The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

Assassin’s Creed Rogue Spoiler-Free Gameplay Review
Double McStab with Cheese

Scope
This review will be story spoiler free. It will touch on both modern day and present day aspects of the game. This review assumes you have played the first 6 games of the franchise, through Black Flag. Each aspect will be rated out of 5.

These are the only spoilers in the review, but are crucial for further discussion:

• You start the game as an Assassin, Shay Patrick Cormac.
• You end the game as a Templar.
• You own your own ship, the Morrigan.
• The game takes place in colonial North America during the Seven Years War between the French and English. There are three maps that are each seamless:
  
  • The North Atlantic: much like the open ocean of Black Flag, but with wintry conditions
  • The River Valley: much like the ACIII frontier, but split up by rivers you navigate in your ship
  • New York City: the city has been revamped from AC3, as this is before the great fire

Because the game is based on the same engine as Black Flag, you could call Rogue “Black Flag in the snow.” As such, unless otherwise noted, assume all gameplay is the same as Black Flag (viewpoint fast travel, full sync objective mechanics, etc). As a baseline, I enjoyed Black Flag and found it very replayable. The baseline for this review would be if I gave Black Flag a 4/5. If you would give it much lower, then take it all with a grain of salt.

Disclaimer: As I have not gotten 100% in this game, I could be missing things or not have a full picture of them yet.

Core Pillars
The three pillars of the Assassin’s Creed gameplay are Navigation, Combat and Stealth. Rogue uses the same game engine as Black Flag and, as such, functions identically in regards to these three pillars, with three notable exceptions.

The first exception is in regards to ship navigation. The Morrigan has a much better turn radius than the Jackdaw. This makes the ship portions of the game less realistic, but less frustrating as well. Additionally, in the North Atlantic, there are some places covered in sheets of ice. Fortunately, the Morrigan is equipped with an upgradable icebreaker ram that allows you to break through this ice, albeit at a slow rate of travel. You can walk on these sheets of ice, but cannot swim under them to get stuck. Swimming is a bad idea in the North Atlantic, as the cold water will slowly kill you.

The next exception is in regards to ship combat. As a Templar ally, you use the Templar tricks. Along with the return of round shot, heavy shot and mortars, chain shot has been replaced with exploding shot; fire barrels have been replaced with burning oil to literally light the ocean behind you on fire; and the swivel gun has been replaced with a puckle gun, which is a machine-gun of sorts. The puckle gun also helps you deal with the North Atlantic, as it can break the icebergs that may be in your way. Breaking up an iceberg causes a tidal wave that can be used to take out smaller enemy gunboats and schooners. It also exposes Animus data fragments and cargo that was frozen inside. Additionally, if you are rammed in ship combat, you don’t just lose health, the ramming ship attempts to board your vessel and you must defend the Morrigan (note: going to the other ship isn’t the best course of action, as they empty out onto yours pretty effectively).

The final notable exception to the core pillars is in regards to the notoriety system. In Rogue, the land-based notoriety system has been overhauled. Gone are the days of paying off magistrates, killing officials and bribing heralds. It now more resembles the water-based notoriety of Black Flag. As you become notorious, bounty hunters will hunt you down, much like the pirate hunters on the open ocean. They resemble the jaegers from AC3. Notoriety on land and on sea decreases over time.

I feel this change deserves its own paragraph. You can kill any civilian you want at any time without fear of desynchronization. You just become notorious. If you feel like going on a murderous rampage, you can… you’ll just have to fight off the bounty hunters. This has the annoying consequence, however, of causing you to randomly tackle civilians when free-running and trying drop off a building with the drop button.

Because of the vast improvement in notoriety, and the interesting new mechanics for dealing with the frigid North Atlantic, I give the core pillars 4 stabs out of 5.

Weapons
Shay’s primary melee weapons are sword and dagger sets. He can also carry two pistols on his right hip. Like Black Flag, we see the return of the rope dart, a single throwing knife and smoke bombs. Shay has a mechanic to put on a gas mask (essentially a bandana) to allow him to not falter in smoke bombs or other gases. In addition to fire barrels, there are poison barrels which cause NPCs to go berserk with an expanding radius, so keep the gas mask handy.

Taking the place of Edward’s Blow Pipe, the new weapon to the fold is the air gun. It is an air gun, not explosive, so it is silent. It can be equipped with Sleep Darts, Berserk Darts and Firecracker Darts (which can function as a distraction or to blow up explosives). Additionally, and I wish I was making this up but I’m not, the air gun functions as a grenade launcher. Yes, a grenade launcher in a stealth game. The grenades can be sleep grenades, berserk grenades or shrapnel grenades. They can be upgraded to larger radii and allow you to put entire groups of guards asleep at once, for example.

Some weapons are rewards, many are purchasable. Although the Air Gun is a fun addition, it is way overpowered, allowing you to take out entire forts of enemies with a few well-placed
berserk and shrapnel grenades. Weapons get 3.5/5.

Locations and Returning Side Content
Like Black Flag, there are many location types that show up as different symbols on your map.

Settlements are located in the River Valley and North Atlantic. They take the place of the Forts from AC3. Your allies and foes are actively fighting. The fighting ends when you kill captains and/or snipers and remove the flag. Then your allies take control of the settlement. Settlements look like a hut on the map.

Gang Headquarters take the place of forts in New York City (and various other places in the world). These function like the Borgia captains from Brotherhood. Take out the gang leader and the flag, and you unlock the economic district. Like the Ezio Trilogy, renovations make a return. Instead of monetary investments, you provide materials that you collected on the open world (stone, wood, metal, etc) to rebuild a couple locations in an economic district. Like the Ezio Trilogy, unlocked districts earn you funds and you can take them out of various locations (the easiest being the cabin of the Morrigan).

Burial Mounds in the River Valley and Ice Caves in the North Atlantic see the return of Ezio’s navigation based puzzles (like the churches in AC2). Not all of them are scaling walls and figuring out how to get up to the objective, but many are (that said, I've only done about 4 of the 7, so it could be that few are and I am wrong). Locations with a beehive type icon contain these.

Additionally, there are various AC3-Frontier-like locations to explore. On a few islands, you can traverse from one side to another and even hop to the next on a ferry (Like the Old Growth Forest).

Other side content that makes a return: Kenway’s Fleet mini-missions (in the form of The Naval Campaign); hunting and harpooning in order to craft upgrades; storehouses; naval forts; uncharted beaches; legendary ships; naval contracts; hunting challenges (like in AC3); saving hostages to recruit to your crew; prisoner of war ships like the Freedom Cry DLC; naval clashes you can get in the middle of to help your allies. Additionally, there are frontier clashes, which are like mini-settlements + naval clashes, but on land, where you have to kill a captain of your foe to end the clash. Supply camps are a side activity that functions like a mini-storehouse - you just need to loot one chest.

The types of side content in this game really feels like the design team thought about what players enjoyed. “Borgia captains” are back, as are navigation based puzzles (there could be more for me though). The landscape is great, again (admittedly, I loved the AC3 Frontier though). Locations and returning side-content gets 5/5.

Reimagined Side Content
Assassination Contracts make a return, but you’re on the other side. After intercepting the pigeon, it’s up to you to protect the target from an impending attack. Sadly, this mechanically this is just like the assassin contracts in AC3 where you have to locate and kill a handful of potential assassins in a given time before they move in on the target.

Remember the Templar Stalkers from Revelations? People that would attack you and usually die after a quick reaction from you? This archetype sort of makes a return. After going rogue, the Assassins don’t like Shay very much. If you hear whispers (like in multiplayer) that means one (or more) is nearby. Flip on eagle vision to find them before they find you. They aren’t just in cities either.

Reimagined side content gets 4.5/5 because constantly being on edge, even in unlocked and friendly environments, is a nice change of pace. Not a 5 because the contracts are repetitive.

Collectibles
Treasure Chests – exactly like Black Flag
Shanties – exactly like Black Flag
Blueprints – special treasure chests with blueprints for upgrades for the Morrigan
Animus Fragments – for the first time since Revelations, they serve a purpose; collect them all to find out
Prosperity Gems – just like Animus fragments, but gold floating gems, collect them all and your economic districts make more money for you
War Letters – letters written between Templars about the war; much like the messages in a bottle in Black Flag
Templar Maps – like the treasure maps in Black Flag; lead to Templar Artifacts; collect all 24 for a reward
Viking Sword pieces – strewn about on the ground, collect them all for a reward (I assume)
Cave Paintings – like the Glyphs from the Ezio games; lead into AC lore, not going to divulge more
Native Totems – puzzles similar to the Mayan Stelae from Black Flag; honestly, I don’t know what they do, but collect all for a reward, I would guess; located in the burial grounds/caves
Ammo crates – fill all ammo with a single button

Collectibles are collectibles, but I’m personally glad the Animus Fragments do something and the ammo crates provide a way to not be limited by resources, unless you choose to be. 4/5

Campaign Mission Archetypes
All the classic AC archetypes are here: free assassination; scripted assassination (none like Haytham and Charles Lee “push X to win” though); chase (maybe 3); tail (I think one on land and one on sea); escort/protect (maybe 2); walk and talk; steal information; infiltrate/save; tutorial dump. I don’t remember any Eavesdrop or Gather Supplies missions though. Full sync objectives flash on the screen then disappear when failed (like Black Flag) so you don’t know until the end of the mission, which is frustrating. At least in AC3, the red X told you when you failed.

I wish there were more freedom to assassinate as I saw fit. There are (I think) 8 assassination missions in 23 campaign missions though, which is high density. From memory, maybe 3 to 4 of them are scripted to the point where complete stealth isn’t an option (a chase or two, iirc). Unfortunately, as the game progresses, they begin to feel like interactive cut-scenes again.

Because of the variation in missions there is a positive. But the restrictive nature and full sync objectives mechanics irk me. 2.5/5.

I want it noted that this is for the main campaign only. There is a LOT of freedom in the other side content, like settlements, gang headquarters, etc, where you can assassinate as you see fit.

Present Day
Gameplay in the present day is exactly like Black Flag. You can hack computers for audio files (the hacking has been reduced to a single simple mini-game), and there are collectibles that unlock emails.

I miss useful things in the present day. It has been relegated to a Lore Data Dump. Because I like the lore, 3.5/5.

Overall Gameplay Thoughts
If you liked Black Flag, you’ll love this. Added to Black Flag are classic AC content archetypes with a new feel: assassin contract thwarting, save your ship from boarding, gang headquarters and economic district renovation, navigation puzzles, etc… Taking good things from most of the franchise and sticking them together, Rogue really feels like an homage to the games that came before. It even takes the best parts of AC3 (the scenery, forts and hunting) and updates it without the stupid economics or 6 hours of tutorials. It’s a fantastic send-out to last-gen consoles with lots of chances for nostalgia. (Hell, you even get to move from building to building using cables with pulleys sort of like the hookblade slides in Revelations, and I think there may have been a courier at one time). The change to the notoriety system was much needed (I hated the poster, herald, official system). The stalkers are a great addition and make sense thematically, as well as steal some mechanics from multiplayer. It feels like a good end to last gen and very replayable. Story notwithstanding, I have enjoyed playing Rogue more than both Black Flag and AC3. Even though the campaign missions were not up to the standard in my head, due to the massively enjoyable open world, I give the gameplay aspect 4.5 stabs out of 5.