Assassin's Creed Chronicles Review
Haven't done a mini review in a while and since I just finished the final game of a trilogy (Assassin's Creed Chronicles) I might as well post my thoughts. Keep in mind that I did NOT play them in order of release. I started with India, paused after half of the game and then started and finished Russia. Started and finished China only to come back to India and finally complete it.
Opening
Starting with some general stuff that is true of all of the following games. All three games have extremely similar if not identical mechanics, so it's even more confusing when they change some buttons and even some gameplay rules. Some sections require absolute perfection and thus only making a single mistake will send you back to the last checkpoint. This will lead to quite some frustration. It gets especially confusing when you have to restart a checkpoint multiple times and then notice that the timing of some guards has suddenly changed. A story is there but I mostly skipped the cutscenes and even played without sound for several sequences. You won't miss much.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles China:
It has easily the worst graphics of the trilogy, which comes almost exclusively from some very muddy textures used. Other than that it's still fine to look at. I spent 6 1/2 hours with it, which is the fewest of all games. This might sound bad, but is purely the reason of far less frustrating sections. What sets this game apart from the others is that there are almost always two or even three ways to get through a level. Usually by either choosing the background, middle or foreground path or by traversing different stories of a building.
I encountered almost no bugs with this one. Unfortunately, the achievements in this game are the only ones that include collectibles.
Overall this is hands down the best game in the series and since it's free with Games with Gold, many get to play it.
7.5/10
Assassin's Creed Chronicles India:
Sadly this sequel is way worse in almost every way....except graphics, which look great. Gone are the different paths in each level. In return, you get some of the most frustrating sequences in the series. A number of bugs are high with this one. The achievements are the grindiest in the series as well (to be fair they are all pretty grindy) and some achievement descriptions are just wrong. I played the game without killing "anyone" and I suggest you not to do it to reduce the frustration by a significant amount. I spent 8 1/2 hours with the game, but as I said the game isn't really any longer than China. I just had to restart some checkpoints up to 20 times. AFAIR the only new gameplay mechanic is the introduction of a few sniper rifle section towards the end of the game (no less frustrating though).
IMHO it's easily the worst in the series and if you really feel like playing another AC Chronicles game after China I suggest you go straight to Russia.
6/10
Assassin's Creed Chronicles Russia:
Starting once more with the graphics, this one is more about the art style. It's also not free of bugs and I found two that are reproducible and soft lock the game, forcing you to restart the checkpoint. Russia uses a lot more sniper rifle sections but also introduces two different characters. You can't choose whether to play with one or the other though. Orelov, the old assassin can kill his foes stealthily and is the only one to use the sniper rifle (at specific sections) and has a bigger amount of equipment, while Anastasia is limited by her assassin skills and can only really climb and kill (non-stealth).
Achievements are much more varied and all in all easier to gain. Spent 7 3/4 hours playing the game and with the exception of a few checkpoints I never felt too frustrated.
This game fits right into the middle and is quite a decent game.
7/10
Final Score
Thus giving the complete package a score of 7/10.
