JAKE CURNOW PRESENTS
Assassins Creed Chronicles India
Playstation 4 Version
The second game in the Assassin’s Creed Chronicles trilogy takes place in 1841 India featuring a brand new protagonist named Arbaaz Mir. The struggle between the Brotherhood and the Templars continues with Arbaaz and his master trying to protect both themselves, and their order, while simultaneously trying to determine the nature of valuable artifacts. The mysterious box from the first Chronicles title once again makes an appearance, but also included this time around is a mysterious jewel, called the Ko-i-Noor, which is rumored to be a legendary piece of Eden.
Once again making a return is the trilogies gorgeous environments, excellent music, 2.5D gameplay, and signature form of story-telling. Although the protagonist of Chronicles India tends to grow on you as you go through the main story, he doesn’t seem to have nearly the amount of potential that Shao Jun (from Chronicles China) has. Some of the voice acting in Chronicles India comes across as mediocre, at best, and even more so than its predecessor due to the games extremely forgettable protagonist. Arbaaz, at the command of his master, is taken on a quest to discover the true nature of the box and Ko-i-Noor leading him through various regions and Precursor Temples throughout India.
Assassin’s Creed Chronicles India is, technically speaking, the second newest Assassin’s Creed title on the market, just behind the third and final game in the trilogy: Chronicles Russia. India was released well after the fully featured 3D hit: Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and it’s certainly exciting to see developers creating a dialogue in their games about pieces of Eden and the Precursor Civilization, since it may be an indication of the franchise about to kick its story back up a notch. But regardless of how interesting some of the original titles happened to be, Chronicles India falls flat in terms of conveying an interesting and memorable experience to its players.
Equally as flat as the story of Chronicles India is the games attempt at gameplay evolution. The elements and mechanics of the 2.5D plane from Chronicles China effectively remain consistent and carry directly over to Chronicles India, and that’s a good thing from a gameplay standpoint. Chronicles India features some brand new abilities, such as double assassinations, using a disguise, and performing a non-lethal takedown. The majority of these new abilities are perfectly welcome, yet many of them have caused the buttons to change from Chronicles China to India, effectively removing an element of consistency between the two titles. Although the button change isn’t exactly a major problem, players may still find themselves hitting the wrong button in pressure situations, simply because they may have just come from playing Chronicles China. The majority of these new abilities are very useful except for the disguise, which forces players to hunt down three pieces of clothing in order to use it, of which the disguise is only worn for an extremely short period of time just afterwards.
Despite the fact that the scenery and music of Chronicles India is on par with its predecessor, the gameplay is less rewarding by comparison. All four of the tools from Chronicles China have, essentially, been carried directly over into Chronicles India with minor property changes and name modifications. The efficiency of these tools remain the same, but the fact that Arbaaz isn’t featured with all new tools compared to Shao Jun’s doesn’t exactly get players excited. This situation, combined with the fact that other abilities have been copied and pasted from Chronicles China, only makes both games feel less authentic, even more so after listening to Chronicles India’s music, which can sometimes take away that cultural flavor, with some of it sounding like it should have been included in the first game. Welcome additions, such as looting a downed opponent, just seem less evolutionary since they too might as well have been included in the first title.
Yet another element copy and pasted from Chronicles China are the escape action sequences, although many of them are more frustrating than fun this time around. Some of these sequences now have a timer, which the game could have easily done without. The lack of gameplay balance in Chronicles India can certainly show during these timed sequences, but that isn’t the only place to see the games poorly balanced mechanics. Unlike the archers in Chronicles China, enemies in Chronicles India now have guns, and they have a lot of them. Players are able to witness this frustrating element of gameplay early on in the game, and it only gets more frustrating as the game continues on. For what it’s worth, however, the majority of these frustrating head to head combat elements only come into play if you are discovered – and it’s worth noting that Arbaaz usually has the opportunity to get through a level undetected.
Complementing the main campaign of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles India is the addition of several challenge rooms, and the return of new game plus, and new game plus hard. Generally speaking, players aren’t going to be interested in playing through a game (that they didn’t find fun) a second or third time. And although the challenge rooms aren’t exactly spectacular, it really is far less frustrating to play through the game a second time on new game plus since players have their upgrades carried directly over, and many of the frustrating surprises on the original play through may be less surprising. If players are able to effectively neutralize the repeated frustrations of Chronicles India, they very well might have some fun…
Despite the intriguing new direction that the Chronicles saga took with the launch of this all new trilogy, Chronicles India seems to offer very little more than a copy and pasted, watered-down version of its predecessor with less authentic elements. Not only does the game seem to have its heart missing, but its forgettable protagonist, weak story, and frustrating gameplay sequences potentially place it among one of the worst ever Assassin’s Creed titles to grace the franchise. Chronicles India certainly isn’t for the faint of heart, and for long time series veterans willing to put up with an occasional frustration to play their favorite franchise, even they too may find themselves walking away from this title feeling seriously unsatisfied.
OVERALL RATING
6.2/10