Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China Review
By UNDED
Assassin’s Creed has never strayed too far from its standard gameplay of hunting, finding waypoints, stalking, killing, stealth, etc. so when they announced a 2.5D side scroller I was more than intrigued. How do upgrades work? What does combat feel like? Are they going to acknowledge the present? Are there waypoints at all? To start off, Chronicles China takes place in China (big surprise) in 1526. It has been two years since your sect of Assassins, the Chinese Brotherhood, was nearly wiped out by a Templar sect known as the Tigers. Two years later you return as Assassin Shao Jun, with orders from the new leader of Assassins, to take back your home and free China from Templar control.
There are 12 levels you need to complete, each one finishing with a beautiful watercolor painting, complete with voice acting; an aesthetic that goes very well with the hide-and-shadow motif the game tries to accomplish. Within these levels are individual encounters such as sneaking past or killing guards, freeing prisoners, or escaping within a time limit. You’re graded on these individual encounters for bronze, silver or gold grades. Many times, I would be doing great throughout a level and then accidentally set off a wave of guards searching for me, and my great streak would be soiled by a bronze grade because of my carelessness. These segments would have been a little more fun if you were allowed to restart that specific segment if you earned a bronze grade and wanted a gold grade. At the end of each level you are also graded on your style of progression. It will let you know if you were a sneaky player, taking special care to not be seen at all (Shadow), a player who went to great lengths to make sure everyone was dead (Assassin), or a brutal player, meaning you met every enemy you could with fierce combat and brutal kills (Brawler).
Your arsenal consists of standard ‘ninja’ tools with specific uses. For example, there are darts to kill guards, there are darts to make noise, and you can even whistle to get a guards attention. There is a lot of sneaking past guards. The first few levels felt very linear but the more you progress not only did you get more weapons and ‘distraction’ items, but the levels became bigger. The levels become more vertical upwards and downwards, but there was also foreground, background, and an even further background which I don’t know what to call. What started out as a game that immediately felt like it belonged on the PS Vita, quickly became a game I was glad I was playing on console and had an entire TV screen to see where I was going. That’s not to say that you had a whole lot of freedom of how to progress through levels, there were still certain ‘tracks’ you had to follow at times, but with the beautifully rendered background, I didn’t mind so much.
The ‘tracks’ you had to follow at times could get very frustrating. I was stuck on a particular part for the better half of an hour because I was trying to collect an item, and the platform I was supposed to jump onto to get it was well hidden in the foreground. Eventually I found what I was trying to collect without notifying anyone of my presence, but that frustration sat with me for days. There are many chances to replenish your supplies but if you run out and need them to get a gold rating to pass a segment, well you’d better just restart the level if you’re a completionist. Otherwise, combat isn’t too hard to grasp. Depending on how stealthy you want to be, each level takes about 40 minutes to complete.
Being the only the second playable female Assassin in the series behind Aveline de Grandpre’ from the PSP’s Assassins’s Creed Liberation, I felt Shao Jun was also short changed. The story follows her as she reenters her old stomping grounds taken over by the Templar order The Lions. The motivations for her actions are clear cut. This may be because this is a smaller game than the standard Assassin’s Creed’s, but, to me, it felt like too much of a cop out. As much as I’d like to believe this was a deliberate move to give her a more tangible motivation to kill as she saw fit, it seems to take a back seat to the Shadow, Assassin, and Brawler scores; the ‘real’ motivations for completing levels on your terms. It’s a real shame. Chinese culture revolves so much around honor and family and it also takes a backseat to the combat. The main character, and her cultural motivations for who and why she’s assassinating the important figures felt lost to me and the only thing that really kept me playing was the gameplay. The gameplay isn’t bad, it’s actually very fun and consistent with the weapons you are given. Getting better perks and new weapons at the end of each chapter is a definite bonus and genuinely makes you feel like you can do more as you progress, but I can’t help feel like these could have been implemented better in a level-up-and-choose-your-own-upgrades type of game like most RPG’s.
Summary
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Chine is a good game. It’s not particularly challenging, but for a lax afternoon it’d be fun to pick up for a few hours. The main character I wish would have gotten her own full-fledged Assassin’s game, if for nothing else than to explore a 3D China and play as a female assassin in full detail, but this little romp through the series is good. There are some definite other 2D stealth games available now for cheaper, but if you’re a fan of the series it’s worth checking out.
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