ASSASSIN’S Creed Chronicles: India is now the second instalment in the trilogy of supplemental side scrolling games from Ubisoft, after 2015’s blemished but pleasurable ACC: China. With the revision of China’s primary gameplay and the addition of a few new features, it is obviously a better game than its precursor, but not by much.
In ACC: India, you control Arbaaz Mir, an Indian assassin who finds himself trapped in the war between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company in the year of 1841. Using the events of AC novel Brahman as inspiration, ACC: India’s story sees Mir try to save his girlfriend and recover a precious object, all whilst causing trouble for the dreaded Templars.
Absorbing much of ACC: China’s central gameplay, ACC: India sees Mir traversing a sequence of settings peppered with platforms, dusk-covered nooks and evil sentries. There’s a much larger prominence of stealth and covert actions in the ACC games than in any of the main games, with basic guard configurations and vision cones highlighting the safe spaces in which to dodge enemies. This, accompanied with Mir’s talents, allows the player to fashion an exit route which then lets you finish the level.
This latest instalment is the closest thing the Assassin’s Creed series has to a pure stealth game. Rapid traversal of buildings isn’t completely forgotten, and the two both work well together, with your stealth energy and abilities boosted by movement. But picking out one shining diamond in a heap of coal doesn’t do the game any favours. With sneak gameplay a welcome alternative to some fans, Chronicles India doesn’t help itself, as you often find yourself getting in your own way. Awkward controls make the game a more tedious experience than an enjoyable one and its taxing level system feels like a grind. It’s odd how the game seems to lack where China did really well, and there is nothing massively inventive that offers any incentive to pick up the game.
Another grievance is the games’ heavy reliance on instant-fail missions as a form of trial to the player. In the main games, you would recognise these as the tailing missions, where you had to follow your target without being spotted or heard. In Chronicles India however, these occur frequently and are punished by insta-death which quickly becomes grating. Initially, I felt that this was part of the level design and would only be part of the game. But as I played on, I found myself abandoning clever traversal or experimenting with different ways to complete an objective, by just scrambling to get to the end of the level so that I wouldn’t have to restart.
The gameplay becomes even more infuriating as you progress further through the fleeting five-hour campaign, as new hurdles and enemies come into play, with the ability to kill you in one hit. When this type of ‘one-hit gameplay’ is adopted early on it is easy to get to grips with, but with India, it feels like the developers have ramped up the difficulty as to extend the games short life-span. Explosive tripwires occasionally blend into the background, bringing a well worked level to an immediate and bloody stop. Those accompanied with assassin enemies hidden in the shadows of the later levels are a quick route to rage quitting the game, unless you constantly walk around with your eagle vision on. It feels like a cheap and vexing way to falsely prolong a game that had obviously run out of decent ideas.
By way of presentation, ACC: India cures the rigid sense of dull despondency that saturates Chronicles: China by inserting a brighter palette of warm colours and character anywhere it appeared promising. But the renewed sense of hope that could be perceived from its bright colours only goes on to hamper the players’ expectations. The energy granted by the pretty palette is wasted by poor level design and makes the whole experience feel cheap, especially with the one-hit KO’s. Even though the foundation of the game is solid, in aspect to the stealth focus that it carries off pretty well, Assassins Creed Chronicles: India isn’t the game that we were hoping it to be. With too many annoying gameplay peeves, the game finds too many ways to keep players from really appreciating it.
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