Game: Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India
Developer/Publisher - Ubisoft
Release date - January 12th, 2016
Platform - Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is the second of three Chronicles game. Following China and preceeding Russia's release next month, India follows the story of Arbaaz Mir and the graphic novel Assassin's Creed Brahman. He's a Kashmiri assassin in India during the early colonial times as well as the father of Henry Green from the most recent Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Those of you who have played Syndicate, and definitely do if you haven't yet, will recognize the voice similarities between the two. As in previous AC titles, Mir is tasked with stealing an ancient artifact from the Templars. This time, it's the Koh-i-noor diamond and of course, there is a girl involved. Isn't there always?
As soon as you enter into the game it becomes immediately evident just how gorgeous Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India. The art patterns vary from classic indian style to a mix of modern eclectic and even a bit of henna. The colors include a combination of what appears to be hand drawn as well as a bit of what resembles water color. None of these on their own would make for a fitting Assassin's Creed setup, but work in tandem just perfectly to provide a fitting backdrop for the game's location.
There are nine memory sequences in Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India and each one will take around an hour at most depending on your style of play. Sequence one functions as a tutorial with limited abilities, so you must complete it using all stealth in order to proceed. What India puts an emphasis on opposed to other AC titles is the cohesiveness of both stealth and combat. Where titles such as Syndicate and Black Flag leave a level of creative freedom to the player, India incorporates both styles into the entire game. Although you are capable of engaging in combat at any point after the first tutorial level, you are discouraged from doing so due to your overall level score and upgrades earned.
Each level contains multiple "Shadow" rating sections. You earn either a gold, silver or bronze rating depending on the level of stealth used. A gold is earned if you are able to go right through without being seen or raise the guards' awareness level. Each time you are spotted or struck by an enemy your grade goes down. The best upgrades, which are critical as you reach the later levels, are earned by absolute stealth. Items such as faster crouch movement or lock picking remove precious seconds from gameplay, and can be the difference from being spotted or not by an enemy. There is also a certain level of self satisfaction involved from being creatve. At a certain point I could have easily taken down an enemy to steal the required artifact. I instead climbed out a window and whistled. When the guard approached the window, I quickly jumped to the next window and climbed in to grab the artifact. Of course, I was back out of the window and gone before he turned around. As a result, my Shadow grade increased from silver to gold.
Even if you are not spotted and are able to sneak up on an enemy, India reminds you it is a stealth game first and foremost as you are punished for killing. Just as in the most recent Jack the Ripper DLC from Syndicate as well as early Assassin's Creed titles, India encourages the player to seek non lethal avenues of progression. By all means you can just run right through slicing and dicing, but your score will be low and reflected in your upgrades. Unless you're an assassin in real life and are able to transfer your knowledge of combat into the game, the later levels almost require you to use stealth. Almost. With so many enemies located on multiple platform levels, each looking in a separate direction, it's nearly impossible to take them out using combat without being desynchronized.
This is where the stealth aspect of Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India really shines. You may need to wait for a couple enemies to move prior to taking out the first guard. You'll need to be quick and hide the body as guards will be alerted to an unconscious or dead colleague. Shadowy doorways or haystacks provide opportunities for a stealth strikes, while the guards lack of motivation provide the easiest escape route. If you are spotted by a guard, you can either duck behind a wall or go up or down a level because they don't climb ladders. Once you are out of view, a 10 second "alert" window will be in effect until the guards resume normal patrol.
Of course, there are many spots where you simply can't proceed unless you remove the guard from the equation. Time and patience are the keys in Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India. You are able to sneak up behind an enemy and utilize a non lethal takedown. Not only does this allow you reach better scores and upgrades, but there is even an achievement for beating the entire game without killing anyone. Although technically a platformer, India is far from generic with both the range of options at your disposal, as well as the navigation and movement options available to Mir.
I covered the stealth and hiding aspect, but the other focal point of Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is movement. The classic part of the AC franchise is "the walk". Any fan knows the telltale walk anywhere with its smooth ebb and flow. India capitalizes on this by making Mir's movements flow like water. Simple things like dashing between cover just work and don't feel forced or clunky, while vaulting over an obstacle is as graceful as a ballet. Not only does this make the game better overall, but certain levels are also geared to this exact setup. At one point, I found myself in a timed level running at full speed in order to avoid a collapsing platform then slide underneath a pillar so as not to get crushed by a rampaging elephant. The timed levels were fun and offered a decent change of pace from the standard levels with one exception; puzzles. I love puzzles as much as the next guy don't get me wrong, but puzzles in the middle of a timed level threw me off. It's frustrating when you are running through a timed level with no mistakes only to find yourself stuck on a moving puzzle platform with no where to go. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. Since the puzzles require concentration and are rather tricky, the timed aspect of them leaves no room for error and creates unnecessary frustration. There were not a lot of these, thankfully, as I only had two of them. On the other hand, I found myself replaying the levels when I didn't need to just to get the highest score after a silly puzzle mistake.
There are a lot of stealth options available to you in India. Mir is able to use smoke bombs, whistle, noise bombs and chakrams. They all function the same way which is good. Holding LB on Xbox One brings up a circle around Mir. You then use the right stick to enlarge or collapse the circle toward an enemy. RB then triggers your weapon of choice. A smoke bomb will clear your path by blocking enemy's site, while a chakram can be thrown and ricochet'd off of walls to either take out or distract an enemy. The same goes for the noise bomb and whistle. Unlike it's predecessor ACC: China, India adds a new pick pocket ability. If you are quick enough, you can sneak up behnd enemies and loot them. This serves a twofold purpose as you both refill your stock of items as well as earn a higher Shadow score.
No matter which one is your personal favorite, the Assassin's Creed games flow best when the player is presented a variety of ways to progress past a certain point. It's these options that allow the creative freedom that franchise was built on shine through. ACC: India expands on China with the addition of pickpocketing as well as levels geared for stealth, puzzles and timed escape levels. All of them work well together, and allow ample opportunity for the player to proceed.
Enemy navigation is guided by vision cones in ACC: India. It's a helpful tool but also a bit odd in its functionality. The cones themselves are in 2D but exist in a 3D environment. This can be confusing at times because a vision cone which comes down right on top of you may not trigger an alarm if the enemy is not on your level. For example, at many points in ACC: India you are able to navigate into the back and foreground as well as side to side. You can clearly see the enemies all over. If you are in foreground, however, an enemy's vision cone from the background will still appear over you. Now, obviously, it is not going to trigger an alarm because he is so far away. On the other hand, the 2D cone in a 3D setup makes you pause for a second just to recheck the area.
For the most part, Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is a pure AC title which offers you a lot of options to complete it. Those looking for a more stealth focused game will appreciate the variety offered in it, while fans of the "run and gun" style gameplay will quickly become frustrated. I would have liked to have seen more integration of combat into the game opposed to an automatic downgrade for killing or being spotted a single time. I found it odd that you are punished by combat while, at many times, it appears to be your only option. Anyway, I guess that's why I'm not an assassin, but I did appreciate all of the variety offered in a rather small title.
With a gameplay time of about 8 hours for all of the missions, ACC: India is a fraction of the larger titles in size but manages to incorporate all their best aspects. What the game includes, it does extremely well and I was very impressed with the movement and art set up the most. As someone who tries to complete Assassin's Creed games as stealthily as possible, I found ACC: India offers a fresh take on the Chronicles series by incorporating what China did best and removing some of its flaws. Although it is odd to see combat impacted so negatively in an AC title, I understand why it was done even if I didn't want to be penalized as much for it.
Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India is worth checking out as a diversion to the main AC games. It's focus on stealth actually causes you to pause and take in a lot of the rest of the game's features it's art and beautiful environment. There are a few minor qualms as mentioned, but they serve more to help you focus on the premise of the game than take away from its overall setup.
Pacifist, assassin or murderer? Which one will you be?
* Review also appears on ICXM*
