Assassin's Creed: Rogue Review (PS3)
Story
Shay Cormac was an Assassin, but for some reasons unknown, he turned to become a Templar under the Colonial Rite, and has caused many disorders within the Assassin Brotherhood. You, as a research analyst, is tasked to relieve Shay Cormac's story to find out more about his tale.
Shay Cormac's story is pretty well-crafted. I like his character, and the whole story behind him of betraying the Assassins. Many previous Assassin's Creed characters appear in this game's story, so it could be a welcome addition to Assassin's Creed fans. I also like the Shay Cormac's story ending, and personally it is one of the best endings of Assassin's Creed games like Ezio's ending in Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Edward's ending in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
The modern storyline, however, feels short and undeveloped enough to carry the modern Assassin vs. Templar war far enough to make it interesting. One of the new characters in the modern storyline is Juhani Otso Berg, who is actually the non-speaking character featured heavily in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations multiplayer mode who became a Master Templar. By far, he is one of the most interesting characters in the modern storyline of all Assassin's Creed games. However, if anyone is looking forward to any actual development to the modern storyline in this game, do not have high hopes for the story to actually develop even until the end of the game.
Gameplay
Overall gameplay is the same with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed III, with some differences which will be explained later. You can freerun on buildings, ledges, roofs, and others, assassinate enemies using your hidden blade, combat enemies with your sword and dagger, hunt animals, or use other weapons like pistols or rope darts for easier kills.
One new weapon introduced in this game is the Air Rifle. It allows you to shoot darts or grenades undetected. You may use a variety of darts such as Firecracker Darts to distract enemies for easier access to areas or for easier kills. Shay also has access to a gas mask to allow him to breather through areas filled with gas.
Progression method is the same, as you need to travel from different areas to your destination to progress in the game, whether by ground or using a ship to travel. Viewpoints are also available in the game, and it allows you to Fast Travel for faster movement. Unlocking new areas in River Valley and North Atlantica areas also may unlock Fast Travel locations. New York is the main city that you will often visit, as well as North Atlantica and River Valley areas where you need to use your ship to traverse.
Missions are called Memories in this game, and each Memory may have different objectives you to complete, such as assassinating someone or chase after a target. In some of the Memories, there are Optional Objectives you to do to gain 100% Synchronisation of that Memory, which is purely optional.
Naval combat is also similar to the two previous Assassin's Creed games. Nothing much changed, except that enemies can board your ship if their ram against your ship. This adds a small dynamic change where enemies can be more aggressive during naval combat. It is also noted that you can destroy icebergs to destroy smaller ships like Gunboats. Your ship upgrades is the same as the previous game, where you need to spend materials and money to buy new upgrades. Materials can be looted from enemy ships. You may also hunt sea animals like killer whales for materials to upgrade Shay.
Ground combat is similar to previous Assassin's Creed games, where you can fight soldiers with your weaponry. However, stalkers (who are or working for the Assassins) may attempt to ambush you in unsuspected areas like in New York buildings while you are exploring. They can kill you easily with their assassination attacks, especially if you do not get any Health Upgrades. Fortunately, you can use the Eagle Vision to find them and kill them first. Or if you are too late to do so, you can always counter their assassination attempts, whether it is an air assassination or regular assassination attacks. It should be noted that this game uses the same features from previous Assassin's Creed games multiplayer mode, which are the proximity radar where it shows the general proximity of the stalkers, and the whispers feature where the whispers will be getting louder when you are getting nearer to the hidden stalkers. You may also fight actual Assassins in this game in certain Memories and conditions, and they are actually more tougher than regular soldiers.
This time, you may kill civilians. However, killing civilians will cause your Wanted level to increase, and Bounty Hunters will come looking for you. Unlike regular soldiers or Assassins, Bounty Hunters are extremely tough and dangerous, and it won't easy to kill them especially if you do not use certain weapons. It is highly advisable to avoid killing civilians, or otherwise run from the Bounty Hunters to reset the Wanted level. Upgrades also use the same crafting system, where you need to use animal loots to craft new upgrades such as health upgrades.
It is also noted that the economy system from older Assassin's Creed games has returned, where you will get a certain amount of income after a certain time passes in the game. Your income can be increased by renovating buildings, and you can use the money to buy new weapons or ammunition or animal materials such as wolf pelts.
Like previous Assassin's Creed games, this game offers a lot of side-activities, such as freeing Prisoners of War from a captive ship, conquering Gang HQs, looting ship convoys, do Assassin Interceptions, complete Abstergo challenges, collect collectibles such as Templar Relics, and many more.
The modern storyline gameplay is just the same as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, where you will be in first person view mode, fixes servers and stuffs, collect collectibles such as tablets and hacking computers. There is nothing new here, and the modern storyline also doesn't develop much until the end.
Overall solid gameplay. The small additions to the game such as adding stalkers as your secondary stealthy enemies, bounty hunters, and a wealth of side-activities what make this game's gameplay solid. However, the main story missions are few, resulting the game can be completed less than 10 hours if you do not focus on the side activities, as this game has only six Sequences (a.k.a Chapters), with up to five Memories per Sequence. In comparison to previous Assassin's Creed games, I think it is a bit too short. Modern storyline gameplay also the same as the previous game's gameplay, with not much innovation other than new puzzles from hacking the computers this time.
Graphics
Like Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, this game boasts good graphics, with amazingly designed locations such as River Valley areas, New York, and many more. This game however, still suffers some bugs and glitches, but not gamebreaking.
Sound
The voice acting is generally great, with previous voice actors reprise their roles from Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Shay Cormac's voice is generally one of the highlights, and I like his Irish accent.
The soundtrack is moderate, or just decent to me. Not much memorable music in this game, except the title screen music that totally pays homage to one of the Assassin's Creed II themes, which is actually catchy and nice to listen. The shanties are back in this game and many of them are also likable.
Replay Value
This game has good replay value, but not as high as previous Assassin's Creed games like Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. That is because this game does not multiplayer mode, and solely focuses on singleplayer content. That's a lot of things to be done in the game, such as collecting collectibles like Viking Swords, Mayan Statues, and Templar Relics, or unlock every locations in the game, conquer Forts, eliminate Gang HQs in different locations in the game, and many more.
Conclusion
Regardless of the game's issues, I feel that this game is a solid Assassin's Creed games, with only minor improvements over Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag in terms of gameplay. However, the improvements are minor, not substantial enough to make this game completely unique enough compared to previous Assassin's Creed games. Same combat, same hunting feature, same freerunning controls, same naval combat and travelling, and others. Another issue with this game is the length of the story missions. For me, it is a bit too short to flesh out Shay's story to the fullest, and I would like to see him in another Assassin's Creed game in the future.
However, this game's strengths also makes this game a worthy entry as it has well-told story, solid and polished gameplay, as well as good replay value. Not to mention, enemies in this game are somewhat tougher and enemy ships can board you as well. If you are fine playing the almost same Assassin's Creed game like Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, try out this game and you may like it.
Score
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 8/10
Final Score: 8.25/10.0 or 34/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Interesting and well-written story.
- Grey morality theme at it's best.
- Shay is an interesting and good protagonist.
- Solid gameplay with minor new additions.
- Stalkers is a welcome back addition from Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
- Economy system from older Assassin's Creed games are back.
- Clever use of previous game's multiplayer's features to detect stalkers.
- Air Rifle is a blast to use.
- Good old naval combat and missions.
- Lots of side-activities to be done.
- Great graphics.
Cons
- Same overall gameplay from previous two Assassin's Creed games.
- Won't appeal to Assassin's Creed fans who want major innovations from previous games.
- Many borrowed animations from previous Assassin's Creed games.
- A bit too short main story completion time.
- Modern storyline does not progress much.
- Modern storyline gameplay is mediocre.
- Minor bugs or glitches.
**Images are from official Playstation game page, New Gamer Nation site, and Load The Game site.
Take control an Assassin who turned to Templar's cause. Shay Cormac.
Shay Cormac was an Assassin, but for some reasons unknown, he turned to become a Templar under the Colonial Rite, and has caused many disorders within the Assassin Brotherhood. You, as a research analyst, is tasked to relieve Shay Cormac's story to find out more about his tale.
Shay Cormac's story is pretty well-crafted. I like his character, and the whole story behind him of betraying the Assassins. Many previous Assassin's Creed characters appear in this game's story, so it could be a welcome addition to Assassin's Creed fans. I also like the Shay Cormac's story ending, and personally it is one of the best endings of Assassin's Creed games like Ezio's ending in Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Edward's ending in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
The modern storyline, however, feels short and undeveloped enough to carry the modern Assassin vs. Templar war far enough to make it interesting. One of the new characters in the modern storyline is Juhani Otso Berg, who is actually the non-speaking character featured heavily in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations multiplayer mode who became a Master Templar. By far, he is one of the most interesting characters in the modern storyline of all Assassin's Creed games. However, if anyone is looking forward to any actual development to the modern storyline in this game, do not have high hopes for the story to actually develop even until the end of the game.
Gameplay
Use the Air Rifle to shoot darts or grenades on enemies.
Overall gameplay is the same with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed III, with some differences which will be explained later. You can freerun on buildings, ledges, roofs, and others, assassinate enemies using your hidden blade, combat enemies with your sword and dagger, hunt animals, or use other weapons like pistols or rope darts for easier kills.
One new weapon introduced in this game is the Air Rifle. It allows you to shoot darts or grenades undetected. You may use a variety of darts such as Firecracker Darts to distract enemies for easier access to areas or for easier kills. Shay also has access to a gas mask to allow him to breather through areas filled with gas.
Progression method is the same, as you need to travel from different areas to your destination to progress in the game, whether by ground or using a ship to travel. Viewpoints are also available in the game, and it allows you to Fast Travel for faster movement. Unlocking new areas in River Valley and North Atlantica areas also may unlock Fast Travel locations. New York is the main city that you will often visit, as well as North Atlantica and River Valley areas where you need to use your ship to traverse.
Missions are called Memories in this game, and each Memory may have different objectives you to complete, such as assassinating someone or chase after a target. In some of the Memories, there are Optional Objectives you to do to gain 100% Synchronisation of that Memory, which is purely optional.
Naval combat is also similar to the two previous Assassin's Creed games. Nothing much changed, except that enemies can board your ship if their ram against your ship. This adds a small dynamic change where enemies can be more aggressive during naval combat. It is also noted that you can destroy icebergs to destroy smaller ships like Gunboats. Your ship upgrades is the same as the previous game, where you need to spend materials and money to buy new upgrades. Materials can be looted from enemy ships. You may also hunt sea animals like killer whales for materials to upgrade Shay.
Fight off Assassin enemies.
Ground combat is similar to previous Assassin's Creed games, where you can fight soldiers with your weaponry. However, stalkers (who are or working for the Assassins) may attempt to ambush you in unsuspected areas like in New York buildings while you are exploring. They can kill you easily with their assassination attacks, especially if you do not get any Health Upgrades. Fortunately, you can use the Eagle Vision to find them and kill them first. Or if you are too late to do so, you can always counter their assassination attempts, whether it is an air assassination or regular assassination attacks. It should be noted that this game uses the same features from previous Assassin's Creed games multiplayer mode, which are the proximity radar where it shows the general proximity of the stalkers, and the whispers feature where the whispers will be getting louder when you are getting nearer to the hidden stalkers. You may also fight actual Assassins in this game in certain Memories and conditions, and they are actually more tougher than regular soldiers.
This time, you may kill civilians. However, killing civilians will cause your Wanted level to increase, and Bounty Hunters will come looking for you. Unlike regular soldiers or Assassins, Bounty Hunters are extremely tough and dangerous, and it won't easy to kill them especially if you do not use certain weapons. It is highly advisable to avoid killing civilians, or otherwise run from the Bounty Hunters to reset the Wanted level. Upgrades also use the same crafting system, where you need to use animal loots to craft new upgrades such as health upgrades.
It is also noted that the economy system from older Assassin's Creed games has returned, where you will get a certain amount of income after a certain time passes in the game. Your income can be increased by renovating buildings, and you can use the money to buy new weapons or ammunition or animal materials such as wolf pelts.
Like previous Assassin's Creed games, this game offers a lot of side-activities, such as freeing Prisoners of War from a captive ship, conquering Gang HQs, looting ship convoys, do Assassin Interceptions, complete Abstergo challenges, collect collectibles such as Templar Relics, and many more.
The modern storyline gameplay is just the same as Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, where you will be in first person view mode, fixes servers and stuffs, collect collectibles such as tablets and hacking computers. There is nothing new here, and the modern storyline also doesn't develop much until the end.
Overall solid gameplay. The small additions to the game such as adding stalkers as your secondary stealthy enemies, bounty hunters, and a wealth of side-activities what make this game's gameplay solid. However, the main story missions are few, resulting the game can be completed less than 10 hours if you do not focus on the side activities, as this game has only six Sequences (a.k.a Chapters), with up to five Memories per Sequence. In comparison to previous Assassin's Creed games, I think it is a bit too short. Modern storyline gameplay also the same as the previous game's gameplay, with not much innovation other than new puzzles from hacking the computers this time.
Graphics
Great graphics for a last-gen game.
Like Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, this game boasts good graphics, with amazingly designed locations such as River Valley areas, New York, and many more. This game however, still suffers some bugs and glitches, but not gamebreaking.
Sound
Great voice acting, with decent but not really memorable soundtrack.
The voice acting is generally great, with previous voice actors reprise their roles from Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Shay Cormac's voice is generally one of the highlights, and I like his Irish accent.
The soundtrack is moderate, or just decent to me. Not much memorable music in this game, except the title screen music that totally pays homage to one of the Assassin's Creed II themes, which is actually catchy and nice to listen. The shanties are back in this game and many of them are also likable.
Replay Value
Good replay value.
This game has good replay value, but not as high as previous Assassin's Creed games like Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. That is because this game does not multiplayer mode, and solely focuses on singleplayer content. That's a lot of things to be done in the game, such as collecting collectibles like Viking Swords, Mayan Statues, and Templar Relics, or unlock every locations in the game, conquer Forts, eliminate Gang HQs in different locations in the game, and many more.
Conclusion
A good Assassin's Creed game, but will not astound anyone.
Regardless of the game's issues, I feel that this game is a solid Assassin's Creed games, with only minor improvements over Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag in terms of gameplay. However, the improvements are minor, not substantial enough to make this game completely unique enough compared to previous Assassin's Creed games. Same combat, same hunting feature, same freerunning controls, same naval combat and travelling, and others. Another issue with this game is the length of the story missions. For me, it is a bit too short to flesh out Shay's story to the fullest, and I would like to see him in another Assassin's Creed game in the future.
However, this game's strengths also makes this game a worthy entry as it has well-told story, solid and polished gameplay, as well as good replay value. Not to mention, enemies in this game are somewhat tougher and enemy ships can board you as well. If you are fine playing the almost same Assassin's Creed game like Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, try out this game and you may like it.
Score
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 8/10
Final Score: 8.25/10.0 or 34/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Interesting and well-written story.
- Grey morality theme at it's best.
- Shay is an interesting and good protagonist.
- Solid gameplay with minor new additions.
- Stalkers is a welcome back addition from Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
- Economy system from older Assassin's Creed games are back.
- Clever use of previous game's multiplayer's features to detect stalkers.
- Air Rifle is a blast to use.
- Good old naval combat and missions.
- Lots of side-activities to be done.
- Great graphics.
Cons
- Same overall gameplay from previous two Assassin's Creed games.
- Won't appeal to Assassin's Creed fans who want major innovations from previous games.
- Many borrowed animations from previous Assassin's Creed games.
- A bit too short main story completion time.
- Modern storyline does not progress much.
- Modern storyline gameplay is mediocre.
- Minor bugs or glitches.
**Images are from official Playstation game page, New Gamer Nation site, and Load The Game site.
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