Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India Reviews
The middle chapter of the Chronicles trilogy improves the formula, but doesn't perfect it.
A simplistic but beautiful take on the Assassin's Creed formula, one that might've benefited from being unshackled from the series it's based on.
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Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India learned from the missteps of its predecessor, as gameplay is more varied and its colorful, vibrant levels are both pleasing to the eye and fun to interact with in most cases. Open combat is to be avoided at all costs, however, limiting how you play the game—and some of the puzzle-platforming levels drag in term of pacing.
This Indian Chronicle holds few surprises for those who played China, meaning frustration and contentment in roughly equal measure. Plus some half-decent artistic flair.
In the end, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is a perfect example of "woulda, coulda, shoulda." There are so many highlights glinting out from this pile of mediocrity; if only the developers could've tied them all together, then we'd be treated to a more vivid and consistent display. But serious drawbacks like poor storytelling and acting, questionable AI and gameplay responsiveness, and a definite lack of pacing drag the whole production down.
Our trip to India is not dissimilar to our original trip to China; the style and gameplay are almost identical to the first game, not that there is anything particularly wrong with that. Being given the choice to play stealthy or by using full on combat is refreshing and you are able to go through the whole game without directly harming a single enemy, but it does sometimes feel like you are forced into combat with the layout of the levels and the frequency of the enemies. The 2.5D style is used to good effect and works well for the assassination based gameplay, being able to dodge enemies and hide in hidden doorways in the background, or ledges in the foreground. Whilst there is no new ground being broken here, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is more than enjoyable to play through, especially if you enjoyed the first game, and it will surely keep you entertained until we get the chance to visit Russia the next time around.
The experience is also more exciting on the whole, due to a series of large set pieces. Most of these come in the form of harrowing escapes, and at one point you're asked to snipe enemies while still keeping in mind the stealth focus. Assuring guards don't notice that you're picking them off one-by-one from afar makes for a unique challenge not seen in most stealth games.
Visually interesting and competently made for the most part, but the novelty of a 2D Assassin's Creed is already beginning to wear off.
If you're a big fan of Assassin's Creed, or enjoyed ACC: China, then you can pick this up without hesitation. It's more of the same gameplay-wise, but completely different story and setting-wise. Platforming fans may also want to pick this up, because there are not too many new platformers coming out on a regular basis. However, casual fans need not apply, since the game has somewhat clunky controls, hilariously stupid enemy AI that presents little challenge, and those terrible tailing missions that players of regular Assassin's Creed games hate so much.
It's a stylish game with fun platforming, smooth combat and mostly good stealthy bits - and a definite improvement on its underwhelming predecessor.
If you enjoyed Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China and hankering for more of the same, then India definitely delivers on that level and if you missed the previous game but enjoy some classic platforming with a next-gen twist, this is definitely a title you should check out. The gameplay is sturdy, the graphics mirror painted art and audio create an enjoyable adventure (albeit short) through another part of the Assassin's Creed franchise. In terms of replay value and once you've completed the main game, the title does give the player more challenging modes to complete the game again and fine-tune your assassin skills.
As a departure from the typical Assassin's Creed series, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is as colourful as they get. Unfortunately, the controls and limited story fail to really deliver a compelling gameplay experience.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India has competent gameplay and a vibrant touch of colour. However, lacking level design with cheap tactics designed to cause instant fail-states and tedious trailing missions take away from what could be a fantastic experience. Nevertheless, I still look forward to the next Chronicles game, Russia.
Unfortunately, the difficulty often marred the pacing of the game, turning areas into repetitive trial and error experiments just to figure out how to sneak by a couple guards.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India makes some vast improvements over its predecessor in terms of style and gameplay while providing challenging 2D puzzles, but still lacks an engaging narrative.
The absolute beauty of the painting-like art style also helped. There's one thing that India has that was just as amazing as it was in China.
'Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India' takes a step back from the modest success of 'China'. The narrative adds little to the overall 'Assassin's Creed' storyline, most of the characters are thin, and the gameplay is inexplicably disheartening. Perhaps Ubisoft can eke out a victory with the Russian installment next month, but this entry isn't worth the price of admission.
The core of Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India might be alright; the tech and aesthetics are decent enough. But once you starting playing, the experience falls apart, leaving very little worth praising.
Like it always has, your fandom with Assassin's Creed will determine your level of interest. Despite being a side-show from the annual attractions, it's still business as usual. Standard stealth with a null story amidst an interesting and unventured historical period. Like me, that last part may be enough to entice. Just don't expect the former to feel as novel.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is a game that should have everything going for it with its great visuals and setting, established world and an interesting protagonist. Instead we're left with an average game with a bland narration that's frustrating to control and play. It's truly such a shame.