Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China (2015)

Beat as free game from xbox gold. It felt more like a puzzle game than action because of the obviously tightly choreographed guard movements and hiding spots. I avoided using the ranged gadgets as much as possible and never used the fantastical helix move or kill. Most of the time I observed the guards to look for opportunities to assassinate without alerting the others, with my favorite tactic being running up to an enemy from behind (even on noisy floor) to butcher him before he could react. Most of my awards were assassin gold but there were times when I messed up and had to run away or fight. Whenever possible I cleared safe places to run to since enemies were unable to change planes. Most times I did not restart the checkpoint and rolled with whatever happened. The most difficult spots were the reinforcement zones because killed enemies came back if any were alerted, which was where I used gadgets the most. I left some enemies alone when I felt they were easy to get past and no threat if I was detected, especially those alert types that could hear me running behind them. Much like other AC games the controls were a bit wonky, not always doing what I wanted. Things like jump assassinating the wrong (and further away) target thus alerting the intended target, not properly jumping or releasing or climbing because the character was not positioned just right, and doing more than intended due to pressing the button too many times. The combat was especially annoying due to my obnoxiously low hp and the aforementioned too many button pressed that punished button mashing. I found the best way to fight was to mash the B button for parry, but for some reason she didn't always have her damn sword out at the beginning of combat so I could not parry for a bit. Mashing B did a counter kick that knocked the enemy back, which made them more difficult to hit. The best way was to alternate parry and a light attack, then finish with a heavy attack when the skull popped up. Ranged enemies were the easiest in melee but I had to time proper dodges while closing in. Shield guys required heavy attacks to break their shields, except the metal shield guys that had to be parry jumped over; they were the most difficult enemies. Combat almost always went badly when I had enemies on both sides and kept parry kicking instead of parry jumping to get them all on 1 side and get out of there.

There was only 1 boss fight, which was disappointing. It was just throwing knives to knock chandeliers on him. The final villain was even just a quick assassination. That was some missed opportunity. The part I hated the most were the timed escape levels because of how unforgiving they were. I died more in each of those than the rest of the game combined! The game was very good with checkpoint saves though (except when backtracking to get missed things), and new game plus was good for getting missed unlocks, which I did not bother to do. Overall it was a decent lower budget game that I would not have purchased and will not play again.

6.2/10

A short spin off game for the well known series (actually, is this a spin off?) Apparently, it is cannon, according to the notes in the game itself.

First of all, the game looks gorgeous. The watercolor style is so well done, although it is mostly in the background. I think this was the best part of the game. I could see myself loosing a couple of minutes just looking at the scenery.

The music is mostly based on the Ezio Family Theme, but with a little Asian twist, if you can call it that.

The plot was very simple and easy to follow, and it explains how the game is linked to the Assassins, and most of all, to the master Ezio Auditore. The plot seemed a little to simple for my taste, but of course you couldn't get too complicated for a game under 8 hours long.

Now, the big problem was the mechanics. How much did I struggle with it! They are a reminiscent of the old Ezio games, and I remember how I struggled with those too. But this time it felt worse. I would see myself jumping in the opposite direction that I intended, trying to kill someone just to see me hanging from another ledge, etc. And don't get me started on the hand to hand combat. It was worthless. If you could not kill everyone unnoticed you were practically screwed.

Not so bad a game, but the mechanics killed it for me...

Something about Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China got its hooks into me. While I acknowledge its problems - such as an awkward control scheme and occasionally frustrating checkpoint placement - it still delivered a great experience for me. The focus on stealth (which also ties into the story of Shao Jun's origins), the fluid movement, the rich mythology, the amazing environments, all of it came together so well. The game encouraged a replay with a 'Plus' mode, so I went back and completed a perfect run.

This is a platformer with very few checkpoints that replays obnoxious tutorial messages when you respawn. The difficulty comes from trying to remember all 25 million keybinds.

The main problem is that it's Assassin's Creed. AC is fine whenever they let you off the leash. But it's story missions, especially in earlier games, are often awful and constrained. This game is extremely constrained. Just... go play Mark of the Ninja instead. ACCC can't even hide in its shadow.

Pretty short game, this one, took around 5-6 hours to finish on the lowest difficulty (I would have played on the highest, but since out of the 3 possible difficulties two are locked, and require that you finish the game first, I'll pass.) I understand this mechanic, but personally I don't like it, because it forces you to play the game multiple times. If a game is replayable, it's not because the difficulty. Locking difficulties is just a cheap way to "improve" replayability, just stop it please...

I won't go into the story much, the game is set in the 1500s, you play as a Chinese assassin, hunting the so-called Tigers (basically Templars). When a new combat skill is unlocked, the game switches to a small tutorial part, with an old Ezio as your teacher, which I really liked. The story is presented through cinematics between and during the levels, but most of it can be found by reading the Animus Database, which is updated with entries quite often (plus you can find chests containing scrolls containing extra, story-related information). It also has entries about people / enemies you meet, as well as the skills you have unlocked so far.

I really liked the idea behind the gameplay, it's not anything like you get in the main titles of the series,where you can do pretty much everything you want, even go in guns blazing. I would even say that this was the most accurate depiction of the classic assassin-ish style of gameplay, since the Ezio series. A few times I felt a little odd, because some of the things are not very realistic, for example, talking guards are not aware of their surroundings at all, you can just go past them, and you can dash between hiding places (you CAN actually be seen while doing this, but it's still weird to see you roll super close to a guard). There is an ability called Helix Dash, which makes you invisible while dashing. I liked the fact that the enemies are talking in Chinese, but after 3-4 levels it gets boring, because they keep repeating the same dialogues. There are also elements which are supposed to make you easier to spot, such as dogs in cage (going past them will cause them to bark, and soldiers will run to your position), caged birds (same as the dog, but you can prevent it making noise by simply walking past it), wind chimes (you have to crouch under these), or creaking wooden floor (again, crouch). A small fun-fact, in one level a soldier's cough sound was the same as the one used in Project I.G.I 2 (not a problem or anything, I just noticed.)

One reason that will probably make you choose staying stealthy is because the combat is pretty damn hard. The controls are somewhat weird, not comfortable to fight enemies in open combat at all, and you'll quickly get overwhelmed, especially later in the game, where enemies can call for reinforcements, leaving you dead in no time, as most that you can take are a just a few hits. If you somehow manage to survive and cut down everybody, you'll get taxed after you finish the level. Each level in this game is split into different zones, which also mark checkpoints. At the end of each zone, you get points based on how you got through it.

There are three categories (each of them having ratings of Gold / Silver / Bronze, based on several factors, such as how many times you were seen, alerted the guards, etc.):

• Shadow - you don't kill anyone, you get the most points playing like this

• Assassin - you kill people but are not seen (you don't alert the guards). Naturally, you get less points.

• Brawler - you alert the guards and kill them in open combat. You get the least points for this category.

At the end of each level, your points are summed up, and if you hit a certain limit, you unlock different upgrades, like an additional health bar, more damage, increased ammo size, among other things. There are some levels where all that matters is the time in which you complete them, here I felt that the controls were a little clunky, and I messed up quite a few times because of this, but it's doable.

Your arsenal looks like this:

• Whistle - Attracts enemies to your position
• Noise Dart - Works pretty much the same way as the whistle, the difference is that you can choose the area where your enemies will look.
• Throwing Knife - You can unlock different parts of the map with these, by throwing them into objects bound with red ropes. Can also be used for combat, but I don't advise that, took me three knives to take down a regular soldier.
• Firecracker - Stuns enemies in a small area.

Overall, I liked this game, it was fun, although it's rather short. You can extend the playtime by playing it again, on higher difficulties, but it doesn't really add anything to the game, aside from a few other upgrades at the end of the levels, and higher scores.However, for a single playthrough, it's certainly worth the time.

Assassin's Creed as a platformer.

When I've first heard of the Chronicles series I was on board. Platforming combined with Assassins Creed seemed like an awesome idea that can't go wrong but sadly it's not as cool of a game as I hoped.

It does got a lot going on for it. First of - the theme. China is such a wonderful environment for Assassins Creed game and it's a shame it never got used in the standard AC game. Visually it's quite pretty with interesting level design and locations. The cut scenes are nicely stylized and fit the game quite well.

The story - it's basically every AC story ever. You play as former concubine out for revenge guided by master with brotherhood almost extinct. On your way you learn to care for something else than revenge and if you played AC games before - you should know roughly how it ends.

Mechanically it's quite good as well. The game is a sort of puzzle - you have to navigate through the level while avoiding or killing guards by using different abilities to your disposal. Those are mostly a distraction ones but help out. There is usually more than one way to pass certain area.

Game offers also three ways to tackle the levels - either assassin, brawler or shadow. And depending on the choice you're judged in one of the three categories which is a really cool thing. If you want to fight your way through - you'll be ranked in brawler, if you want to avoid guards completely and pass unseen - shadow. If like me you're up for stealth killing - then assassin category is for you.

Movement is mostly fluid and you get a lot of abilities as well.

So what's wrong with the game? It feels really slow and sluggish at times. If you want to go stealthy - than there's just too much hiding and waiting for the guards to pass. And if you time something incorrectly - you'll get to restart checkpoints a lot. The fighting is rather bad as well - so I avoided it completely.

Additionally the game feels like half of it is tutorial. I understand slowly introducing new abilities but it felt too slow.

Overall a cool idea that for some reason dos not work as well as I hoped. I did finish the game and felt it got better towards the end but it requires a lot of patience.