and hoping you make that jump to the cliff-side gives me the willies. Some have said that they like the "puzzle" of finding the pathway up 50m. I honestly grew tired of it after 10 hours in. I got furious after not only needing to find a broken tree to get into a fort, but finding the right thing to climb so you can get out. Who in the world makes it impossible to open the front door of the fort from the inside? I also can't believe you can't skip the ending. 20 minutes long - enough time to take a shower.
Review
Assassin's Creed: Rogue spins the series on its head when you play as the opposing faction to take down the Brotherhood. The game provides a decent exit to the series as it explains what happened during the missing timeline during the Colonial era. It does an excellent job balancing three different locations with mechanics from the series - the renovation and tower system from Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, forest exploration from Assassin's Creed III, and sea-worthy fights from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Unfortunately the extremely short campaign, the unpolished content, and the massive amount of unrewarding collectables left me with a less than satisfactory experience. Couple that with the unusually high amount of blatant technical problems and you net me an impression that is easily forgettable. I do not recommend this game.
6-7-2020