Assassin’s Creed Rogue Review (PS3)

Review Context: I have played every Assassin’s Creed game except the third one. Assassin’s Creed IVBlack Flag was my favorite game in the series.
Date Playthrough Started: 11/13/14

Assassin’s Creed Rogue received very little attention when it was released last year, and for good reason. It was a last gen only title that was being released the same day as Ubisoft’s flagship next gen exclusive Assassin’s Creed Unity. It also didn’t help that Rogue’s gameplay seemed like nothing more than a rehash of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, whereas Unity was adding several new innovations to the series formula.  But, in a surprising turn of events, Rogue actually received better reception from fans than Unity during launch, and both games sold about the same amount of copies. Part of this is because Unity had an absurd amount of glitches during its release that made it almost unplayable for certain people, whereas Rogue was fairly stable for the most part. But is the game itself actually worth playing?

As mentioned earlier, Rogue is basically the same as Black Flag  with nothing really new added to push the series forward. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as this game does still manage to include some improvements that make it feel like a more refined experience than it’s predecessor. For example, the repetitive tailing missions that padded out Black Flag’s campaign have been reduced drastically to the point where they only appear a few times throughout the game. This allows for a much more varied mission structure where it doesn’t just feel like I’m doing the same thing all the time. The campaign is much shorter than Black Flag, but this game has the largest map size in the entire series with plenty of side quests to complete once you finish the story. Other people may disagree, but I also liked how this game doesn’t force you to complete side quests in order to advance the story like Black Flag, so the pacing feels a lot better.

The story is about an Assassin named Shay who betrays his brotherhood once he finds out a dark secret about them, and joins the Templars so he can get revenge on the people who have wronged him. This is a unique concept that allows the player to understand and sympathize with the Templars point of view, instead of just seeing them as bad people you need to kill, which is how the series usually portrays them. There are also moments during the game you will have to fight some Assassins. These are some of the most tense and challenging parts of the game because of how unpredictable their AI is compared to the regular soldiers. They can air assassinate you from rooftops or bushes and they know when to stay hidden, so you have to constantly be on your toes when dealing with them.

The graphics are on par with Black Flag on Playstation 3, but I personally prefer Black Flag’s art direction over Rogue’s. The controls are smooth for the most part, but I still occasionally encountered the series long problem of my character randomly climbing on to walls when I didn’t want him to. Unfortunately, the multiplayer mode from Black Flag has been removed. I myself was never a fan of it, but its removal may disappoint some people who enjoyed it. The soundtrack was pretty forgettable for the most part, with the exception of the opening theme. Many of the sea shanties are recycled from Black Flag and there weren’t really any tracks that stood out. The voice acting is passable at best and I feel that some of the dialogue could have been better.

Overall Assassins Creed Rogue is a good game that improves many of the problems of it’s predecessor, but doesn’t really do anything new to push the series forward. Therefore I would only recommend it to hardcore fans of the series, instead of newcomers. But I will say that if you enjoyed Black Flag and just want a more refined version of that game with a different setting and story, then you should definitely pick it up.

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