Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China Review (Xbox One)

Ever since the inception of the Assassin's Creed series, fans have desperately wanted to explore other historical settings besides the ones seen in the main games. While Ubisoft did go further away from the Crusades, Renaissance, or the 1700s, it did that through novels and short films that went to Russia or India, while referencing China.

Now, after quite some time, Ubisoft brings forth a proper video game to explore other historical settings, in the form of Assassin's Creed Chronicles, which will go from China to India and then to Russia.

The first chapter in this trilogy, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China, is finally here, putting players in the boots of Shao Jun, the female assassin we saw interact with an old Ezio Auditore in the short movie Assassin's Creed Embers.

The plot chronicles her return to China and her attempts at overthrowing the Tigers, a group of Templar agents that want to wrestle control of the country from the current dynasty.

Does the new side-scrolling experience deliver gameplay worthy of the Assassin's Creed name or should the chronicle end before it begins? Let's find out.

Story

The new game, as mentioned above, focuses on Shao Jun. She returns from her adventures in Italy with Ezio back to China, where the Templars have eliminated almost all of her assassin brothers. Fortunately, with her old master, she concocts a plan for revenge.

What follows is a pretty interesting plot that takes her from the famous Maijishan Grottoes to Macau and other memorable Chinese locations. Her adventures mostly rely on killing the main members of the Tigers, while trying to uncover the secrets of the First Civilization box she received from Ezio.

While the plot doesn’t really shake up the current Assassin's Creed universe, it offers a brief change of pace and is equal parts about Shao Jun but also about the Templar vs. Assassins conflict in China, delivering a pretty satisfying conclusion.

Gameplay

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China isn't the first side-scrolling experience in the series, as Ubisoft's sister company Gameloft already released some mobile titles that used a similar approach, but it is the first full-fledged one for home consoles and PC.

Don't expect a simple side-scrolling experience with this title, however, as Ubisoft employs three layers, from the fore, to the mid, and the background, and you'll travel throughout them in many levels, in order to find your main objective as well as your bonus ones.

While the game is mostly linear, there are plenty of areas that are hidden or a bit hard to reach, filled with rewards that increase your score and, at the end of a stage, can make the difference between unlocking extra bonuses or just completing with the minimum score.

Chronicles allows for three play styles, as people can try to sneak around everywhere, without alerting or killing guards, and thereby be classified as Shadows. They can also sneak around while assassinating everyone that stands in your way, thereby earning an Assassin rating. Last but not least, you can pick fights in the open against guards and Templars, and then get a Brawler rating.

Battle guards Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China

Bear in mind, however, that brawling and fighting in the open isn't advisable, as Ubisoft went to great lengths to make the regular combat hard to master and downright impossible if you're facing two or more opponents at the same time. This can get quite frustrating, especially towards the end of the campaign where sneaking around is more about trial, error, and hoping that the AI-controlled guards don't spot you by mistake.

Sneaking around is aided by the cones of view sported by each guard, as well as the various nooks and crannies where you can hide in plain sight. You can also use your Eagle Vision to see their patrolling patterns, as well as any extra obstacles, like wind chimes, not to mention the dogs or birds in cages.

Enemies are quite varied and some make it downright impossible to sneak up on, or just maintain a stationary position. Luckily, you have four different gadgets to take them on or at least cause a distraction. The most useful is the whistle, whose zone can be enlarged to make sure you get your opponent's attention. Firecrackers temporarily stun then, making it easy to sneak around or just assassinate them, while daggers and noise darts cause similar distractions.

Even so, some situations devised by developer Climax are fiendishly complex and quite irritating to try and sneak right through. Enemies have very short windows in which they're not paying attention, so expect a lot of trial and error.

Climbing around is pretty easy but in some situations Shao Jun's movements are a bit sluggish, while some of her jumps look downright impossible.

Save points are quite numerous but in some situations they trigger before a lengthy platforming section, meaning that, if you're spotted and taken out, you have to do the whole thing all over again.

Besides a main playthrough, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China also has a New Game Plus that comes with extra objectives and more challenges.

Visuals and Sound

While developer Climax didn't use Ubisoft's praised UbiArt Framework, opting instead for Unreal Engine 3, it still delivers a great looking experience with Chronicles: China. Unfortunately, while animations are quite good, the game's colors are a bit faded that take away from the overall design. Some interactive elements, like wind chimes, are also a bit hard to distinguish from the background, so you'll often trigger them if you don't have eagle vision turned on.

The soundtrack is decent but some stages come with a theme that doesn't exactly match the design and clashes with the focus on China. Voice acting is quite good and, while the main characters talk in English, guards all talk in Chinese dialects.

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The Good

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