Assassin's Creed Rogue Review

I have never talked about video games on this blog, but they're something I've always loved and still to this day have a special fondness of. So, my first game review is of one of two of the latest installments in one of my favorite video game franchises of all-time. I really love Assassin's Creed, and this is the last entry in the franchise that is going to be released on 7th generation consoles, which are the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the Nintendo Wii.

I had a strong sense of nostalgia going into Assassin's Creed Rogue. I've spent endless hours playing through the series ever since the original, and I was kind of hoping this was more or less an homage to past Assassin's Creed games. For the most part, that's exactly what Rogue is: an amalgamation of my favorite elements of the franchise and some newer stuff as well. It may not be the best entry in this storied video game series, but it was still a lot of fun for me.

Much of Assassin's Creed Rogue feels a lot like the previous game in the franchise, Black Flag. The gameplay primarily consists of naval combat and exploring rural land environments, which was true for Black Flag as well. However, there were a couple examples in Rogue of cities that felt similar to the good old days of the Ezio trilogy. There was one temple in particular that you explore in Lisbon which immediately made me think of the tombs in Assassin's Creed II. That was just one instance where I felt the game was kind of hearkening back to the early days of the franchise, which I liked.

The naval gameplay from Black Flag has not really been tampered with for Rogue. You still have the same cannons on the sides of your ship, the mortars, and the heavy shot cannons for when you're in close quarters. One thing they did add was icebergs that can be found all along the North Atlantic. If you ram into them, they break into small pieces which damage smaller ships. The only other notable addition to the naval combat that I can think of was the oil slick ability, which allowed you to release and ignite oil from the back of your ship. I didn't find myself using that too much, though.

Ubisoft did not bother adding too many new things to the gameplay for Rogue. They're switching over to next-generation consoles, so it wouldn't make sense to revamp or majorly change an established formula for the last game that's being released on last-gen consoles. Instead, they seemed to focus more on developing an interesting story. I have to say, I was quite engaged in the plotline, which wasn't true for Black Flag.

Shay Patrick Cormac is the new protagonist, and he turns against the Assassins to become a Templar, as anyone who's heard anything about the game would know. I thought this was just a gimmick to convey the illusion of a fresh approach when I initially heard about it. It may have been exactly that. Nonetheless, I found Shay's conflict with his former Assassin friends, as well as his own inner conflict, to be quite compelling.

There are still forts along the coast that you can capture, like the last couple games. However, because you are now a Templar, there are also side missions in which you hunt down Assassins that are hunting down a target, who you have to defend. These were pretty enjoyable, if a little repetitive.

Assassin's Creed Rogue is ultimately Ubisoft's one last crack at last-gen. It's not revolutionary or groundbreaking in anyway, and it's quite unlikely to win over any new converts. But, for fans of the franchise like myself, it's a nice tribute to past installments, and it bridges the gap between the last-gen and next-gen storyline quite well. Personally, I find the naval battles to be thrilling, the stealth-oriented missions to be addictive, and the side stuff to be fun, at least to a certain extent. The story also kept me coming back, which hasn't always been true with the franchise. If you don't consider yourself a fan of Assassin's Creed, this probably is not the game for you.

So there's my review of Assassin's Creed Rogue. I think fans of the series should definitely pick it up, if only to say goodbye to the last-gen era. I have not yet gotten Assassin's Creed Unity because I do not have a next-gen console yet. By next month, I should be getting a PlayStation 4, which will allow me to play Unity as well as some other next-gen exclusives that I've been wanting. I'll be sure to start reviewing all the video games I play on this blog.

B+