Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China Reviews
That is kind of the way Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China feels like in general — it starts out okay, but soon becomes dull fairly quickly thanks to a lackluster plot and uninspired gameplay. While there is a lot to explore, especially considering the $10 price tag, the poor enemy AI and almost useless gadgets probably won't have you staying in the game's visually beautiful world for long. Unless you are the world's biggest Assassin's Creed fan, you should probably think long and hard before giving this a go.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is a decent change of pace for the franchise. The goals are more focused and deliver some great stealth gameplay across the approximately five hours it takes to complete. With all the open world distractions stripped away I felt like I was playing a proper assassin-based title, with the only focus being to take out the target. The issues with the combat, as well as a story that feels shallow, combined with lackluster delivery, detract from the overall experience.
'Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China' features a unique art style and fun level design, but the stealth-focused gameplay starts to wear thin after a while.
Cramming many of Assassin's Creed's calling cards into ACC: China's diminutive 2.5D frame, while amping up the importance of stealth, is impressive. But too much of the game is flat and uninspired. There's the barest bones of a great game here. Let's hope one of the sequels expands on that promise.
Assassins Creed Chronicles: China offers some solid building blocks for this spin-off series, including beautiful art and decent stealth gameplay. The poor combat and sad attempt at storytelling, however, both leave far too much to be desired.
I don't fault Ubisoft for trying something different with its acclaimed Assassin's Creed franchise, and in some respects there's a lot to like. However when the game stumbles it does so in grand fashion, creating an infuriating experience that makes me want to throw my controller more than continue on my quest.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China features some great stealth gameplay reminiscent of Klei Entertainment's Mark of the Ninja. Unfortunately, the mechanics lack more depth and grow tired by time you reach the end of your quest. Ubisoft also misses the opportunity to tell a bigger story. Worth playing, but Shao Jun deserves better.
Despite its issues, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is one of the most entertaining experiences I've had from the series in a while.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China isn't terrible in any particular way. It is, from top to bottom, entirely middle of the road standard at best and its main attraction is the cheap selling price for a few hours of side-scrolling action.
'Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China' is a mixture of classic 'Assassin's Creed' gameplay, the stealthy 2D success of 'Mark of the Ninja', and sharp art design. It's rather short, but also rather cheap, and has more replayability than most games in this category. It's probably the most fun I've had playing an Assassin's Creed since 'Black Flag'.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is a wonderful setting for a competent, but fairly unimaginative, 2.5D stealth title. Hopefully this won't be Shao Jun's final appearance.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China doesn't look like an outcast, but its tedious and bland gameplay make it the ugly duckling of the Assassin's Creed franchise. That's not to say that it's a bad or awful game; it's simply boring and forgettable, despite featuring decent mechanics and great presentation values.
As someone who has admittedly grown a bit tired with the Assassin's Creed series, I found Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China to be an invigorating breath of fresh air. The minor quibbles I had while playing it weren't enough to ruin what is, to me, an expertly-crafted side-scrolling adventure.
An entertaining if perosnality-light translation of Assassin's Creed from open-world 3D to linear 2D.
Take a leap of faith and you won't be disappointed
It's always somewhat tacky to compare products, but it's warranted when so very much is borrowed. This game is a bit of a knockoff of the superior Mark of the Ninja. Mark has a better story, less frustrating mechanics, and guards that are slightly less lobotomized than these dolts. If you've beaten Mark and want another crack at a decent sidescroller, Chronicles China should fit that bill, but let's hope they bring some new concepts to the table for the next two outings.
In the end, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China takes a bold new step for the franchise. While I did have fun, I spent most of the game frustrated by buggy controls and A.I. that seemed to forget what its limitations were.
The plot is also sadly quite predictable - certainly not living up to the superb presentation of the game. Still, at its budget price of just €10/$10/£8, this is a recommended purchase for both newcomers and veterans of the series.
And yet despite those two criticisms, here is a game that I played through in a couple of long sessions of play, and typically my patience with 2D platforms is very, very limited. I could have done with a stronger and more robust narrative, and I would have loved to get to know Shao better, but where I generally tolerate the gameplay of an Assassin's Creed game because I find the world and history so inviting, this time around the reverse is true, and I rather like that.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China is a decent stab---no pun intended---at bringing the series to a 2.5D realm, though it's sadly let down by poor level design and dull combat.