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

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.